Every Day Intentional

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Today is the first day of summer. Why do I feel as if it's half over? My calendar is filling fast. There are lots of calendar items over which I have no control. Let's begin with 6 orthodontic appointments and the domino of followups. Nah, let's not. Let's put that off just one more day.

I've spent a significant amount of time lately pondering the living of an inentional life. Someone I love faces every new season and wonders if this one will be her last. And so, we talk about the important things one does with the time she has when she doesn't really know how much of that time there is. We talk often about being intentional. Every day.

But do I know? Can I know if this summer is my last summer? Can I know if tomorrow my whole world will change? Of course not. Only God knows if a child's seventh summer is to be his last summer, if a mother's hot August will predictably melt into a mellow September, if tomorrow will be a sun-dappled day of delight or a gray goodbye. Only God knows.

In hindsight, I can see that last summer was my very last summer with a baby. Sarah Annie is most definitely a little girl. I intend to not dwell on empty arms (my arms are not so often genuinely empty anyway) and to think instead of free hands. Hands to go and do and make those things that truly I could not with a babe in arms. My first summer with free hands.

I promise this did not set out to be a heavy post. It's just an echo of Sarah's thought. Let's not let summer slip through our hands before we've had a chance to consider how glorious they are, each tiny grain of sand that is time. 

Enough pondering. I aspire towards a summer that honors the gift that time really is.

  • 1. Take Nicky and Stephen out on a rowboat. Burke Lake. Just the three of us.
  • 2. Learn to sew with Katie.
  • 3. Knit. A lot.
  • 4. Oversee some house renovation and remodeling.
  • 5. Read the new version of Educating the Whole-Hearted Child in its entirety. Face the new school year refreshed and re-inspired.
  • 6. Visit a yarn shop with a friend I don't see nearly enough.
  • 7. Hang out at Bull Run with Linda.
  • 8. Walk on the beach with my sister.
  • 9. Stand waist high in the pool and let Sarah jump to me. Over and over and over again.
  • 10. Host a neighborhood crafternoon.
  • 11. Figure out a way to see more of Ginny.
  • 12. Take Patrick to get his driver's license. 
  • 13. Get Christian registered for college.
  • 14. Listen to everyone ten and under read aloud to me, every day.
  • 15. Revive our morning walk routine.
  • 16. Drink enough water every day. Make sure everyone else does, too.
  • 17. Start the day with time alone, knitting and praying.
  • 18. Conquer the basement once and for all.
  • 19. Make date night happen. Often. Very often.
  • 20. Carefully plan lessons for the fall. Share them?
  • 21. Watch Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility on afternoons too hot for anything else. And knit (of course).
  • 22. Watch The King's Speech with Christian
  • 23. Tie Dye tee shirts.
  • 24. Write a book.

I'm sure there's more. Katie and Gracie and Karoline have been making a list for days now...