Summer Memories

It is almost time for school to start back up again. I can't say that I am too disappointed, because it really helps me to have a daily plan. I use the word plan very loosely, as my oldest daughter can attest, however, it does make me feel a little more together when every week day is a "school day." Forget the fact that I use the word school to encompass any type of activity that is not a completely mind numbing electronic game.

Playing outside? Of course that's school.

Cooking dinner or baking a cake? Sure.

Playing Sorry with your little brother? You betcha, write that down!

What I am going to miss once we get back in the grind is my Friday morning fellowship. Every week a small group of my fellow home school moms and their children set up our brightly striped umbrellas on the beach and solve the problems of the world. We sit in the shade, another term lightly used in South Florida in July, when the temperature is about ninety-five and the "shade" feels like one hundred and ten!! Anyway, we shade ourselves from the effects of the blazing sun and we watch the waves lap calmly on the shore, the seagulls glide lazily in the heat, and our kids play - full force, as kids do, the heat not affecting them at all.


This is a group of moms who are really special to me. They have influenced me in my walk with Christ, encouraging me to be closer to Him. They have stretched me on my home schooling journey, causing me to be better than I ever thought I could be. Now, as we are all raising teens in a really crazy world, they are still there, going before me with older children. Paving the way to graduation, college, and marriage. I want to raise my daughters to be like these women - strong, passionate, dedicated, yet at the same time, godly, submissive, and meek. All the marks of true beauty.

Every year, when the temperature rises and our weekly classes and co-ops end, we lay aside our crazy schedules for more time at home, more reading together with the kids, more make up math that got neglected in the whirlwind of outside commitments -and we pick up our Friday mornings at the beach.


It has been another memorable summer. We have one more Friday morning before enrichment classes begin and we are back to homework, tests, and transcripts. I will carry the fond memories of another summer of Fridays......

until next year....