100ish Things I Love (summer edition!)

I love my babies’ raspy voices in the mornings. When sleep still hangs in their throat but the rest of their body is so ready for the day. I love turning the smallest occasion into a celebration. Complete with banners and fancy juice. I love when we’re all eating our second breakfast of the day at 8.50am and I think to myself we would be walking to school right now.

I love the Ikea kids’ meal deal for £1.50 over July and August. And when I get to eat the free fruit that the boys don’t want. I love Lego Club at the library and when the librarian recommends a book she thinks I’ll like (even when I end up not liking said book–I still love it). I love friends who let my feral sons chase traumatise their chickens.

I love seaside holiday routines with brisk morning jaunts to the park and slow evening strolls to, well, the same park again. I love when everyone gets a ‘baby cone’ of ice-cream every single evening. And I love when the baby cones are shaped like bears. I love when babies think the ocean is a big bath, hand filled to the brim by God Himself just for them.

I love when a book is too good to put down while making a cup of tea, ignoring my children for twenty four hours to finish it. But I also love when I can weave in and out of a slow book for weeks and by the end the characters feel like part of our family.

I love when the chocolate inside a smore melts and becomes one with the toasted marshmallow, forming the most glorious union. I love impromptu picnics at the skatepark with friends. And I love when no one gets hurt skateboarding. I love popcorn, olives, pic n mix, cinnamon bagels and anything bubblegum flavoured. I love skincare samples and making them last for weeks, one itty bitty drop at a time. I love my son’s addiction to audiobooks. I love reading Amazon reviews. In fact, that might be my addiction.

I love friends who provide both food and conversation for your soul, and bowls of water and giant spoons for your toddler. I love when I’m so deep in thought or concentration while cooking, I forget to put a podcast or music on. But I also love when a good podcast episode or song hits the spot, because sometimes I listen to lots of meh ones in a row and then I feel very filled up with mehness.

I love that Dominoes Pizza recently closed the last of its twenty nine failed food chains in Italy and how a commentator said, “You can’t sell ice to eskimos”. I love when we get a heatwave and the glorious spike in Vitamin D makes every Northern Irish person seem a little less depressed. Except the gingers. I love being married to a ginger in Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. I love when little kids line up to be pushed by Reuben on the roundabout. I love that he calls it his day job.

I love swimming laps of the pool until my head feels clearer and my limbs feel heavier. I love being totally submerged and letting the water hug me, and every single time I wonder if it comforts me because this is how we start off in the womb. I love that 2020 taught me to love family walks in our area. I love the security in the repetitiveness, but also the joy of noticing small changes along the familiar route.

I love worshiping God with people from different countries and languages. I love how His love bridges cultural divides. And I love how coffee is also an international language. I love my mother in law’s garden. I love historical fiction, especially anything World War 2. I love how Paddy thinks this love is bordering on a fetish. I love waking up before everyone else. Even if it’s just a five minute head start. And I love blue hydrangeas.

I love crying at weddings. I love the smell of children’s sun cream, fresh buttery toast, and a smoky barbeque. I love how Paddy’s barbecues always catch me by surprise: I live with a man and I love it. I love when Asher gives me vivid flashbacks to Reuben at the same age. This Summer has serenaded me with memories long forgotten. I love the part of my brain that tells me to keep having babies for the rest of my child bearing years as a means of preserving my memories. I love freckles. On others and on myself.

I love good decaf coffee and mango sorbet. I love a kids water table, or anything water related it seems. I love eating every meal outside and letting nature do the vacuuming at the end of the night. I love outdoor chalk. I love a dark, rainy, movie afternoon in the middle of August, when we are secretly glad of the excuse to take refuge from summering too hard. I love restaurant vouchers, years-long friendships, and when Paddy gets home from work early.

I love requesting Cascada at weddings. I love dishwashers, airports, trust-worthy babysitters and encouraging emails. I love cocooning myself in my mum’s crocheted blankets. I love getting the train into Belfast and wandering around aimlessly like we’ve nowhere else in the world to be. I love not driving. I love when the last week of Summer gives me a supernatural strength to be Fun Mum and do All. The. Activities.

I love dinners with our church family. And brunch, lunch and coffee too. I love scattering cheap bunches of gyp all over the house in an effort to add a subtle spark. And in-your-face bunches of sunflowers when subtle won't do.

I love when a late August sunset kisses a cool September breeze. I love how God can change any heart, even the hardened heart that used to loathe Summer. I love knowing ice-cream beards will soon change to hot chocolate mustaches, walks on shimmering sand to walks on crunchy leaves, strawberry and watermelon to pumpkin spice everything. And I love suddenly being okay with change, because there’s beauty to behold in every season, if I only have the eyes to see it.