"Summertime is the art of doing less and feeling more."
— Anonymous —

Have you ever noticed how summer seems to fly by? It feels like it’s almost over right when you’re just getting started. Maybe it’s because summer days are long and lush, and we stay active and sleep fast. On Saturday, June 20, we will experience the Summer Solstice, which is the day of the year that gets the longest period of daylight and marks the official beginning of summer. Get ready for a whopping 14 hours and 14 minutes of daylight that day. Sounds like a beach day and backyard cookout just waiting to happen. The days that follow the summer solstice will get shorter and shorter until December 21, when we will only have 10 hours and 4 minutes of daylight, which on the bright side is perfect for Christmas lights.

"Summertime is the art of doing less and feeling more."
— Anonymous —

Have you ever noticed how summer seems to fly by? It feels like it’s almost over right when you’re just getting started. Maybe it’s because summer days are long and lush, and we stay active and sleep fast. On Saturday, June 20, we will experience the Summer Solstice, which is the day of the year that gets the longest period of daylight and marks the official beginning of summer. Get ready for a whopping 14 hours and 14 minutes of daylight that day. Sounds like a beach day and backyard cookout just waiting to happen. The days that follow the summer solstice will get shorter and shorter until December 21, when we will only have 10 hours and 4 minutes of daylight, which on the bright side is perfect for Christmas lights.

Here we are back in swimsuit season when body-insecurity
and beach cover-ups are at an all-time high.
We all feel those judging eyes looking our way whether
we’re on the beach or simply enjoying a ladies’ lunch with friends.

We’ve all been there. You know, out to lunch, with the girls from work or Bible study, where you have to be the first one to order. After scouring the menu and scanning the faces of the women at the table, especially the skinny ones, you order: “I’ll have a grilled chicken sandwich; hold the mayonnaise, please.” There. You did it. Ordered something halfway healthy…grilled chicken, even gave up the Duke’s mayo for show. Then the waitress blurts out, “Do want fries with that, Sugah?” All eyes avert to you in slow motion as you reluctantly ask for the alternatives to fries and order fresh fruit.

"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.”
— Robert Browning

I believe the majority of the greatest lessons we learn in life come from our mothers. Not all of us have the fortune of a good mother’s wisdom and love, but most of us have experienced wonderful lessons from strong motherly figures somewhere along the way.

For years, I have written about how our parents teach us how we want to be and how we don’t want to be. I stand by this and firmly believe both are equally important lessons. Of course my mother had some ways and traits that taught me how I didn't want to be, but her positive lessons far outweigh those.

We are in the middle of spring, which, by all accounts, means we should have shaken off the winter blues by now and begun feeling the sense of lightness that comes with the beautiful days of perfect weather, bright sunshine, and bursting blooms.

Somehow, I’m not feeling it, yet. Are you?