Mine has been lovely. Lots of fireworks, picnics, old friends and, for the first time, lots of camping: Girls Camp, Scout Camp, Cub Scout day camp. We are not big campers in our family (we're indoors-y) but I'm discovering/remembering that camping is an important part of the summer experience for most Mormons. 2010 is the summer that I learned to appreciate the value of camping.
I am beginning to wear out. Swimming at the pool has lost its charm. The green plants on the mountains are fading to parched brown. Our ambitious summer reading plans have turned into a chore. But the end is in sight.
To help get us all through the last, hot month of summer, Hopefully Mormon is sponsoring a pleasant giveaway: a $40 gift certificate to Cold Stone, to cool you off and lift your spirits. To enter, leave a comment on this post sharing what it is about summer that makes you feel hopeful (I need help thinking positive to get through the next few weeks). Please enter just once per person. We'll leave the giveaway open through the end of next week, Friday, August 6th, because we all know that internet time gets iffy during the road trips and sunburns that fill summer days.
In summary: $40 Cold Stone giveaway, comment here, enter until Friday, August 6th, at midnight MST.
What do I find hopeful about summer? Homegrown tomatoes, directly from the plant, eaten warm like an apple. If I could give that away, I would.
This giveaway is now closed! Thanks so much for participating.
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The sunshine, just beautiful sunshine making everything bright and clear. Also, ice cream, which is why I'm commenting obviously. :)
ReplyDeleteCamping--being out in God's beautiful world, among all His creations, fills me with hope and gratitude. Looking at the brilliance of the night sky, or the beauty of a sunset, when you're far away from the city, can truly be a spiritual experience.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for a HUGE family reunion in a few weeks!! Looking forward to it is going to get me through the end of grad school.
ReplyDeleteCanning apricots gives me hope that I can make it through winter.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I find hopeful about summer? The extra hours of sunlight which brighten my soul.
ReplyDeleteConstant sunshine! I know it's a little cliche, but I crave the sun, and summer fills me up with it.
ReplyDeleteWe live far from family in the desert. Summertime brings the dreaded heat but it also brings family reunions and joyful road trips. Family brings us hope and we are so grateful for the hope that we will be a family together eternally.
ReplyDeleteDuring the summer, with no school to hurry up and get ready for, I get to peacefully enjoy more sunrises. Sunrises always make me feel hopeful. How generous of you to offer this prize. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
ReplyDeleteWhere I live it's usually above 100 degrees. Therefore, I rejoice in OTTER POPS!
ReplyDeleteMonsoon rainstorms.
ReplyDeleteEspecially if they're in Phoenix. There's nothing like them to perfect a day.
Nothing like wanting to leave a comment to make every thought fly out of your head! LOL Actually, I kinda hate to follow suit with the garden produce, but just thinking about how wonderful my raspberries are going to taste in the next week or so is enough to make me discount that. I feel very hopeful . . . I see jam and homemade ice cream brightly shining in my future! :D
ReplyDeleteSpending time with some of the most adorable kids in the world (my nephews) and watching as they discover the joys in life and share those joys with all around them.
ReplyDeleteI am hopeful during summer because I can wear sandals 6 days a week!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Shelane above me...monsoons in Phoenix!
ReplyDeleteAlways being reminded that the long cold of winter does comes to an end. No matter how dark and dreary it gets, another summer is always around the corner. (Nice analogy for life too.)
ReplyDeleteI am hopeful that the memories we've made as a family will last through the busy time of school, sports, scouts, piano, etc. That we will be a stronger and a happier family because of the good times we shared during the summer.
ReplyDeleteLots and lots of family time! I only get to see my niece a few times a year, and this Saturday is one of them! Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteIn the summer, weather and time permit me greater freedom to explore my world: friends, nature, hobbies. With every discovery, I feel more hopeful
ReplyDeleteMornings in the garden, afternoons at the pool, and evenings on the bike trail! Sigh. Love it.
ReplyDeleteWhen the heat gets unbearable I remember that I can do hard things. Which gives me hope beyond the Summer heat.
ReplyDeleteHonestly? By the end of July, the heat makes me hopeful for autumn. :)
ReplyDeleteBut what I do love about summer is produce in season, farmers markets, city fountains, late sunsets, dragonflies, "windsurfing" with my arm out the car window, tractors out in fields, ice cream cones, and living by a lake that hosts egrets, herons, and ducks all summer long. What a beautiful season!
What about the summer makes me hopeful? The sun. I love to see the sun. I love my garden during the summer and the hope of fresh fruits and veggies at the end of the summer.
ReplyDeletePopsicles outside on the shaded porch. It reminds me of the hope and joy I had as a child.
ReplyDeleteI am always hopeful that I'll get my summer projects done during the summer. And when I don't finish them, that I'll get them done when school starts again!
ReplyDeleteLong days, sunshine, and lots of parties!
ReplyDeleteI love coming home from work to my husband and still having 4 hours of sunlight left...it fills me with the most deliciously warm blissful feeling, like anything is possible.
ReplyDeleteGetting used to hanging out with my kids all day every day in the summer reminds me how awesome they are, which makes the promise of an eternal family that much more motivational. Summer makes me hope that heaven is just like this: a ripe, green, warm Montana season spent with really cool people.
ReplyDeleteThe time off that I take during the summer makes me hopeful. It can be a season of rest - sort of the sabbath of the year. I love the reminder that one of the blessings promised to followers of Christ is rest - Moroni 7:3.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to make my summer visit home to my family. It always makes me hopeful when I go home and realize that my relationship with my family never changes.
ReplyDeleteThe summer is so much more relaxing than the school year - and sometimes it allows me to see things that I need to work on in my life. I'm grateful for that. It gives me hope that someday I'll stop having things to work on.
ReplyDeleteI love that it's warm during the summer so I'm able to wear skirts while I'm pregnant, because pants get SO annoying to deal with during the cold, big belly months !
ReplyDeleteDid you get my comment about the ocean? It's not showing up.
ReplyDeleteMormishmom: I noticed that your comment posted to a the Home Teaching post on the 26th. No worries. We'll be sure to throw your comment in chronologically and you'll be eligible. Thanks for joining in!
ReplyDeleteThe sun makes me feel hopeful!!
ReplyDeleteWatching fireworks can be exciting, but gazing up at a summer sky full of constellations fills me with wonder, awe and hope in a Supreme Creator (Alma 30:44).
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite hopeful part of summer is being out camping away from city lights and getting to just sit and look at the stars. I can't help but feel that God knows me and loves me when I'm looking up at a skyful of stars.
ReplyDelete...taking my son to the park and watching him on the swing with his head tilted back, enjoying the sunshine and motion. It reminds me to take pleasure in the little joys of life.
ReplyDeleteI need the sunshine to help me make it through the sunless winter months.
ReplyDeleteTubing down the river. Lying on an intertube, floating down the river, as the world passes by fills me with a sense of peace and calm.
ReplyDeletespending extra time with my children gives me hope that they will remembers these days of summer of their youth and how much their mother loved and adored them
ReplyDeleteSummer is escorted in by spring showers, which in my part of the world means impressive thunderstorms. They remind me that God is all-powerful. Summer is full of sun-a celestial world. It reminds me to strive to be better and brightens my soul to the core. Summer finishes with beautiful autumn colors reminding me that to everything there is a season and a time and the future is just as hopeful as the past was.
ReplyDeleteummm... yum! sounds like a great summer! thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThe sun stays out until 9 or even 9:30 meaning you can go on beautiful late night runs and fun family walks to the neighborhood park. I wish the sun could stay up this late year round!
ReplyDeleteThe longer days and more time spent with family while everyone is out of school!!!
ReplyDeletethe fog in the morning makes me hopeful that the sun will come. it always does.
ReplyDeleteJust the sun showing up brings hope.
ReplyDeleteWarm weather, fresh produce, family walks, green grass, and just farm fun!!
ReplyDeleteRiding my bike towards the mountains and picking basil from my garden!
ReplyDeletePretty soon the first snowfall will show up, and I won't have to mow my lawn anymore.
ReplyDelete10 whole weeks with my OWN kids is just about enough time to make me ready for 180 days with 25 other people's darlings.
ReplyDeleteSummer is the time of year that I can take a step back away from school and really look at my life. I always feel like the coming fall is going to be my best one yet. It always turns out to be.
ReplyDeleteSummer is hopeful because it reminds me that even after "all of that," the fruit eventually ripens and you get to eat it.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how hard she's crying, my four-month-old with reflux ALWAYS calms down when I take her out on the porch to look at the trees and the field behind our house.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I feel like God made that view just for the two of us.
If something that feels so permanent as the weather can change, there is still hope that I can become better.
ReplyDeleteThe freedom of a car and a road and a tank of gas.
ReplyDeleteSummer is the time when I can sleep with my bedroom window open listening to the creek to lull me to sleep. I wake up to the same creek and smell the fresh air. I have hope that there is enough water from the wintry snowstorms to keep the creek flowing.
ReplyDeleteSummer for me is when I get to feel the warm air upon my face and my pores soak in the humidity. I never feel as healthy and alive as when I'm lying in the sun and can feel it in my bones... :)
ReplyDeleteWatching my garden grow gives me hope.
ReplyDeleteVacations = hope...in 2 ways 1) it's great to get away because you're so sick of being here....2) You actually get homesick sometimes which reminds you that home is a great place after all
ReplyDeletepick me!
ReplyDeletethemodernmormonmom.blogspot.com
I love late summer nights spent creating - whether that be playing my guitar, making another colorful collage cover for a journal, or just making memories with fabulous people. It always takes me back to those summers of 13, 14, 15, spent staying up late with my best friend Ashley as we watched period films and quote Walt Whitman and e. e. cummings to each other and daydreamed about the future. Day dreaming never has to stop, and that's what late summer nights remind me of.
ReplyDeletethe long, warm days are wonderful to me.
ReplyDeleteSummer for me is about family, spending as much time with them as posssible. Remembering story's about those who have gone before us and sharing them with those who are still here.
ReplyDeleteThis summer makes me feel hopeful because I quit my job to pursue my dream. The future is bright, warm, and exciting - just like summer days. Here's to some ice cream even if I don't win the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteSummer is hopeful for me because I get to go home and see my family.
ReplyDeleteI am hopeful that my air conditioner won't break so that I can continue to make my house a refrigerator.
ReplyDeleteThe warmth of the sun shining through a window in the morning... it warms my soul.
ReplyDeletesummer gets me hopeful because it's a time of fresh starts. because i am in school, it gives me a break to reflect on things and start anew.
ReplyDelete