Ah, summer. The word conjures up images of watermelon, slip-n-slides, swimming pools, gardens, and camping trips. Mostly. Unless you’re someone like me who just really doesn’t care much for summer. Give me winter, please!
Anyway, with all these beautiful posts going around about what people have done with their summer, I thought I’d take a different tack. So, here are:
6 Things I Did Not Do This Summer
Garden
If you’ve been reading here for a while, you might have noticed that I really am not into heat and bugs, so as much as I enjoy garden veggies, I don’t enjoy gardening. I wrote more about that in I Think There Might Be Something Wrong With Me. That’s why I love Farmer’s Markets and gardening friends who share their bounty. It’s a win-win. I get to eat fresh stuff and they (not I) get to garden.
Exercise
You’d think summer would be the perfect time to get in some walking/running/treadmilling/ellipticalling–anything! Uh, yeah. It’s like 125 degrees outside right now. And it’s been that way for a month. And before that it rained for a month and a half straight. And I am a fair weather exerciser. And…well, I have no excuse for those things that can be done inside. We have a really nice elliptical that I could (should) be working out on.
Read fiction
This one baffles me. I used to spend so much of my summers reading to my heart’s content. I don’t know why it’s not been the case this year.
Write
One might also think that during the summer, blogging would get all kinds of attention! Nope. Well, at least not my own blog. (See below for more explanation.)
Plan for school
I ordered books and curriculum early in May for what I knew we would be using this school year, but beyond that, I haven’t put much mental energy into school. Well, until just this past week when I figured I should probably make sure we have everything we need! Which we did, mostly. That was a good thing because Emily decided she wanted to start on Monday.
Travel
My husband has been all over the place this summer–Dallas, Arkansas, New Jersey, and others–but the girls and I have stuck closer to home. (Although as I type, Hannah is currently in California with my parents. Kind of a last hurrah before her senior year begins.)
As I’ve gotten older, traveling just takes on less and less appeal for me.
So what did I do with my summer?
- moved (well, technically, it was still May when we moved, but I’m still counting it as summer!)
- spent time with my girls (even if it was sometimes just staying up late watching movies)
- expanded my editing work (and this is partly the reason I haven’t been writing my own stuff as much)
- enjoyed my new living situation (I love everything about living on post!)
- spent time with friends (drinking coffee, talking, laughing)
- learned a new word!
Ok, so that last one was just this past Sunday. A group of us Army wives were talking about the differences between extroverts and introverts and I happened to mention that I’ve got characteristics of both. My friend piped up and said, “Did you know they’ve added a new classification?” Apparently people like me are called “ambiverts.” (If you click on that link, just be forewarned–there’s an obnoxious word on the page–but the rest of the descriptions are funny, and pretty accurate for me.)
So what have you done–or not done–this summer?
I enjoyed your post. I could write one like that too, I think. It was the best kind of summer for me–lots of relaxing, not a lot of stress, and no travel since June–not counting the overnight away in July to get a passport renewed. And I’m definitely NOT an ambivert–introverts all the way (or at least most).
I enjoyed your post. I could write one like that too, I think. It was the best kind of summer for me–lots of relaxing, not a lot of stress, and no travel since June–not counting the overnight away in July to get a passport renewed. And I’m definitely NOT an ambivert–introverts all the way (or at least most).