Summer 2012 is finally here!!!

Honestly, it seemed as though summer was never going to truly be here.  With temps in the 80's in March (of course before we had spring break!) we started the long journey of being teased with summer.  Yesterday it arrived.  Ok, not officially as it's not yet June 21, but really how do the majority of us recognize that it's summer?  WHEN SCHOOL IS OUT!  So here we are.  I guess the question now should be now what?!? 104 days to plot a course of action, to reconnect with the family and to capture memories. In reality though shouldn't we spend 365 days connecting with family and capturing memories?  Guess that's a topic for another time.  Today I'm launching into my families summer with some goals.
The goals:
1 Spend time with God daily!  Without this, I know that the summer, and my life would not be the same.  Spending time with Him helps me focus on what is really important. I read today in Haggai (yes, you can learn from these books too)  “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁶ You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” Haggai 1. Am I being consistent.  I might be planting, but am I remembering to maintain, to check back on it, to keep the process going by weeding out what isn't necessary and fertilizing the good things.  Or am I just putting the idea out there and hoping it will take care of itself.  Am I fueling my body and my families bodies with good things that will really keep us going?  Am I wasteing money?  These are lessons I learned from one small moment with God today.  He wants to speak to me so much more, but am I listening, and taking time to do that? 
2 Spend quality time with family This one should be easy.  Yet, it's not.  It is so easy to get caught up in all that needs done and not really listen or know what my  husband and children would like to do.  Sometimes this costs money to find the right activity, but just last weekend we had a wonderful 2 hour time together walking a trail in the metroparks for FREE! Some creativity is in order, but especially since it is summer finding time to just stop and do what they are doing is important.
3 Reclaim the house If you know me, you are most likely going to say that the house is in good order.  If you lived here, you would know that I'm just good at hiding some of the mess.  This past year I worked practically full time, and got lazy when it came to time at home.  So this summer I want to get things put back together, know what needs to get put on the "what needs done" list and come up with a doable plan for keeping the house running whether I'm at work or not.

Those are the 3 main goals.  There are other things I hope to accomplish too, write more, read more, scrapbook more, exercise more...the list could go on and on. These are my starting point though.  I could spend another ten minutes writing about what is going to happen first, but there is a load of laundry to move to the dryer, two kids to try to get to go on a bike ride or walk with me, and then our main bathroom is going to get some attention.

Happy Summer!  Time to get moving!