Mid Summer - Where is the Kool Aid man?

Remember growing up watching tv and the Kool Aid commercials? The pitcher of Kool Aid breaking through walls (never did understand why he did that?) but I always remember children playing outside and the Kool Aid man coming and all the children were instantly happy and it was a great summer day. We don't drink kool aid yet but I still look for those things that make kool aid moments. I do find them and am often surprised by how simple things can be to make my children happy......crackers shaped like bugs, playing patty cake 3 times in a row, lemonade, reading a book in bed before breakfast, going to the library and picking books out about rhyming words, his Grandmother Sadie bringing breakfast over from McDonald's, telling stories about driving space ship trains, rolling down the windows in the car, watching for lightening bugs with Juke on the screened porch, a dum-dum sucker, helping Papa feed the goats and horses, helping Daddy with anything.....

Why is it then that we try to make things so difficult and complicated? Why must we "enroll" our children in all sorts of programs, buy them all the transformers, all the dolls that cry, tinkle, and wiggle, all the toys with their extravagant bells and whistles? Why must we make them learn different languages, have computer skills, know all their letters/numbers before 3 yrs old? Why not focus on more important, eternal values? Like what it means to be a good friend, a good sister or brother, what it means to love and know Jesus and the sacrifice He made for us, what it means to respect and love your parents and Grandparents - to value what they have to offer and can teach us?

As we're halfway through the summer - through with swimming lessons, VBS, and all other "planned activities", I vow to make the rest of the summer simple. Enjoy the simple things - they may not always be what we remember but they are what we invest in daily to make each day pleasurable, loving, and fun - and how we feel and who we are is not made up of just the big things or the little things, but a combination of both.