I can tell you one thing about my children.

They are not arachnophobes. They are not afraid to check out the creepy crawly things in nature, from worms to insects to snakes to salamanders. And yes, spiders.

Case in point:

I insisted Sam and Rachel let this big beauty out of the glass jar they had her in. I think they caught her because Sam would love to be able to tell people he caught some crazy-dangerous poisonous spider that usually lives in South America or something.

Plus, Sam was a little bit nervous that the spider was climbing up the side of the house near his bedroom window. Like she was gonna' crawl up there and knock on the glass and ask to be let in.

She does look pretty intimidating. That leaf she's sitting on? Is the size of my head. OK, more like the size of my hand but that still makes her a pretty big spider.

I did a quick search on-line and learned that this is a garden variety, non-poisonous, insect-eating, really-cool-zigzag-pattern-web-making spider. I hope she has a male counterpart and they produce lots of little ones.

I also hope they never, ever find their way into my house.

"ENOUGH!"

I find myself hollering this a lot lately.

"Enough!"

I'm doing it so much I don't think my kids even hear me anymore.

So what do I do? I holler louder.

"Enough!!"

And again.

"ENOUGH!!!!"

And then they look at each other and start laughing like "haha, we made mom pull her hair out" or "heeheehee, look at that vein popping out on mom's forehead!"

Or they look at me with those innocent faces like they haven't just been roughhousing across the back of the couch or throwing chess pieces at each other for the 37th time today.

I am so ready for school to start I can hardly stand it. Normally I wouldn't say that. Normally I would be so happy to stretch the summer out as long as possible. I love sleeping in. I love not having to worry about getting the kids and myself into bed at a certain hour. I appreciate the fact that my children are old enough to scavenge around in the kitchen and find something for lunch whenever they're hungry. I love spending long afternoons at the beach.

I don't want to go back to alarm clocks and setting clothes out every night and packing lunches and signing notes and all of that. I would really rather continue enjoying these dog days of summer.

But I've had enough of the bickering and the picking and pushing and whining and crying and tattling. Mercy! Enough! I grew up with two older brothers; I understand how siblings can get on each other's nerves. But for crying out loud! Enough is enough.

A little more than three weeks until school starts ... and I think I'll have myself a little party on the first day.

Whew.

Highlights.

Dang. Has it been only a week since I updated here? It feels like it's been an eternity.

Look what I found! A few pictures from Vacation Bible School that I forgot I had taken.

 Rachel by the "campfire" on our island. The fire isn't real, but it looks pretty cool in the picture, eh?

Pastor Bill giving the Bible story of the day. We totally take over the sanctuary with our decorations, as you can see.

We wore these bracelets all week, reminding us to "Watch for God." Every day the kids reported their "God sightings" to the leaders.

~ ~ ~

Remember when I said August would be a breeze? Well. It's been fun so far, but no less busy than July was.

Highlights.

• Steve was injured at work. He's fine (really), but it required a drug test per company policy. It also required a tetanus shot and a round of antibiotics. He drug tested on Friday, then decided to come home to wait out the results which typically take two business days. It was nice to have him here, despite the circumstances.

• When Steve came home he traded trucks with me because his work truck needs some hefty repairs. I am so. sick. of repairing vehicles. Really. 

• Speaking of repairs, my computer caught a nasty virus a couple days ago. Can anybody tell me what the point of a computer virus is? Why devise a computer virus that completely locks up my computer except to pop up a porn site when my 11-yr-old tries to play a game on-line. Seriously? I hope you're proud of yourself, computerviruswriter. I hope you've gotten your kicks out of that one. Three words: karma's a bitch.

• My grandmother turned 82 years old on Sunday. I went to see her after church. She no longer drives, but still lives in her house by herself. She watches a lot of Food Network. She told me at her age she's not afraid of dying because she's done everything she's going to do with her life. "Once your partner is gone there's not even anyone to get mad at except the TV," she said. We laughed. My grandfather died eight years ago.

• I turned 34 on Tuesday. Thirty-four still feels relatively young to me. I read once that we are eternally the age of 25 in our minds. Somehow I don't think my grandma feels 25 anymore. I don't think she has felt 25 for a long, long time. I hope I'll still be changing the world and impacting God's kingdom when I'm 82. 

The rest has been a whirlwind of spending time with friends and family, eating together, drinking together, sharing the bounty of our harvests, splashing in the pool, reading for the pure joy of it, taking long afternoon naps, and counting the weeks until school starts in the fall.

What? Hey, I'm having fun but these kids have been spending an awful lot of time together and at times one would think they were put on this earth to make each other (or me) crazy. I have resorted to forcing them both into the bathroom together, closing the door, and telling them they cannot come out until they've worked out whatever it is they were screaming about.

I've only had to do that once. So far.

Five weeks to go. Tick tock.

Yummy summer eats.

See that? It's fresh zucchini from a friend's garden. I sliced it in long, thin strips ...

... added some of this ...

... and a bunch of this (extra virgin olive oil) and let the zucchini cook down to a nice, tender/crisp.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

This was one of our side dishes for dinner tonight.

I could eat zucchini cooked like that for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

But I don't think my kids would appreciate that.

Alas, I must provide some protein.

Grilled burgers. Yum.

With a touch of salt and pepper and a couple tablespoons of A-1 Steak Sauce (just for kicks) added before I pounded out the patties.

I put them on whole grain buns to make myself feel better about eating red meat. Family history of heart disease an' all that. I took the smallest burger, too, so don't give me that look.

Here's the best part, all added to the burger:

A nice hunk o' sweet onion (of course).

A couple slices of fresh tomato from one of my tomato plants. Woohoo!

And fresh lettuce from my friendwiththeamazinggarden.

I. Love. Summer.

We made it.

Tonight the kids will be staying up as late as they want to.

And tomorrow morning we will be sleeping in.

The craziness that has been our lives lately - lots of commitments, lots of driving here and there, late nights, early mornings - has finally ended, and it couldn't have ended on a better note. Today we attended our annual church picnic at the home of some friends and fellow church members who live on Hamlin Lake (a beautiful, popular inland lake, for my non-local readers). We had a pig roast, lots of great covered dishes and desserts, a wonderful outdoor service, and even a round of Kum-By-Ah. A group of us from Vacation Bible School sang a couple of songs from our "High Seas Expedition" week (during which I was too busy or too exhausted to take pictures - phooey), and the kids even got in a few minutes of fishing in the bayou before we left.

Other than Steve having to leave to go back to work in West Virginia after a wonderful visit - all 35 hours of it - it was a near perfect day.

This evening I sat down to take a break from cleaning house and started flipping through channels on the TV. I landed on Dateline. It was a special about how the recession has touched the lives of folks who were already poor, particularly in an area of southern Ohio.

I must have been overtired, because before long I was in tears.

I cried because I can't believe there are people going hungry in the United States of America. I cried because I understand the fear that comes with desperately seeking a job when there are none available, and wondering how long the food in the pantry and freezer will last. And then I cried happy tears because my family's life is so full and so blessed, and it was that way even in the midst of some pretty stormy times.

So while I am sad every time Steve has to leave again to go back to his job, and while I get a little sideways when I'm tired of parenting two children by myself (essentially), I praise God because we are blessed. We are fed and clothed and we have our home and each other. Our circumstances do not make life easy and perhaps are not ideal for a family, but we make it work. And while I feel overwhelmed at times when we have so much to do and so many places to go and people to see, I need to remember that it's much better than the alternative: having no one, or not being able to go and do and see.

This week will be a week of rest. The kids and I will be catching up on a few things around the house, but mostly we will be relaxing and enjoying each other (Ha! I can hope, right?) and I will be taking some time to reflect on the abundance of our lives.

Here's to enjoying the rest of the summer ... at a slower pace.

Cheers!

Stop the ride! I need to catch my breath.

I have been so busy lately, half the time I don't know whether I'm coming or going. This week is no exception. The good news is this week is the last of the crazy over-scheduled kind, so the month of August should be smooth sailing.

Psh! Yeah, right.

Anyway ...

Summer camp was a great experience for Sam. He's been talking about it since he got home Saturday. I am so excited for him that he had this experience, and I don't think it will take much convincing to get him to go again next year. Interesting note: he lost four pounds during the one week he was there. Those kids were on the move all day long, every day. Good stuff.

I managed to get away by myself for a couple of days to visit Steve in West Virginia. It was fabulous. Thank God for family members willing to watch our pets and our home and take care of our children while I'm gone. It was so good to come back to the comforts of home, but dang that's a long drive and man, I really miss my sweetheart.

While I was in WV I got to meet and have dinner with my friend Heather who I have been chatting with on-line for a few years. This was the first time we got together in person. It was a lovely dinner and we shared lots of laughs and Heather charmed the waiter to pieces.

And then she charmed her husband into taking our picture.

Oh, Steve and Heather's husband Mike were there, too.

Oh, and Mike is Steve's boss.

Details, details.

There has been much socializing on the homefront, too. The group of girlfriends I get together with on a monthly basis during less busy times of year finally managed to pull off a dinner together a couple of weeks ago. I had breakfast with my dear friend Sarah when she was visiting from Boston last week. Sunday the kids and I joined a group of friends/neighbors for their annual canoe trip down the Pere Marquette River. And somewhere in between all that, we've visited a local swimming hole with friends a couple of times, too.

So with all of this going on, why do I feel so out of touch?

I feel like I have been living in a bubble. Everything I do is about me and mine and I'd be hard pressed to tell you what's going on in my community on any given weekend. It's been weeks since we have attended church on a Sunday morning. Here I built this new deck on the house and I have hardly had a chance to sit out there and enjoy it. Shoot, I guess I don't feel too bad about that since it's been too hot to sit out there anyway and the deck will still be there in the fall when the weather cools off.

To top things off, today began Vacation Bible School at our church. This is my eighth year being a leader for VBS and every year brings new challenges and new excitement. Every year I am emotionally and physically exhausted by the end of VBS Week. Somehow I think the exhaustion is beginning to hit me already, though, after only one day.

More about VBS - and hopefully a few pictures - later this week.

It was an eleventh hour decision.

Even after much coaxing and encouraging and a tour of the woodsy, lakeside spread with its cabins and arts & crafts building and basketball courts and archery area, our 11-yr-old son was left unimpressed and something less than wishy-washy about going to summer camp.

Until a few days ago. Then he was all gung-ho about it and wondering when he would leave.

I said no. I told him there is some amount of preparation that needs to be done when a family sends a child off to summer camp, and those preparations could not be done in a matter of three days. He had plenty of time to make a decision when we discussed it three weeks ago. He had said he wasn't really interested, so the subject was dropped. This would become a teachable moment about planning and deadlines and decision making.

At least I thought so.

But what do I know?

The kid mentioned his plight to his uncle who happens to have a friend who happens to manage a nearby co-ed youth camp with his wife. The missus says, as luck would have it, there is plenty of room for another kiddo. The more the merrier.

So Sam, who has been drowning in a sea of estrogen lately, has been rescued. He has been needing some boy time, and that's a major reason why I changed my mind. Also, I went to camp myself as a child and I had so much fun and made such great memories, I couldn't deny my son of that opportunity.

I dropped Sam off at camp this afternoon. He will be there until Saturday morning.

Once we got his gear to his cabin it took him about 30 seconds to give me that look that says "OK I'm fine. Please leave." He wouldn't even let me take a picture of him. I suppose I could have taken one when Sam was invited to join in on a heated game of Stump Ball, but I decided that would be a good time for me to make my exit. I was so glad he recognized two friends from school and was quickly accepted into the group.

As I walked back to the truck alone, I turned to look back at the gathering of kids. This is my only son's first experience at summer camp and I wanted this moment to be imprinted on my mind. Sam was already into the game and he had a big ol' grin on his face. I could see this, even though Sam wasn't watching me leave and wouldn't have noticed if I had stopped to wave (I didn't) or was crying my eyes out (I wasn't) or ran to get out of there as fast as I could (not a chance).

As far as he was concerned I was already gone. I'm OK with that. I really am. A moment like that sure makes a mama have a very reflective day, though.

My little boy is growing up. Does it hurt? Nah. But it doesn't mean I don't already miss him.