Kinda like a fish out of water!

We are well into the summer and loving it. Well, I'm loving everything but the HEAT! It is hot. It's hotter than hot; it's boiling. The only thing worse than a really hot day is a hot, humid day. Every women knows that a hot, humid day is generally not going to be a "pretty" day. Sure it may look pretty outside (once the steam clears), but then look in the mirror. Your once styled hair is now flat, frizzy and stuck to your forehead and neck. Your makeup has slid down your face, and sweat beads are sitting on the bridge of your nose. You feel like taking your sweat drenched bra off, but then your shirt would stick to your chest like wet toilet paper, and you feel lines of sweat forming on your back as if someone poured warm salt water down your shirt.

And it's not just me. Somehow, the heat and humidity seems to effect everyone around me. My children tend to move slower (any other day they run and jump in the car, buckle up and off we go). On hot, humid days it takes those same children twenty minutes just to find the car parked in our driveway where it is always parked. It takes them another ten minutes to get into their car seats and buckle. Sweat is then pouring off my body as it takes the air conditioner more time than usual to cool our car. On hot, humid days it takes the cashier at the snow cone stand twice as long to make the snow cones and count our change. By the time they hand us our icy treats we're ready to dump them over our heads rather than eat them. Then when we go to get back in the car it takes me forever to find my keys in the bottom of my purse, which also means the interior of our car has reached 210 degrees once again. By the time we have cooled and our sweat glands have dripped completely dry we have reached our next destination; the gas station.

This brings me to one of life's great mysteries. Everyone knows that gas prices generally peek in the summer months, and in no time the ticker on the gas pump reads $50.00. But even when gas prices are at their highest if it's a hot, humid day the ticker on the gas pump moves at sloth-speed. For some reason it takes twice as long to fill the tank. Luckily the children are sitting comfortably in the cool car, watching a Disney classic, sipping on ice cold Capri Suns. I find myself glaring at the back of their tiny heads in envy, but then every thing goes blurry as SWEAT drips into my eyes and gas spews out onto my new, cute sandals. I'm hot and miserable, but like any woman I raise my armpits to the air vents for a few seconds and press on until it's finally time to go back home where I can relax (which means I throw myself down on the kitchen floor pressing my red, hot cheeks against the cold tiles). At first it kinda freaked the boys out, but now they join me. We lay there like fish out of water; I mean once they've stopped flopping around. You know, when a fish finally looses the energy, their very will to flop, then they just lay still as if in shock. It's like that, only instead of dying I actually feel revived once my body temperature lowers from the triple digits. I have never appreciated a hard, cold surface so much.

I am really enjoying the summer, but the kids seem to enjoy it the most. For our sons summertime means a break from school and early bed times; camp fires for weenie roasts and Smores; catching bugs and frogs; climbing trees; having more sleepovers and movie nights; and of course swimming. The boys like to be outside and you can tell it. They are already ten shades darker than they were a month ago. They spend most of their time swimming or playing in the sprinklers. I think the skin on their fingers and toes will stay shriveled until September! Chris has built them a sandbox, but I'm pretty sure it will turn into a litter box for the neighborhood cats (and the armadillo living under our house). We've planned a camping trip with some friends in July, and we hope to take another family vacation in August before the boys return to school. I've decided that our vacation must be somewhere within a very short driving distance or we will have to fly (can your children fly in the cargo area of the plane if you put them in a kennel?). Perhaps we'll visit Sea World again and enjoy a weekend at the beach. I'm not sure what all we will be able to fit into the summer, but we must decide quickly because the days are coming and going very quickly (well, except the hot, humid ones). :)

What's new for us? Well, besides building a sandbox Chris has taken on a much larger project. We have decided to renovate the living room and kitchen. We are doing it ourselves. That's right, we're taking on the challenge. We can do it because, like any healthy relationship, we are working together as a team. As the Scriptures say we are all members of one body. I am the brains (I come up with the ideas) and Chris is the arms, legs, back, shoulders,... well, let's just say he's everything from the neck down. I plan and Chris executes. I must say that it's worked out quite nicely! I think Chris would blog about how wonderful this experience has been for him as well if his arms were not so tired and weak.

Honestly, I have the best husband! He does it all. He's a great cook, a great carpenter, and great at keeping our yard looking nice. That's not an easy job, especially during the summer. The only thing growing faster than our kids is the grass in our yard! Chris mows and two days later you would never know it. Weeds pop up in the flower beds faster than pimples on a teenager with hormones in hyperdrive, and our plants dry out and wilt unless their watered every day. But somehow we manage; and by that I mean we manage to ignore the wilting plants, ugly weeds, and tall grass! We've had so much going on at home and at work that we take whatever time we may find to just relax. If that means we might loose a few tomatoes that fall 5 feet to their death (because they are hanging upside down from our not-so-beautiful, green, plastic hanging bag my husband affectionately refers to as a "Topsy Turvy"); or if it means one of our flower beds turns into a weed bed, or if it means guests must use a machete to find their way to our front door than so be it. Whatever it takes to relax and leave the world behind for just a few moments!!!

Isn't that what summer time is about; it's not just for the kids is it? I believe that we adults deserve a break from the daily grind. And I like to think that those hot, humid days are the Lord's way of saying to us -- take a break from the heat, go inside, fix yourself a glass of ice water, turn the fan on high, put your feet up, lay your head back, and RELAX. The only thing is that you won't appreciate those moments if you don't work hard enough to build up a good sweat. I joke, but it is analogous to the Psalm that speaks of God as our shelter and in Him we can take refuge. What a wonderful reminder in times when things heat up and the air around you is so thick that you have trouble breathing (kind of like a fish out of water). If during those times you continue on, trusting that the Lord will eventually bring you peace and relief (even though in the moment you feel as if you're choking and about to sweat blood), then you will not just appreciate the refuge, you will treasure it! "Wherever your treasure is your heart will be also." Matthew 6:21.