Happy Summer!

Happy Summer to the wonderful blog world! School is out and I am finally enjoying some much needed rest. I still work many days in the summer, but it's a whole different world. Much shorter hours and casual dress most days (think cropped pants, bermuda shorts, etc.). Love it! Now don't get me wrong, I'll be very excited when August comes around and all the kiddos come back to school. But after a long year and the usual end-of-year craziness, I'm enjoying a quiet and peaceful place to work on all the things I need to do to get ready for the next year.

I took the day off last Friday and went shopping with a group of friends. We had so much fun! I hadn't relaxed like that in a while. It was a marathon trip-we hit up a huge outlet mall that is about 2 1/2 hours from here, and I didn't get home until 2:15 a.m.! It wouldn't have been so bad except that I had to get up at 7:00 a.m. to play in a 2-day golf tournament with Mr. P. It was completely worth it though because I had so much fun. I swear, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time and it felt great!

I got some great deals on my shopping trip, and I'm planning on posting them soon. You may have seen a preview of it already. I was playing around on Polyvore to show all of my shopping finds, and I didn't have time to finish it. I thought that I had just saved it on the site, but somehow it ended up posting here too. I'll repost it when I finish it.

So far, our summer has been wonderful, except for the heat. We took our new (to us) travel trailer out over Memorial Day weekend with two other families. The weather was wonderful, and we played some golf, visited Mammoth Cave, and went swimming. I also had plenty of time in a lounge chair in the shade with my Nook! Here are a couple of books that I have read recently on my Nook:

Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman



If you are not familiar with the story, Mary Beth is the wife of Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman. They have 6 children-3 biological and 3 little girls that they adopted from China. Tragically in 2008, one of their older sons accidentally ran over Maria, one of the little girls, in the driveway of their family home. This is the story of how she and Steven met, fell in love, married, had kids, adopted kids, and how they are coping after the death of Maria. A friend highly recommended this book to me, but I was unsure about whether I wanted to read it or not. Some dear friends of mine lost their toddler in an accident about 10 years ago, and it was such a horrible time for all of us that knew and loved them. I wasn't sure I wanted to read about a similar situation, but it is a truly inspiring book. This family's strong faith and how they turned to God during this time is remarkable. In addition, Mary Beth is a great storyteller and I would find myself laughing on one page and crying on another. I didn't want this book to end because it was so inspiring and really helped me gain perspective on my relationship with God and how I handle the stress in my life.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett


My aunt recommended this book to me, and it was such an interesting read. Set in Mississippi in 1962, it is a story of the relationships between the African-American help and the white families that they work for. The three main characters are two maids and the daughter of one of the families that employs an African-American maid. The three women come together for a risky project that has the potential to change their town and their world forever. I highly recommend it!

We have a fairly quiet weekend planned, and I couldn't be happier about it. This is the first Saturday in about 6 weeks that we haven't had something to do, so I am looking forward to sleeping in a little and then getting some things done around the house. We have our small group tomorrow night, and I'm supposed to bring a dessert. I'm thinking about making a Banana Split Cake. It's a no-bake dessert, so that seems cool and summery which is exactly what we need in this hot weather. I'm so glad to get back to small group...all of our summer travels and activities have kept us from attending small group, and I've missed the fellowship and discussions.

Have a great weekend!

TPP