In the moment

Summer days are going by fast and I'm doing all I can to live in the moment. Because it is summer, I let her put on three more coats of face stick and wear her fuzzy slippers to swim lessons. Summer is not about the small stuff.

Summer is about late afternoons at the pool and eating dinner on the deck. It's about baseball with family and a first spin in a kayak. Summer is learning to play tennis and getting underdogs on the swings, and bedtimes that get later and later every night. The sun doesn't want to set and neither do we.

Summer is biking to dinner and drinking our morning coffee while the kids play in the yard. Our summer memories will include playing in the sprinkler, our first garage sale, and evening walks through the neighborhood. We'll remember blueberry and mint Popsicles and lemon bars that left us with sticky fingers.

Charlie went to his first summer camp at our church and had a blast. When I asked him what he liked best about camp he told me "no naps and taking my lunch." It was good practice for me to start packing his lunch for kindergarten.

We have things on our summer to do list - a Royals game, movies in the park, a trip to the zoo. But what I want to do most is enjoy the long hours of daylight and say "yes" when the kids ask to go to the pool. I want to look past the toys scattered on the floor and the dishes in the sink in favor of a game of freeze tag and catching lightning bugs at dusk.

This is our last summer before Charlie starts school, before we're booked solid with games and camps. This is the summer of ages 5 and 3, and kids too big for strollers but just right for laps and shoulders. We'll wear out our swimsuits, go through gallons of sunscreen and track dirt all over the house. We will swim, run, jump and climb without a care in the world. Life is good. Summer is here.