Mrs. Sharp's Traditions closes out August with an entry about preserving summer and looking ahead to fall.  She suggests a last summer project of making jelly.  We have some lovely little fruit trees eeking their existence out on this foothills plot of land but usually the deer get the biggest share of the harvest.  So, while I might daydream of shelves lined with jelly jars, the truth is there has not been time this summer for very many leisurely domestic activities such as that anyway.  Lest we slip into melancholy over the state of things she quickly adds this reminder:

"None of us today, dear Reader, has time to do everything – whether it is preserving jam or memories. When we realize that setting priorities is not a compromise but the way to find the time to accomplish what's really important for ourselves and our family, it's easy to preserve precious moments of daily life to be recalled and savored in the months and years to come."

This echoes a word picture my friend Suzanne shared today from her reading.  She said among all the balls we are trying to juggle it's critical to discern which are rubber and which are glass.  The short answer there is our children's hearts are glass.  The rest are rubber.  

There are many things languishing on my bulging to do lists. That list is full of rubber balls, however. The summer has been spent filling up my heart and those of the people around me, including one very vulnerable soul whom we have been blessed to have enter our lives.  That all took time. This past week we have been printing test charts and tweaking as we step gently into the fall school/work/activities routine.  We are easing back in to the school year while still relishing these warm warm days of ripening fruit and cooler nights full of cricket song. 

As I work out our priorities for the upcoming busy season I am reminding myself it is not the checked task list that we will cherish later.  It's the precious moments of daily life, the in between minutes.  It's how we feel in those that will be remembered later.