summer reflections

Wow. It seems like just a couple days ago I was thinking about and adjusting to our new summer schedule.

Tomorrow my three oldest head back to the classroom.

They are very excited.

I am too.

It's been a good summer for all of us,

It has been an exhausting but super satisfying summer for me as a mom.

I don't know if you remember the lessons that I learned from my husband?!?

Well. I do really feel like the 3 strategies that I listed in that post were the secret to our summer going well.

It's hard to see growth in yourself and in your family because it all happens so s.l.o.w.l.y.

But just this past week as the children and I were processing 2 bushels of peaches, I realized that life with 5 children has changed significantly for me in the last several years.

Somehow (thank you, Jesus!!!) we've moved from playing in bins of flour and throwing eggs in the hallway and writing on walls with permanent markers to being a productive little cleaning, gardening, cooking, painting, baby-sitting crew (with lots of quirks of course).

It's humbling and altogether beautiful for me to realize that I am being transformed even as my children are growing. It's not about me doing all the training and them doing all the changing.

As I reflect on our summer I can see that we were all growing in grace together.

I stand back and say "Bless the Lord!"