family – Page 24 – Lemon Drop Pie

It’s the first full week of summer! Lily and Emmy have been out of school for almost three weeks now, and we’re slowly adjust to summer’s routine. I should write “lack of routine,” which is both freeing and horrible at the same time. We can sleep late, there’s no homework, and we can watch TV in the middle of the day. And we can also lie on the floor moaning about how bored we are and how no one will play with me, watch TV until we’re zombies and then not want to go to sleep at night because we’re not tired, and whine at the grocery store even though the cupboard are completely bare at home.

Yes, summer’s wonderful!

Our summer routine includes:

1. Swim Team for Lily. She has two hour practices every day, which wore her out at first. She’s becoming a stronger swimmer and has been working on diving off the block and flip turns. She was really looking forward to her first swim meet last week. Unfortunately, dark clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped into the 50’s, so it was cancelled. We were looking forward to her second swim meet on Wednesday…and then dark clouds rolled in and the Thor guard went off, and it was postponed. Ah, summer in the Midwest! Finally yesterday, Lily was able to swim in her first swim meet!

Lily swimming with her team during warm-ups.

She was so nervous, but she did fine! It was a home meet, and the coaches asked for parent volunteers to time the swimmers. I’ve never done it before…but I volunteered anyway. I figured if Lily was brave enough to do something new that made her nervous, I’d go ahead and do the same thing! It turned out to be an easy job, and I was able to meet one of the other swim team moms.

2. Vacation Bible School was this week! This was the first year I was not the VBS director, and I have to admit it was a welcome change. I can’t stay away from VBS, though, and I was the Bible Story Teller. When I started helping with VBS, I was pregnant with Emmy. Now both my girls are in the oldest groups for VBS! How did that happen?

Emmy VBS — Emmy came down with “leprosy” during VBS.

3. Daily Visits to a Playground: This was one of my goals for the summer, and while weather and schedules have interfered somewhat, we’ve gone to the park a lot! We’ve also been trying to eat plenty of ice cream to make sure we have energy to go to the park.

How are you kicking off your summer? Link up your summer posts here or tell us in the comments!

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Back in May, the Tuesday Ten crew wrote Ten Things we love about our moms. It’s time to write about our fathers now that it’s June! Here are ten things I love about my Dad, although I’m sure I could write many more!

10. Whenever we go to Grandpa’s house for a visit, he makes big pancakes for Lily and Emmy. I, however, love eating them just as much if not more than the girls!

9. His love of books. Growing up, we were constantly surrounded by books, magazines and the newspaper. When I was in training to become a teacher, I learned that this was a “literature-rich environment” which we were supposed to encourage parents to have at home.

8. When Dad picks up a book, he always opens it up to the end and starts reading. Is this something I love, or something that drives me crazy? Hmm.

7. He is a wonderful storyteller. Whether he’s telling about someone he once knew or his latest joke, Dad knows how to tell a good story.

6. When my sister and I were young, Dad took us on bike rides around the country. Once we stopped by a creek and saw some hedge apples as we walked around. I don’t know why I remember this; maybe because hedge apples look so interesting and aren’t really apples at all.

5. Dad finds beauty in nature, even in strange things like hedge apples. He loves the twists and turns of his corkscrew willow tree and the way grapes grow on his trellis.

4. Dad loves thinking of things for his grandchildren to do. We’ve searched for bison in the middle of a prairie restoration area, went to see the dam by his house many times, and he even took the girls to a train museum. On our last trip to visit, we went on a paddle boat for the first time!