Hello Summer!

It's been awhile since I spent any time here. We've been busy, with multiple events, but the most notable was Lily's 5th birthday. When I mentioned to our Littles that she was turning five they asked if I was having a party. So I said yes. So they said we needed presents. So we bought some. So they said we needed decorations and snacks and friends to celebrate with us. So I said yes to it all, and it was SO much fun! We even invited our next door neighbor and her little dog Missy, who left with a treat bag.

A month ago - when it was still breezy and cool April, I was wondering if summer would ever arrive. Then, BAM - it did! Finishing up May, and sliding into June, we've got a forecast of days running in the 100's. And true, official summer isn't for another three weeks. Wowzers! Texas isn't for the faint of heart this time of year.

This heat is for me a God-thing. We've come up with a schedule that finds us heading the van north around the end of June, with me and our Texas Littles a blubbery mess as we say goodbye for six months. It's a schedule that works, and I can't wait to see all our family in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Summer there is pure bliss, even without all those faces I love. But saying goodbye here is still hard, and if it wasn't so miserably hot I don't know that I could stand it. For everything there is a season, turn turn turn.

In the meantime, we've got three weeks before we leave, so the list of what needs to be done before we go is growing.

I have two more piano lessons. I had my very first one, the one where you find where Middle C is, the middle of January. When I leave for Idaho I should have 19 or 20 lessons under my belt, and I'm so thankful for all I've learned. And for my oh so patient teacher. It's such a source of joy to me, to be able to sit down, look at a piece of paper with black marks on it, and somehow it transfers to my fingers, and out comes music! Amazing!

We're spending a lot of time with our Texas Littles before we go - covering childcare for them for a few days while their primary caretaker is away on vacation; then we're taking our very first 'all by ourselves load up the van and take off' road trip with them. We learned about a state park in Oklahoma called Robber's Cave, where Jesse James and Belle Star apparently hid out from the law. It's now been shaped into a fun place for families to rent a cabin, roast smores, play putt putt, ride horses, swim, hike through caves, and learn about native animals - all of which we plan to do, while trying to avoid mosquitoes and poison ivy. A three hour drive and a few nights away seems like the perfect trial run for what we hope will become an annual tradition of memory making.

There's Father's Day to celebrate with Cub Sweetheart and our son. A few movies to squeeze in. Some grilling to be done. Refrigerators and freezers to be cleaned out. And a van to be loaded up before we hit the road with Miss Lily for the 2000 mile trek north.

I seem to be coming here about once a month, and my good intentions will try to do so more often. No promises. It is, after all, the beginning of summer.

Blessings
Bev

PS Cub Sweetheart is sporting a sling in the photo - a brand spanking new shoulder. We're eight weeks out from the surgery and he's not quite ready to go fishing, but doing better by the day.