Happy August!
It's still so hard to believe that we are heading past the half way point in the year of 2018. It's been a great year so far and I'm excited for what's ahead. Most people find it surprising that I get so thrilled about school starting up again for my kiddos, being that I homeschool. But I do enjoy having somewhat of a schedule and watching my kids learn so much each year brings me joy. We're officially a week into the new school year and before the routine really kicks in, I thought I would jot some summer memories down.
I love the weather changes and all the different seasons we get here, very unlike Alaska and Hawaii. Our first year being here, each seasons came and went so quickly I didn't really know how I felt about it all, but now I find myself looking forward to whatever is coming next.
This was an interesting adventure! Cow appreciation day at Chick-fill-a.
Summer has been wonderful, fun and exciting. Filled with grilling, water balloon fights and basking in the sun. We technically only finished our schooling in the last week of June, and officially started our summer off with a family camping trip. During that week I realized that I wanted to slow down and allow the Lord to guide and direct my summer days. The first thing I usually do, to achieve the slower pace of life is, I stop going on social media at all. And I try to eliminate all other distractions that may come my way. Every morning I got up without any agenda for the day. During the quiet moments before the kids were up, I asked the Lord to plan out my day and he did. Every day we did something new and most of the time totally unexpected. We went and explored our historic town a bit more and visited the local farms to pick our own fruit. The strawberries were delicious and the peaches massive! I'm not exaggerating, I promise! We came home from picking all itchy, apparently fresh peach fuzz does that to you. It's good to know for next time!
Mmmm I can almost smell them!
We took the kids to the baseball game and watched a few one dollar movies at the movie theater. The weather has been beautiful, for our evening strolles in the neighborhood. The kids and I have made so many new friends! And I was also able to find time to reconnect and catch up with so many others. We had expected guests come over, and others totally on the whim, (which is not how I usually do things haha). But seeing friends and family from Alaska is always a treat! It's been so much fun and I've learned a lot through the experience of allowing the Lord to literally orchestrate each and every day for me. As much as we need structure, we also need to always leave room for him to do his work, that's something I'm definitely keeping in mind for the upcoming school year.
School...can you believe we are heading right back into that season? We only had a month of not doing or talking about it but it was a very full, satisfying month. And we are just as excited to start up again as we were to finish up last year. My kids are in third and second grade! I still can't believe it! Even more so now because I'm starting to remember myself at that age, and it all feels like it was just yesterday that it was my first day at school. Interesting to think that my children have such a different childhood then my own but I pray every day that they will treasure these times together and look back on them fondly. I learn something new about them and myself every year and I'm excited for this year. I know it won't be easy and I'm sure, the perfect plan that I have written out for each day, will somehow get interrupted, but I'm choosing to enjoy the little moments, and keep my eyes on the things that matter most.
That reminds me of our camping trip in June, the kids and I were looking forward to all kinds of activities and each day was to be perfect. When we got to our camp site, we received a notification on our phones that there was a huge storm coming. Needless to say we barely had enough time to put our tent up when the gusts of wind started to pick up and things started flying. It was pouring rain as my husband and I ran around our tent trying to hold it up and secure it to every tree that we could. And that, was only the beginning of the next four very adventurous days. That night the storm caused trees to fall on the power lines and the whole camp ground was out of water and electricity the following day. Thankfully they got it fixed after a day or so but the storms didn't stop. It started to rain every afternoon and rained all into the night. Our meals, plans and scenery were all confined to the inside of our tent. No late night swims, campfires or s'mores. It was a more difficult of camping trips and one we wouldn't have chosen to go on. But on the drive home and for about a week after, all the kids kept saying was that it was their favorite camping trip ever! Each time it brought a smile to my face and the hardship memories just faded more and more into the background. My children didn't even realized what they were missing out on or all the trouble we had to go through to accommodate the rain, because they were too busy having fun in the midst of it all. It's not easy to be grateful and happy in a difficult season in life but nonetheless I try to remind myself, that looking back I will never regret it. With that in mind we are starting off our school year.
How about you, are you ready for school to start or whatever the next season in life looks like for you??
I hope you had a wonderful summer. Can't wait to hear from you! God bless you dear friends.