Hello Summer!

Greetings from The Front Porch!

Happy summer, it is finally here. Just a few weeks ago, my daughter told me she thought summer vacation should not start until it stops raining. I had to agree with her, as they ended their school year with thunderstorms and rains coats, you would have thought they were entering into winter break instead of summer vacation.

Now we are into our 28th day, it reached 100 degrees, and we could not be happier. OK, maybe I might be the happiest. However, hot weather equals slip and slides, water parks and late evenings on The Front Porch.

I have been challenged by a good friend to put my agenda aside and to live out my motto, embracing my moments with my children and asking myself “what if” and filling in the blanks. What if I decided to leave the dishes to be done the laundry to be folded and the rooms to be cleaned for another time and joined my children for a day of fun?

Today I lived in the moment while I wrapped myself around the what if and I left my to do list on the counter and jumped in feet first with my kids as we sat in the air conditioned theater melting into a sci-fi movie, something I never do.

As I watched my teens sit on the seat of their pants, wide eyed and enthralled by the story on the screen, I realized how much I miss out when I put my agenda before my relationship with them.

I recently read in a devotional book that God calls us to be still so that we could receive His blessings. As I read that I thought “no, I can’t do that”, being still so God could bless me is opposite of what I have learned to do.

Yet, as I sat still today, the blessings I received from my time with my kids are something I will hold on to for the rest of my life. I am learning that when I enter into these moments with my teenagers for no other reason then to enter into these moments, I get glimpses of the adults they are becoming.

Tomorrow is day twenty-nine and it is taking everything in me not to write out a long list of things I need to do. I will hold tight to today and remember what it looked like when I put my list to the side and allowed myself to not just promote a motto of the moment but also live in it myself.

Thank you my friends, you know who you are, for challenging me to step away from my own structure and box and step into the summer with my kids.


Cristina