summer is sweet.

Before I went back to work, I didn't quite realize
just how sweet summer is.
{well, when you're a teacher, that is.}

But now...
it's so clear.
Summer is precious time.

I love the feeling on a Sunday night
of not dreading Monday.

Come August, I'll be back to those dreadful Sunday nights.
I'm going back to teaching full-time next year:
second grade.
I'm excited, and anxious, and...not ready.
I need this summer.
So I'm trying to soak it all in.

We made our annual summer list.
It has the usuals:
go to tahoe
camp in the backyard
go to the pool
make ice cream
go to the beach
etc.

So we're slowly and deliberately crossing items off of the list.
And I'm loving every second of vacation.
{almost every second.  i don't love the kids bickering.  or the complaints of being bored.
or taking all three kids with me to costco.
i don't love that.}

Water fight with friends...check.
Actually, I'm not even sure it was on the summer list.
But it was fun.
Even if my windows did get soaked.



Other things that make summer sweet:
peony season.
I'm just sad that the season is so short.
They are the perfect flower.



Bed canopies.
She really, REALLY, wanted one for her birthday.
{i kind of want one, too.}



A Hobby Lobby recently opened in our area.
Before it did, I hadn't been in Hobby Lobby since we lived in Texas
in 1999-2001.
It was just as glorious as I remembered.



Another sweet thing this summer?
Ikea.
I took the kids on our very first day of break.
What better way to celebrate summer than with Ikea meatballs?



Also sweet...summer movies.
Avery was my date to go see Maleficent.
She had already seen it but wanted to go again with me.
And she had to try to win a bouncy ball in the arcade,
because we definitely don't have enough of those around the house.
{darn...we weren't winners.}



I've decided 2014 is the summer of the white nail polish.
I have a tiny little obsession with it.



Don't you think if summer had a taste it would be
watermelon and caprese salad?
I could eat caprese all day.
#tomatobasilmozarellaforever
And I used to hate watermelon when I was a kid.
I probably didn't start liking it until my thirties.
Weird.



Gary bought me The Art of Racing in the Rain
because he thought I would like it.
It's an easy read.
Have your kleenex ready at the end.



I am not a very good board game player.
Candyland...kill me.
Monopoly...I might die.
Old Maid...zzzzzzzz.

But Quirkle?  So fun.
I actually enjoy playing it.
And it's colorful!  Bonus.



And, of course, soccer.
The World Cup is on,
and nothing much else gets done during a game.
Especially when Mexico plays Holland,
and your husband is half Mexican, half Dutch.
{#dutchican}



The World Cup has also inspired someone to keep that soccer ball
with him all throughout the day.



And with the Fourth of July this week,
we had to make a stop at the fireworks stand.
I'm pretty sure one of those four people is the most excited
about fireworks.
{hint...he's over 40.}


Summer is sweet.
And there's more to come.

life these days, and a house tour.

Life these days is...

.up early

.shower

.coffee

.unload the dishwasher.  quietly.

.make breakfast

.wake up kids

.rushrushrush till everyone is out the door

.work

.teach latin to 120ish little people

.hand sanitizer.  repeat.

.home for homework, soccer, piano, drums, guitar.

.dinner

.clean up

.make lunches

.{didn't i just do that?}

.bed

.do it again

Yikes.

I'm so tired!

We're still adjusting to our new normal over here.

But, there has been stuff other than the above, too.

Also life, these days:

...dentist appointments

{why doesn't my dentist give out cute glasses?}

...homework.

OH THE HOMEWORK.

Junior High is crazy.

...falling in love with a pair of nude flats.

...pot roast dinner,

courtesy of my mom.

Coming home from work to the smell of dinner cooking is the best.

...a sick kid.

yay, back to school!

...waffling in my grandma's waffle iron.

...praying she wants to be a singer when she grows up,

and not a sinner.

...monkey barring around.

...sunset watching and being in awe of the Creator of it all.

It's been a good couple of September weeks.

And, if you're interested, Heather from Life Made Lovely 

asked me to do a home tour over on her Home Made Lovely series.

It's here, if you want to go have a look.

I even cleaned my kitchen for the occasion.

Happy Friday, friends!

bye, summer.

Poof...summer is over.

Pretty much, anyway.

This summer has gone by faster than any I can remember.

It makes me a little sad.

But it has been a good couple of months.

Lots of swimming.

Specifically, cold-weather swimming.
This was a chilly summer!


Ice cream eating.
{cotton candy flavored.  gag.}



Front porch sitting.
{but not enough...we should have done more of that.}



Anniversary-celebrating:
twenty one years together, fourteen married.
{child bride, i tell you.}
Cleaning out a closet I found dozens and dozens and DOZENS of old letters and pictures
we had written each other.
...sigh...



High school reunion-ing.
Twenty years already?  Crazy.


Zucchini bread making.
Lots and lots of zucchini this summer
has meant zucchini bread for breakfast.
There are worse things.



Baseballing.
Our huge baseball fan Colin was in heaven.



I'm pretty sure there's no better view at any ballpark.

Book-reading.



Back-to-school shoe buying.
{um...how is this possible?}



Donut-eating.



No dogs on the furniture rule-breaking.
{she was so comfy...how could i make her get down?}



And, most unexpectedly for me,
back to work prepping.

Yep.  It's back to teaching for me.

This summer's end marks the beginning of a lot of changes here at casa de laundry.

I'm thankful for this low-key summer I've had with the kids.
I'm going to refer back to it often when things get uber crazy here in a couple of weeks.
At the beginning of the summer I was so sad we didn't have any big
vacations planned.
Now I can see God had everything planned just perfectly.
He's really awesome like that.

Happy last days of summer, y'all.
Carpe diem.

mid summer check in.

It's 10:00 on Saturday night,
and my parents have our kids for the second night in a row.
Being the maniacs that we are,
I washed my face and put my comfy clothes on at 7:30.
Gary's cleaning out his side of the closet and I'm laying in bed
watching The Walking Dead on the laptop.

You guys.
This is living.

I feel like I haven't had much kid-free time this summer,
so I'm soaking it in.
Of course I love having them home.
But...
it's nice to have a little break, too.

We were at Gary's parent's ranch recently
and I made him pull over so I could take a picture.
What I wouldn't give to have had a blanket and a picnic lunch in the car.
Orchards are the best.



We got some peppers from his parents' house.
I think all vegetables should come in Roy G. Biv.



I changed the home screen on Gary's phone to this picture.
Just because.



Every summer, at least once, I get a craving for these cucumbers.
They remind me of my Mamma, and for the life of me I can't make them as good as she did.
But really...cucumbers and sugar and vinegar are magical.



And you know, as it turns out, aqua spray paint is not entirely magical.
It can't make everything awesome.
These creepy heads at the thrift store are proof.



Some days, when you're worn out from sleepovers and swim team,
you just need to chill on the couch and watch Napoleon Dynamite.
I've seen it fifteen times but that movie is always, always funny.
My favorite line?
"Your mom goes to college."
Awesome.



This girly wakes up with a smile every single morning.
And...usually in our bed.
We're working on that.



We went to a wedding last night for a wonderful couple.
Weddings are lovely.
This one made me want to get married all over again.
{to the same guy, of course}
I would do some things differently.
Oh how fun that would be.
Seriously...we got married before the internet was really a big "thing".
There was no googling anything.
I barely had an email.
There was no instagram.
No pinterest!
That's so weird.
Our anniversary is next week...14 years.
We were babies.
{that's my story, anyway.}





Wow...summer is flying by, isn't it?
We haven't made ice cream or taken Lucy to the dog park or hit the water park yet.
We still have a lot to cram into this last month.

the first seven days of summer.

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

You've heard that one, right?
We live about 35 miles from the city,
but that quote rungs pretty true for us too.
June and July aren't our warmest months.
{april and may? awesome.  august thru october? awesome.}

So swim team can get a little chilly.
But nothing a little post-swim hot chocolate from Starby's can't cure.



I broke down and bought Gwyneth's new cookbook.
I hated to do it.
I really didn't want to like it.
Does Gwyn really need my $18?  No.
But darnit, it's a good cookbook.  Good, healthy cooking.
So I broke down.



This wasn't from her book,
but it's so good.
I could eat it every day.
Garlic and mushrooms and brussels sprouts sauteed in olive oil,
and tossed with quinoa.
I'm becoming a brussels sprouts fiend.



Reality:



That was a few days ago.
It's worse today.

Riley has taken piano lessons for a little over four years.
He's decided he wants to switch to guitar.
I'm a little sad, but I get it.

His guitar-playing daddy, however, is verrrrry happy about this.

Plus he's such a cute guitar player.



Playdates that end at In-N-Out are the best kind.
Especially when they started at the bowling alley for "kids bowl free".
{have you signed up?  it's awesome.  totally free bowling!}



This week ended with two days of dance recitals.
There really is nothing cuter than a dance recital.
Avery's class danced to "Proud May".
We curled her hair with curlers.
She wore her first tiny smidge of mascara.
Adorable.



We crammed a few other things in this week, too,
like smog checks and sick kids and bible study
and grocery shopping and play dates and birthday party prep.

After this week my brain can slow down a bit.
I hate that I haven't done anything crafty in the longest time.
It makes me sad.
Next week I am going to fire up that sewing machine.
And paint something.

********************

1000 Gifts:

quiet mornings



fresh air