Summertime Blues & Reality Check

Funny "flower" arrangement. Sadly it didn't last very long. That's a Annabelle hydrangea flower in the center of a bunch of arranged cabbage leaves.
Amy- my friend IRL- over at Something So Big- wrote a post about her Summertime Blues.

And she got me thinking....

I'm going to write my Summertime Blues and try to turn it into a sort of To-Do List for myself...and try to remind myself that it's okay when stuff doesn't go the way I had planned it.

Now, where do I start?

1) My garden. One thing is for sure...gardening will keep you humble. Even if you think you're the best gardener out there the plants have different ideas!

a)My veggie garden is slowly plodding along but I got lousy germination on my beet seeds this year (three- yes- THREE beets out of a half packet of seeds). My soybeans followed suit- half of them came up. I was a little late in planting some of my veggies (cucumbers and squash) so they're all playing catch-up. My pepper plants are suffering too...ACK! Thankfully we're part of a veggie co-op so I don't need to stress too much if my veggies aren't fully producing.

b) Then there's my flower garden. I love the planter that is directly in front of my house but the beds next to the walkway and my other flower garden look...well...off. I've got tall plants in the front and short plants in the back and it looks like a mess. And here's the funny part...some of the plants I can't tell whether they're weeds or planted intentionally! I know most of my plants but there's one in particular I can't ID! How annoying is that? Also, I lost several hollyhocks that I'd planted last year. Not a single trace of them. Perhaps they didn't like the -30F winter days we had last winter. I'm so sad! I put a lot of time, energy and MONEY into my gardens so it's very frustrating when my plants disappear. Live and learn. That sums up gardening! And I love gardening so I'll be constantly trying and trying and trying again and again. I'm okay with that.

2) My house. In Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" she asks what our ONE word is (the word that describes you the best...or is the essence of yourself). I think mine would have to be ...INDECISIVE. I think Mark would agree with me on that one. I can't decide on anything so nothing ever happens.

a) Trimwork...We (okay..I) haven't decided on what to do for our trim. Therefore we have no trim.

b) Kitchen. I had high hopes of painting my kitchen cabinets this summer. But like I said my word is INdecisive...I can't decide what color to paint them. And since I'm not interested in painting them again in the near future I want to be fairly certain I got the right color picked out. I also want to change out the hardware...but guess what? I can't decide what to get!

c) Living Room Walls. Two years ago we painted the LR Svelte Sage (a greenish gray) by Sherwin Williams. I've tried to love it, I really have but I don't. It gives off a putrid yellow color that upsets my tummy. Please don't be upset Mark!

d) Architectural interest. This house is seriously lacking in that department. I need to change this without breaking our budget.

e) Light fixtures. I'd love to change out the dining room light but...can you guess what I'm going to say? I can't decide.

f) Media console. I know we need to chill out on spending money but I'd love to get a pretty console to sit under our TV so that we don't look like college kids. Perhaps a trip to Ikea will solve that dilemma!

h) Finish decorating my Girlies' bedrooms. They're mostly finished but I've promised a couple of things to both girls that I work on. I'm really happy how their rooms have turned out. Cheerful, girly and fun.

i) Keeping up with HOUSEWORK! I wish I had a housekeeper but alas I don't. I've kind of let things slide this summer. Once a week I try to vacuum and mop the floors and that's about it. Laundry gets a little out of control. I also need to do a better job of meal planning. I bet we could live out of our pantry and freezer for a couple of weeks (buying only fresh fruit and milk). Perhaps I should challenge myself to do just that! Oh...and then there's the cleaning the windows bit that I meant to do a few months ago that still isn't done. It's rained every single time I wanted to start that cleaning project! I'm Laughing Out Loud about that...

As for the LR/Kitchen issues I've asked someone to help me and hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have a better idea of what do and how to do it. I'm really hoping by Christmas-time to do a big reveal!

3) Our upcoming Alaska trip. I'm both so excited and fairly wigged out by the idea of taking this trip. Alaska is my home state. I had a hard time leaving it behind EIGHT long years ago. There are many, many reasons why I'm nervous about this trip- which I will not delve into. I just need to relax...take a deep breath.... I know I'll have lots of fun!

4) Treehouse. We promised our girls that we'd build a tree house for them. After all...we've got the wood from a wooden swingset that we never built sitting in our garage. It seems like the summer is whizzing past us at record breaking speeds. Perhaps we can at least get the anchoring sytem and cables installed this summer?

5) Foreign Language computer program. I thought it might be fun for our entire family to learn a new language- Italian? French? this summer but because I can't decide we still don't have the computer software. The Rosetta Stone software claims that it is for ages 6 and upwards so perhaps I'll use that as an excuse to wait until next summer (and order it BEFORE summer arrives) so that we can all do it together as a family. The thing I'm uncertain about is whether to do the regular version or the homeschool version of the Rosetta Stone. Maybe we'll do German instead of Italian. I don't know. I can't decide! I KNOW- I'll decide NEXT year!

6) Keeping children entertained without watching movies. I now understand why parents send their children off to camp. I'm having a frustrating time keeping my girls active and entertained. I'm used to Ava needing an afternoon nap and thereby giving me a two-hour break. Since Annika went to all day kindergarten last year she doesn't need nap time. I'm trying to institute quiet time after lunch to give me a few minutes of breathing. I'm having trouble coming up with craft projects for us to do. I KNOW -it's way easier to keep kids entertained when we're not at home...and with our State Park pass I can do that (plus play groups and the various playgrounds are a huge help).

7) Teaching my girls to respect adults (and others). We're having a little trouble with Annika right now. She's already acting like a teenager! She thinks she knows everything. She won't listen. What happened to my sweet little girl that was super polite all the time? Well...she still is super sweet and I love her dearly...but perhaps an attitude adjustment needs to happen.

8) Exercising. Or lack thereof. I was doing so well exercising every day but then we got this tremendous heat wave that sucked out all my energy and life force. At least we've been doing a lot of swimming and walking lately. Perhaps I'll get on the trampoline and bounce my cares away! Maybe I'll get on the bike this afternoon and go for a ride. Hooray for Mark fixing my bike! THANK YOU!!!!

9) Realizing that I've forgotten most of what I learned from my Biology degree. I guess the saying is true..."use it or lose it". I'm sad that I can't recall things I used to know. I guess that's what the Internet is good for!

10) Playing catch-up with the girlies' scrapbooks. Why am I always playing catch-up? I love to scrapbook but I go for months on end where I have ZERO inspiration to scrapbook. I can sit and stare at my photos and blank pages for hours on end and ...Nothing comes. I KNOW- I should order my next round of photos and try again. :)

11) One of the saddest things is about this summer is that it seems like another year goes by without me seeing Mama and my siblings. I wish we lived closer. I know the Girlies would love to see their Oma. We do get to visit Mark's family on a semi-frequent basis. I love how the Girlies love to play with their cousins! I'm so thankful that we do have family in driving range.

12) Finding the time to write a blog post! I don't mean for this blog to be updated once a week but that's what it's turning out to be like. I suppose it's because we're doing stuff....or more likely that I'm just plain lazy. That's okay. There's more to life than blogging! LOL!

13) Creating Annika's art book. I think that's first on my to-do list even though it appears at the bottom of this particular list.

Now I'm off to start another load of laundry and get the girls ready for an outing to a state park today. I think we'll head to Wyalusing State Park...I need to train these girlies up for hiking in Alaska! :) I just have to remember not to be hard on myself and try to work on the things that can be accomplished. One. step. at. a. time.