The Summer Scene

So the offspring have been on summer break for eleven days.  And I've yet to hear that dreaded phrase that so often accompanies summer vacation--"I'm bored."  This is, without a doubt, a personal record for my crew.

It may even be Guinness worthy.

The pool is getting a lot of use.  Like every day.  Which is a huge relief for me.  For several reasons.  #1--I was the one that pushed for the pool in the first place.  Better Half really didn't want one (which he reminded me of when we were fighting about discussing the $$ involved in maintaining it the other day.  Whatever.  :o)  They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  And the screensaver on his phone isn't a picture of me...or one of the kids...or one of our gorgeous mountain view.  It's a picture of the pool.  Not even kidding.).  #2--I'm too cheap to heat it.  And since the temperature actually drops into the sixties and seventies after the sun goes down around here, I was afraid that the water would never get warm enough to enjoy without a wet suit.  #3--I'm too cheap to turn on the central air in the house.  I figure we can run the pool pump, or we can run the AC.  I'd like to keep my 283 day streak of au naturale climate control going.  I'm shooting for an entire calendar year.  #4--I just didn't want it to be like the trampoline, the swing set, the "Dance Dance Revolution" mats for the PlayStation.  You know...used faithfully for a month, and then pretty much abandoned.

My mom's been here for the past week.  And That. Has. Been. Awesome.  I don't think I'm going to let her go back home.  You know that sign that gets posted in communal dorm bathrooms?  "Attention:  Your Mother Doesn't Live Here!"  Yeah, well, my mom is here, so when I set my coffee cup and cereal bowl on the kitchen counter, leave, and come back, they're rinsed and put in the dishwasher.   It's better than magic!  My kitchen has been clean every single day she's been here.  And not just SRS-probably-won't-take-my-kids-away-if-they-walked-through-here, but CLEAN.  With swept floors and everything. Which is probably another record.    And that's just the icing on the cake of chats on the patio over coffee, watching great and inspiring people give talks on YouTube,  or laughing every time we have an opportunity to remember the Polish proverb--"Not my circus.  Not my monkeys."  Which seems to be often.

So I kind of made this commitment not to buy any books from Amazon this summer.  Not kind of.  Actually.  Like--I even wrote it down and signed my name to it.  I didn't include any other specific bookstores in the agreement, but I think they're implied in the spirit of the thing.  So that's been kind of a bummer a great exercise in self-discipline for me.  Instead, I'm using the Los Angeles County Public Library.  Which seems like it would be really easy.  Not so much.  Our little branch has next to nothing.  EVERYTHING has to be requested.  The requesting part is easy.  It's the waiting for it to arrive that stinks.  I hope that when the books finally arrive, I still want to read them.

Speaking of reading--I just finished A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.  It was fantastic.  My sweet sister sent it.  I enjoyed it almost as much as the handwritten note she tucked inside.  I'm working on Falling Upward:  A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr, which was a gift from my brother.  If it wasn't for the fact that the volume I have is a signed copy from the author, I would totally have the thing marked up with yellow highlighter and notes in the margins.  And Finding Yourself in Transition:  Using Life's Changes for Spiritual Awakening by Robert Brumet (a gift from my mother) is sitting on my nightstand.  Can I just say how much I love my book-loving family? Okay.  Fine.  Maybe I should be able to wait a few days for the library.

I'm attempting to cook a cast-iron skillet into submission.  All of my Google searches on the subject indicate that the secret is a good quality skillet (check) and  time.  Well, since I'm such a patient person by nature, you can guess how much fun I'm having with this particular adventure.

Better Half has been in Arizona for the past ten days with Nelly for a baseball tournament.  TEN. I cannot even imagine what that baseball uniform now looks like after ten days of hotel laundry facilities. They'll come home on Friday and then turn right back around and head back for another week with Corb. I guess we had so much fun living apart last year, we thought we'd try it again this summer.   I am quite possibly the only person ever to live in Southern California who is considering summer real estate in Arizona--where, according to Better Half, the temperatures were still hanging in the hundreds at 9pm a few nights ago.

I've been watching more TV than usual.  I'm not at all proud of this fact.  And I'm totally blaming it on the Amazon book ordering freeze.   But what I have discovered is that nothing highlights First World problems quite like every program on HGTV.

Except for possibly this blog.  :)