thankful for late summer

September in Iowa was the most incredibly lovely late summer ever. Lovely as in the perfect weather every day. And it's still continuing into October. I LOVE IT. I can't believe how lovely it is to still continue to have summer weather for so long! The last several summers have felt so terribly short to me; it seems like it was really only summer during July and August for these last several years in Idaho.

This summer has been so nice. Like an endless summer that I could bask in forever. Oh sure, there has been a bit of homesickness and climate changes and such to contend with. But the season of summer itself has been particularly great. Our yard here is so lovely and big, and the kids are all old enough to run around outside by themselves. I mean, not totally by themselves, but without me having to carry anybody. And that is a really big change for me! I have been carrying some baby or another on my hip or in a frontpack every summer since Rilla was a baby. How lovely to be able to sit outside with my kids now and watch them run around all on their own!

For us, summertime in Iowa has included...
- laying on blankets in the grass reading books
- riding bikes and walking the stroller to the library
- playing in the sprinkler
- going to a local farmer's market
- walking to the parks in town
- playing in the front yard
- playing frisbee with youth kids
- loud bugs chirping in the trees every night
- kicking soccer balls and tossing plastic baseballs
- writing on our sidewalk with sidewalk chalk
- using a clothesline to dry and sun-bleach all the cloth diapers
- growing sunflowers, tomatoes, and melons in our garden
- sitting on our front porch

I honestly won't miss the loud chirping bugs in the trees when winter hits. And it may be nice to someday be able to have cooler nights again. But I am really loving this late summer stuff. The falling leaves, the warm (75ish degrees) days... it is marvelous.