Summer

Is it possible to love all the seasons?

I do!  I was thinking about this on my walk the other night.  Liam was comfy strolling along as I was exercising and we were taking in the sights and smells of summer which has finally hit California!  As we cruised past a section of the neighborhood, we watched some kids in front of their house spraying each other with a hose.  All the children were dripping wet, giggling and enjoying  their water play.  I was thinking to myself, I love summer.  But then I, I say that at the beginning of every season.

Each new season brings new changes to the world and I seem to love all of them.  In Summer I can’t wait for the cooler days of Fall to arrive.  In Fall, I long for the cold, rainy days of Winter.  In Winter, I dream of the pastel changes that come with Spring.  And as the Spring days get longer I look forward to the long hot days of Summer.  Can you truly love each season, I think so.  I have tried and tried to come up with a reason why I like one more than the other, but I really do love them all and am ready for each new season as they come along.

For now, I will tell you some of the reasons I love summer….

I love the colors of summer…  Bright, happy, sunny colors that make you want to run outside and play…  Yellows and oranges and reds that signify heat…  The cool blue of a pool… with its crystal clear, sparkling water that is calling to you, “Jump in and play awhile.”  (Thanks to all of our friends who invite us over for a swim!!)  Green grass that grows fast… bright reds and greens of a juicy drippy watermelon.  Red White and Blue… a sign of our Nation’s birth.  I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty of others.

Tasting summer is a whole new experience.  Oh, how I love the fresh fruits and vegetables that you can find in the summer time…  Going to the local farmers markets and produce stands… Stopping by the strawberry patch to get strawberries that are sweeter than candy.  Have you ever had a FRESH strawberry picked right out of the field?  It is still warm from the sun, smells musty and sweet all at the same time and when you take a bite the juice just runs down your mouth and all over your chin, ending in an explosion of sugary goodness.  Oh… I love fresh summer strawberries!! 

But there are so many more flavors of summer…  like BBQ.  I love a good burger right off the grill.  I like to stuff mine with bacon, cheese, onions and seasoning, throw a slice of American cheese on top and pile it on a bun with lots of mayo, ketchup, a little mustard, dill pickles, lettuce and avocado…. Oh I am making myself so hungry!!!  Or what about a juicy, mouthwatering steak that is still sizzling as you cut into it? 

Drippy, juicy watermelon, ice cream cones that drip so fast you have to lick your fingers clean, hot dogs and BBQ ribs.  Fresh corn on the cob that is dripping with butter…  mmmmm yum!!  Have you ever watched people eating corn on the cob?  It is fun to see how each person attacks the cob in their own determined way.  I like to eat mine like an old fashioned type writer going horizontal across the cob.  My husband likes to turn his around and around making a more vertical attack, eating one section at a time.  My 5 year old son likes a more haphazard approach just munching away wherever he sees fit!!

Summer salad… nothing beats a summer salad on a super hot day when no one feels like cooking.  You can go basic with a green salad with lots of fresh veggies… or a fruit salad with nothing but natural juicy goodness mixing it together!  Macaroni and potato salads… there are so many ways to fix them.  I love trying other people’s recipes… no one makes them the same!!  Then there are the fancier salads… taco, Chinese chicken, spinach and strawberry.  I could go on and on….

To continue with the other ways my senses explore summer (because I am making myself too hungry to continue typing about food) there are the smells of summer.  Can you smell the heat?  When it is 110 can you smell the grass burning to brown and the asphalt as it gets so hot it could fry an egg… and the dust, summer always seems so dusty… can you smell it as the summer breeze lifts it to your nose?  One of my not so favorite smells is when your kids come in from playing outside and they are hot and sweaty and just stink like the outdoors.  Other favorites… Sunscreen, chlorine, soap from washing the cars, someone’s BBQ cooking up some tasty eats, making you wish you were invited to dinner.

Summer sounds are fun too…  Kids playing, giggling, splashing… Songs sung by the ice cream truck… fireworks… sizzle of the grill… (see I’m really hungry now!)  There are so many things I love about summer, that when it first comes around, I have to say it is my favorite time of year.  But as I tire of the triple digit heat, I begin to long for Fall, my other favorite time of year.  Soon, the long days will get shorter and the weather will start to cool, the colors, sights, sounds, smells and tastes will change…

But until then, I will plan out my long, lazy, hot summer days with fun activities… a great time for family closeness as we play outdoors together or gather inside where the AC is blasting.  Doesn’t really matter what time of year it is, where we are or what we are doing, it is being with family that I desire and value the most!

Happy Summer!!

Most Used Word

What word in the English language is said the most, has tons of ways to say it, and is a word that evokes a broad spectrum of emotions?

MOM!!  

Mother, Mom, Mommy, Mama, Mommomm, Momma, Ma and the list goes on….

No scientific proof, studies or surveys support my findings, but one thing I know for certain – it is true in my house!  My kids are constantly calling for mom, crying for mommy, looking for mama or like my 8 month old baby boy just saying Momm Momm because he knows how!  From the moment they first say it until, well, forever it is one of the dearest words that a mother will hear, falling just short of the #1 hit – I love you!!

The amount of emotions that the word Mom evokes when said is inconceivable.  When you hear your baby say mama for the first time you are filled with joy and amazement and just know that you have the smartest baby in the whole world.  When a teenager wants to argue and yells Mooottheerrr you wonder why you taught them how to speak!  A scared cry of MOM in the middle of the night causes your heart to skip a beat as you worry.  An excited “Mommy” yelled out as your 5 year old bounds through the door can make you just as excited as he is.  A sad “Mom” when a loved pet dies can make your heart sink into your stomach as your child turns to you for empathy.  Then there are the “Mommy” calls when your child falls and scrapes her knee and you rush to her side to fix her owie.  How about the timid “mom?” when your child is scared to tell you something?  Or the scratchy throat sick “Maaaam” yelled out in the middle of the night.  Sometimes you feel annoyed or exhausted just hearing “mama” called out over and over again!  No matter how or when you hear it, the name mom creates feelings  – some you never even knew existed.

Even now, my daughter is calling “mommy” because she can’t find her book.  I still call out to my mom… and she still worries.  She can make me laugh till tears roll down my cheeks and I can’t breathe.  We still cry together.  My Mom knows just by the way I say “Hi Mom” when I call her up on the phone, how I am feeling.  I hope that when my kids are grown up with their own families they will continue to call out to their Mom.

Listen when your child calls out to you and really feel the emotions that the name awakens within.  You might be surprised at what you feel.  I know I am! 

journey of self discovery

June 7, 2011 (excerpt from my journal)

Up early, not as early as I had hoped, but still early.  Must be up before the others to get my day started, otherwise, my day never seems to get started.  Have to jump in the shower immediately or I never seem to get one, at least not without 100 interruptions while I am trying to condition my hair and shave my legs. 

It is still quiet.  I love opening my bedroom door and smelling the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee wafting from my kitchen down the hall.  I can’t wait for that first cup!!  The house is still asleep, but I can hear the stirrings of my teenage stepson waking up.  He greets me with, “Happy Morning.”  He is happy that today is his last day of school… last day of 8^th grade.  I can’t believe he is 14 and going into high school.  My how time flies!!

I have already perused my emails, had a partial cup of coffee and now am awake enough to start my devotions.  I am currently reading through “The 52 Greatest Stories of the Bible” by Kenneth Boa and John Alan Turner.  This book is incredible.  It is a daily, Monday thru Friday, read.  It has changed my spiritual thinking and increased growth in my relationship with Christ dramatically!  I look forward to my daily ritual and have to control my thoughts to read ahead and instead reflect on what lesson the Holy Spirit is teaching me today…  On to the Word, where God always seems to speak straight to my heart.  I love starting my day this way, it seems to make the day start off right….  I am armed and ready for what the world brings my way.

As the others wake up, I am torn away from my journaling and have to become Mom.  So it is a few hours later – after morning hugs, breakfast, a walk, diaper changes, getting kids dressed, baby down for a nap, on and on that I am able to sit down to my journal again.  I have many things to accomplish today and yet I find the need to take care of myself is more pressing.  Laundry, cleaning, mending, etc;  it can wait.

I am trying to be “in the present.”  A great idea… Hard thing to accomplish.  But, I try.  What is it that my children think of me?  Do they truly know how much I love them?  How I worry?  How I pray for them?  Does my husband know that I can’t live without him and would never want to try?  By living in the moment I hope that my family will know these as simply as they know that the sun rises and sets each day. 

I am on a journey of self discovery…. And it starts today.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.   James 1:2-4 (NKJV)