You all know I love the lake, but why?
Here are some lessons I have learned at the lake this summer... and hope to remember all winter:
- turn off your cell phone, computer, and TV and listen to the ones you love
- take naps
- cook simply
- take lots and lots of pictures
- always have a good book close by
- rent movies and watch them
- savor moments, the simplest things make the sweetest memories
- when all else fails, make popcorn!
Chad and I enjoyed our kids so very much this summer. We almost always camped all by ourselves and we all LOVED it! The kids had so much fun together doing simple goofy things. Things they would never do at home because friends, technology, and even the size of our home causes so many distractions. When you are stuck in a camper with only one DVD player, you all hang together even in the rain! Chad and I totally enjoyed listening to the kids' stories, watching them play, and playing with them. When we are surrounded by friends we tend to "monitor the kids activities" but really interact with our friends more and connect with our children less. We missed our friends, but we also gained much with our kids.
We are all so very sad to see this closeness end that we have actually decided to have a "camp-in" weekend once a month this winter. We hope to spend one weekend a month NOT running errands, doing chores, or hanging with friends. We plan to turn off the computers, watch videos, make lots of popcorn, play lots of games, laugh until our bellies ache and listen to each other. I am not sure how this will work surrounded by all the pressures of life and all the temptations of technology, but we will try!
OK, so here are our final lake pictures for this season.
When is the last time you lay on your back and watched the clouds float by?
I cherish walking slow and holding this sweet boys hand.
Notice how Jamison is still sleeping and all the rest of us are up eating breakfast? Oh, how growing boys can sleep!
BIG AIR!
We arrived home to a lot of rain. Chad, Sierra, Jay and I unloaded everything (and I mean everything since it is our last trip of the season) from the camper. Joshua had the time of his life playing in the rain.
He was soaked all the way through his coat and still not ready to come in!
It is so sad to say good-bye to this summer!
I have been thinking this weekend about the blessing of our camper. The very end of last summer, Chad decided to buy a bigger camper. I am always the sceptic, wanting to save money, thinking what we have is good enough. But Chad was sure we should upgrade. We were very squished in our old one, but I was still not totally convinced. Well, Chad found a great deal on a big beast of a camper so he bought it. This was before adding to our family was on our hearts at all. It was not even a thought! However, God knew. He knew the old camper would not work this summer. He knew all about the changes to come. So, he provided us with a resting place. A place to recharge, to play, and to relax to the core this summer. This big beast of a camper, (that I would never want to pull anywhere and Chad pulls with the boat behind it) has been such a big blessing this summer. Don't you just love how God takes care of us in the most unexpected ways?
I do.
