My little one started school this week, so that makes two boys gone all day and one lonely mama.  Summer is over, but it was full of wonder . . .

Valerie delivering the answer to my earnest prayer:  Yes, John needed freedom to ride!

Roses carried home on the back of a motorcycle

God blessing me again and again with the wisdom He imparted to my husband on that bike I didn’t want him to have 🙂

Hearing a live mariachi band sing “Cielito Lindo” in San Antonio

Dunes to climb and slide down at the beach

Crab “hunting” with my cousin Matt and all the little cousins

Falling in love with South Padre Island again

 

 

Mia Rose Lynne singing, “Colorado”, a gift from Daddy and from Kerrville

Listening to books on CD with my boys as the summer sun streamed through the car windows

Swedish fika (coffee and pastries) with my hubby

Reading Saving Wonder to my children because they asked!

Enjoying Texas barbeque at the peach farm with our Swiss friends—perhaps  our one chance to make a memory with their children

Discovering the Purple Hulls (twins from East Texas who sing for Jesus)

Eating snow cones and popcorn at a sparsely populated waterpark that my sweet friend got us into for free

Floating in the Trinity River and finding out how honest people in Fort Worth are!  (Our plastic bag fell out of my husband’s swimsuit pocket, but not even a dollar was stolen.)

Savoring a Strawberry Kiss at the re-opened Stagecoach Inn in Salado!

Moonflowers!

Lunch among the blossoms at the nursery with Mama

Sweet little boys from church eating ice cream bars under the tree in our front yard

A little girl making me laugh, saying, “My grandma is 200 years old, and she still mows her own yard!  I know, right?”

Coreopsis ‘Leading Lady Sophia’ (It kept producing cheery blooms all summer!)

Little One excitedly planning to make healthy snow cones . . . even explaining with enthusiasm to strangers at the grocery store

The “grocery ferret” coming before 7 a.m. to leave GF bread, butter, eggs, and more!

My twelve-year-old, draping his arm around his littlest girl cousin, like a protective older brother

A trip to the rodeo with old friends

Coffee candles

Hosting a donut party for my elderly neighbor’s milk-jug-raft “unveiling”

After more than four months, our church got the permit to move into its new building!

Healthy babies born to family and friends (Welcome baby Howie, Margo, and Noah!)

Our cuddly “sometimes cat,” who was NOT caught by a coyote!

Hundreds of eclipse shadows filtering through leaves onto the sidewalk.

Happy little boy birthdays, kicking off our family’s “holiday season”

Little One, decked out in his pirate costume

God opening doors at new schools for the boys

Dearest Lord, you’ve caused me to stretch this summer.  Even in the midst of growth, it has been a season of rest.  Thank you for the unscheduled days of summer, during which blessings alight just as often as the mosquitoes!