These Summer Days...

...have been as random in their activities as they've been in temperature. I'm enjoying the change of pace, though I have recently buckled down on some routines in order to restore the peace of predictability to the household.

Our days aren't as packed as they are the rest of the year and have afforded time for Daniel to begin running regularly, for us to make the short trek down to one of Merrick's baseball games, for watching movies in the evenings, for revamping chore charts for the kids, for lots of picnic lunches in the yard, for spending an entire day at Mom and Dad's, and more. For whatever reason, it feels right to be more relaxed about life in the summer, and that's a good thing for this uptight, slightly-OCD, cleaning maniac. Believe it or not, I even let Bronwyn go to the bed the other night with dirt all along her scalp leftover from Jackson throwing handfuls of sod at her.

Tomorrow night we'll celebrate Daniel's birthday. He turned 28 on Saturday, but we wanted the celebration of the day to be Julia's graduation from highschool, so we postponed for later. I'm making two cheesecakes, per the birthday boy's request. I just have to decide which kinds. Suggestions?

For right now, this season I'm in is providing very routine and pleasant morning minutes for quiet Bible reading, which is so great. Unless you're a mom of little ones, I don't think 15 uninterrupted minutes are so hard to come by, but it sure does make you appreciative when they do.