In the Good Old Summertime!
My theme song this time of year is always "Bring back those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!" In my mind I see myself sitting in my lawn chair underneath a shade tree, sipping lemonade and reading a good book. There is a nice warm breeze keeping me cool with my bare feet feeling the soft grass beneath them. Time means nothing so I can sit there until I desire to get up and do something else. Snacks and refills of lemonade magically appear, and there are no flies or insects to intrude upon my Utopia.
The reality of summer looks a lot different at our house! The only resemblance to the song is the "crazy" part.
When you live in northern Nebraska where the four seasons are referred to as "almost winter", "winter", "still winter", and "summer", you learn to make the best of those few months of summer weather. That's the time you have to grow a garden and can, freeze and preserve it. The lawn and flowers need to be watered and mowed. It's the season for Fast Draw events. Camping, picnicking and family reunions are much easier to plan and carry out when you don't have winter weather to contend with. If you want to take a vacation, there are a limited number of summer months when the parks and attractions are open to visitors. Summer is way too short to fit all this stuff into, but that has never stopped us from trying.
In 2015 we spent exactly three weekends at home between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with one of those weekends stolen from another event we should have been at. Last year we did just a bit better, but not much. And this year, even though I get tired of being gone and never getting caught up at home, we have been home two weekends since the end of April, one of them being this past weekend with a houseful of company! That's definitely the crazy part of summer for us.
This year we opted to not plant a garden or flowers since we seldom have to time do them justice. Not being able to fathom a summer without fresh tomatoes (our most favorite summer treat) we put four tomato plants in two lick tubs in the back yard. We had the garden planted in 10 minutes on Memorial Day! No canning required!
It makes me sad to see how we live our lives in the fast lane without stopping to enjoy the quieter moments of life. But what do we give up? I say Fast Draw, but Mike says no. Don't want to give up the kids and grandkids. And as things stand right now, the vacations we would like to take are off the table because there's no time. And this brings to mind another song, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!"
Hope you all's summer is going well, and that you find time to sit in the shade and sip lemonade!
The reality of summer looks a lot different at our house! The only resemblance to the song is the "crazy" part.
When you live in northern Nebraska where the four seasons are referred to as "almost winter", "winter", "still winter", and "summer", you learn to make the best of those few months of summer weather. That's the time you have to grow a garden and can, freeze and preserve it. The lawn and flowers need to be watered and mowed. It's the season for Fast Draw events. Camping, picnicking and family reunions are much easier to plan and carry out when you don't have winter weather to contend with. If you want to take a vacation, there are a limited number of summer months when the parks and attractions are open to visitors. Summer is way too short to fit all this stuff into, but that has never stopped us from trying.
In 2015 we spent exactly three weekends at home between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with one of those weekends stolen from another event we should have been at. Last year we did just a bit better, but not much. And this year, even though I get tired of being gone and never getting caught up at home, we have been home two weekends since the end of April, one of them being this past weekend with a houseful of company! That's definitely the crazy part of summer for us.
This year we opted to not plant a garden or flowers since we seldom have to time do them justice. Not being able to fathom a summer without fresh tomatoes (our most favorite summer treat) we put four tomato plants in two lick tubs in the back yard. We had the garden planted in 10 minutes on Memorial Day! No canning required!
It makes me sad to see how we live our lives in the fast lane without stopping to enjoy the quieter moments of life. But what do we give up? I say Fast Draw, but Mike says no. Don't want to give up the kids and grandkids. And as things stand right now, the vacations we would like to take are off the table because there's no time. And this brings to mind another song, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!"
Hope you all's summer is going well, and that you find time to sit in the shade and sip lemonade!
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