On days of summer fun... (picture heavy!)

Until today, we had been finally enjoying some beautiful summer weather -- 80+ degree days and cloudless blue skys, and summer nights that cool down just deliciously enough that you wake up in the morning to find that sometime during the night you'd pulled your blanket over yourself. Since it has been so beautiful, I am willing to temporarily overlook the fact that today it was freezing cold and windy and nobody wants to even think those words on July 20th thank-you-very-much!

We've been spending every free moment outside and I finally just put away the camera because there were too many cute moments to try to capture them all! Here are some from the last week....

Hannah looks like she's standing in chest deep water here, but it's just a shallow splash pool. Yes folks, it's true. My children DO have removable legs. My secret is out!

Daddy+swings=pure joy!

I have video of this too, and the video involves a LOT of excited screaming, and arms and legs waving wildly in the air as she zooms down the hill.

So...this thing? Coolest.Thing.Ever. A total steal at Costco! (Not literally. Do not call the police on us.)

Did you know that plastic inflatable trees need to be watered, too?

She looks so much cuter in my sunglasses than I do. How is this fair?

I know she looks like she's afraid the rainbow is going to crawl around her face and eat her, but she was smiling a fraction of a second before I took this picture, honestly!

So I was going to say something funny here, but instead I've just been sitting here staring at her beautiful face and how happy she is inside and out...love my sunshine girl!

Before the paint was dry, she leaned her cheek on her arm somehow and transferred the mirror image of it there, so she ended up with two butterflies for the price of one. :-)

This is my first summer in years with no babies, just quickly growing girls who are so very busy and excited by life...I am in love with right now!

On receiving hate mail...

I received an angry and unkind comment on my last blog post sometime overnight. It is the first time that has ever happened to me, and while I welcome questions and criticism (and I certainly don't need to be flattered constantly), I was stunned that my musings on my little blog were thought to warrant such a rebuttal. The comment was anonymous, and I'm sorry that it was because I would prefer to be able to pursue a private conversation with the person who left it for me rather than writing publicly about it.

I deleted the comment reflexively. I have dealt with a lot of unwarranted personal attacks and critical spirits over the last few years, and have developed some ingrained responses to those sorts of things -- they all involve shutting it down, shutting it down, shutting it down, and refusing to accept the harsh words into my heart where they can continue to hurt me. So because my fingers flew on the laptop to protect me before my stunned brain had fully registered what I read, the comment is gone and I can now only paraphrase it here. If who are out there, whoever left me that comment, and now angry at the injustice of your words being responded to without the actual quote -- if you still feel that way, leave me the comment again, and I will edit it in here.

The words were something like this, "Who could possibly be immature and arrogant enough to presume all that knowledge? Especially for a Christian -- where is the student of God pursuing humility and grace?"

Dear anonymous person, that was precisely my point. My 20 year old self was immature and arrogant to presume that I knew everything. I have been humbled over the last six years, and that process continues daily, and I now count myself privileged and blessed to have intimate knowledge of the strength and love of Jesus -- and very little else. It was humbling even to write that blog post and to make myself vulnerable as I did, and I hoped it might be an encouragement to others who are also experiencing being taken down a peg (or twenty!) by the realities of life. God meets me there, when I am discouraged by the fresh realization that all my "knowledge" is foolish and vain, and He reminds me of the knowledge that truly counts, which is His love filling my life.

I suppose I can now count this as another humbling experience on the journey of life. :-) And I appreciate the reminder that this is not a private journal, nor shared exclusively with those who know me well and will likely understand my heart even if my words are not as clear as I think they are.