TToT – Summertime
There’s something special about summertime…
The daylight lasts longer… Time seems to move a bit slower… Even the busy days feel a bit less structured and demanding. There is time to breathe, to inhale deeply, and to live deliberately…
We are one week into our official summer break and have filled it with wonderful moments and many things for which I am thankful. The first is, simply, that it is officially summer break for Zilla, the Hub has switched to his summer work schedule, and we are finding our summer groove.
Last weekend was Zilla’s birthday and we spent the better part of three days celebrating. Her first ever party with friends was a complete success, her party with family went swimmingly, and her special celebration with Mom and Dad was just about perfect. I’m thankful for all of that. I do believe a post-party recap is in order…I’ll get to that this week.
The Fab Hub has been working on some of those necessary home chores. This week he’s tackled replacing a broken doorbell button and a broken doorbell chime, fixed a light switch, steam cleaned the carpet in the foyer, mounted the TV on the wall in our library/viewing room, and super-cleaned all the floors.
Zilla and I have been cleaning and organizing in the areas of our “office.” We’ve worked on things like paperwork, school projects (keep it or toss it?), bookshelves, and craft supplies. We’re getting much closer to a freshly purged and organized system for all of those things.
Even the Rotten Cats are getting involved. We have them testing a new cat litter that claims to be lower on dust, tracking, and odor. For the ridiculous price increase from our usual litter, it had better do all of that and more. Like how about scoop and clean the boxes, too? Jury’s still out, but we think it might be a successful upgrade.
I ran a terrific guest post written by our own Val from My Virtual Vineyard. If you haven’t read Val’s spin on summer reading for young children, hop over here and take a look. Thanks for the great post, Val!
I am enjoying my trusty Vitamix this week. It’s been getting a workout – we’ve made smoothies, watermelon pops, green soup, and tomato juice. That baby is worth its weight in gold.
And speaking of vegetables, week three of this year’s CSA brought us more wonderful fresh produce to enjoy in the days ahead. So far this season we’ve seen a fun variety of greens – a salad mix, leaf lettuce, spinach, kale, something they call an Asian greens mix, zucchini, yellow squash, radishes (fabulous radishes), Hakurei turnips, scallions, garlic scapes, broccoli, bok choy, cucumbers…all delicious and right off the local organic farm.
![20150620_000625[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/20150620_0006251.jpg)
As weird as this may sound, I’m kind of thankful that I skipped the blog hops I usually join during the week. I was feeling sort of stressed about them and kind of needed a bye week. So that felt pretty good. I’ll be back next week, though, and will very likely read a few when I do my catch-up reading on Monday.
As tomorrow is Father’s Day here, I want to say how thankful I am that my Daughter has such a wonderful Father. The Fab Hub is also a truly Fab Dad. He is patient, he is kind…he is everything I could have hoped for in a father for my child and more. And he is completely in love with his Daughter. As it should be. Happy Father’s Day to our number one guy!
Zilla and I are reading like crazy – and I don’t just mean we’re reading books she’ll enjoy together. I actually checked out a few books from the library just for me. I’m off to jump back into the one I started this afternoon…right before I dozed off for a short mid-afternoon nap. It’s started to storm here and I should probably shut down the computer anyway.
Summertime…and the livin’ is easy…
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Your turn: What are you thankful for this week? How are you spending your summer days? What are you reading? Are you in your summer groove?
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Home projects, birthday parties, summer reading, healthy foods, Father’s Day–sounds like a wonderful summer so far!
It has been, Kristi!
Something about summer time and those extra hours of daylight take the rush out of our days. Or at least some of the rush.
I am so envying you that zucchini – mine in the garden have only just flowered so we’ve a ways to go before I can expect to harvest any. I’ve been wondering for a while now – what exactly is a CSA? I get that it has something to do with veggies but would love a more complete explanation.
The extra daylight does seem to take the edge off the rush, doesn’t it?
We had one of the zucchini with dinner last night – it tasted so good. CSA stands for community supported agriculture. Basically, participants buy a “share” of a farm which helps to fund and support the farm. In return, you reap some of the bounty from the farm’s production. If you look up community supported agriculture along with the name of your town or city, you’ll very likely find loads of information. And you can e-mail or PM me if you want, too!
Thanks for inviting me to guest post. I love the first week of summer. That jazzy version of Summertime gets me right in the mood. Slow and low. Have a good week.
Your guest post was great, Val, and perfectly timed!
The first week of summer is a great feeling – the long summer of possibility stretches out before us. Love that feeling.
Ah, Summertime…from Porgy and Bess…nothing like the original!
What is that stuff you have switched to? I love my cat, but kind of wish he could clean up after himself.
🙂
Sounds like your family had a great week. Good fathers are gems and glad to hear your daughter has one of them.
Off to read that guest post now.
Kerry, it’s Arm & Hammer Clump & Seal lightweight. We’re not certain it’s a successful switch just yet – jury’s still out (as in at least one cat seems to be protesting), but we’re still hopeful.
It’s been a great week and a great start to the summer!
Well, you guys certainly jumped right into summer break! Good for you getting so much done but having fun, too.
It’s good to skip a week sometimes. Blogging should not be stressful!
We definitely embraced it, Christine! We’re enjoying the balance of work and play.
I find that as much as I love blogging, it stresses me out every so often. Almost a pattern. I’m trying to figure out what that’s about.
We had a 26 hour day yesterday with our flight to Utah, and I conked out at 9:30 when it was still LIGHT outside! So glad to hear the parties were a success! I look forward to reading your recap. So I’ve been making smoothies regularly, and I’ve hooked Brian and Leo, which is great because they have the worst diets in our family. But now Brian’s dissatisfied with the NInja I bought and wants to get a Vitamix. I’m not saying no. 🙂
The Vitamix is worth every penny we spent on it – and that’s with me still not having tapped into everything it can do. I vote yes! Glad the smoothies are going well for all of you – boo to the 26 hour day.
(agree with Christine… taking time off is a good things sometimes)… funny your mention of Summer… totally my favorite time of year and not just the temperature but the light… though we normally don’t do much after dinner on a Sunday, I’m really determined to get outside tonight (it being the longest day of the year and all).
It WAS the longest day today and Zilla and I enjoyed the most stunning sunset as we drove home this evening. Just beautiful and we got to experience it together.
I like quiet after dinner time, especially when it’s still light out. Just something about it that feels great.
I miss many a hop. I have intentions for doing too many and am lucky ot get in this one… summer is not my favorite time but I can remember when having a little kid around that I felt differently about it. I think I enjoyed it a lot more.Its not bad just not my favorite time.
I have never liked summer, Ivy. Somehow having Zilla at this age has made it interesting.
Fall. Now there’s one I could take all year.
Okay, I finally had to Google “CSA” to find out what it meant. Got it now! My husband would love it, but I fear (hah! know) most of those vegetables would languish in my crisper drawer and become unrecognizable mush.
Glad the birthday party with friends was such a success! I always worried that parties would be a let-down for my kids, but they weren’t. The best one I ever did was a full blown High School Musical party for Emma. I dressed like the drama teacher and did it at our church. The girls went from classroom to classroom for different activities, I served lunch to them on school trays, and they divided into groups and choreographed HSM songs to perform for each other. It was fabulous!
I get a little blog stressed, too. I think I don’t write nearly enough, and that stresses me. I need some kind of hop to get excited about.
The way I keep up with the vegetables is to use any that don’t get eaten fast enough in smoothies or green soup.
The party was awesome and I was really nervous that it wouldn’t be all she hoped for – especially after the last several weeks of other disappointments. But it was awesome and she loved it! Yay!
I don’t know if I’m blog stressed or what – I feel like I go through a cycle where I’m good with it, keeping up on reading, doing OK on social media…then…pfft. It all annoys the shit out of me and I go into hibernation. Maybe I just need to adjust what I do and how often. Admittedly, though, I am pretty much just preoccupied with some offline things and that could be what is making me want to back off.
Hops – check out the One Word via Marcia at Blogitudes, Literacy Musing Mondays via Mary Hill at Maryandering Creatively, and/or the Six Sentence Stories over at Ivy’s. All are good ones I’ve jumped in on recently and they helped get the juices flowing.
Summer is definitely the season to kick back and enjoy some much needed R&R. Glad to hear you’re enjoying reading and napping and relaxing. That’s summer as it should be. Keeping enjoying. Summer passes much too quickly. 🙂
Indeed it does, Marcia. And this summer I want to make sure I soak in every minute!
I miss gardening, but my sis in law decided to this year. I am thankful for her cucumbers. Your produce looks delish. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Our CSA produce is wonderful, Mary – I swear it tastes ten times better than anything in the market, even the organic stuff! Something about grabbing your cukes from the farm on a Friday afternoon and eating them for dinner that evening that’s pretty awesome.
I love your perspective on summer, it is exactly how I feel too. There is something so special and liberating about not adhering to a schedule and slipping off the grid now and again. Enjoy!
I think it’s the allure of such a long stretch of days without crazy obligation… Happy summer!
Sounds like all that summer should be! Whoa, Ella’s velvety smooth voice is just what I needed this morning. It was actually my firstborn when she was about 18 who got me smitten with Ella. Now we even have a bunny named in her honor! Wouldn’t she be touched?!
Ella’s voice is exactly that – velvet. I think she’d probably love to have a bunny namesake! Ella’s always been one of my favorites.