How can summer be coming to an end! Every year I think it will go slower and every year it goes inevitably faster.
I was taking a load of laundry out of the dryer and my eyes fell on a sandy little digger (Luke) that was sitting on top of my washer and I felt completely overwhelmed (in a good way) thinking about how much I have loved this summer.
These last 2-plus months have been such a sweet balm to my soul, I wanted to record a few memories here for the 5 people – other than my mom – who might care. 😉
Vacation
We tried not once but TWICE to go on vacation! Poor sweet Luke had strep throat 4 times in a row and ended up with mono for over a month of his summer. And little did we know when you have mono it is very important not to rough house or do sport like activities due to your spleen being enlarged and the possibility of it bursting. Lyric also has strep throat then later on and a double ear infection (twice which ended up with him bursting his ear drum)
SUMMER STAY-CATION
That was more like it. BUT this year was so great. We swam and read books and baked and ate a ridiculous amount of cookies and popsicles. I took the boys to a small trips through out the week, and we went to the park or pool almost every day when we were all healthy! We went on more bike rides than I could ever count and, when we felt we had burned a sufficient amount of calories, we went and ruined it all at Dairy Queen. I even got to slip away for an hour to have my nails toenails painted before our family pictures we had taken (which turned out amazing!!!)
After a massively stressful end of the school year, I finally felt my head clear and my breath lighten! Summers are always refreshing but THIS summer was needed more than any summer thus far. 🙂
The Boys
I was telling a friend recently that one of my favorite things about this summer is that it has been the summer of best-friend-bonding between all four boys. Lane is now 7, Luke 5, Lyric 3 and Levi is 8 months. The four of them have become so close as they have had so much more time together. Case in point – they wake up at absurd hours that the sun doesn’t even think is acceptable, so they have plenty of time to destroy the house with their shenanigans before Mommy and Daddy get out of bed. Ok not really they don't destroy the house and Lane is the only one up that early BUT they have bonded and made more messes through out all the extra hours and I wouldn't have it any other way.
For starters, the big two are really into creating their own stories and scenarios and using their imaginations like crazy. This typically involves them jumping on Mom's bed while making up storylines followed up with a lot of wrestling. Pretending Luke is Lane's pet is pretty typical. And riding "dirt bikes" (regular bikes while making sounds I can't even begin to attempt to make) out front and around our house is a daily event and usually before 8am!
After breakfast on the daily we played outside and usually it was baseball while I was either the pitcher or the cheerleader. I'm loud by nature but Lane ALWAYS requests louder cheers! We are currently into football now and I'm always cheering the "big red rumble" super loud and super early...I wonder if our entire neighborhood thinks we are seriously WEIRD.
Lyric is SO into sports now and playing tball or playing football! I love seeing him interact with his brothers and him and Lukie have spent many hours digging in the sand under the slide. And Levi is a swinging machine soaking it all in....loving every single kiss, tickle, and fly by his brothers give him! All three of them never cease to amaze me at the attention they give that babe and we are so blessed by the love they have for each other!!
As I type this, it is 5:30 am and I just can't wait for them to wake up and start another and the final summer day as the day to follow will be like a school day technically because it will be a night to get ready for bed for school and I just wish I could hit rewind. I love seeing them all grow close. I tell them all. the. time. that having a brother is like God saying, “Here is a best friend forever. You’re welcome.”
Other great memories from the summer besides lots of doctor appointments was visiting Papa Goose, vacation bible school, a million rounds on the fire swing, Lane's first year of coach pitch and lots and lots of play dates with friends, enjoying our annual day at the Oregon splash pad, multiple cookouts with family and going swimming and to the pool with Ammy and Poppy and they boy's cousins and also We took the big boys to their first drag racing experience too and they absolutely LOVED it.
The memories that sink deep right into my heart are the lunches in the toy room, all the books we read before nap time, the morning walks, the after dinner family bike rides, and the sleepy summer sun kissed cheeks in the morning. Oh how my heart aches of summer being over.
My prayer for this 2nd grader, kindergartener, and preschooler of mine is that they would be kind to their classmates and teachers, that they would be surrounded by people that are loving and the ones that aren't so nice....that they would each show those people love anyways. I thank God that HE is with them when I am not and that He is calling these boys to be a light in dark places. I pray they thrive not just survive the school year and that their school would be invisible to the eyes of the enemy. I pray they know without hesitation who's they are and how much HE loves them and how much mommy and daddy love them too! At the beginning of the year we picked a them song! Our summer song this year was The Cure. We listened to it daily and even sweet Lyric knows the words except he sings "YOU ARE THE JOY" so that is what we have sang all summer! It's been the best! So many dance party's to that song!!(and many others!!)
We're all related, brothers and strangers,
The king and the beggar bleed the same.
We've all got a sickness, a terminal condition,
We medicate it but the pain won't go away.
See the eyes of a million faces,
Looking forward in a million places,
Only one can save us, Jesus.
You are the cure!
Everybody's searching for it,
Everybody's reaching out,
Trying to grab a hold of something real.
You are the cure!
Only you can satisfy us,
Fill up the void inside us,
Never been a heart you couldn't heal.
You are the cure...
You are the doctor, healer and father,
To the orphan without a home.
We feel in the darkness, lost till you found us,
You are the remedy we've been looking for.
You are the cure!
Everybody's searching for it,
Everybody's reaching out,
Trying to grab a hold of something real.
You are the cure!
Only you can satisfy us,
Fill up the void inside us,
Never been a heart you couldn't heal.
You are the cure...
Cure for the broken, the hope for a hopeless world.
The meaning, the purpose, the peace that will make us whole.
Don't have to search no more.
Don't have to search no more.
You are the cure!
Everybody's searching for it,
Everybody's reaching out,
Trying to grab a hold of something real.
You are the cure!
Only you can satisfy us,
Fill up the void inside us,
Never been a heart you couldn't heal.
You are the cure...
You are the cure, cure
Never been a heart you couldn't heal.
You are the cure, cure
Never been a heart you couldn't heal.
It's so funny to even read it with the word cure because we always sing JOY in place of that word! But that song has been just that...a constant reminder in our summer that Jesus is our joy....the giver of all Joy and the one who takes away all pain!! So very thankful for each and every summer moment with my boys. And while I will mourn it being over and feel so sick to think about two being gone all day and one every morning...I won't let that steal my joy of having my special time with sweet Levi every day and soaking up the precious moments of lunch with just my little two and making some wonderful memories with them just like I did with their big brothers before they started school. I am going to CHOOSE JOY. (even while I am missing them at school)
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