Summer: Going, Going, Gone

Just found this today..I wrote it in August!! Yeah, I'm behind. But it made me smile to read it..so I'm posting it.

It's over. Officially. I start back to work on Monday and school for the kids start Thursday. It's been a good summer and we've done a lot. We've had some accomplishments too. Here's a little run-down at what we've learned this summer.



1. Hannah learned to swim. And to trust God. At the same time. It was fun to watch her progress. She can now swim about half the length of the YMCA pool and back. She can also jump in unassisted and swim to her instructor and can float on her back. And she totally gives God the credit for all that. She was nervous in her first session about taking off the "floatie" they have the beginners wear the first few days. Nervous doesn't actually describe it - terrified! I'm talking she was clinging and crawling up her teacher's back and wouldn't let go. Her teacher finally shoved her off (in as nice a way as she could..but her options were a bit limited) and Hannah made it to the wall. Lots of cheers and claps and then it was time to try it again. Did Hannah have confidence? nope. More clinging and fear. Repeat again the next day. It was definately a fear thing and not an issue of inability. Hannah could swim anywhere well with the floatie. Finally, one day on the way to swimming lessons I suggested we pray about it. Hannah agreed so we prayed that God would give her courage and help her swim without her floatie. What do you know..she took it right off and swam to the wall with no coaxing. Several times. From then on, it was never an issue. She went from "I can't do it at all" to swimming half the length of the pool very confidently. In her second session of swim lessons, Hannah's new task was to jump in the water and swim out to her instructor. The first few days, she reached for his hand. She would try to pump herself up 'I'm going to do it myself' and at the last minute, she would get scared and refuse to jump without his hand. So, we prayed again that she would have courage to jump in and swim. That day, she hesistated slightly, but she did it. She jumped in on her own and swam to her instructor. And then she started YELLING at the TOP OF HER LUNGS "It's a miracle! It's a miracle!". She turned to the kid next to her and said "God just made me have courage in my heart to jump and then he made me just POP back up out of the water so I could swim! It's a miracle!".



2. Hannah learned to ride her bike without training wheels. All it took was to come upon some friends who were a year older riding their bikes in the same parking lot we went to practice in. Competition set it and Hannah decided she would master it too. And she did..in less than half an hour. Although remembering to brake took an extra day. :-)



3. Hannah overcame her slight disgust of creepy crawly things enough to actually enjoy playing with worms at the lake. I'm sure the fact that her friend Joy loved playing with worms had something to do with this.



4. Hannah memorized the fruits of the spirit..in song form.



5. Hannah learned that all babies don't actually come from China. :-)



6. While Sadie didn't learn to swim, she did learn to enjoy the pool. You know, as long as she had her life vest on and mommy was just an arm's reach away.



7. Sadie learned the difference bewteen a fork and a spoon. Sounds simple, I know. But life is so much easier now that I can count on my helpful 3 year old to put the right utensils on the table. It's the little things. :-)



8. Sadie learned most of her colors. Still working on a couple, but she's getting there.



9. Sadie learned to sing her ABC's, although she doesn't give us any credit for that. When asked "where did you learn that?", she delights in answering "in china!". Actually, that's become her answer to everything lately. "I learn that in CHINA!"



10. Sadie has learned to use her new thumb! Quite well, in fact. In fact, she's doing it well enough that her OT said to me last week "I'm comfortable with you not coming for a while and just continuing to play and encourage her on your own.".



11. I learned that as much as I think my children have beautiful voices and love to listen to them sing, a 20 minute car ride is my limit for listening to them sing their "special songs" (i.e. totally made up on the spot songs, even though Sadie insists she learned all hers in China!). sorry, but true.



12. I learned that when a preschool remote control toy car thingy has a warning label that says "adult supervision required. If child's hair comes in contact with moving wheels, entanglement can occur", I should pay attention. It actually can happen. Thankfully, no one was hurt and it just took a quick little "snip" to free the child from the toy.



13. I learned that no matter how long summer vacation is, there's never enough time to complete half the "projects" I said I'd do at the beginning of the summer.



14. I learned that some things are more important than those projects anyway. You know, things like teaching a child to ride a bike, watching the girls swim, making forts out of all the blankets, watching the impromptu puppet shows in living room, etc.



15. I learned that in between all the fun play times with the kids and the "projects" that are being procrastinated, there's still time for naps!



I love summer!