Summer Vacation

When there’s enough sand in the clothes dryer to replenish the kids’ sandbox at home, I know I’m on vacation! It’s our family vacation on the beach, a time we anticipate with thankful excitement all year long. We know the cousins will adore each other between quibbling over toys and who plays with whom. We know we’ll run out of hot water and milk, and the boat will be out of commission for a couple of days. We assume it will rain the day we plan the campfire. Each year, we know there will be a new “hope that doesn’t happen again!” This year, it was my son-in-law getting stung by ground bees while doing yard work on top of their nest.

Despite the minor annoyances -- like ignored bedtimes and putting out snacks for locust-like devouring with pleas for “more” -- we will pack up our beach glass collections and the Petoskey stones and head back home with a soft spot in our hearts for coming back to this land laid out by our forefathers generations ago.

It’s one of the things I’ve “done right” -- kept up the heritage of the cottage in the tradition of my parents to pass on to my children and theirs and on and on. We make it work because love is forgiving and tenderhearted. We trust that God put us all in the same nest for a reason. This is part of it. Scrabble games, rock skipping, and tennis matches get competitive. It takes some effort to make it work. But in the end, perhaps little 2-year-old Hazel put it best tonight when her mommy tucked her in: “Mommy, this is a great fun!” (We have no clue how she came up with that phrase!)

I thank God for the great times, all the time! There’s something renewing about pulling them out of the memory box when times and seasons change. Treasure your great times this summer so you can pull them out when you need them most!