Summer Came

The silence is delicious this morning. The teenagers of The Little House in the Woods are sleeping, and I'm enjoying breakfast upstairs in my quiet place.

I'm nursing a head cold that came on fast and furious this week, but its been a good opportunity to slow down a bit. Life gets ridiculously crazy at the end of the school year; for some reason forced rest is always a good reminder for me. I get caught up in the rat race and forget that rest is just as important as activity... maybe even more important.

Summer has finally come (though the waiting seemed so long); and around here it really is all about rest, even if an active rest.

Each year there are five happy things that mark the start of summer:

1. Sitting on the front porch, right before bedtime, and watching the lightening bugs put on a show.

2. Homemade Mint Limeade


3. Popsicles with jokes on the sticks.


4. Swim season. That magical time of year when the Summer People come out to play. Summer People are those other families that go to our pool. Nine months out of the year we don't see each other. It's like we don't even live in the same town. Around Memorial Day we gather again, admiring new babies and how big the kids have grown. Then we find our lounge chair, pull out our summer snacks, and visit contentedly until Labor Day.

5. The Bubba Keg: 52 oz of ice cold goodness.

Back in San Antonio, TX, in the summer of '97, I was heavily pregnant with my oldest. My beverage of choice was water, and it had to be ICE cold. My problem was night time; I would wake up parched, and drinking room-temperature water was assault to my pregnant palette.


If you can imagine, this was a time when insulated bottles were virtually non-existent (actually, they were around...we called them a thermos but they were for HOT drinks, right?) and I had devised all sorts of ways to keep my extra large plastic cup ice cold all night, to no avail. Life was tough back then.

One magnificent day, The Mister came home with the Bubba Keg. While he was filling his tank at the gas station, he saw it in the store window and knew it was the answer to all his my problems. He is still an excellent problem solver to this day; and I love that Bubba Keg about half as much as I love him... which is way more than words can say.

So, summer is in full swing in the Piney Woods, I couldn't be happier its here.

{lifting the Bubba Keg} May your summer be the perfect combination of rest and fun...