Last week was fairly busy, with swim lessons, PTA stuff, and running errands. We capped off the week by taking a ride down the Shore on Friday. I didn’t know how much I had missed the Shore until I got there. For us to not make it down there until July 17 is highly irregular. So we got to go to the beach with my best friend and her kids, and then I took my kids up on the boardwalk for dinner and rides. I’m still patting myself on the back for remembering to bring my stash of ride tickets left over from last summer. They never expire, but I usually forget to look for them before we go down.

My other favorite moment was towards the end, when the kids were on their last ride. All three went on a kiddie ride, one that featured hot-air balloons. While they were waiting to start, I got an ice cream cone. The ride starts; the balloons start whirling around, and then going up and down too. They’re smiling, shrieking, and waving at me, the first go-round. On the second revolution, they realize I’m nonchalantly licking my cone. The third revolution: “HEYYYY! WHY DO YOU HAVE ICE CREAM???” The fourth revolution: “WHERE’S OUR ICE CREAM????” So of course when they got off, they wanted ice cream, even though they already had ice cream on the beach. (And cotton candy like 15 minutes prior.) So I said no, my younger son freaked out and cried (they were so tired at this point), there was a peed pants incident that may have been retaliatory, and we went home.

But it was worth it to see their indignant little faces. Hehehehe.

So yesterday (Saturday) I was happy to stay home and do nothing. I felt like I had spent plenty of quality time with them all week, and now it was time for me to give the house some attention. Laundry, cleaning the bathroom, scrubbing random dirty things, etc. Putting stuff away. We went to see the kids’ friends in a play in the afternoon, then it was back home for more putzing and puttering. I was in the mood to putz in the kitchen and see what I came up with. I ended up making guacamole for the first time ever, having bought some avocados at Wegmans on Monday. Add some Old Bay shrimp and a margarita, and it was a yummy dinner for me.

After dinner, I planted some zinnia seeds in the front garden. There’s half a summer left to grow stuff, and I have plenty of seeds. It’s just so damn hot out, I don’t feel like working too hard.

And I’m going to be working at harvesting now too. So far I’ve picked two pumpkins; per Internet directions, I wipe them down with a diluted bleach solution and store them out of the sun. A third pumpkin was half rotten, but I took out the seeds and washed and dried them, and I will try roasting them if we ever get a cool day. The carrots all seem ready, but I’m inclined to leave them in the ground and use them as I want them. Onions should be ready soon. And today the sunflower bloomed. 🙂

Today is going to be the hottest day of the year so far. Despite the heat, I’m still loving summer and trying to soak it all up, trying to get some summer in my bones to remember when it’s winter…