Continuing the Journey of Thanks

It's been a long semester...a long school year.

Each Sunday night as I wrote down the next week of lesson plans for our three boys, the week moved forward: Week 1...Week 7...Week 16...Week 22...Week 29...Week 36. At last we tackled the 36th week, accumulating 178 days of schooling.

Now I need to scrabble together the boys' final semester grades, plus finish grading the research essays from my honors writing course at Class Day. But the Brave Writer classes are complete, and my college prep writing class has received back their final research essays and course grades.

So the school year, for all intents and purposes, is finished. And I am thankful that it is.

The summer spreads before me, and there are many projects looming...things I want to accomplish. But I feel that I need to put my own long-neglected needs first, for once. My need for quiet prayer. My need for daily exercise and eating right. My need to write daily, beyond blogging--writing in my journals, composing new poems, inventing new stories. My need to sit in the sun and read mystery novels. My need to allow a beautiful story take up my day while body rests and soul delights.

I hope that the long-neglected garden will be tidied, that the MLA research guide for high schoolers will be drafted, that the many serious books stacked next to my bed will be read, that my desk and books and homeschooling materials will be cleaned and organized. But I need days like today when a lovely story delighted my heart all the day as I laughed, cried, and lived vicariously in 1918.

May this summer be one of rest and relaxation, and may the essential things be accomplished as well.

So with this summer ahead waiting to be filled, I join the Gratitude Community at A Holy Experience in the journey to One Thousand Gifts, thanking God for:

521. Beautifully-crafted stories with compelling characters that teach and delight--the true meaning of literature

522. Freshly mown lawns

523. Pincushion flowers and Mexican primroses in full bloom, despite the weeds.

524. Crisp summer mornings and warm, drowsy afternoons

525. The graded essays behind me this year, with only a few more to do

526. The helpfulness of boys who clean house and manicure garden

527. The lazy drowse of hovering bees

528. Unread books waiting so patiently for my time to clear

529. For the celebration yesterday of 14 years with our middle son, the "cool kid" of the bunch

530. For the celebration on Wednesday of 26 years of marriage with the man I love

So on comes summer, with its warm winds drying the grasses grown high by spring showers, bringing lazy days of rest and relaxation.

Starting summer this day,
Susanne :)