There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.
– Celia Thaxter

I can hardly believe summer is coming to a close. Usually as a mother with three teenage boys I am counting the minutes until school starts, but for some reason I am sad to see summer ending. I have enjoyed each of my boys this summer.

My oldest son had the privilege of interning at his Dad’s engineering office this summer. Of course I don’t think he viewed it as a privilege even though he did learn a lot. He learned about engineering but also he learned if he did not maintain good grades, the filing he is doing is what will be his life skill. =) It was a good motivational tool. I can not believe he will be a Junior this year in high school. I am already hearing the nightmare stories of how much money it will cost for him to be a Senior.

Yikes!

I told hubby it was time to make a “Senior savings account” now! He is looking more and more like a man each day and I sometimes I spend my days watching him from a distance asking the Lord where he will be leading my son. It is so exciting to watch and scary to see sometimes. It is during these times you rest in the thought that God loves your children more than you do. They will mess up, but God can use those times of “messing up” to bring Glory to Him. It is during this time you really have to pick and chose your battles as a parent. Like I said, exciting and scary all at the same time.

My middle child is entering high school this year. Two boys in high school; seriously I can not keep enough food in the house. I loved the fact that this summer we live in a small town where I felt safe enough to have my son ride his bike with a group of friends downtown to get ice cream. The added bonus is that my son was able to show up at Dad’s work to ask for more money. ha! We don’t live in Mayberry but it sure it close (post by my youth minister’s wife, could not say it any better than she does).

When I found out God was moving us to Florida from Arizona I was furious. I knew he would plop me down in some town painted pink with flamingos. Instead he lead us to a small town where my kids were free to be kids (and there are very few flamingos, ha). They could bike downtown and be able to bike to friends homes near by. I personally grew up in a big city, but I think I always had a small town heart. God lead me right to where my heart was. The downside is I wish I could move all my Arizona family here with me.

My youngest son will be entering 7th grade. Today when I drove home from work I came home to him standing by the door yelling “SURPRISE.” At first I was confused but then I learned he vacuumed all the rooms, took out the trash, picked up and swept my entryway.

WITHOUT being told.

I told my husband I felt like somewhere on the road home from work I left earth and entered heaven. I could not decide if I should jump up and down or stand there and cry. I have never felt so blessed. I thanked him up and down and then proceeded to empty every penny I had in my purse to give him money as a thank you so he could buy himself something special at a store. ha! I don’t want 7th grade to change my baby, but I have learned from past experience this is the year that hormones hit. And the roller coaster of emotions emerge. I am so excited to see him grow up but at the same time I want to stop time.

Each of my boys are at a perfect age.

So what have I been doing this summer? Well not blogging that much as you can see. I am still active with my book reviews, but blogging has taken a backseat for awhile. Several things have lead to that decision. I will still leave this blog up and stop by ever so often. This is a great place to update my parents and loved ones with what is going on in our crazy boy household, it just won’t be daily or even weekly. And I continue to write monthly for Laced With Grace.

One thing I HAVE been doing is running. Let me state I HATE running, but there were things in my life that were overwhelming me. I spent so much time crying out to God, finally he laid it on my heart that I need to get out and RUN. JUST RUN, he said. He led me to an iphone app called couch to 5K.

The running has been my salvation lately.

I began running since May and have continued it throughout the summer. Believe me I am just as surprised as anyone that I have kept this up. But it has helped my sanity, it has helped me feel good about myself, it has helped me work things out in my mind and also believe it or not I have totally relied on God to get me through.

Running has brought me closer to Him.

I am a slow runner and I have only worked up to about 2.5 miles three times a week. My goal is to possibly run a 5K in October or November. The fact that I even state that and put it “out there” scares me to death. In my eyes I don’t see how I will add that extra mile since even doing 2.5 miles right now about kills me, but like I said I have been relying on the Lord. And I can do all things through Him who gives me strength!

It has been a good summer.  It went by too fast.  They are growing to fast.

But I am looking forward to the great things God will do this next school year.  I am getting my praying knee pads ready!  ( the ones I had for the summer already have holes, ha!)