Friday Countdown...Normal vs not Normal

Good morning everyone! It is hard to believe that summer is already coming to an end [please do not let your kids read this..it could be harmful to their mental and physical welfare]. Soon kids will be headed back to school and life for us parents will seem somewhat normal again.

Speaking of normal, I don't know about you, but I kind of like normal...most of the time. Normal is somewhat predictable. It stands for what is routine and secure. Normal means you have been there before. You are familiar with the scenery. Normal is very comfy for most of us and even though we all get tired of normal sooner or later, it feels like our favorite pillow once we get back to it after long periods of abnormality.

For me summer is all about what is not normal. From early June until late August I feel like a duck out of water [please excuse my very normal saying]. For one thing, like many of you, I travel more in the summer than usually in any other time of the year...conferences, family reunions, vacation, and a few other things that are not normal. Then, there are other abnormalities namely kids out of school, kids without homework and school activities, kids with too much time on their hands, weddings to attend, very few funerals to attend [which is a great thing but very abnormal for me) extremely hot weather, long days with lots of daylight, low church attendance, few cell meetings, lots of outdoor activity, and did I mention kids out of school. And, of course, for all of us that live here near an Amusement Park, everytime we go to a restuarant or go out we see happy people on vacation acting very abnormal.

So here we go again, back to the land of normal...or so we might think. Because even though there are times we might long for the normal...really, is there any such thing as normal any more?