I love making lists. Anyone who knows me well...as in has taken a trip with me, worked on a project with me, lived with me, birthed me (hi, Mom!)...knows this.
One of my best friends and I have this little trait in common. And actually, when she and I start planning our upcoming homeschooling year, this could pose a problem. As we are very likely to be lost under a large pile of sticky notes and spiral-bound notebooks. Hmmm...
Anyway.
For the last few months, I've made a running list of things to get done this summer. What can I say? I like to live on the wild side of life...as long as it can be crossed off a well organized list. :)
1. Plant a garden
2. Survive a yard sale
3. Clean up yard (pile of landscaping rocks, wood left over from destruction of carport, etc.)
4. Paint stairway wall
5. Deep clean carpet
6. Scrape and paint the shed
...On and on it goes. Citing not-too-exciting things that need to be done before the beautiful weather is gone. And before Baby Girl #4 is here.
But recently I've been talking to the girls, who seem to have a list all their own. A list that may not accomplish anything great, in terms of completing large projects or preparing for winter. But a list of "tasks", which upon completion, hold priceless, weighty consequences.
Long term memories that will last much longer than the lifespan of a coat of paint. Or the few hundred dollars earned from cleaning out the attic and yardsaling it.
Here are some of the things that we hope to do:
1. Have our summer Tea Party with some little girls
2. Go fishing
3. Sleep in a backyard tent as a family
4. Learn to swim (or at least put our faces in the water)
5. Roll down the large hill at the local park
6. Eat an ice cream sundae for dinner (a summer tradition long ago started by my parents)
7. Work on the garden at Grandma's house
8. Build Selah's playground for her birthday
9. Go Strawberry picking
10. Blueberry picking
11. Fly our kite
12. Ride bikes (without training wheels)
13. Finish reading out loud "Little House in the Big Woods"
14. Go to a farm and look at animals
15. Go to the beach
16. Jump on large trampoline
17. Have fun time with Mommy (this is a direct quote from Charis)
18. Stay up late watching falling stars
19. Go camping with the W. family
20. Buy body paint and use it
21. Have "Jonathon" over again and be really mean tigers. (the girls have been practicing their mean growl to ensure that Jon will be thoroughly scared this time)
22. Designate a day in August as "Kids' Day" and surprise the girls with all sorts of fun things. (Charis thought this was only fair since the summer has both "Mother's Day" and "Father's Day". :)
23. Go on Daddy and Mommy dates with each of the older girls
24. Make an apple pie from scratch
25. Have Charis attend a week-long class at the local college
26. Plant some flowers in the pitiful excuse for a front flower bed and let the girls be in charge of them
27. Plant the miniature pumpkin vine in our backyard
28. Have L and M over to spend the night with the girls. (Though Charis did say that we may need to wait until M turns 6. Funny girl)
29. Roast Marshmallows
30. Make banana bread
31. Make homemade pizza
32. Find a caterpillar and watch it make a cocoon and then hatch- Again!
33. Go to a drive in movie theatre
34. Go on a picnic to the nearest mountain
35. Feed the ducks at the local arboretum
36. ....
The fun thing about this list is that as we mark things off, it will actually be a JOY to add new things to it.
Here's to a summer of the never-ending list of fun!
