Saturday, August 1, 2015

Goodbye July

If I could describe the month of July in one word it would be: HOT! Only these final couple of days of the month have brought us some much needed relief. We will have this weekend to enjoy the upper 70s and mid-80s before we climb back up into the 90s again. Poor Jonathan has had a hard time breathing through his nose with the heat which leads to light headedness and tingly arms. He saw the doctor and was told to try to stay in cool places and use some nasal spray. Kind of hard when we don't have AC in our house nor car, but we are thankful to have found a couple of remedies that have made breathing better for him. He might look a little funny with his nose "ring" but at least it opens up his airway to breathe instead of passing out.


Air conditioning the old fashioned way


Watermelon takes SO good for everyone on a hot day
Samuel and Emma, whose rooms are on the upper floor have had to relocate for the summer. Samuel has been sleeping in the basement laundry room and Emma has bunked up in Luca's room. All in all, everyone is happy with their new summer sleeping arrangements and thankfully we have slept fairly well despite the heat.

After several nights with two in the laundry room it ended up not being such a cool place.
The kids and I enjoyed a day at the pool last week. There is a sports complex at the end of our street that has an outdoor pool. We went during the lunch break for three hours since it is half price then. It was our first time at the pool and I should have known better that they would not be allowed to swim without swim caps. I brought with us the two caps we did had and therefore, the kids had to take turns swimming. We bought more caps this week and will plan to go back on Monday. For me, it was three hours of complete relaxation sun bathing and reading--down time I don't always give myself, but should. Let's hope we can make it a weekly activity for August as our ministry schedule slows down.

Total relax for the mamma

Thankful we had no fights over taking swimming turns
We started our jobs course just two days after we got home from Michigan. That takes up 2 mornings a week, another morning was usually filled with baking for an afternoon ministry at a local charity, and yet another morning for a team meeting, which left us with just one free morning a week that we usually used to do grocery shopping or yard work. I have lots of house projects that I hope to get done yet this summer like sanding and staining shutters and painting some rooms, but the heat has really slowed down my motivation and energy levels. I did get one set of window shutters completed last weekend and hope to finish some more on this cooler weekend.



Retained shutters on the left vs. unfinished on the right
The garden has been producing a good amount of cucumbers and tomatoes that the kids enjoy harvesting. We have made several jars of pickles and eaten a lot of tomato, cucumber and feta salad. We still have nothing on our zucchini plants but maybe August will bring some results, even though someone told me today that the heat is to blame.

Getting sidetracked from gardening work to play with lizards
Lots and lots of cucumbers...
Refrigerator pickles..oh, so yummy
The kids have been doing lots of indoor activities this month. Samuel continues to diligently write his book and work on summer homework, Emma has been busy drawing and building a doll house that someone gifted her and Luca has faithfully completed at least 2 pages of homework a day while working on his drawing and game playing skills. He loves games so we have played a fair amount this month on hot afternoons. Settlers of Catan has been introduced and embraced by the kids which has been a fun for us all in addition to the usual favorites of Bonanza, Bananagrams, Quiddler, Skipbo and Monopoly Deal.



Emma's drawing that she did yesterday

We say goodbye to July and anticipate the month of August with some planned family getaways and hopefully more tolerable temperatures during a slower month of ministry.

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