New Beginnings

I've come to the conclusion that the word Summer must mean play time in some other language. That is what summer was to us this year. No big trips, no fancy guests, no real big outings either. But it was play time none the less. It was full of sun, exploring, laughter, creativity and childhood. It was a good summer. But as fun as it was, we all know it has to end. If it didn't I think one of my adorable children would likely strangle another adorable sibling... and drive me crazy in the process. We decided to end summer nie style, with a private dinner party. A fancy party. Well as fancy as this house will ever get, at least. We pulled out the nice dishes for this party. We lit candles. We drank fancy soda. We put our pinkies in the air.

We laughed. We laughed a lot. My children are rarely serious. I am not quite sure where they got that from.
We laughed at Caleb's innovative ways of using the fancy table settings.

We ate and we talked. Talked about the summer; what they loved, what they didn't. We talked about the new school year. All the excitement and all the nerves. We gave them a chance to voice their concerns. It was cool to see these kids as little people trying to figure out their place in this big world.

We talked about our family goal:



We named things we want to work harder at this school year. Even those of us who are not heading off to school... like Caleb. He vowed to work harder to challenge our patience in order to make us better parents. He's sweet like that.
As we talked, I looked around the table at each one of the four people sitting there and saw my universe. I couldn't help but think that these are the coolest, smartest, bravest, strongest people in the world to me. They make me proud every single day. I Love them more than my intellect can comprehend. I promised to myself that, this school year, I will work harder to be the mom/wife they deserve.

What are you going to work on this school year?