Summer Round-up: Play

We have had some really lovely gatherings this summer.  There was our friend, Jeff's, unbirthday, Ben's birthday, our Nation's birthday, a few girls' nights, and then just some altogether uneventful but lovely evenings (and some mornings) with food, friends, and great conversation.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have what they call "Family Home Evening" (or FHE) on Monday nights.  It consists of a lesson, activity, and snack.  Seeing as how Ben and I are a family of two, we find it hard to motivate ourselves to do it on our own, so we started doing it with friends.  One night, our activity was croquet!  Our friends, the Lyons, taught us to play.  Mara rocked it, but Jeff turned into poison and took everyone out.  My personal lesson that night was to stop being a poor loser and have fun.  Our snack was probably watermelon because it's summer and why not?

Summer Round-up: Work

"Summer break" as an adult is rarely the same as Summer break as a kid.  At least, it doesn't resemble what I remember Summer being like; although my memory is almost certainly skewed by images of what Summer break looks like in the movies and on TV.  I was on swim team for as long as I can remember and played water polo a couple summers in high school; otherwise, I babysat here and there and read bucket loads of books.  I would spend lots of time at my aunt's pool with my best friend (thank you, Rachel, for helping me remember...) Sometimes there was church camp. Lots of frappes from Juice 'n' Java before Starbucks shut it down.  Then lots of frappes from Starbucks.  Otherwise, armfulls of free time, I suppose.

Summer!

Okay, so technically, we are six weeks into summer.  But we aren't counting these first five weeks as summer because the first three were spent preparing for the Cincy Fringe and the following two were spent performing at the Cincy Fringe (although, to be fair, we did get a good deal of vacationing done in those two weeks in Cincy).  Now we're back and rearing to go!

Some exciting things to start with:
- We got bikes!  This will help keep us healthy and our costs down!
- We'll be house-sitting a beautiful house that is basically out in the woods, so it'll be like we're camping with amenities!
- I've taken over cooking.  My favorite so far: Watermelon & Feta salad, a recipe from a book Ive been reading, Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist - a book I highly recommend.
- Our mint has somehow miraculously started regrowing from nothing and it has inspired me to start an herb garden.
As far as what we'll specifically be doing...