My Summer Adventures

I have to admit to you all that I thought it might be a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad summer. Our first summer in a new town, away from the lake and daily swimming and time with friends. I was so worried about this that I planned the summer months meticulously, knowing that if something was on my calendar, we would do it. The whole "failing to plan is planning to fail" thing. Now that summer is just about over, I look back and I'm happy to say it was really a wonderful season for us.


As a home-teaching mom, summer breaks from school give me a little opportunity to get refreshed and explore some of my own hobbies and interests. My latest little joy in life is gardening. We planted roses, hydrangea, foxglove, lavendar, red sedum, and azalea in May and all of my plants thrived! I'm especially happy with my hydrangea and roses, which are always showy and take my breath away a bit when I see their beautiful pink flowers.

We also grew a few veggies in pots and that is the way to garden! We had fresh lettuce, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, cucumbers, and the bell pepppers are ripening even now. I also planted some herbs and have made delicious bruschetta, pesto, and salsas with them. I've dried the lavendar and rosemary and drink in their delicious scents just for fun.

I've still got some work to do in the flower beds, mulching and cleaning up for fall and winter. I'll be adding more flowers next spring. It's just impossible to get everything all at once, but that's the fun of gardening.

We had a BBQ with my husband's family, everyone present except one of his cousin's who lives in in Florida. Great Grampy and his aunt and uncle were up visiting and we got everyone together and even managed a family photo. Four generations, wow!

We did so much on our list of summer activities, including nature walks, going to camp, picking strawberries, going to the beach, the children's museum, and more.

I got to do some leisure reading and also finished Teaching the Wholehearted Child, a great inspiration for this coming school year. I love the Shaker series by Ann Gabhardt and read the second book in the series, and finished a trilogy of books by Golden Keyes Parsons, the Darkness to Light series, about the Huguenot persecution in France.

I did a little bit of scrapbooking using the Project Life system by Becky Higgins and I'm fairly up to date before starting the school year, so I can't ask for too much more than that!

There were little blessings all summer, like friends and family dropping by and invitations to people's houses and...

one very special wedding of a dear, dear friend. We've been praying for a godly man for this girl for years and the Lord has blessed! I didn't want to be in this picture, but I guess I have to show up on this blog once in a while :)

I've been looking forwad to school starting. I think all moms do. We all like to return to the structure and schedule of the school year, whether we school at home or the kiddos go back in the traditional sense. The wonderful thing is that as we say goodbye to summer, a whole new and almost better season awaits us in fall!