Happy Labor Day....

to you all.

Our celebrations include approximately 8 loads of beach laundry. Our beach towels are so stiff from the salt and seawater that I think we may have mistakenly brought home surf boards. I'll be taking one last longing sniff of them before making them smell like HopeSuds.

Which is also a great smell of clean.

Hurricane Earl was a non-event for Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach. Where we were. We didn't even get any rain, just some spitting drizzle. The winds weren't impressive either. Everyone's preparations for French toast were more beneficial along the lines of bad-weather-is-coming-let's-hold-a-drill. We did get to see a stormy ocean on Thursday but Friday, Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous. So we will not be featured in a reality show about Families That Chase Storms this season.

Not that we would have been.

It is so cool outside this morning that Chess ate breakfast on the back porch. And now he is walking around whacking things with a stick. It is how he celebrates the advent of Fall. Pele has joined him now with a soccer ball. Kicking will follow. There is a sense of giddy when the temperature outside drops below 75 for breakfast. I throw the windows open. The boys clamor to go outside. And then clamor around outside. A whole new schedule with home study begins to happen.

And then comes an Indian summer. Or not.

This week marks the end of summer for me as the schedules of Bible study and soccer begin. The summer has meant more than the pool and hot weather. Really hot weather. This summer was simply intense as old ways were challenged, wrong ways were called out, and life ways were stretched. It was a summer of especial events and memorable trips and new fellowships. Even so, it is a summer I must now leave behind, thankfully, with very little regret and with very great gratitude to friends that stood strong and never failed.

And all glory to God for His unending faithfulness, no matter the season.

Load #2 beckons. Happy Labor Day!