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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Writing a Summer Story (with free printable.)

June 14, 2018 by HappyGoStuckey 1 Comment

If you’re anything like me, you fall headlong into summer with all the love and plans and sunscreen your tote can carry. Every new season brings high hopes, but my summer hopes are usually astronomical.

If you’re also like me, you may get to August and have a mental list of all the things you didn’t accomplish in your home, your work, your art, in anything. For many of us, that can sour a summer before we transition to fall.

I believe in having a summer list of things that mean the most. I also believe in having a list of things I won’t do this summer. Last year I scrawled out a few markers for the slice of time between May and August.

This year, I revisited my list. It helps me to have a heart guide for what can be the most carefree time of year. Do you make lists like this? I hope this will be a kind reminder for you as it already has been for me. Not a list of rules, but of the kind of boundaries that give us more spontaneity and freedom.

Writing a Summer Story

I will open my hands to the swelter of June and July and collect its’ slower gifts.

I will breathe in summer, not hold it up against seasons of greater productivity.

I will create when I can; be happily content with the art made in the quiet cracks between summer adventures. 

I will smile at these days of fluidity and fun, instead of scoff at their limited productivity. 

I will invite my children into the creative fun and remember that messy makes good memories. 

I will not stop trying to balance both the good rest & the good work.

I will see beauty in a period of less and embrace the knowledge that if rest is offered me, rest is where I am most needed.

I will eat popsicles with my children, and know again the drippy, sticky, happiness of being nine years old.

I will focus on the faces in front of me. I will notice new constellations of freckles on her nose. I will see the way his eyes reflect the pool blue of the deep end. 

I will remember that cultivating an atmosphere of simple fun and unabashed joy— means as much as creating a magical masterpiece of a summer. 

I will choose wave skipping and a seashell search over chasing someone else’s goal.

I will stay in my own lane and swim happily in it.

I will take this summer, however it looks, with my whole heart and I will not make it smaller by comparison.  

We will remember that this summer, our summer, is a gift wrapped in beach towels and tied with a jump rope bow— and we will love every minute of it. 

****

And because many of you, like myself– enjoy a reminder made pretty, here is a printable version of just a few of these lines.

To get your own copy, click here and download the PDF version.

Happy Summering, friends.

What I Learned & Loved in the Spring
Simple Meal Planning (without losing your mind.)

Comments

  1. Angela says

    June 19, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    Cindy, great post! My bible study is going over how good boundaries create freedom in our lives and this is right in line with that! 🙂 Thanks for the printable, I’m giving one to all the girls in our group!

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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“Sometimes, placemakers make new. Build fresh. S “Sometimes, placemakers make new. Build fresh. Start from scratch. But most of the time, they repair. They restore. They protect. Sometimes, placemaking is nothing more than the refusal to unmake.”

@christiepurifoy // Placemaker

#internationalwomensday #mothersofdaughters #getaftergrateful #weareplacemakers
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Mine was one year ago today and I love the pictures from it so much I made them into a chatbook.

My Mom & I visited the @biltmoreestate to celebrate her being healed from cancer— We enjoyed the most beautiful afternoon tea, saw the Downton Abbey exhibit and were even surprised with a bit of unexpected snow.
It really was ✨magical✨ and proof that short getaways really can be the best!

Planning travel might be my favorite part— Where will you go next? 🧳 🛫⛰🏰
Throwing it back but not way back: remember last y Throwing it back but not way back: remember last year when we *discovered* the whipped, frothy, goodness of Dalgona Coffee?

I made it again today for the express purpose of seeing if it would still work with less sugar and I rather like my lightened up version!

(Tip: in my opinion, it makes enough for two— especially because I use instant espresso— so it’s pretty strong! Not warm where you are yet?  Tap the little flag to save this post for later.)

✨Whipped Coffee✨ 
2 TBS. instant espresso
2 TBS. cold water
1 TBS. maple syrup or simple syrup
1-2 glasses of ice and milk

Whip/ Beat the espresso, syrup, and water with an electric beater, immersion blender, or hand-held milk frother until frothy and light in color. Scoop over the milk and ice and enjoy!
🪡Do I seamstressed to you?🪡 Really though, 🪡Do I seamstressed to you?🪡 

Really though, after completing my first embroidery project, I feel like it might just be the cheapest, prettiest, stress relief out there. I am officially a believer in relaxing this way. And PS, if I can do it, you can.

Thank you, @thebarmyfox for bringing this lovely art into my life!
Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
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We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
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Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
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