It was a perfect summer evening. The sun was just starting to set behind the trees framing the baseball diamond. All of the players were in their correct positions. All had their shirts tucked in. Hats straight. Red belts matching red socks. For a moment, if you squinted perhaps, you might think you were watching high school players — soon-to-be-men focused on the task at hand. But then the shortstop bends over and begins to draw a circle in the dirt. About the same time, the first baseman takes off his glove and begins tossing it into the air.

To live fully is to love fully and it is the love and affection we withhold on this earth that we regret which is why, this Father's Day, I pay tribute to those men who lead our families, attend endless youth football practices and soccer games, who fix our leaky faucets and make sure our families are safe.

Summertime, hot weather, and watermelons are everywhere!  I LOVE watermelons…can’t get enough of them and my kids love’em too!   So what do you do with all the watermelon rinds?  Don’t throw them away!  Give them a savvy second life, or even a third life before adding the rinds to your compost bin or even using the rinds to pickle them.  There are numerous recipes online for how to pickle watermelon rinds.

June is a month of change. Kids are getting out of school and summer begins. The babies of spring are now the perfect age to adopt.

Summer break is officially here and along with lots of swimming, bike riding and blueberry picking comes the really difficult part...making sure the kids have healthy food choices and get outside and MOVE!

 

Nine-year-old, Makai Weber Colvin, a KIDS FIRST youth film critic reviewed the new "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer" movie and couldn't have been more glowing in her comments: 

 

At this time last year, I was getting ready to say goodbye. I was trying to think of a gift that might last as a lifetime reminder of a very special year. The farewell celebration I was planning was for Tsubasa, our Japanese exchange student.

I have to be honest, I didn’t plan on having a foreign student in our household. I had thought about it when I got an email from my son’s school saying they needed families to sponsor exchange students. I wasn’t sure if we should do it and didn’t get to talk to my husband about it before it was too late. 

In those final years (ok, days….) of my 30’s, I’m assessing & re-assessing what I “want” for my 40’s.  I’ve been feeling more & more like a “mother of four and a woman” than a “mother and how the heck did I end up with four kids”.   I’m finally a grown-up.

When my kids were little they used to bring home all kinds of "gifts" from school and summer camp. Fingerpaintings. Ceramics. Braided key rings made from plastic string. Indescribable Christmas ornaments. I dutifully put them all away in the kids' "memory boxes" thinking they would enjoy seeing them when they grew up. Apparently, one of them didn't make it into a box. Last week I found this bookmark tucked into a book I had brought on vacation.

During the summer, where do your kids go to play? They may be in daycare during the day but with the longer summer days and sunshiney summer weekends, it’s even more important that they have a place to go where they can get some exercise of their body and their minds through unstructured play time.