Traditions of summer...

This time of year has me thinking a lot about family traditions. I know that many people do not see this time of year to be the one to think about this... but it has been in my head for a few weeks.. With Lisa and I dealing with a lot of firsts this year (First year with out our dads...) we are looking more and more to what we did as children and how we can keep that alive with our kids. Yes, I have no biological kids of my own.. but I am lucky to be a part of a family where that is a detail not a rule. I have step-kids from my last marriage whom I will love until I die, and Lisa's kids are mine, they even call me Mommy Ellen half the time, the rest of the time it is Auntie Ellen. last weekend we dyed eggs and celebrated spring. it was a lot of fun, family time!

Growing up we never did much this time of year, but we always had lots to do for the 4th of July.. One of the last texts I sent my dad was a pict of blueberry pie. that was his favorite and I knew he was not doing good when he did not even respond.. it was before we knew what was going on, but it was a sad sign for me. I saved them so I can look back to them later.. even if doing so about made me cry. The pain of loosing a parent is deep, but I can learn from it, I will learn from it. I will keep working on me, to become a better person each and every year. Some one that I know he would be proud of, even if he disagrees with the path that I follow. I follow the path that feels right to me. (that can lead into a whole new post... but this is not the time for that)

Once again what I started out to write about changed as I wrote.. I had been thinking about things we did as a family and all the fun we had.. Spring and Summer were the times that we spent outside. The times that I remember most, hiking, canoeing(I had a dislike of that one for a LONG time!... something about when I went out with dad we always capsized....) camping, Pitching tents for meetings... the list goes on and on.. time spent together is what is boils down to...