You might know that I would be the very last person to wish summer on her way. I adore everything about this time of year at home and in Maine. So it isn't so much that I'm eager for fall to appear, but rather grateful for the brief pause in the pace of summer we've been experiencing in recent days. A pause to catch our breath, you might say. That seems to be precisely what the calendar and mother nature is giving us - a little reprieve from the full-on summer pace of running about. We've passed on a few fun things of late, just because we felt the call to home. And in the afternoons, we've had (much welcome) rain. Just light rain and only enough really to send us inside long enough to get fully absorbed in a puzzle or a game so that we forget what we had going on out there to begin with. The library, a space that is quiet for much of the summer and sometimes feels more like a book/paper/paint depository than anything else....got a good and thorough cleaning last weekend (in addition to some painting and deep cleaning - the seasonal nesting is kicking in). It feels so much better, and we're enjoying that wonderful sense of feeling like everything is 'new' and therefore exciting simply because it's in a new place and we see it in a new light.
I'm seeing it at my kitchen table as well. The summer pace that means a lot of snacking for meals (because it's too hot, because we're too busy with other fun things). That big long table that fits all eight of us just right has been a little bit empty as this child or those three have been elsewhere at mealtimes. Summer camps are coming to an end, or at least a slowing down, and I'm so ready - next week - to sit down at that table and fill it once again.
Ah, this little pause in summer is such a good touch-ground to home. A pause, a break, a check-in with ourselves and each other before more adventure begins. I suppose that itself is the balance of family life, isn't it?
Wishing you and yours a lovely day today, friends!
