Association Of Catholic Bloggers

We're celebrating  100   Praying with Grace  posts! I began this blog for the  Apostleship of Prayer  in October 2013. Through it, I have encountered many gracious, thoughtful, and prayerful people. I take a month off from the blog each summer, but otherwise here we have been together, every Tuesday morning, for two years. I am grateful. Thank you for praying with me. ©2015  Mark Frohna Photography Please join me at Praying with Grace for today's unique prayer experience.

Does your summer bend the rules a bit? In our house, bedtimes become a little fuzzier, trips to the pool cut piano practicing short, and french fries count as a vegetable at cookouts. The ambling summer months feel expansive, and spending time outside on long sunny days gives one plenty of "scope for imagination," as Anne of Green Gables would say. Imagination is always available, of course, but sometimes the leisure of summertime reminds us how creative we can be. Slow days ease the rigidity of lock-step schedules, and imaginative play breathes life into our family activities. Suddenly that pile of leftover mulch becomes a human ant hill. A bucket of water becomes a stew, flavored with rock-onions, twig-carrots, and maple-leaf-spices. My brothers and I always pretended the cracks in our driveway were cavities in a giant's tooth, and we (newly appointed dentists) had to clean out all the gravel with sticks before the giant's anesthesia wore off. Ah, summer! Cal