Great Intentions

 Every spring I get excited for flowers and green grass.  But every summer, life gets in the way.  We start doing a lot of this....

 and watching this and some soccer....

 and relaxing and playing in this....

and so now I'm realizing perhaps a day home or two would be a nice time to catch up on the watering of all my great ideas and intentions to look like a BHG picture.

Happy summer!

Waterworks

Daradie loves to swim. She is fabulous at swimming!  She is so good at it that she's ahead of her age in swim lessons.  We suggested joining a swim team.  She joined it with one of her favorite friends, Sarah.  The only requirement was to swim 25 yards.  She did it and in 16.7 seconds!  That time landed her in the third fastest lane.  Lanes are divided up by time and the ages in a lane can range from 8-18 years old.  She quickly became intimidated.  The swim coach allowed her to swim one lane down but no more.  Her times are too fast.

They passed out swim caps.  She was thrilled and her confidence returned.  She's a fan of the swim cap even while eating the breakfast of champions.  It makes her feel cool....and worried again because she's having a hard time keeping up with the older kids in her lane.  She doesn't know how to dive off the towers (the platform things for races) and she struggles with the underwater flip.  Daradie misses the "fun" part of swimming.  Literal waterworks begin every practice.  We encourage her to continue.  A swim meet is approaching.  She doesn't know what it even is but feels the intensity increase.  We compare it to a dance recital.  She completely understands now.  We've struck a deal.  Compete in the meet and get the full effect and then decide to quit or not.

She competed.  Daradie finished fourth in the 25 yard freestyle and breaststroke and earned second place in the butterfly.  I was so proud of her.  The meet was an emotional day for Daradie.  She loves the taste of performing but she could barely choke down competition.  She's blessed with lots of talent.  It's always easier to be aware of other's talents but sadly, we struggle to see the gifts we personally own.  Now she can swim and have fun...maybe she'll try it again next summer.

Christmas in July

One of my FAVORITE holiday traditions are my stars. Dan cuts out wooden stars and drills a little hole big enough for an ornament hook at the top. When Christmas rolls around we paint them. We then write down a few things we like, memories, etc. on the stars. We each have our own. We started doing this five years ago. It's fun to reminisce about the past. If I had tear ducts, I would cry over some of the memories. They are small and simple but they mean more to me than the presents. Next time you're around at the holidays, we'll share some mint hot cocoa with chocolate pumpkin bread and talk about all the good things in my life.