On summer

Remember being a kid, and how incredibly long the summers used to feel?  Time seemed utterly endless, and the distance between the last and first days of school seemed an eternity. 

Flash forward to present day and summer is here and gone in the blink of an eye.  Summer vacation is not two and half months with nothing to do and nowhere to be, but instead trying to squeeze in extended weekend trips between work and other obligations.  

Not that I'm necessarily complaining.  I'm lucky in that my job slows down enough during the summer months that I actually can take a good amount of time off, plus with working a 4/10 schedule this year having that extra day every weekend has been oh so very nice.  When fall rolls around, it's going to be really, really hard to give that up.  I'm sure all of you out there feel sorry for me.....right?

This past weekend I got to experience a tiny glimpse of the long ago childhood summer vacations.  It was one of those fantastic weekends where I didn't have any set plans, wasn't rushed for time, so I was able to really just "be" and experience the awesomeness of.....nothing. 

I was home, down on the farm, soaking up the heat and some pretty amazing summer thunder storms.  I ran in the mornings, walked the dogs with my mom, lounged by the pool, swam during the afternoon to beat the 90+ degree heat, and made significant progress in not just one but two books.  In the evenings I sat on the porch and took in the delicious smells of ripe raspberries and almost ready to harvest wheat fields.  Folks, I was in heaven. 

I love summertime on the farm, and I love being home and not having to "do" anything.  Not that I didn't do stuff.....I kept myself plenty busy, but there's something about a wide open schedule on your days off that is just so inspiring.  But this weekend in particular really made me flash back to those childhood summer breaks where I spent my days riding bikes, swimming, picking raspberries, heading up the road to visit Uncle Bob and Aunt Marian, and reading and writing up in my room (at least until the afternoon heat made being upstairs totally unbearable).  I loved those summers, and I suppose I'm feeling a bit nostalgic because getting to be home and relax in this way brought back a lot of really fond memories. 

Summer is often here and gone before we feel like we really have a chance to enjoy it, at least that's how it sometimes seems for me.  But I feel like I really got a good summer weekend in this year, and I hope that before the heat dissipates and the craziness of the fall season ensues, I'll be able to enjoy one or two more.