Summer is Officially Here

We got home from our European trip this past weekend, and I don’t think we’ve ever been happier to return home. We had a blast on the trip, don’t get me wrong, and it felt so good to travel again, just the two of us in new and exciting cities we’ve never been to.

But there is something about returning home after being away for a long period of time that is just this overwhelming feeling of comfort. Sleeping in your own bed, drinking your own coffee, snuggling with your kids. There’s nothing like time away to remind you of what you have right here at home.

The day after we got back, we spent the entire day with the kids soaking up every minute of every hour. I made them breakfast and lunch and dinner. It’s back to making three meals a day now that it’s summer and they’re out of school (they normally eat breakfast and lunch at school). We spent the afternoon in the backyard. I threw the ball with the boys while PJ was tending to the garden and Anna was coloring with chalk.

Riah pretending to be Meryl. This child, y’all.

I spent the day falling in love with our house all over again after only being away a week. I started noticing and appreciating things about it that I hadn’t in a long time. Isn’t that funny how that works? Of course there are things about our house that we would change if we could, but being away made me love it for exactly what it is. It’s our family home, the one we brought our children home to, and the one I grew up in, and right now, it actually feels pretty perfect for us.

We’ve spent the last few days at home and at the farm. Summer is officially here, which means all our schedules are about to change. It also means hot as hell days, lots of trips to the beach, slightly later bedtimes, lots of Alabama Shakes, more TV and video game time, and hopefully a lot more summer reading for our oldest. We always had to read two to three books during the summer growing up, and I want him to start that, too. As he becomes a more confident reader, I am hoping this is the year he falls in love with reading.