Bits: Finishing, Beginning

Summer, despite today's 90 degree temps, is dwindling.  The Bucket List coming down.

We successfully put happy, thick lines through many of our little goals.  We made s'mores, painted our nails fun colors, baked a fresh cherry pie.  We read outside on blankets, watercolored nature scenes, and strolled our baby dolls to a nearby park.  We did lots of things like this and there are several we never seemed to quite manage.

I suppose that's just the way it goes with dreams, parts of them go so splendidly and fully realized.  There isn't always room for it all, but there is room to celebrate what was.

And the weekend before school was grand.

 
 
Hiking through a nearby island. Ice-cream truck pit stop. Buffet style dinner and a family movie.  Swimming with friends and more.

Summer is finishing, fall beginning.  This means a slight change in direction for our family, but a purposeful one.  In what we hope to be a continuing annual tradition, we held our "Back to School Feast" to mark the hopeful direction we plan to travel.

This year's theme a close one to my heart.

SHINE.
***

:: More sparkly dinner touches.

Favorite traditions continue: New school supplies, one back to school outfit (all sparkly or star-like this year!) to be modeled directly after dinner, and new kicks for all those fall/winter adventures.  This year's meal: butternut squash lasagna, Caesar salad, their oft-requested homemade bread, lemonade with strawberry puree.

:: Followed by bright and shiny first-thing-in-the-morning details.

Backyard donut breakfast with another family. Play time on scooters and bikes. Back inside for the fun and sometimes difficult task of figuring out the day's new tempo. Getting it, messing up, going again... always learning.

Beyond the traditions and the glittery sheen, the endings and beginnings-- there is reality. A beautiful, hard-won reality that I have an awesome privilege and responsibility with these three and the others God puts in my path. Not only are there ABC's and 123's to be tucked inside little heads, not only are there fantastic creative opportunities to be seized-- there is the matter of serving, loving, giving, sharing, becoming all that God means for us to be. Our family needs to be in the business of shining, truly radiating, from the inside out.

Looking forward to our new year and figuring out just what that means together, at home and in our community and beyond.

Matthew 5:14-16,
~Katrina