Summer Blessings

I hate summer. Truly. When I first started this blog, I wrote a rant about it. Today, I'm going to take a different tack. (Sailing metaphor, posts found here and here.) I'm going to count my blessings. Not thinking it will stop me from sweating, but at least it will improve my outlook. So in no particular order:

~ It's the first summer in four that I'm not working. I get to hang out with my kids, and watch them have...

~ A perfect kids' summer. Roll out of bed, grab some food, go see which of the many boys on our street are already up. Play nerf, have a water fight, ride bikes, skateboards, ripsticks, roller blades, scooters. Hang out in the tree house. Sneak popsicles. What could be better?

~ I have a swamp cooler. And it works. It creates a “wind tunnel” for me to enjoy. We live in a ranch style house, with kitchen/pretty room/dining room on the horizontal part of the L, and a long hall with bedrooms branching off making up the vertical part of that L. My life-saving device is in the pretty room window, and that moist, cool air blows all the way down the hall and into the bedrooms. Engineering marvel, these coolers. (If you're from a humid state, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. It's an evaporative cooler that works by sucking in hot air, blowing out cool air, and open windows direct where that flow goes.) Don't want one of the rooms cooled? Shut its window. Much more efficient to operate than an A/C unit, and let's fresh air flow at all times. But it only works in dry climates.

~ A/C in my car. I spent one hideous summer without it, and barely survived to tell the tale. Never again.

~ My ice-maker. It's my favorite feature of my new fridge. Ice is so useful, and not having to fill the trays, dump the trays, refill the trays is bliss. No more reaching for ice and finding ALL the trays empty and some soon to be hunted down culprit not having refilled them...

~ Camping. I have mentioned how much I love camping.

~ Grilling. We grill year round, but in the summer, it's several times a week. I love slightly charred food. Oh so yummy. Just don't char my steak! Medium rare, please.

~ Colorado's cool summer evenings. I've been places where the temperature barely fluctuates between day and night. In CO, we have about a 35 degree swing. If you can make it through the sultry day, you'll have a wonderful, cool evening to enjoy. Just don't forget the DEET.

~ Swimming pools. Sissie has a community pool that we get invited to frequently. And they change the water every day it seems, because it's always cool. Not like the public pool my boys occasionally convince me to take them to. There the water is over 80. Not as refreshing. Oops, started to whine there, sorry. Ahem.

~ Time to blog. Not working anymore. Not homeschooling until fall. I get to spend my mornings traveling to all your great blogs, and the afternoon writing my next post. It's been great to be able to finally practice my writing. And your encouragement has TRULY been a blessing. Sweaty virtual hugs to you all!