Summer Lovin'

I love summer for SO many reasons.  Here are a few of them:

The sun gives me life (even though I have to stay out of it).
       Just the feeling of warmth from the sun on my skin makes me feel so alive.  As a child I think I lived in the outdoors in the summertime.  We had so much fun playing out in the yard-- barefooted and free.  What fun it was to race across the gravel driveway in bare feet and never flinch.  Childhood makes us so much stronger than we become as adults!

A slower schedule is so relaxing and peaceful.
     Granted, this summer I have a child who is involved in three different sports during the month of June, but I love not having to enforce a strict bedtime and being able to sleep in when I can.  Summer reminds me that life is meant for living and not for being a slave to a schedule.  Not to mention the kids having no homework is so freeing!

Watching the flowers and plants grow feels so much like we are a part of the creative process of nature.
     When my older four kids were younger and we lived in town I had NO desire to work in my garden of flowers that had already been planted by the previous owner of our house.  They kind of thrived in spite of me and I didn't really care to know anything about plants.  By golly, I had four young kids to raise!  But now I am finding so much joy in growing things (other than children) simply because of my oldest son's interest sparking something in me.  When Nathan decided to major in landscape design it brought a whole new realm of interest to my life.  It is great how your kids can bring you into new growth within yourself as they grow older and branch out into the world.  (Did you like that pun?  Branch out.  He he.)

Swimming.
     Now, I have not gone swimming myself in 4 years but it is something I LOVE.  Being told you have melanoma which is probably going to take your life puts a bit of a damper on things where swimming is concerned.  But how I LOVE to feel the coolness of clean pool water on my skin in the sweltering heat and humidity of summer.  When we were kids we had a small pool in our yard for a time.  We LIVED in that thing.  My parents got it second hand on the Swap Shop so it wasn't new or fancy but we thought it was the greatest.  We had an old table that we set up on the side as our "diving board" and it came with the coolest Flipper toy that we swam with constantly.  Even when we didn't have a pool I remember playing in the yard by putting water in the kitchen trash can and pretending it was a pool and that I was the lifeguard.  We may not have had fancy waterparks to go to but we used our imaginations to the fullest!

Mowing the yard.
     Yes, I love mowing the yard.  It is my parents' fault.  They started us mowing on the rider when we were about 5 years old and even then it was a blast.  Back then we had a mower with a stick shift which made it a little more engaging mentally.  But our family mowed together and it was a family affair.  Even now when I am out on the mower alone it brings back the warm memories of doing something together as a family back when I was a kid.  My brother-in-law and my husband like to kid my sister and I when we talk about push mowing the "house yard" and how it was different from mowing the big yards.  I love to have time alone with my thoughts and with my inner and outer voice singing above the hum of the mower.  And it doesn't hurt that our mower now has hydrostatic transmission that allows to you mow without even thinking!

Reading.  A lot!
     I love to read and summer is the perfect time to spend hours and hours reading books and not feeling guilty about something else you should be doing.  Though I read all year long, summer is the time for reading stuff you might not have time for during the busy school year.

What do you love about summer?