Favorite Things: Summer Mornings

   One of my favorite things during the summer is sitting out on my deck. I love looking at my peaceful tree-lined backyard where there is usually one of my children swinging calmly on her swing, birds flitting back and forth and singing happily, and leaves blowing gently in the morning breeze. Today my kids and I ate our blueberry pancake breakfast out on the deck. We took our week's adventure first thing yesterday and headed out to what I like to call "Kingdom Come" to pick blueberries. This particular blueberry patch is tucked away in the rolling hills of the countryside. I usually drive out alone but I thought my kids were old enough to venture there with me this year and hopefully partake of the beauty of the vineyard-like blueberry patch and the plump berries. I hoped there would not be complaining or fighting over who was picking the fastest or whining of how hot it was or how long the almost two hour drive was. Yes, big hopes. But we made it and we all enjoyed the sunshine and the berries and a new adventure together doing what my Grandfather taught us oh so well to do: pick berries. Summer goes by way too fast. It's the first of August today and I got that dreaded feeling in my stomach that the summer is almost over and we need to take advantage of every day before school starts up again. But today we at our blueberry pancakes out on the deck. I drank my coffee slowly. I thanked God for my kids and for the time together.