The past several weeks have been a whirlwind! Little Bit finished her freshman year of high school. I co-taught an educational workshop on flash fiction with a writing sister. Then I scooted up to my favorite writing conferece for five days of amazing fellowship, learning, and rejuvenation.
I returned home with fresh wind in my sails and a plan to jump back into my writing life with renewed vigor. But the reality of Little Bit’s summer sports schedule hit full force and I found myself unable to participate in my regular daily write-ins and struggling to play catch-up continually.
Then a plan to drive Big Kid’s SUV to him at his naval school began to form, and I became engrossed in the details of trying to make that happen. I was trying to work out the logistics of the LONG drive, booking a hotel around the halfway point and buying a return flight after a few days near our sailor’s base.
But I grew frustrated, feeling my dear sweet husband was dragging his feet for some reason. In his defense, he’s in a season of traveling a lot right now, but I was pushing to squeeze in time to figure out the details, mostly because I was dying to see our son! Soon!
A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9
Imagine my shock and delight when that boy came walking through our front door on my birthday! It took weeks of planning, lots of secret keeping and near-slips by family and friends (who all knew but me!), and our sailor running a gauntlet of red tape to secure his leave. We only got to enjoy about four days with our son before he set out to drive himself back to base, but I tried to soak up every moment and squeezed him every chance I got.
While I’m frustrated with the busyness of our summer schedule, I am letting go of my expectations and trying to go with the flow. Little Bit is working her first job this summer in addition to her camps and conditioning, and soon she’ll be driving herself. As the days, weeks, and months tick by, I’m reminded it’ll be no time at all until Little Bit will be driving herself and I’d better make the best of our short time together.
With each passing year, time seems to pass exponentially faster. If Big Kid’s high school journey taught us anything, it’s that we’ll blink, Little Bit’s high school career will be over, and we’ll move on to the next phase. So until school starts back up, I’ll write when I can, working around spending as much time with my girl as she’ll allow. We’re only in this phase for this exact moment in time and I want to enjoy her as much as possible before she’s grown and flown.
How’s your summer going, friends?