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Okay, I wrote this post right as summer was starting and never put it up. Sometimes life gets in the way of finishing the job, you know? My older girls start school one week from today and I thought I would do a fun countdown for the next week where we choose something fun to do every day and it made me think of this list. How did I do on getting to the things I was looking forward to for summer?
5 Things I’m Looking Forward to About Summer
Afternoons by the pool: Sitting by the pool is not quite a relaxing event for me, I do still have a toddler. But sitting in the kiddy pool while my big girls swim, is an activity I can do with kids who range a nine-year age span (there aren’t many things all four of my girls enjoy). Conversation. Laughing. Not being able to do anything but be there and monitor the non-drowning keeps me present. Yes! Totally get an A on this. Having to be at the pool for 10 weeks for swim team helped. But my full attention had to be on my kids (safety and all) and I loved it.
Dinner from the garden: I confess I write this a little to give the wrong impression. Our garden is not a bounty of vegetables that fill our table. I’m happy when I can snip a piece of basil off a plant and have our family split it six ways. But it does make me feel a little Laura Ingalls Wilder meets Rachel Ray-ish, so I’m looking forward to that. Well the basil leaf was a pretty good description. We do have the best garden we’ve ever produced (which is not a huge feat). Two nights ago we had baby tomatoes in our rice from, yes, our garden.
A bean (or even two) has been spotted in our garden!
Early Mornings: I am a morning girl, no question. I love the quiet of our street (and if I’m lucky my house) when the light outside is still dawnish and hazy. I love the first cup of coffee and some reading and writing time with whatever first riser is keeping me company. I love the cool that comes in the open windows and the promise of unspoken adventures that lie in front of a new day. Well it is early morning right now and I’m the only one awake in the house. I must cherish this time this week, it’s only days until it’s gone.
Friendship time without agendas: I hope my friendship time never has an agenda, but during the school year there always seems to be a meeting, or a next thing to run off to. Summer lends itself to longer evenings outside, camping with hours to just be or sitting under a tree just waiting for it to cool down. So time to be, without having to do, in the company of friends sounds lovely. Not as many spontaneous playdates, but we had lots of visitors which gave me chunks of time blocked off on my calendar to focus on the people staying with us. We had a cousin for a week, an RV-full of friends from Idaho and long-lost family all the way from Spain. We were trying to pack all kinds of catching up into the visits, so not sure it equaled “agenda-free” but good friendship time.
Oh, and then there’s camping. A great time to be with friends (even though it didn’t make my list of things I was looking forward to) once you get there (so much packing!) We even went 3 times! Dinner with a little extra crunch.
Books: Last summer was all about book, singular. As in finishing the manuscript. This is where I stopped writing months ago, a few sentences from being done. And I did read a great book this summer, but yes singular book, cover to cover: The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge. It is a great, great story about her frelationship with an African-immigrant mother and her daughters. Books I bought/borrowed/and were gifted with the intent to read: Sparkly Green Earrings by Melanie Shankle, Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist, Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan…and the list goes on and on of those the piles of books that I’ve opened but haven’t finished.
So let’s try the new comments feature on this blog and give me ideas for the last week of summer fun countdown.