Summer At Home.

While there's nothing much more fun than kicking it for the day for an adventure, or leaving town for a week of vacay, there's still something quite lovely about just being HOME. Summer at home can be just as nice as summer away, and days at home can be just as great as days on crazy adventures.

HOME is slower.
Home is simple.
Home is safe and known and sure.

Home is also sometimes much easier. There are no "go bags" to pack, the littles can nap in their own beds, and there are no new boundaries that need to be established. The kids are settled and content. They know what they can and can't do, and they all have their little places that they love to be and things that they love to do.

And with the garden and chickens and wood and mowing, there's always something to be done, as well. But this sort of thing is my kind of work. I think I was made to work with my hands. I was made for the simple life and the simple pleasures that come with that lifestyle.

I love the simple suppers that summer brings. I love the pace of all things growing and spreading, I love the sunkissed skin, the filthy bare feet, and the days that are spent almost entirely outside.

A yard to run in, a swingset to ride on, a garden for snacking, a driveway for biking, and a slip'n'slide for cooling off...all simple things. But, all amazing gifts.

And after living in the city for three years and in an apartment in town for a fourth - two years in the country still feels brand new to me. And for this Mama of three little boys - I will not take that for granted.

We are blessed.
Exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all that we could ever ask for or imagine.

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1706. HOME and all that live within.
1707. Grass to run in and play...we remember the pavement.
1708. Cucumber ends and peapods ALL over the yard.
1709. 3 chickens left - safe for now.
1710. Bare feet and dirty fingernails.
1711. Simple summer suppers.
1712. Frogs in the pond next door.
1713. Sleepy, sweaty, satisfaction by day's end!