Summer So Far

Thank you all your kindness about our porch project. We are enjoying it as much as possible and I have to say that our summer weather has been my idea of perfect. A lot of people would argue that point with me, I'm sure, but since I don't love the heat and I do love the rain, it's been heaven! So far Mother Nature is taking care of the watering which suits me fine.

I can't believe how far into the summer we are. I'd rather not think about it too hard. I feel like we are just getting started on the break part of the season. As soon as school got out we went on a trip to Missouri and the next weekend we went to North Carolina where we got to meet a long time blog reader, Yvonne.

She is such a special lady. She was crowned the girls' Fairy Godmother quite some time ago. She sends them (and me!) the most thoughtful gifts. She has been doing this for a couple of years now and you know how some people are just gifted at giving? She is one of those. We met for breakfast at Foster's Market in Durham which was the perfect place for us. I wish we could have visited longer and I hope that we will see her again soon. Or maybe she will just move to the Village.

Can you tell the girls loved her? There is just something about her. She felt like home and comfort.

As soon as we got back from NC Emma headed off to writing camp at Butler University (where she hopes to attend one day). She loved it so much and would do things like send me pictures of her drinking her Starbucks while sitting in the lecture hall listening to a professor. Our little Rory Gilmore. The next week she had ballet camp which wrapped up with a performance at a local Senior Center. I was so proud of this girl. After the performance she went up to every single senior there and shook their hands, introduced herself, smiled and talked to them. Really talked to them. This is usually SO far out of her comfort zone but she loved every minute and was the last dancer to leave the area. We've been talking about volunteering at a facility for awhile and this convinced me. She was made it for it. Really the only thing that had been holding us back was not knowing if I could make it through without crying. You might say I'm a little tender hearted. But I surprised myself and now there is nothing holding us back.

We have now entered the part of summer that we love the most. The popsicle eating, reading in a chair hammock part of the summer.

The tubing on the river with friends part of the summer. Have I mentioned that we have the best of both worlds here? We have in-town living in the front and country living in the back which was the perfect compromise for the little girl who would have had us choose a house based solely on whether or not it had a stream in the yard. We act like that river running through the Village is all ours.We can't even help ourselves.

So while the summer might be half over, we still have a lot of living to do in these next weeks. There are still many adventures ahead of us: waterparks to go to, visits from cousins, museum visits, fireworks, movies to see, ice cream cones to be eaten, picnics, lazy days to be had, books to be read and a week at the beach in Michigan. But for now I'm grabbing a book and a cold drink and heading to the porch with my favorite guy!