Today is the official start of summer vacation from school for our family. Well, for my son Samuel anyway. I now have all four boys at home all day long. These are the moments when I am thankful for my husband’s job. He is a middle school principal and, therefore, gets to be home more in the summer. He works about half the days of summer vacation, but then is home the other half! I am thankful for that when this time of year rolls around and I have to try to occupy four little boys. (Okay, Samuel says, two little, one medium and one big boy) So far we have occupied ourselves by going to the grocery store, a feat enjoyed by all involved I am sure. Even the nice lady (I use the word “nice” loosely) in the store said, “boy the kids are rambunctious today” about ten times! Apparently she does not have any children, or at least she doesn’t have four boys. I thought they were doing pretty well, considering they are four boys forced against their will to grocery shop.

Summer is about in betweens. You just finished something and are about to start something new. It can be restful, but it can also be anxious and boring at the same time. I feel that way too. We are patiently waiting to add a little girl to our family. We have left having four kids behind and are headed to five kids but aren’t there yet. It’s the in between time. I don’t like waiting and in between times. One minute, I am doing okay with it all and then the next it’s driving me nuts. I can see that same thing with my son Samuel. He is already saying he is bored. 🙂 He is so used to the pace of school that being at home with “nothing” to do is boring. I wish summer and waiting times were restful, I try to rest, it’s just hard to not be thinking about the next thing. We so often live our lives for the future and not the present. Mark Twain said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened”. I feel that way too. If only I could live in the present and not worry about what might be in the future.

I want to enjoy the summer and this time of waiting. God has me here for a reason, to prepare me for what is next. I need to take the time to rest and wait patiently and learn a thing or two while I wait.