It's about mid-summer and I have 1 more week of teaching summer school then a glorious vacation until after Labor Day.
For now, I'm pausing on Thursday evening to look back over the week. The high humidity went away sometime this afternoon and I'm home relaxing on the deck after dinner with all the house windows open, letting in cooler, drier air with a nice breeze. This week brought some special faves and I'm going to share 5 of them. Simple pleasures of summer. Head over to Susanne's site to learn how to join in on sharing FIVE of your FAVES.
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| photo courtesy of their Facebook page |
- SPONTANEOUS SATURDAY SPLURGE: Last Saturday evening Dave, Claire, and I enjoyed a lovely dinner fairly late in the day. Spontaneously, Claire suggested we go to the above ice cream place in town (only open in spring and summer). Dave opted to stay home, and since they don't have non-dairy ice cream there, Claire chose to splurge on onion rings. I splurged on a chocolate vanilla twist soft serve and we sat in the pouring rain under a huge umbrella watching a perfectly arched rainbow appear. I didn't get a good shot of the rainbow at all, but the time out with my ballerina girl was so special. I'll miss her so much when she returns to UNH in a couple of weeks.
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| Ah....in my kayak on Moreau Lake |
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| My neighbor friend Melissa using Dave's kayak |
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| Loon! Preening...close enough to touch |
- SULTRY SUNDAY: Sunday was downright HUMID. Humidity levels for eastern NY and even up at the lake where we store our kayaks was 89%. That is just TOO humid for me. The lake was like bath water so cooling off in our swimsuits wasn't even all that refreshing. The paddle itself was lovely and Melissa and I got to watch a loon do something we'd never seen before: his daily preening. It was fantastic to see!! I'm thankful we had some time together and that we have kayaks to share with good friends.
- FLAWLESS FLIGHTS: Our oldest daughter Courtney took a 4 day weekend to travel to Texas with a friend from church. They were meeting Courtney's guy friend Nate whom she met at Gordon College and has remained close with, down in Austin. They were all staying in a downtown hostel and attending a convention they've been saving for. (RTX...click here to see what this is!) She sent me a text when they got to Chicago and then again once they landed in Austin. Although I don't see the thrill of this kind of convention, Courtney had a blast and it was her first vacation since starting work full time. I'm so thankful her boss gave her 3 days off from work and that they had safe flights!
- NEWLY FORMED GROUP: I lead a hiking/social events group and I have had to tweak a few things with it. I was doing it via Facebook Group pages for about 2 years, but that was getting cumbersome and every time I worked on it, I'd end up getting sucked into the scrolling thing and wasting SO much time! So...I started praying about how to keep this group up and running and yet not be cumbersome. I decided on an email group. (and this keeps me off FB more!) I sent out invites to all the members of the FB group and 10 out of the 16 wanted to stay in it. I then sent out a guidelines list and an example of how the RSVP's would work. Got awesome feedback and we are good to launch! I love leading hikes and am thankful we have a good group of friends who show interest in this type of activity.
- DECK DINNER! Tonight (Thursday) we all ate at different times. I made a huge pasta veggie salad, some dinner rolls, and cut up some watermelon. Claire ate early and left to go hang out with a friend. Dave worked over time and got his own dinner. Courtney wanted to watch a Netflix show while eating so because the high humidity dropped, I went out on the deck and enjoyed a quiet dinner while reading my book. Oh it was so lovely. Many of the neighbors still have their central air on so the neighborhood was super quiet. I love eating outside when I can and when the temps and humidity are perfect. Tonight is so much cooler...I just love August.
That wraps up my faves!
I hope you have a wonderfully restful weekend.
6 comments:
Our son (who works at L.L. Bean) was able to purchase two kayaks this summer and the family has had so much fun with them. Twice this week my daughter-in-law sent pictures that included a Loon. So I really enjoyed your picture of the Loon preening himself. The scenery is that area is just so beautiful.
I'm glad that things have worked out where you now have members of the newly formed group who really want to enjoy the hiking. I know how much you love hiking, so I know that the group has a wonderful leader. :-)
Have a wonderful weekend, Faith!
Your pictures of kayaking look so tempting but as a really bad swimmer it would be so out of my comfort zone. Our weather has been much cooler this week and I'm so glad. It has been very hot here for a long spell which of course is lovely but hard to get anything done.
We had 100% humidity one day last week - felt like a sauna outside. Thankfully it's a little nicer in the evenings, though we keep the AC on. The spontaneous splurge sounds fun! How neat to see a loon so close! Glad you have a kayaking friend. Glad, too, that all the traveling went well. My youngest would like that convention - he's gone to the Fanboy one in TN and Dragon Con in Atlanta. Not my thing, either, but he enjoys it. Once he and a group of his friends dressed up like Batman villains for one - that was a lot of fun. It's good the new group is working out more easily.
You are almost on vacation. Hurray! I go on vacation this week. We were going to camp at My Lassen, but because of the bad air quality, we decided to not go. :(
High humidly sure sucks the life out of you. But good on you that you didn't let it stop you and your friend from kayaking. Gliding across the water is almost a magical experience. And how fun to see a preening loon.
Also fun to splurge on ice cream (for one) and onion rings (for the other). I would have been hard pressed to choose between the two. I bet your ballerina girl will also miss spending time with you when she goes back to Uni.
Have a refreshing week, Faith.
I stop eating outside around now as this is when all the wasps make their appearance. How nice to spend some mother/daughter time before Claire goes back to school. I see you're reading Before We Were Yours. It's so good.
I miss the days of the multiple dinners and a bit of family chaos...they grow up way too fast.
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