Halfway through summer

I'm halfway through so many things. So many books, so many dreams. Halfway through so many conversations with other moms, interrupted.

Halfway through baby books, though they're not babies anymore!

Halfway through growing kids here in our home, from the first one's birth to the last one's exodus.  Halfway done with this marathon, though every day seems a sprint.

I may even be  halfway through my own life; from first cry to last exhale, only God knows the day.  Halfway through.  If I were a man I'd buy a red corvette.  But I'm a woman, so I diet and shake my fist in gravity's face.  But that's another topic for another post.  Because today the fact we're halfway through summer is what stops to give me pause.

Halfway through summer.

Halfway through summer, halfway through the slow rhythm of reconnecting after the busyness of the school year.  Halfway through brown hair turning blond, and white skin turning brown.  And I laugh because their eyebrows look like a clown's white paint against dark faces, and we're only halfway through summer.

There he is smiling, flying across the back yard blue, with the pool a mile beneath him; flying free and enjoying every day.  He towels off and returns to the cool wood floor in his room for more Lego fun.  Brothers follow and finally grow tired, so they ask for a show.  The credits roll and they're back in the pool again.  And I've run out of lemons, so I'm buying lemonade rather than sugar to make our own, halfway through summer.  And the beat goes on... and on and on... which is why we're already halfway through summer.

And halfway to fall.

Homeschool curriculum and dreams for the coming school year.  I didn't sign my oldest up for football in time, and he's upset and I'm sad for him.  And my youngest is reading his way through Dr. Seuss, and will have mastered each line of Sam I am and Go, Dog, Go by the time 1st grade arrives.  We're halfway through summer and halfway to fall and I'm already thinking about pumpkin muffins and Christmas cards.

Oh slow down life, and slow down me, and slow down you!  We committed already to slow down, and say YES  to Summer, but now it's halfway through and I want to slow it down even more and say Yes to living fully in each of the moments I've already said Yes to.  Because that's where I'm prone to get lost in life, and marriage, and mothering.  I say yes to bless, and then never stop to enjoy the blessing.

Each light refracting moment caught in a water drop that hangs from the ear of my son, as he pulls his sinewy little boy body from the pool.  Each sweet morning bed-head-hello, indulging in the slow school-less rhythm of life together.  Windows open in the cool hours of morning, as they follow their father out to shoot bb's at the haystack, "Good Morning, Life!" each shot rings out.

Halfway through summer!  Halfway through freckles, peanut butter sandwiches and watermelon dripping from dimpled chins.  Halfway through these young, soft-skinned years.  Halfway to three licenses and three first dates.  Halfway to College and a dorm room filled with friends we don't know.  Halfway to an empty nest, and summers filled with silence.  Halfway to that.

So today I recommit to being fully present.  To live "halfway through summer", because that's where God has me today.

This is where God has me.