1. Taking a break is a good idea. Summer is a good time to throw the routine out the window and ease up on all of my self-imposed assignments. Summer needs to be about napping in a hammock and roasting marshmallows and picking Kentucky Wonder beans in the garden. I always hope that by the time fall rolls around I will be like a racehorse, ready to bust out of the gates and run like the wind.

2. Taking a break is a bad idea. It’s hard to get the creative juices flowing again after a long hiatus. In truth, I feel less like a racehorse and more like Fred Flintstone, feet running in place as I try to get a car made out of rock moving again.

3. PB and I have found our vacation groove: put a few things in a suitcase, grab a podcast-loaded Ipod and start driving. This foray into spontaneity is so much fun for me and PB gets to decide which roads to take. We heard a trombone trio concert at Interlocken, biked around an island, went to Canada for 20 minutes, watched the fish at Kitch-iti-kipi, and ate a pasty in the U.P. We ended the week with a sunset in Door County.

4. The Brewers can’t win when we are at Miller Park. Even when they are ahead in the 9th inning. All five games we attended this summer ended up in the loss column. No more Brewer games for us.

5. Ninety years of life calls for a celebration. PB’s mom turned 90 in July and the extended family showed up to help her blow out those candles. She is the matriarch of our clan and it was a joy to hear the the kids, the grands and the great-grands sing a boisterous “Happy Birthday” in her honor. I hope I can be a nonagenarian someday. Only 32 more years to go.

6. Noah’s Ark was big. Really big. We went with a group to The Ark Encounter in Kentucky and saw it for ourselves. This amazing boat was built according to measurements given in Genesis and it was impressive. The detail, the quality of workmanship, the presentation, the buffet — all spectacular.

7. Talent abounds in the next generation. The Family Talent Show on Family Weekend was quite entertaining. Hudson showed us his skateboarding moves, Eli played the first level of Mario Brothers for us, Ella gave a dramatic recitation and danced, Evie sang a very special song with her daddy, and Charlie cheered everyone on. The littles jumped around and looked cute.

8. Our two pound baby girl proved Psalm 46:5 true. “God is within her, she will not fall.” Ember Blake made the happy trip from NICU to home, giving us all something to rejoice in and marvel at. She is over 10 pounds now and rewarding us all with smiles and coos.

9. Solomon was wise but not very smart. I’ve been digging into this man’s life to prepare for our fall women’s Bible study and he will give us a lot to talk about. Still trying to figure out how the wisest man to ever live ended up with 700 wives.

10. I’m not ready to quit. This summer, I spent some time thinking about what to do with “a small drop of ink”. This blog has been going since February 2010 and I felt ready to put it to rest. Then one day I noticed that of the 17 people who visited the site, five were from Great Britain, three were from Singapore, two were from Sweden and one was from the United Arab Emirates. My eyes went to the prayer I have on my desk:

“Help me to please You with what I write.
Give me a message that impacts lives for the Kingdom.
Put wings to my words and send them to whoever needs to know about Jesus.”

What better way to let words fly around the globe than to put them on the internet? As unsavory as social media can be, there is a good side too. So I’ll keep putting words out there and trust the Holy Spirit to give them wings.