End-of-summer Checklist

I head back to school bright and early tomorrow morning.  I'm looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues again and to getting settled into my classroom.  Still, I always feel a bit melancholy as this time of year approaches.  To fend off the blues, it helps to think about how productive (relatively speaking) I was over the summer:

1.  Visited Minnesota?  Check.  For two whole weeks!  It was like we were living at home again.

2.  Visited Las Vegas?  Check.  (Though this city is not nearly as great while one is pregnant)

3.  Visited local museums?  Check.  And two of them were new visits!  Thank you, Groupon.  It's always a treat to visit a new museum, especially in this part of the country.

4.  Cleaned every inch of our house?  Check.  As a bonus, I completely gutted the closet in Franny's future room.  I'm sure s/he appreciates that.

5.  Canned like a Little House on the Prairie cast member?  Check.  Our pantry is stocked once again with hand-picked vegetables, homemade marinara sauce, jams, pickles and other goodies.  After we make a trip to the apple orchard in the fall, I'll finish it up with some applesauce.

6.  Read several books without thinking about character analysis or literary criticism?  Check.  Realizing that I won't be able to continue reading at this pace once school starts is always the hardest part about saying goodbye to summer.

7.  Napped daily?  Double check!  This was a delightfully lazy summer.  Thank you for that, Franny!  Mommy loves you already.

Idle hands

Fortunately, my hands have not been the devil's playground this summer. I was worried that I'd get bored with so much free time on my hands. Little did I realize how a teacher's summer is filled with lesson planning and tweaking, class taking and general organizing to get one prepared for the upcoming year. I've slowly been unpacking, sorting and organizing my last-day-of-school car all summer:

I've also tried to keep myself busy with projects around the house. Hence, the great pickling experiment of aught nine. The staff at the local craft store also knows me by name now. I've been decoupaging, flower arranging and painting to my heart's content. These pots are one of my favorite creations:

I would say that any of these things could be recreated for the right price, but school is right around the corner, and my idle hands will have plenty of other things to do.

Our Garden of Eden

Matt grew up with a remarkably lush garden in his backyard. One of my favorite stories about Matt's dad (and there are several) is the one in which he dumped a load of fresh fertilizer in their suburban yard. "The corn never grew so high," he laughs every time he tells the story.

We haven't blessed our neighbors with the aroma of fresh fertilizer, but we have created a rather obtrusive garden in the front of our house this summer. We can't grow anything in the backyard because it's too shady, so we plant as much as we can up front. This year, we planted pole beans and a whole mess of tomatoes. They're just starting to produce fruit, and it's about the best food I've ever tasted. Granted, however, I never had any of Matt's dad's mile-high corn.

Life is Just a Day at the Beach

Ah, summer vacation!

Matt and I took a mid-week trip to the beach this week.


The weather was perfect, the views were amazing and the beach was deserted. On the flip side, Matt got stung by a jellyfish and we both got some nasty sunburn. Yes, the lives of a government employee and a teacher are rough this time of year, but we're making do.

The dog mornings of summer

I've been slowly easing into my very first professional summer vacation. I took my third (and final, I hope) standardized test, entertained a good friend from college (I miss you already, Andrea!), and have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince myself that I'm not bored already by starting countless little "homemaker" projects. If you're in the market for a decoupaged flower pot or some homemade pickles, let me know.

Still, with all the craziness, the best part of my summer has been the luxury of spending a few extra minutes every morning with a warm doggie snuggled next to me. When we first saw Barley in the shelter, he was snuggled next to his sister, letting her sleep directly on top of him:

He's taken to sleeping the same way with me, his head tucked under mine and that same puppy smile on his furry face.