MISTY'S MORNINGS

Reading around the blogosphere this week familiarized me with a new key phrase.  Apparently, everyone and their dog must create a Summer Bucket List .    I even looked up the meaning of the term bucket list and found that it refers to creating a list of things to do before you "kick the bucket".  (We won't even go into what it really means to kick the bucket ! )  My mental wheels began turning and soon I was scribbling out a list of things to do during the summer.  I sat back, surveyed the list, and collapsed with exhaustion .  Why do we do this to ourselves, I thought.   I cannot even begin to imagine my own mother stressing about how to fit in all these ideal summer experiences for me and my sister (much less writing about it in a blog!).  What did Mom have to do with our summer at all?  My sister and I played with toys or the neighborhood kids, we suntanned and read books, we swam occasionally at the public pool and had one road...

I didn't grow up with fireflies.  These beetle-like creatures are new to me but have quickly become a highlight of summer evenings.   When we got home from soccer placement tryouts last week, dusk had fallen and the twinkles were just beginning along the row of trees behind the house. "Mom - can we catch some?" Three wide-eyed boys pleaded knowing it was already past their bedtime.   Unable to find a glass jar we improvised with a Glad plastic container. Each time I opened the lid the bugs lit up as if in self defense.  The boys caught them faster than I could contain them.      Trying to photograph fireflies while lighting up and not allowing them to escape proved a bit too complicated for me but I tried anyway.   Sitting silent on the front step, we watched them illuminate the twilight, then dim, until we set the magic free to brighten someone else's summer night.  thunderstorms at bedtime hydrangeas everywhere swimming in...

 I am joining with  Jenny at A Minute Captured in her Praying Through the Psalms series. Today is my personal reflection on Psalm 73 .  (Please note I am no Biblical scholar!) It is so easy to envy the rich, especially the ridiculously rich, and wonder why do they have it all and I have nothing like that?  It is even harder to understand when those who are prospering are perceived to be living self-destructive, hurtful lives.   This is the inner struggle for Asaph in Psalm 73.  He wonders why he has bothered to live an innocent life when he sees the life of ease of the wicked .  It nearly costs him his faith. But, as for me, I lost my balance; my feet all but slipped, Because I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they suffer no pain; their bodies are healthy and sleek. They are free of the burdens of life; they are not afflicted like others.  Psalm 73: 2-5 NAB He then asks the ultimate question...

Right around 2pm on lazy, steamy summer afternoons my thoughts begin to turn toward icy, sweet, caramelly coffee.  The boys are getting their second wind while I am feeling the mid-day slump set in.  As they don their trunks for round two through the sprinklers and slip-n-slide, I head to the fridge and pull out the four simple ingredients that bring me chilly summer comfort. INGREDIENTS leftover brewed coffee, chilled (usually from the morning but sometimes I specially brew a double strength batch just for icing later) sugar free vanilla syrup (or Splenda) non-fat milk Starbuck's caramel sauce  PROCESS Fill glass halfway with ice*. Add two pumps of syrup. Fill glass halfway with coffee. Fill the rest of the way with milk. Drizzle with Starbuck's caramel sauce. ($4.99 at Target Starbuck's stores - the price of one iced coffee made there makes you many  more in your own home!) Add straw. Sip and sigh. (You will love how the ca...

Joining with The Gypsy Mama for a five minute un-edited free write about the topic of her choice:  Backwards: I think I have a tendency to live life backwards .  Recently I have realized that I spend a lot of my time looking in my rear view mirror rather than facing straight ahead.  Somehow, reliving the past few years of motherhood, my teaching career pre-motherhood, my high school days and ultimately my childhood have become the focus of my inner thoughts. Maybe it is because I am turning 39 this year.  A last chance kind of birthday - a live it to the fullest year ahead - a finality of my young adulthood.  Knowing that soon I will be 40 doesn't scare me or make me feel terrible as much as it has caused me to look back, to see what I have done and been and what will never be again.  Never again will I be the new young mother, the blushing June bride, the youngest teacher on the teaching staff of any school.  And I am really OK with that.  ...

As I mentioned in a recent post, one of my summer time goals is to spend more time in nature. So the other day I just took my digital camera and strolled around the yard and tree line behind the house.  The boys were playing in the sprinkler outside so I had time to explore. There were so many different kinds of leaves.  All shapes and sizes, growing wild and free anywhere the sunlight shone. I don't think I would recognize poison ivy or poison oak even if I was photographing it but I know it lurks within these woods. There were several spider webs but I hardly saw a spider.  They are good at hiding. Funny how something so creepy at Halloween can become beautiful in the right light. Some kind of berries are growing in the branches of this tree.  I am sure the birds love them. These colors are my favorite - deep pinks and greens in all varieties.  As I look over these photos I realize that these colors are everywhere in my home. Such miniature ...

And just for fun, p lease     vote for Misty's Morning s  and then go to   Top 25 Faith Bloggers contest at Circle of Moms and vote for all your other favorite bloggers!  Today is the LAST DAY!  ( I have no aspirations of winning  but being part of this contest has really helped other people of faith find a new Catholic blog to read.)  Thank you!