We have been having such a fun summer! Yes, it got off to a rough start, but these long days of resting, playing Legos, riding bikes, reading books, watching movies, swimming, and celebrating birthdays have been just wonderful.
We have reached some major milestones in our family, too! Luke and Kate have spent four years in Level One swim lessons -- and this summer, they both learned how to swim without their life jackets! There are reasons it took so long, including surgeries, ear infections, and timidity. But now -- they can do swim! We've got more to learn, but they are off to a great start! I love how these accomplishments build their confidence!
Those two also are so confident on their bikes, after just getting the hang of it at the end of last summer. It's like they stretch their brains through so much of the school year, and summer is a perfect time for them to stretch their muscles, and to grow physically in ways they can't when they are sitting for so many hours every day.
Yes, my boys may be sitting a lot when they play Legos, but they also are moving, and using their imagination, and bonding. And then there comes the time in every day when I just send them outside to play!
My favorite part of summer, though, is how we just get to be together. Yes, they can drive each other crazy, and sometimes they take me along for the ride. But then we sort it out. We have to sort it out because there is so much time we have to spend together. And we CAN sort it our because we have so much time together! As the weeks have gone by -- slow ones and busy ones, ones in which we get along effortlessly and ones in which we certainly do not -- I notice us becoming closer. Some extra cement is being poured into our bonds. And the thing that makes it happen is really just the pace at which we are living our lives, and the distractions we aren't allowing.
My boys also have discovered that they love to fish. And Meghan and Brendan learned to water ski. I grew up waterskiing, and we have talked about teaching the kids at my parents' lake for years, but this year everything finally came together. Maybe the best part is that, while I spent a significant amount of time in the water trying to teach both of them how to get up, it actually clicked for Meghan when I backed off. And for Brendan? Meghan was the one in the water instructing him when he got up -- on his first try of the day. (He'd only tried three times the day before!) The two of them will always share that now. Brendan is entering middle school this year, and I love seeing them grow closer in the moments when they talk about the special adventures that are had on their side of the school.
This weekend, we are all looking forward to getting together with families my family has known since we moved onto a little street called in East Detroit when I was about 1. We moved away when I was in third grade, but best friend then still became my Maid-of-Honor, and we all still get together every summer at the lake. Now we bring our spouses and children. It amazes me how different we all are, and yet how much we mean to each other.
This summer has been a good testimony to me that sometimes when life forces us to slow down, it is OK. I spent our first month of the summer dealing with a miscarriage. I couldn't do much of what I wanted to do with my children. I couldn't enroll them with things because at first, I didn't know what I would be dealing with, and afterward, I was too tired to do much beyond the necessities.
So we all stayed home together. And I am so glad we did. A day doesn't go by in which I accomplish half of what I "should" (with such an active toddler, I think it will be a while before that happens). But there is a peace in being together. In sharing these accomplishments. In walking around the block, or riding bikes after dinner. In being silly. In being a family.
Whatever we may accomplish this summer, it's the time we take to be together as a family that I always will appreciate most.
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