Summer Lovin'

This summer I've made a concerted effort to take more time cultivating relationships. Every year I tell myself that when summer comes around I'll have more time to spend with our friends and each year summer flies by without pouring into the ones we care about.

In June the three oldest went to VBS at Idlewild - it's near impossible to be there and not see friends. The first day I spent nearly an hour afterward chatting with Katherine while our kids played. On Thursday Briana and I went to Trader Joe's during VBS and then she & the kids came to my place for the afternoon.

After she left Jesse, Ella, and their kids came over. They were in town from California and we hadn't spent a significant amount of time with them in over 4 years.

The night before all of this is when Nicki and I went and saw U2 in concert for their Joshua Tree tour. AMAZING.

I was also completely exhausted after those late nights and the migraines that came on after but I couldn't bring myself to slow down!

The girls took a sewing class at the chapel every Friday. Addison became so inspired and I used the time during the classes to spend time with friends.

One week we went to visit Katie and baby Asher.

Another week we went out for lunch and coffee with Neethu - she was a really good sport going out with me and 3 kids considering she doesn't have kids of her own yet!

The kids and I have also been enjoying the free summer kids movies - we look forward to these every year!

We've gone with long time friends, we've brought a neighbor with us, and one week we met up with CC friends and went to Chick-fil-A after.

In July the three oldest kids went to camp for the week - sleep away camp. It was AMAZING. 

 

One day that we Ray's dad took Jackson and Katherine offered to watch Brooke so I could go to Orlano and visit Heather ALONE. We've knoweach other since 1988 and hadn't seen each other in over a year. Heather's mom took her three kids for the day so we were able to spend time togehter getting pedicures, going out to lunch, coffee, and shopping.

We also went to coq appreciation day at chickfila foe breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We took  a neighbor with us all day and also met up with CC frienda for lunch.

I've tried to be better at keeping our home at a comfortable acceptable to be in level so that we can be better at spontaneously inviting people over, thus spending more time with them.

The past week was our amazing 3 days of free parent equipping - it's so fun getiting to spend three days with my friends learning and laughing together!

We had such a great time and this was while completting things like ANI charts and Venn diagrams!

I feel like we're really leaving this summer having spent more time in the important areas of enriching our friendships and I find that deeply satisfying.