summer days

as i pondered how i wanted to take advantage of the sweet time with the darlins this summer, i realized that i had to take some action. my first goal is to successfully slow time down. colton is 9. that's 9. here are some stats for you. half of his time at home with us is gone. when annslee is his age, he will be driving. when aiden was annslee's age, he was 4. it feels like yesterday that i was walking chase to his first day of kindergarten. i will walk aiden to kindergarten in 2 1/2 short months. i will blink and she will be starting 2nd grade like chase and colt will be in jr. high. and so on...and so forth...

so...slowing down time is my only option. and since i am unable to do that fly-around-the-earth-backwards-superman thing, i feel that my best line of defense is to make each day count and to not pack them full of busy schedules and activities that don't build our relationships. i'm happy to not be taking jam packed trips and that things like facebook, e-mail, and the computer are an after-thought. here is a tentative plan that is on the fridge for our summer days. i am praying that it fosters growth of the spiritual, emotional, and camaraderie kind.

8:00 breakfast

followed by bible story and prayer together
chores
free time

12:00 lunch

followed by 30 minutes of reading

1:30 pool (t/w/th/f)
movie time monday (m)

3:00 snack

free time

6:00 dinner

8:00 talk time and journal

this is where chad and i will get to go room to room and spend time with them alone. tonight, for example i got to tell chase a story about a frog from when i was a little girl. he loved this. and so did i. i also got to read colt the story i wrote in my journal on his first day of kindergarten. i did this to show him how fun journaling can be when you get to look back at it years later and remember the details of what happen and how you felt. he had no idea how hard that day was because of how much i missed him. it made him feel good. i also got to read them some of my prayers from when aiden was a baby and i was praying for God to heal her reflux and they saw how He answered those prayers. it made them want to pray for God to heal annslee's reflux more.

and...possibly my favorite thing is that they each get to pick out a spiral notebook to be their journals. they will keep them in their nightstand drawers with a pencil and every night they will write in them about what they did that day, how they are feeling, or even a prayer. once a week, they will write a letter to chad or i in it and we will write them back on the back. i'm super excited about this new, little activity and really hope it sticks. can you imagine taking a box of old spiral notebooks with you to college that had entries dating all the way back to elementary school? love it.

and who better to hold me accountable to this slow paced summer day schedule other than you?

great. now i'm singing that cher song..."if i could turn back time"....in my head.