Summer Starts. Etc.

It's summer! 

It didn't actually come with the weather depicted in these pictures. It began with three straight days of rain and very cool temperatures (which has been lovely), but with hints of summer weather here and there throughout May, and with the excitement of summer in the air, we ended up getting out swimsuits and sprinklers twice before school even ended. 

I always like ... whatever has become comfortable and routine. Shifts have always made me a little anxious. New things have always made me a little anxious. In May, when the predictable rhythm of our school-day routines starts to wind up, I start feeling a bit unsettled. And then that same anxious pit creeps in on the opposite end when, in mid-August I begin confronting the idea of less freedom and flexibility being forced on us with a new school year starting. 

Luckily, between those unsettled feelings at the beginning of new phases, are the mostly settled, lengthy, actual seasons in their fullness. And the summer one? It's a pretty good one. (And, with the calendar already filling up with youth camps, FSY, swimming lessons, the cabin, a trip to Goblin Valley, birthdays, etc., it is sure to pass by far too quickly! So, it is good to be on the starting end of it all.)

And, to end, a few pictures from the last week of school. And a few other wholly unrelated pictures.

Jesse at a 7th grade wax museum:

Anders at his class poetry, ukulele, and awards program. (Since seniors finish school a week early around here, Goldie came along for the performance.)

How a chocolate milk jug looked after two small girls screamingly wrestled it from each other to get to the last of the chocolate milk.

A Come Follow Me lesson on the Children of Israel shouting blessings from Mt. Gerizim and cursings from Mt. Ebal. "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God ...". 

I went to Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim when I was in Israel. (I remember best the few fieldtrips when it was overcast and rainy rather than murderously hot.) We, of course, shouted a few blessings and cursings when we went. And my kids did the same from these two ... mountainous spots. 

(Though our "cursings" shouters seemed to do a better job than our "blessings" shouters I'm afraid. But then ... I guess it's more fun to shout things like: "you'll be smitten with consumption, and with blasting, and with mildew, and your carcass will be meat for the fowls". So.)

And then we had to bring in the big ladder so all the kids could get up high without Mike and Abe having to keep lifting them.

And ... on to summer I guess!