Five MInute Friday: Summer

 I'll admit I cheated on this one. I actually typed this up for an Instagram caption on July 5th, as I was reflecting on what summer meant to me, and figured since that was the topic for the week, it'd be fine for me to share it again, here. This is a little longer because what I originally wrote was too long for a caption (I've been typing up captions in word and then copy/pasting so that I can fully collect my thoughts. And also I have fat fingers and blind eyes so I can't see typing on my phone the best...) 

This actually did only take me about five minutes to type up as I was formulating it in my head the whole trip home from Buckhorn. Sharing now with the Five Minute Friday linkup.

There is something about the 5^th of July that signifies the beginning of the end. I’m not sure why, exactly, except we’ve anticipated the celebration of the 4^th and we usually take our vacation in June. Walmart starts putting school supplies out, and suddenly my mind is thinking of all of the organization I didn’t do and how I’m still overweight and still sleeping in every morning.

Summer means different things to different people. It’s my favorite time of the year, even though I don’t like the humidity and the bugs… but I know that others anticipate fall, winter, and spring just as much. To me, summer is a season of slowing down. As a daughter of a school teacher (even one who coached cheerleading and therefore worked most of the summer), we slept in and made trips to the city pool and the library and stopped for Cherry Coke at the Dairy Bar. I can still feel the uneven concrete, bright blue, under my feet as I waded up from the kiddy end of the pool.  Days at home were a mixture of reading and laundry and lounging outside listening to mix tapes.

Summer means the lake, too… on Sunday mornings I would sometimes slide out the back door after children’s church and make my way down the road to climb in my Uncle Mike’s truck. He’d haul Jen and I to Cave Run, where we would sometimes swim and tube and sometimes sit and watch him fish and complain (because I never was a fisherman).

There is no better taste than bologna when you are dripping wet, swim suit stuck to you like crazy glue, wild hair dripping down your back, or sticky popsicles running down your fingers in the dog days.

Today, on what I usually imagine as the beginning of the end, we took the boat to the lake for the first time this summer. Caleb has been working full time, and the days are shorter than they used to be, as seems to happen when you get older. The water felt fine, a clear green; the sky was perfectly overcast. No tubing for us, just a few hours swimming (or floating, really), and then a run up and down the lake to dry off… And as I sat in the back of that boat, sweet Mel Belle next to me and Caleb in the front, I snapped a picture in my mind of their laughter, their smiles… sweet summer time… because it won’t last long.

Hope you’re enjoying your summer, friends! What does it mean to you?