Surviving This Summer

Hot. It’s so HOT.

Since last I posted, our family has gone into survival mode. Every night, we check the weather forecast, hoping for a break from the stifling heat and humidity, or better yet, for some rain. The punishing drought conditions here in the Midwest (the worst in 50 years, some say) are devastating crops, and most lawns are crispy and brown (ours is somewhat green, probably because of the high weed population. Do weeds not need water or something?)

Every day, we spend as much time as possible in the basement, venturing upstairs only for food or drinks. We’ve eaten a lot of cold sandwiches, and anything else I can come up with that doesn’t require use of the stove or oven, and I can officially say that our house has never been so messy, for so long. No one has the energy to do anything about it, because even with the A/C running constantly, I break into a sweat just loading the dishwasher.

I feel so, so sorry for people without A/C, and I fear the arrival of our electric bill. Scary.

Today, the high is “only” 92 degrees, but with 70% humidity, the “real” temperature, as they remind us every night on the local news, is 110. When you step outside, it feels like the heat hits you in the face, like running smack into a wall.

It seems that ALL of our activity choices hinge on one factor – “Will it be cool there?” – yet, in spite of the heat, we’ve still been very busy (busier than I would like, being the homebody that I am).  My brain has been too overheated to concentrate on formulating sentences for the blog, so I’ve been jotting notes on my kitchen calendar instead, assuming that someday I will want to remember what we did this summer for the kids’ scrapbooks.

June 17th:
Father’s Day – I posed the kids for this picture, which I turned into a card for my husband. I also took individual photos of them holding their signs (which I turned into my Facebook cover photo), because after about 50 attempts to get them all to smile at the same time, I was getting pretty discouraged.  Just as I was ready to give up, we finally got a good shot (I think they could sense that I was getting mad).

We took my husband out for lunch after church, and then went to my Dad’s house for ice cream cake, and a game of croquet.

My Dad also gave the kids rides around the neighborhood on his scooter, which they loved. (Why does he own a scooter, you ask? Well, if you ask him, he’ll tell you it’s because it gets good gas mileage, but the real reason is that he’s still a kid himself).

June 25th – 29th:
Monday – Dentist appointments for the kids, except for DJ, who had rotavirus (urgh). No cavities for anyone!

Vacation Bible School every night this week. My husband took the girls each night, while I stayed home with DJ, so I have no pictures. (He doesn’t obsessively take pictures of everything like I do). Cakes memorized her first Bible verses, including Romans 3:23.

July 2nd:
I met an online friend in person, for the first time. So much fun! Autumn, who blogs at Autumn Asks Why, was one of my very first readers, and she’s been such a good friend (you may remember that she made this gorgeous quilt, which I love so much, for DJ).  I wish that Autumn and I lived closer to each other, because we’re so like-minded, and enjoy each other’s company. She’s such a sweet, generous person.

July 4th
My husband took the kids to our annual 4th of July family cookout, while I stayed home with Bee, who had been sick for several days with strep throat. She was pretty disappointed, because the little ones got to go to the parade and collect ridiculous amounts of candy, while she had to stay home with me, eating chicken noodle soup and playing UNO.

July 9th-13th
Bee’s science camp. She had a great time, as did the little ones, who got to play every day at the Science Center, while we waited for camp to be over.

DJ walked around in this outfit, telling everyone, "I a doctor!"

One morning, while we waited for the Science Center to open at 10:00, I stopped at Cost Cutters to get DJ a long-overdue haircut. As usual, he was ultra-fidgety, and the stylist accidentally snipped his earlobe! I could tell she felt really bad about it, and I told her not to worry, but now I fear that DJ will never allow anyone to cut his hair again. Which is a shame, because look how cute!

On Friday, we attended the wedding of my friend Mary’s daughter. I’ve known her since she was 9, and she’s such a sweet girl. Her new husband seems like a really nice young man, and I was so happy for her.

DJ entertained everyone with his attempts to master the delicate art of bubble blowing.

This picture cracks me up!

On Saturday, both girls danced at our local Heritage Days celebration, and Bee danced alone – her first solo performance ever. I was trying to videotape her, but there was this very noisy group of people sitting right behind us, telling jokes and laughing and guffawing so loudly that everyone was looking at them instead of her. About halfway through her performance, my husband turned around and said to them, “You’re all very rude.” God bless him – they didn’t make a single peep after that.

Despite their disruptive behavior, Bee danced flawlessly, and we were so proud of her. She’s so graceful and beautiful!

This week so far…
On Monday, Bee had to have an “irritation fibroma” removed. These are basically lumps of scar tissue that form after trauma to the inside of the mouth (such as when you bite your cheek), and this one was so big that Bee was repeatedly biting it by accident, which caused it to bleed, and then get bigger. Our dentist burned it off with a laser, and though she had some pain the first day, it’s already almost completely healed. My pain has lasted a bit longer because this little procedure, which took all of a half hour, cost $400! But, as my husband always sings to me when I get upset about these things, “Why are we working, and what are we working for….” I don’t know the song from which these lyrics come, but it does help me keep my perspective.

Familypalooza! All this week, our church is sponsoring events for families. We skipped Monday night because it was dodge ball (I am not a dodge ball-type person. I know you will not be surprised by this. Also, have I mentioned that it’s hot here?), but last night they showed the movie Up (one of our favorites), and made popcorn for everyone, which we really enjoyed (it was air-conditioned, after all). The youth group was also offering free face-painting, and my husband, being, well…my husband, decided that he needed his face painted, too.

I told him that he looks like he should be a ringleader at the circus, or in a Mario Brothers video game. I’ve actually been calling him Mario, and sometimes Luigi.

Tonight is a free carnival (hot), and tomorrow night there’ll be a bouncy castle and other inflatables, (and I know I need not mention this again, but oh my gosh, HOT), and I’m not sure it’s worth sweltering in the heat for some free cotton candy and a trip down the giant blow-up slide. I suspect the children would disagree with me though, so we’ll probably go anyway, at least for a little while.

The next 2 weeks will be busy with swimming lessons every night, and then there are only 2 more weeks until back to school! My Babycakes starts kindergarten this fall, which I still can’t wrap my brain around, and I downloaded her school supply list last week, so I could go through our stuff and see what we still need to buy. I already had most of her supplies, so I told her to go ahead and pack her school box.

I told my husband that the best way to describe her effort would be doing the bare minimum, but in an artistic fashion.

Her teacher is in for a very interesting year.

Tagged as: Children, Daily Life, Holidays and Celebrations