old fashioned summer days

Most of you know I love making “Summer Bucket Lists” actually, I love making any sort of list…I’m a list maker. Out of all my lists, the “Summer Bucket” is by far my favorite. It’s basically a list of all the fun stuff that there finally is time to do, and things we want to do before summer ends. The  list also helps us figure out what to do with all the free time we have. As a bonus this year, it has also helped my kid to keep her room clean. She knows that we don’t leave unless the house is tidy so she makes sure that her room isn’t the “guilty room” to make us miss an outing. ( Yeah, I’m kind of morbid in the sense that if something happens to me while I’m out, I don’t want anyone to come home to dirty dishes or stuff lying around.)

Of course, this is just the first week of summer… let’s see how long her clean room will last. I’m sure a week from now I will be saying the opposite.

Last summer, our bucket list was interrupted by midday swimming lessens, (a necessary inconvenience) but this year… it’s a blank canvas.

Recently, we were able to do some of the stuff I did as a kid in the summer:

For instance, the ice cream man came. (I’m not too sure why my kid is preparing for a karate move in this picture, either….)

I live in a neighborhood where they seldom come… but, maybe since he made a few dollars on our street he’ll add us to the route. A few years ago, we used to have a “produce man” come every Friday afternoon- he’d come with assorted vegetables, and fruits and sometimes meat, fish and eggs. I’m not too sure what happened to him, he just stopped coming one week.

There were also puddles to play in- summer storms leading to big refreshing pools in the driveways along the street

And, summertime means that yes… we can go to the playground today:

But, I have to say my favorite summertime thing to do is the beach…

Because even I never seem to have time for the beach, unless it’s summer.

I hope all of y’all are having an awesome summer.

Today, my kid suggested something not on our list. When I asked what we should do she said: “Let’s preach all day!”

I said: “Okay, do you want to read your devotionals and stuff?”

She said: “No Mommy, let’s go to Target and tell people about God and Jesus”

Note: I’m not sure where she is getting her evangelistic ways. We are not “that” door-to-door family. We drink beer and play frisbee in the front yard. We go to church and bring our friends, but not strangers from Target.  But, then she tells me:

“Mommy it’s what Jesus said to do.”

I know she’s right. There are lost people, they don’t need religion or church they just need hope. And, He’s not about religion, He’s about hope.

I’m not too sure how to respond, so I say, “Okay, well… are you going to do the talking, or are you going to get shy on me?”

She said she’ll probably get shy and I’ll have to talk. Hmmm. I decided that yes, we will go to target (I need some things anyway) and yes, I will talk to someone IF someone is “placed” for me to talk to. But, I have to also say… we didn’t have this on our bucket list.