First Week of Summer

• Both kids and my mom were sick with a virus. My son coughed easily through and kept going. My daughter got fever and is still getting over the cold and cough a week later. So a touch of sickness marked our first week.
• My son began two different camps that will take up 12 hours of his weeks this summer. This has been both exhausting and fun for him. He’s liking the friends he is meeting, and I enjoyed meeting the coaches at a parent meeting one night this week. I’ve been glad to see my son step out into new things without hesitating. He is okay if he doesn’t know anyone, and he’s willing to give new things a try, and I’m thankful.
• I’m getting used to driving back and forth to my son’s new school! It reminds me so much of my high school. I have loved becoming familiar with all of this, seeing friends out there, and meeting new people.
• A big storm came across the Midwest this week. We went to my mom’s to stick it out with her and see what would happen. It had been predicted all day, and the weather map made it look like we were in for trouble. We prayed. In the end, it seemed as though maybe we got a little rain, but no hail, tornadoes, or heavy winds and storms that were predicted. It’s so easy in those situations to just say, “Wow, they predicted a huge storm and nothing really came of it.” But I want to say, “Thank you, Lord!” and acknowledge that we did pray and ask Him to let it go around us, and the storm did just that. So we praise Him that we didn’t have to worry that night with power outages and the risk of flooded basements and everything else that can come with dangerous storms.
• My son and I are in the middle of probably our fifth game of Monopoly! We’ve been spending our extra time playing some games, and he is absolutely hilarious. I had a couple of girl moms at school at the end of the year tell me how much their daughters were going to miss him and how nice he had been to them, how funny he is, how much they enjoy him, and I was wondering about the “funny” part. What is so funny? But I totally get it. Sort of a clever humor tying in things in life to present moments in the game. I can’t even describe it, but we’ve been laughing a lot and having fun.
• My daughter and I did a little shopping, but she wasn’t feeling so great, so we didn’t get too much accomplished. But it always feels good to get caught up on a few errands.
• I am enjoying just being home the rest of the time, having a leisurely pace, staying up late, reading, sleeping later, enjoying time with the kids.
• I read one book this week: Follow Me by David Platt. I would recommend it. It’s thought provoking. It focuses on discipleship and what it looks like to really follow Jesus and make disciples. My own story of how God saved me seems to be in line with the things he shares in this book, so it resonates with me, but he does challenge a lot of things we sometimes see and hear. It has made me also want to read his earlier book Radical which I have on hand to read next.

It’s been a really good, restful, full first week of summer, and I’m thankful.