Bumper Crop

It's strawberry season here, and it's my favorite time of the summer. The weather is warm but (usually) not too hot, school is done, we're still in the vacation honeymoon phase, and time goes lightly.

The kids, my mom, and I went out to the farm yesterday and found the best strawberry crop we've seen in years. We picked thirty four pounds of strawberries in about forty minutes. We could have gone even faster, but some little hands were busier putting berries in their mouths than in their buckets.

We were out in the fields with a few older couples, the kind who call each other Mom and Pop, and they got a kick out of the exuberance of my children. And by exuberance I mean NON STOP TALKING the entire time they picked. At least they weren't fighting.

But in the midst of my worrying about their behavior, the older ladies around me leaned over the rows of strawberries and told me to enjoy the children.

Enjoy them, they are gone so fast, they sighed over busy hands.

I know. They are like the strawberries; sweet and tender for only a brief season, and then they are gone. I have to savor them now.