Mid-summer check in

I cannot believe how quickly July is flying by.  Here we are with only a week left this month. Things have been going well--the TV has remained off during the day, and I have been taking breakfast on the patio each morning.  Well, except for one day... there was an unwelcome visitor on the back steps:

This snake, which was incredibly long--slithered himself across the back porch, down the side, and back under the stairs.  He (she?) is a black rat snake, which is the "good kind of snake to have," they tell me.  Cosmo (the dog) went outside ahead of me, and when I stepped onto the porch, he was not even a foot away from the snake, very curious about this new-to-him creature. The snake wasn't aggressive, and I lured Cosmo away with a treat.

My niece and nephew stayed with us this past week, and we had a super time.  My nephew went to soccer camp all day for five days (who wants to play soccer for 7 hours a day!?!?!), while my niece and I had a sewing camp.  I taught her how to use her machine and to follow a pattern, She made a few items and we had a fun week.

Summer Routines

Summer for me started two days ago, and I wanted to get off on the right foot.  My dog and I went for a nice walk first thing in the morning, then I sat down to my usual breakfast (yogurt and granola) plus a couple leftover muffins.

I decided that I will take breakfast outside every morning that I can, enjoying the flowers and birds and morning breezes.  This was a great way to begin the day.  Of course, the second day of vacation, it rained, and I had to eat breakfast inside.  But my dog and I got our walk in just before the shower came through.

My second "summer resolution" is that the TV will stay off between 9 am and 5 pm.  I don't need to know what Kelly Ripa is up to every day, and Hoda and Kathie Lee will be fine without me.  Already I am more productive.  Today I transplanted a spider plant, yesterday I made two banana breads... so this is definitely a good thing.  And it will give me more time to read, which is something I need to keep up with in the summer, as our middle school librarians' committee is busy picking books for our upcoming Cafe Book Program.  There is a ton of reading that goes into this program, so having quiet time away from the computer and TV is a must.

I made a To-Do list of things I want to accomplish this summer, and since we're not really traveling much, it's the perfect summer to accomplish stuff that I don't have time for during the school year.  I have fabric to make curtains for the basement, and an idea to make an over-the-door flag holder for our outside flags, and several other projects.  I am a list person, and I love crossing things off!

And there's also time for this in the summer--flowers! My patio containers are doing great, and the marigolds I planted rescued just in time are finally looking healthy.  On the side of the house I don't really visit a lot is this beautiful hydrangea, and I make sure I take a look at it every day in the summer--so gorgeous!!

Tomorrow!!

Well, I have it. Sunday Night Dread. It is back in my heart. It will live there for the next nine months. It's not that I don't want to go back to work. I do. I am excited about a new school year, new kids, old families, great colleagues, the whole thing. It's just that I love summer. So much. I LOVE summer. I love the flexibility of summer, the long days and late nights, doing whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it. It's over. Everything in my life now has to get crammed in to two days on the weekend. It's going to take some getting used to.