Summer....

.... is fun and amazing and refreshing....

....and exhausting.

A part of me longs for the more set routine of the school year, yet I do not want to rush ahead and wish for the next thing.  I want to fully embrace each season, figuratively and literally.  Plus I am not at all ready for the actual school part of the school year!

The demands of summer are different than those of the school year yet just as intense.  Helping the children navigate their more relaxed routine without getting lazy or grumpy is tough.  I do not try to eliminate all boredom.  Everyone should have a little boredom now and then because it can force a bit of industry and creativity.  But too much boredom is definitely a bad thing, especially for teens!  So it is a constant juggling act.

Daughter G comes home tonight from a mission trip to New York.  She got to do quite a bit of fun sightseeing in the evenings after long days of ministry to children.  What a wonderful blend of work and play she has had, with wonderful friends and adult mentors.  I am so happy for her.  We will madly wash all her clothes, and then she leaves with us tomorrow to go camping, and then spend several days at the cottage with cousins.  After that she is home for a week and then off to WA for her much anticipated grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins visit.  This summer is definitely a turning point for she and I ~ she has managed her own schedule to a larger degree than ever before, and she is GONE so much!  I miss her, yet I am also so excited for each opportunity God is bringing to her.  She is growing up, and I am learning to let go.

Sons G and L will sleep in their own tent on our camping trip this week.  That is a first.  They leave in a week for their mission trip... different city, different children, but similar ministry.  It is son L's first mission trip, and first time to be away from us longer than one or two nights.  He is ready!  A part of my mama's heart does not feel ready, but I am honestly so busy keeping up with everyone else's events/routines that I don't really have time to analyze that part of my heart, so I just have to trust God with it. ;)

Daughter H has made a couple of really good girl friends, and that makes my heart happy.  She has done really well without daughter G here, and that also makes me happy.  What an amazing and beautiful girl she is!  This week is her very first camping trip, and she is super excited.

Son C and Little Man have been busy with friends.  One of the blessings of homeschooling is getting to make friends with people we may never have otherwise met because they don't live in our neighborhood.  One of the curses, however, is that these people don't live in our neighborhood!  Son C has developed a huge interest in botany.  When I asked him what he wanted to learn about in school next year, his immediate response was, "plants and flowers!"  We already owned the Apologia Elementary Series Botany book, and C asked if he had to wait until school started to read it.  Umm, no!  So he has been happily reading a science textbook the last couple of weeks and doing all the experiments completely on his own.  He's having a blast!  I love that he's so self-motivated.

I am making very slow progress on my school prep for this fall.  But trying not to panic.  My hubby is going to give me a few Saturdays coming up, where I can go away from the house and spend the day planning.  I LOVE HIM!

Right now I feel that my brain needs a vacation.  Where do you think I should take it??

Pool Fun and Fireworks with Friends

 It is good to have friends that have a pool bigger than ours!  :)

And who like to watch fireworks!

 Our passel of boys.

And gaggle of girls.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday America!

On our way to the cottage this morning for our annual Fourth of July celebration/family reunion, we talked about what the Fourth of July is really all about.  What did the fireworks celebrate?  Why do people usually have this day off work?  What are the various celebrations that people have supposed to mean?

I read excerpts from the book John Adams (one of my all time favorites!) about the vote to declare independence, which took place on July 2, 1776 by the Continental Congress.  This vote was followed by a 36 hour marathon declaration writing session, and the actual paper declaration was then signed by most of the delegates on July 4, 1776.  A bit of trivia for you is that the final signer did not sign the declaration until January, 1777!

 

What motivated these men to pledge "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" to the idea of an independent nation?  In signing the Declaration of Independence they all became traitors to King George III of Britain.  They were a group of colonists, not even all in agreement with each other, who were vastly outnumbered by their former British countrymen.  What made them willing to risk everything for this idea?

Liberty.  It was all about liberty.  The liberty to formulate for themselves their own government system.  Liberty to choose representatives for themselves.  Liberty to speak their mind without fear.  Liberty to assemble, to bear arms, to worship according to their own conscience.  Liberty!

Liberty is actually God's idea!  "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."  ~ 2 Corinthians 3:17.

Spiritual liberty is to no longer be slaves to sin.  Or be slaves to rules.   To have freedom from sin, and freedom in Christ.  Wow!!

Political liberty is an institution of men, but contains principles from God Himself.  No wonder it is such a great idea!

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Revolutionary War was soon to follow.  A war so lopsided it should have been an easy victory for the British.  A war whose outcome turned on so many seemingly small moments.  A war that made George Washington a hero.  And after the American victory, the long arduous process of forming the republic and writing the constitution began.

What an experiment!  What an amazing, incredible, monumental experiment.  John Adams said these words about declaring independence in a letter to a friend, "Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures in which the lives and liberties of millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before us.  We are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of the world."

We are some of the unborn that Adams was speaking of.  Our lives and liberties are what they are today because of men like Adams, and all our founding fathers, who looked into the future and saw a new republic, based on the essential idea of liberty.

That is what we celebrated today!  And that is what we must resolve to maintain.

Happy Birthday America!

Wordless Wednesday ~ reading while walking!

Fun at the Cottage!

You know summer has arrived when we start going to our family cottage on weekends!  The children had high anticipation, partly because this was their first time at the cottage this season, and partly because it was daughter H's first time EVER!

Son G doing a flip off the end of the dock.

Me and daughter H.

Splash wars!

Son G and daughter H carefully struck their poses before splashing.

 Our beautiful daughter G!

Son C.

Little Man.

Son L, playing on daddy's phone under the shade of a towel.

Lunch on the dock.

Our beautiful daughter H!

What resourceful women do when they need both reading glasses AND sunglasses.... haven't you heard?  ;-)

Son C with his perch... he's the first member of our family to ever actually catch a fish FROM OUR DOCK!  (there's usually so much swimming and splashing, we scare away the fish)

Dinner together after a long day of play.

Cozy together on the car ride home.  At least one of these people fell asleep!  Can you guess which one?