17.8.22

Summer 2022

It was (and still is!) a HOT summer.  It was a busy summer.  It was a fast summer.  But it was such a good, good summer.  There were six weeks in a row where the five of us were not at home together because someone was at camp or out of town for some reason or at a friend's house.  I said I wasn't going to do that to us this year, but I did.  And I'm glad I did!  I think this was definitely one of the best summers we've ever had!  We packed so much into a short time, and we had a lot of new and exciting adventures.  Here's a peek.

The summer began with one of my favorite weeks of the year.  VBS!  I absolutely loved our theme this year and had the best time decorating.

I taught 2nd grade again this year and loved it!  It's definitely my favorite grade to teach.  One of the sweetest parts of this year was that Hannah Kate was one of my youth helpers.  I loved watching her interact with and serve the kids.  I had the best teaching team, and it was such a fun week.  Mason was a youth helper in one of the 4th grade classes, and, of course, Ellie was in a class, too.

  

The very next week my big kids left for Youth Camp in Tennessee.  A 3:30AM call time means I have zero pictures of the send-off.  It was early.  And it was dark.  They had such a good time, as usual.  I am so very grateful for this community of friends the Lord has surrounded them with.

They weren't home yet when I left for a long weekend in Dallas with 2,000 fellow BSF Teaching Leaders from all around the globe.  It was such a life-giving weekend and so much was poured into me.  After three years of serving as a TL, I finally got to be with other TLs in person.  We even took a little field trip to the Dallas Cowboys stadium and got to stand on the star (tho most of us could care less!).

When I got home, I had less than 24 hours to wash a week's worth of the teenagers' camp clothes and get the littlest one packed up for kids' camp the following day.  But, to my surprise, my sweet, sweet husband, who was also leaving as a chaperone for kids' camp (another very last minute situation) had already washed, dried AND folded ALL of the laundry.

So, that afternoon, instead of doing laundry, I had to throw a couple of tie dye shirts together for camp.  Besides the fact that one of them is clearly the wrong colors, I'd say they turned out pretty good!  I was actually pretty impressed.  This also isn't typically a project I'd enjoy.  But I did.  And Ellie did a fantastic job with her shirt!

Then it was off to kids' camp.  I mean, she clearly had no fun at all.  None.

Then it was July 4th weekend.  I was in charge of fireworks this year.  Let's just say it was quite a daunting task.  And then we had to haul all of it 500 miles across the south east.  We left Sunday after church, drove halfway, drove the rest of the way Monday morning, went to the Connell family reunion and fireworks' spectacular that evening and then drove all the way back on Tuesday.  It was exhausting, but it was worth every second of the almost 20 hours we spent in Georgia.

I also had a garden.  My tomatoes did the best ever.  Everything else, not so much.  But I did get most all colors of the rainbow.

And that's not all!  After we got back from Georgia, we celebrated two birthdays, an anniversary, a wedding and a 2,600 mile road trip.  We also had a couple of college campus visits in between.  So there's lots more to come!