There’s nothing like a good dosage of children, seven pairs of bare feet, multitudes of animals, and freshly picked garden food to make a summer delightful.

There’s nothing like listening to an eight-year-old tell stories using descriptive words like “torrents” and “horrified” and “startling” and have her shadow your every movement to make you feel loved.

There’s nothing like quiet nights reading out on the hammock and then listening to the dog bark and an overwhelming smell reach your nose to realize you just had your first encounter with a skunk spraying.

There’s nothing like walking into church and having your one-year-old niece reach out her hands to you to be held and then holding on to you and laying her head on you shoulder to make you fall in love with children all over again.

There’s nothing like car rides while working on birthday presents and finishing up your week-long-goals while listening to music and being exhausted to make you happy for a nap.

There’s nothing like group texting with amazing friends that make you laugh and turn your stressed-out mood into a giggle session to make you thank God for friendships.

There’s nothing like a brilliantly lit moon and the serenade of thousands of night time critters to make you thankful and for and almost wish summer evenings could last forever.

At least, that’s the way it works for me.

I’m having a very delightful time visiting my sister and brother-in-law and being “Aunt Lydia” to their six children. I love having my nieces and nephews follow me around, holding my hands, telling me amazing stories, giving me berries they just picked, astonishing me with their large vocabularies and being all around darling (and sometimes not so very darling) buddies of mine.

What are y’all up to on this lovely Monday morning?