Those Dog Days of Summer

Yes, we're there ...

...nearing the end of summer... the heat preventing most outdoor play ... and no more camps, VBSs, or vacations... just days of empty space begging to be filled until school starts. It's in August each year when our family always seems to just get tired of each other. We've been together 24/7 for just a little too long.

The kids are fighting over nothing. I've decided that they like to fight because it's something exciting to do... might as well get the adrenaline of yelling, screaming, name-calling and punching going when the alternative is boring quiet calmness. And I'm finding myself enjoying the use of an escalated voice here and there, too, when I jump in to stop the fighting with complete exasperation! Then we all just yell and scream and cry together... which occasionally will turn into laughing - and it makes us all feel better. (Although sometimes it just makes things worse... and then we all have to go to separate rooms and then apologize to each other... while I just pray Leon somehow comes home early that day.) But really, it's not that much fighting. It could be worse.... it's just that as the day goes on anything can get annoying.

It's really amazing what moms can find to do, when there's nothing on the calendar...

At the beginning of the summer I had a "theme week" for the kids, where we planned for Father's Day all week. We made place mats one day, picked a Father's Day meal menu one day, shopped for the stuff the next day, make coasters one day, and then all helped cook the meal for Leon on Saturday.... I have yet to do another theme week, but I have given them some projects occasionally: like making creatures out of a package of straws and tape, making buildings and people out of marshmallows and toothpicks, and of course play-do and lego's are always great to create things. (Although these projects never seem to take as long as I think they will.) And I've been saving (recycling) plastic lids, toilet paper tubes, boxes, bottles, and such all summer long, so when I can't come up with anything else to do, I can just pull out my stash of goodies and say "Go for it, kids! Create something!" ... and 30 minutes later they'll say, "what are we doing next, mom?"

Then there are the creative outings... I mean, you can't just go do the expensive things all the time - like Chuck E. Cheese (awful!) or the movies (especially with a 12 mo old) or Hawaiian Falls (the local water park). Those things are once-a-summer things for us. SO, you have to get creative to think of free, easy things with AC. We've gone up to our church activities center so they can run around in the gym, we've visited several fast food joints with play areas, we've visited Daddy's office, and we've invited ourselves over to friend's houses with pools. :)

And then a couple days ago we did something a little different...

Inspired by a friend who has done this a few times this summer, I told the kids we were going to go share some things and be a help to some homeless people. We gathered all our little hotel toiletries that we had collected over the last year or so and made them into individual bags. We did the same with some snacks and bottled water, and then drove down to downtown Dallas. Now, if I had pre-planned this, I would have gone to the dollar store and gotten great deals on lots of items, and probably made it more than it needed to be. (And maybe someday we will do more.) But for this day, it was just right - 5 bags of toiletries, 6 bags of snacks, and 12 bottles of water.

When I got to downtown, I actually became a little overwhelmed that I only had these few bags, and I kept seeing groups of displaced people who I just drove on past. I couldn't stop and not have enough for each person. I asked God to just let us find one or two here and there who needed what we had. So, I made a stop at city hall to gather my thoughts. After getting out in the heat to play a while on the lawn at City Hall, we got back in the air conditioned van and drove around to find some folks in need.

Now, Emily was on board with this outing from beginning to end. She helped get the bags together, and inquired about what it meant to be homeless, and said she wanted to be the one to hand them the bags. Meanwhile the older boys weren't quite as excited at my choice of an outing. Trey deemed it boring and asked to stay home (I didn't let him.) and Timothy was pretty indifferent, as long as he had his ipod for the ride. But something happened as we started looking for people... compassion happened! The first man we saw was alone with all his possessions, complete with stacks and stacks of papers, outside an abandoned building under the shade of an awning. I stopped the van, got out to give him the things and a smile, and the kids were silent. When they realized that this was his home, that these are real people, they all became interested in finding just the right people for our offerings. As we drove, we picked out people who looked tired, worn, in need of refreshment. I know we only put a drop into a very large bucket, but it was something. ... and now the kids have a little more understanding of the world out there in need. It was a pretty good way to spend the day!

The dog days of summer will be over soon, and we'll return to our busy lives filled with school, activities, and sports. I pray we'll make time for meaningful moments and just being together as a family... and that we'll continue to keep our eyes open for those we can serve in love.

Interesting NOTE: I just googled "dog days of summer" and in case you didn't know, that name comes from the star Sirius (Dog Star) which is the brightest star this time of year. It appeared just before the season of the Nile flooding, so the ancient Egyptians considered this star as a "watch dog" for that event. And since it also coincided with the season of most extreme heat, the connection was made with hot and sultry weather for all time.