Summer, summer. Where all the girls b@re olive shoulders...

So, does anyone else share an undeniable, uncontrollable love for summer? I just love it. It's my favorite season, and it always has been. It's like the minute the warmth, no strike that... the scorching heat rolls in, I'm happy. I love all that summer stands for. I love the freedom of the summer. I love that it's carefree. This will sound odd, and I don't mean it the way it might initially come off (no pun intended,) but I love the lack of clothes. One of my favorite feelings in the world is feeling the warmth of the sun on my shoulders. I love the freckles on my shoulders that appear after enough coaxing from the sun. I feel it's warm embrace, and it's warmth infiltrates my soul. I'm just happier in the summer. There's a spring in my step that just isn't there when I'm chilled through and through in the winter months.

I love summer.

So, today, after picking up Pa from the airport (YAY! He's home!) they (the girls & Pa) went for a little swim in the kiddie pool. Okay, I know you moms out there will know just what I mean by this: Don't you remember that newborn baby smell... fresh out of the bath?!? It's like... I can almost close my eyes now & smell it. I wanted to bottle it up forever back then. It's SUCH a precious time and a precious smell. I remember feeling so sad when those days went by. But, now... now it's been replaced by another smell that I just adore. I'm quick to bury my nose in their hair again, only this time it's the smell of water, warmth & sunscreen. Something about that just floods my heart with that happy warmth that only comes with summer. Gosh, I love it.

So, when we got home this evening, I was just feeling particularly nostalgic. The girls' hair glistened with two swims worth of sunscreen right there at the hairline, you know? Kinda nasty looking if you ask me, but so indicative of a good time, a good day. I just wanted to go out and be enveloped with the warmth, feel the sun on my shoulders. It inspires me to want to pick up my camera which I've so neglected for far too long. So, that's what we did.

One of the reasons that I love our church...

So, I've just got to say that I LOVE my church. It's so, SO awesome. Curt & I searched for a good church for years. Seriously... YEARS! We've lived here 7+ years, and we've only just found the church for us about a year ago.

Not only does it fit what we were looking for in a church, but it also fits so much more than we thought we were looking for, you know? Ours is a church that serves it's community. Man, we're an active, out there church. I LOVE that. I love that we go out and serve the community. I love that we are constantly, as a church, showing the community the love of Christ. We don't go out and blindly try to recruit or push our beliefs on anyone else. We just go out and fix their roofs. Or, build wheelchair ramps. Or whatever. We show them the love of Christ. That's just so cool, if you ask me. :)

Anyway, today was one of those days. Rather than a regular church service, we came in our work clothes. We broke into groups, and we went out and worked for the community. We worked from 9 - noon. And, many of us worked longer than that.

Emma & I were assigned to run-down soccer fields. They needed mowing, holes filled, goal posts painted, bleachers painted... They needed the roofs of the small buildings (bathrooms, concessions, maybe?) re-roofed. There was a team of us, and we knocked it out. I was so excited to be able to take Emma with me. Curt had to work, so he couldn't go, unfortunately. And, Maya stayed back at the church with the other preschool age kiddos.

I told Emma on our way that she could play some, but she needed to work some, too. She surprised me, though, when she told me that she thought she'd just work the whole time. :) She was such a great servant. She had a fantastic attitude the whole time, and she absolutely DID work the whole time, too! It was so great to be able to serve side by side with my 5 year old daughter. I'm thankful for moments like this... teachable moments, you know?