One night last week, after a long evening, I tucked my kids in bed, kissing them one last time, telling them that I loved them, and no, I’m not answering questions about how our blood gets to our fingers or where Satan lives or how our ears work right now. I closed their door quickly and walked down the stairs, looking at the almost-dark of the front yard. I didn’t want to do anything besides work on my final—let’s be real, I didn’t want to do that, but it was non-negotiable. Before I sat down to work, I grabbed two water pitchers, filled them up, and headed outside.
Last fall, right before school started back for me, I planted eight berry bushes. Four blackberries bushes and four blueberry bushes stand in two rows in the back corner of our back yard. All winter, I tracked the rain and watered them when rain was sparse.. One blackberry bush looked dead long after the others were twice as tall as they had been but it has finally grown new growth at the roots. I dote on the bushes; in fact, just last week I ordered three raspberry plants and yesterday I planted them in a row perpendicular to what’s already there.
The berries are an investment. We won’t eat from them this year and we probably won’t next year either. Nevertheless, as the sun was almost gone that night, I carried water through the backyard until each bush had an entire pitcher emptied onto it. Then I knelt down and pulled the weeds that had popped up through the ground cover I had put down. The air was cool. The humidity was low. I didn’t even break a sweat. In the quiet, I prayed. I reset. I remembered how nature and tending to creation revives me.
We have floundered our way into summer. Our normal rhythms are gone and I am constantly reminding myself that even though the weeks feel different, they are still good. We will settle in a little as the weeks go on, but my calendar is hanging up and I know summer has a lot of variation and house guests and demands. Normal may not be the summer season. Either way, I want to enjoy the summer and not wait for it to calm down.
My summer resolves
1. I am baking bread. So far I’ve made challah, pretzels, and pretzel bread. I love to bake bread and baking is easiest to do when you’re home. Pickups from school have deterred me more than they should. Food—making and eating it—is nourishing to my spirit as well as my body and I’m making space for it this summer.
2. We are going to the library. We can never get there during the school year. School takes up enough time and the library is just far enough away that it does not happen.1 Plus, the boys have enough to do during school; they aren’t looking for more reading. But the summer is made for libraries, especially if you can go with friends.
3. I created a summer uniform. If I’m not at work and not out with my husband or some friends, expect to see me in bike shorts and a t-shirt. I will be ready for anything summer throws at me that way. Sweat will not deter me.2
4. I’m reading the second volume of Sonderegger’s systematic theology. And Several Short Sentences about Writing. Actually, let’s be real, I have a stack, but these two are at the top of the list. There will be random library books.
5. Some friends and I are holding the Wednesday Afternoon Club. We’re getting together with the kids, mostly at my house because of the fenced in backyard, having drinks and snacks ourselves, and letting the kids play. It is, obviously, happening on Wednesday afternoons.
I’m working 25ish hours a week, taking an intensive for seminary, and managing all the other details of being an adult with responsibilities. But I’m determined to let summer have its own flavor and enjoy it.
What’s your favorite thing about summer?
It’s a whole 12 minutes away according to Google Maps. Living here is a completely different from our life in rural Kentucky in many ways.
This is something I realized several years ago. Dress for the sweat and getting sweaty won’t annoy me.
Love the afternoon club idea!