Summer Eats

I absolutely love the outdoors, so I can truly really appreciate Cay's idea for "Summer Eats" below...

Summer Eats

by Cay Gibson {Originally published July 2009 @ View from the Domestic Church}

The summer sun has not yet smoldered the southland in a bleached
cloud of heat. The nights are still cool, gentle, forgiving. The grass
is refreshing to bare feet newly freed from their winter’s foyer. The
summer solstice is in prenatal form but fixing to give birth. It is
pulsating with life. Why would we miss a moment of it?

The outdoors was God’s first vision of our preferred home. Trees
protect us from rain and sun. Flowers offer the first air freshener.
Crops barter the first food. In keeping with our homes being the
domestic churches, surely, our yards are the bowers into the home.
They serve as a glimpse into a once beautifully spiritual garden.They
welcome guests to our home. They leave pleasant memories in our
children’s mind of a better time, a better life, a better summer.

Susan Hill instructs: “In summer, the kitchen is not for
lingering in, only for preparing food quickly, wrapping it or dishing
it up, and taking it outside.” Until the evenings become
uncomfortably hot and unpleasant, I plan to take these domestic
instructions to heart.

· Do you have a simple patio table outside? What about a
picnic table? If not, perhaps you have a card table you could set
outside under a nearby tree.

· Find an old table cloth, curtain, or bed sheet…preferably of
fabric and with a floral print. Spread it on your table.

· Set a vase in the center. Have the children pick fresh
flowers to go in it.

· On a corner, set a large bowl or tin bucket. Fill with cold
drink cans and ice cubes. Or fill a pitcher with lemonade or water and set in bucketful of ice.

· Fix a simple tray of po-boy sandwiches. Layer them around
the edges. In the center, spread lettuce and tomatoes.

· Present a bowl of fresh fruits and vegetables.

It’s that simple. It’s that inviting. It’s that summery.