We’re now well into the summer, and it’s been a full month or so since my last entry. We participated in the annual July 4th “Mile-Long Yard Sale” that our area has every year. It’s quite the massive event, with hundreds of yard sales all within a couple mile radius. We did a little late Spring cleaning and put a few things out. At the end of the day, we were only left with one little box, which we took to the local thrift store. So, we were pleased to clean out our storage closet in the basement and make a little cash in the process.
The rest of the month has been filled with regular activities and we also had two houseguests. Earlier in July, our friend, Jen, came down with her son, Conner, for a few days to visit. They used to live here, but her husband got a great job in New York City, so they reluctantly moved away, but still come back occasionally to participate in homeschooling activities and visit friends.
Last week, Darren’s sister, Tina, and her family came for a few days, too. We got to meet our new little niece, Ella, who is just a couple months younger than Zofia. They did a little shopping and some sightseeing to sporting events on their own, and we just hung out and visited. It was nice to see everyone, and I’m glad we’ve been able to both make the effort to keep in touch.
So, as we move into August at the end of this week, Flo will be celebrating her ninth birthday. That’s totally hard for me to believe! I see her personality blossoming and get glimpses of the person she’s becoming, as well as, the challenging pre-teen/teen years to come! But, overall, she’s doing great and I’m really enjoying spending this time with her. We’ve been taking a lot of walks together lately. We wait until the cooler hours of the late evening, then pick a destination, walk there, and Darren comes and picks us up. It’s a lot more fun walking with a destination in mind and it gives us some alone time to talk, which is fun!
Flo is excited about her birthday. On Friday, she’s going to have a few friends over to watch the movie, “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” She’s been reading the books and has saved the movie to share with her friends. Then on her actual birthday on Saturday, we’ll probably just make a nice dinner at home and give her the few gifts we’ve got for her. Should be a nice weekend.
Joe is still keeping us busy. This month he and Darren got a couple sets of inexpensive golf clubs, and that’s been his new thing. He pesters Darren every day to go out and play golf in the yard. Unfortunately, Darren’s not too keen on baking in the summer sun to hit golf balls, so their playing time is often confined to the late evening hours. Nonetheless, Joe is having a good time with it.
Zofia will be a year old on August 19th. She’s been walking for over a month, but has definitely become more stable on her feet. She’s babbling a lot more now, too, with her favorite sounds being “ba-ba” and “ahhh!” Keeping up with her is keeping us on our toes, but we’re enjoying seeing the world through her eyes.
Darren is still enjoying the flexibility working at home has provided, and we all love having him around more, and that fact that he’s much more well-rested! We’ve been slowing working on little projects around the house that we neglected over the few years he was doing the awful daily commute to DC. We’re finally feeling a little more organized, which is good. Today we had garage door openers installed. We’ve been wanting them for a couple years, but just kept putting it off, or not really wanting to spend the money. But, now that there in, it is a nice luxury. We got the ones with the keypad on the outside, which is handy.
Tomorrow we’re having some garden stones delivered, and we’re finally going to tackle making the area in our front walkway a little more aesthetically pleasing. It’s looked kind of like a baron wasteland for the past couple years, but we’ve never had the time or energy to tackle it, and professional landscaping doesn’t come cheap. So, we’ll see what we come up with.
So, Summer is well underway and we’re not withering too badly in the heat, thanks to the modern luxury of indoor cooling. We’re looking forward to August being a little more low-key month, but it seems like activities are always abundant. Nonetheless, we’ll make a concerted effort to take it easy!