Today officially marks the beginning of my summer break. Sam has been out for a few days longer, so me having to work until even a little later in the year has seemed that much more excruciating. The end of the year doesn't leave you very fresh. Yesterday, me and my content team were trying to plan for next year and come up with a pacing guide. It really just wasn't happening. Sitting around staring at each other as we tried to throw out ideas and wrap our heads around next year was just visible proof of how burned out a person gets at the end of the school year, especially one that has seemed to last FOREVER...yesterday WAS June 15...what do you expect? So thinking about next year at this point was useless. Ask me to have fresh, exciting, creative plans on August 12. To further prove my stress I went to the dentist yesterday, overall good report, but I have been clenching my teeth lately. I have seriously just started noticing it over the past few months. But anyway, I have to get a night guard. Super lamo!
I am now officially tucking away school "stuff" into the dusty depths of my brain. HELLO SUMMER! Words that come to mind: Freedom! Reading! Yoga! Cooking! Relaxing! Gardening! Heat! Humidity! Curly hair! Cats! Shedding! Snakes! (my list has gone from good to not so good!)
So far the weather has been pretty perfect for gardening: lots of warmth and sunshine mixed with intermittent rain showers to keep the stuff growing. While this is boding well for the garden this year, there are some not so positive sides to the heat and the rain. We just recently (Monday) could stand no air conditioning for any longer. After consecutive days of 85+ degree weather and not much of a cooling off at night, the house was well-gross. While we were beginning to be uncomfortable, you can bet that those two woolly mammoths we own were getting pretty miserable. We would come home and they would just be lounging on the floor as if to say this is the lowest point in the house...we would really just like to crawl under a rock...you try surviving this heat with all of this hair! So, I think seeing them so miserable was the deciding factor. We were a little hesitant because the past few months' low electric bills were pretty fabulous after a pretty brutal winter. Speaking of brutal winter, the cats have had a HORRIBLE shedding season this year. The worse they have EVER had! Word on the street from a groomer of a friend is that because of the long frigid winter we had this year, all animals grew thicker coats. He said that all of the animals he has groomed this year have had exceptionally thick coats. Well you might say 2 things: 1.) Weezy and Delilah are indoor cats. 2.) Get them shaved. To answer to your observations, yes they are indoor cats, BUT because they grew such thick coats just shows how incredibly hard it is to heat our house and how cold it was in here this winter. And, yes, I have definitely thought about getting them shaved. Instead of sweeping,which just stirs up the hair, I am vacuuming.
Another downside to the current weather trends is that the frequent rain is leading to a more frequent need for mowing. A few weeks ago, when we let the the grass get just a little bit high, Sam happened upon a black snake. It was a pretty large snake. Probably about 5 feet long and 2-3 inches in diameter. Sam is terribly scared of snakes, and wouldn't have noticed it had the snake not had its head lifted out of the grass. Sam poked it with a long stick to get it to slither along into the next yard. We didn't want to kill it because black snakes are supposed to be good for keeping rodents and other, more dangerous snakes away. However, I did hear that black snakes are a pretty big predator of birds, which already don't really stand a chance around here with all the feral cats. I really feel bad about having a bird feeder hanging from our front porch. I feel like it is just bait for the birds, and the cats have become a little too accepting of us in their neighborhood because they have started to leave us presents (i.e. 1 and a half dead birds on the porch today).
Heat also means that my hair is curly. I really don't know why it takes me until this time of year for the past few years to realize that I can wear my hair curly with very little effort. Winter, while cold and isolating, makes for a very nice hair and skin season. It takes way too much effort during the summer to have perfectly straight, smooth hair. It takes a fraction of the time to just air dry it and have curls. Plus, it isn't as hot because I don't have to use the hair dryer.
MMMmmm chips and salsa! (and saucy curls!)
Our matching humidity swooshes! Check out the bang curls!
Speaking of heat, I just got steam burnt on my finger checking out our cabbage rolls in the oven! Ouch!
Although I will say, we are beginning to eat more and more meals that rely wholly on what we are producing in the garden, which is pretty exciting. Last weekend we had a salad, minus the feta, that was made completely from veggies grown in our garden. Today we are having cabbage wraps that contain broccoli, peppers, squash, onions, and cabbage grown from the garden. There is nothing better than eating home grown stuff! Hopefully a reduction in the grocery bill will justify the air conditioning being turned on :)
On a positive note, we are truly grateful for everything we have and jobs that allow us to have generous breaks. We are kicking our summer off in style by celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary! Which we are ecstatic about. I mean how many couples do you know that make each other laugh to the point of tears on average two times a week? I think we are just going to hang out and retrace our steps that we took about this time last year. The big thing we are doing for our anniversary won't happen for another few weeks. I am hesitant to reveal too many details, because I am pretty sure we will have a whole blog dedicated to the occasion ;) Other summer plans for me include recovering the bar stools in the kitchen, scrapbooking our Spain trip last summer, cooking, yoga, reading. Sam plans to carve, do some geneological research, finish a children's book he has been working on, and gardening. How many people can say they have a few months to dedicate to pursuit of personal interests? We are very fortunate. We also have a pretty big trip out West booked. We are going to visit my brother, Mark, who is moving to Idaho for a job (he will be greatly missed).
We are going to Yellowstone, The Tetons, Jackson Hole, and SLC, hopefully while we are out there. I am currently reading a book recommended by Sam, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is pretty excellent. We are co-reading a book by Barbara Kingsolver called The Lacuna, which is also pretty excellent. I like reading a book with Sam. It is neat getting to read a book out loud and talk about it. However, I hope to finish my solo book by Saturday. On Saturday I hope to start reading The Gastronomy of Marriage. It is a food memoir; I'm a sucker for food memoirs ::shrugs:: plus it seems like perfect timing because it is our anniversary. Well, I feel that this is a sufficient update. The next update should be pretty exciting and maybe more relaxed since we will have had more time to be engulfed in summer! Let's hope on a double rainbow!
A little pre-summer grilling. Sam looking manly!P.S. On a very fun plant note, our orchids re-bloomed! I have never had luck with orchids! They just popped open over night! I also have a beautiful calla lily that is so big it fits in would fit in the palm of your hand!
