Summer Wrap Up

The last day of August; the first day with kids at school. The beautiful weather will hopefully be around for a bit but I am in summer vacation review mode right now that my summer break has become past tense.
Of course the weather is suppose to heat up again this week. It always does this once we go back to school! Makes you want to be swimming, not teaching, but there is a long holiday weekend coming up. (And if history continues, it will cool off and rain this weekend). Oh my!

Back in June I wrote this list about what I hoped my summer would be like. I love going back and looking to see what I wanted and whether it was what I ended up with.

(I'll warn you, this is rather a LONG post today!)

What Adventures  I Hope This Summer Brings

1-Relax and  enjoy (or continue to enjoy) the longer warm days, the flowers, the garden growing, the humming birds buzzing up to the feeder, the birds singing and all that jazz.

2-Read a lot of books while I am relaxing-and hopefully not napping too too much.

3-Make art! Have some good long uninterrupted studio time, try some new things, play with color, play with my camera...etc.

4-Do some new things not usually on my summer agenda. Actually I have already signed up for a 4 day baking  class-which I am hoping to learn and add some more tricks  and also a friend has paddle boards which I would like to try out one day too.

5-Go to some new places.  It is tough this summer for me.  Usually the husband and I (and often my daughter) head out for 10 days of exploring someplace out of our home area, but I have had issues with his kidney dialysis center scheduling anything. So I am going to find some new places to go near by, even if I have to go alone! Let's see where my sense of adventure takes me.

6-Come to some peace about my husband and his kidney issues and also about my mom and her dementia issues. Also I am going in to see if I pass step 2 in the being a kidney donor process and we need to get my mom placed in some type of housing where she will get more care for her dementia.

7-Do some old fashioned summery things like swimming, cook outs, raspberry and blueberry picking, and even a few campfires in the fire pit the hubby is building. All those kind of things.

8- OK, do a couple of house projects. The first one I want to do it finish painting my daughter's old bedroom, which means she and I have to (this is scary) clean out under her bed. I also have a kitchen over flow closet in the basement that needs emptying out, shelf adding and reorganizing. A good project for some hot humid day when the basement is cooler than outside.

And I have to finish purging my play space (but this one is actually enjoyable).

9-Go to a drive in movie.  The only one left around house is for sale and may not be there any longer after this summer. We used to go a lot when my daughter was little.  I want to do that again. And a few of my students are performing with a local theater company that does outdoor plays. I'd love to go see them. Guess the title of this number is redo some things that I haven't done in a long time.

10-And most importantly, not plan too much or be too busy so the summer just buzzes right by in a blink. Have a good fun and happy summer break. Live each moment. Enjoy my down time.

And how did I do? Well I didn't read as many books as I hoped, and the house projects, well, I didn't get a good grade for them either.  And somehow I ended up busy, but mostly fun busy, so summer did fly by in a blink, but doesn't it always do that? And the sad parts were losing my cat (still miss him terribly) and my daughter splitting up with her boyfriend and moving home, but she seems to be recouping from  that and I am enjoying her being home. So at least there there is a bright side. I also made it far further in the kidney donation route than I would have guessed, and getting my mom settled, which is such a huge relief. So looking ahead to fall, there's a lot that needs to be done and thing I want to do, but that's all for another day.

Here's some photos, just to recap summer.

First time at a tiki bar that you reach by boat. Ha-ha. Expensive but was a fun adevnture. Enjoying the sun and the water is what summer is all about. It is even better when you get to spend time with family and friends. 

Two dogs in my house now.  Good thing they really love each other.

The summer of lobster rolls.  I ate a few too many but yum!

Napping in the afternoon sun. OK, most of the time it was home on the screen porch, but when you get a chance, you have to enjoy the lake.

The dog learned to swim and retrieve her ball.  

Margaritas were the drink of the summer.  Not that I  am a big drinker.

I love Mexican food and I got out 3 times for it too.

I ate way too much food this summer!

Classroom at baking school.

Ocean days.  Blue skies.

Playing with some fabric this summer.

Fires in the fire pit and roasting wieners. I love cooking hot dogs on a stick!

 Road trips-driving down the highway. This pretty mountain view is in Vermont. But I headed out in other directions too. Never too too far from home.

Spending time with my Mom. She has settled into assisted living quite nicely. :)
And being a local tourist.

So many fun summer adventures. Sad those days have wound down, but fall will offer its own adventures.
But I can't think that far in advance right now.
Even if I did see a  this leaf on the road the other day when I was walking. And there was a few more around it!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.