summer!

something has happened to me in the last few years. somehow i have evolved into a lover of summer. previous years have been marked by simply dealing with the arrival of the heat and humidity and accepting it as inevitable, lest i relocate to somewhere with less severe summers but that also means signing up for horrid winters. one of the things i love most about ohio is it's balanced seasonal change. just enough heat with just enough snow but the fall and spring are when i think ohio practically spoils its inhabitants. i mean fall in ohio is gorgeous. this year has been the first year of my adult (read: non-have-the-summers-off-from-school) life that i can say that i love summer! this is also kind of the first year in my life that i've worn shorts and skirts on a regular basis so there might be a correlation there. i am not a big fan of my legs nor the unfinished/probably never to be finished tattoo on my right leg but something happens as you approach and sink into your 30s - you just accept stuff and get comfortable in your skin. at least that is how my mind is processing things. it's not that i dont give a rip (okay maybe a little) but i am a lot less concerned about hang ups that in previous eras would at least give me pause.

highs so far this summer:
the installation of family movie night, weekly date nights, strawberry picking, air conditioning (did not have a/c here for the first part of summer last year and it was terrrrrible), smoothies all the time, tan lines from my toms, getting a tan (though this is certainly a reaction to my hives reaction to sunscreen a few weeks ago - havn't used any since), a thriving garden, bike riding, eating more locally than ever, farmers market booth for justice gardens/interacting with farmers and localvores on a regular basis, gymnastics camp, eating strawberry pie straight out of the pan, swimming, swimming in a suit i actually like/feel comfortable in (trust me ladies, this is a priceless investment. skimp on other things), regular hang outs with women who feed my body and soul (another priceless investment, never skimp on this), my kids being old enough to give me a taste of freedom

we have yet to make it out to go camping but now that david is at his new job and has every weekend free (im still not used to this routine! every saturday im like OMG YOU'RE HERE!!) now we are in the real heat of the summer so i am not exactly thrilled at the prospect of going, especially since i like to cook over the fire for every meal and dude, sitting in front of a fire when it's 90 out is painful.

david is going to look at and test drive my dream car (but in red) tonight. i really hope this works out because already this whole get up with negotiating out schedules, arranging for rides to work or wherever i need to go, etc is getting old. as much as i am not wild about owning two cars it makes sense. it makes me laugh and feel silly that i could potentially be driving the exact same car (but a different color) as my best friend maggie.

yesterday a tree was cut down in our communal backyard and i went out to get a bunch of the sawdust to put in the compost. gosh i must have looked like a lunatic putting handful after handful of dust into bags like i was feral grocery shopping or something. our compost needs more "browns" darn it!

& also i can't wait to see this


& also i finished taking the steroids to calm the hives and two days later im having a mild case of hives again. doctors tomorrow to sort this all out i hope. i am NOT looking forward to getting back on prednisone. that made my stomach so bloated and i couldnt get to sleep and i just felt totally wack a do