Global Warming? Yeah, right!

We could use some of that “Global Warming” the crazies are talking about 🙂  This is the lousiest excuse for June in Kentucky that I have ever experienced!  It is NOT even hot…what’s up with that?  Pool parties are being rescheduled because it isn’t warm enough to swim…IN JUNE!!!

It’s very frustrating to one who has been pining for summer to get here!  We’re going to have to move south if this is any indication of what a “warming planet” does!  Frankly, I don’t think those guys have a clue about what the planet is doing. 

Subject change.

We’ve been FINALLY “officially” finished with school for four days now, and it still just doesn’t feel like summer break.  I’m not just referring to the weather (that isn’t helping, of course), but to my state of mind.  I guess I’ve been in fast-forward for so long…and there are just still lots of things that I have to do that feel like work, I guess.  The Girl Scout troop that is disbanding will be running through the summer, and I’ve been busy tying up those loose ends.  We’ve got four girls working on their Bronze Award Project, and a big trip planned for the end of next month, and a pool party to try to squeeze in (if we have a warm enough day without rain).  I’ve also been cleaning out closets, cabinets, drawers and bookshelves for a long overdue yard sale.  We spent most of last Saturday cleaning out the garage for that, too.  I’ll be glad when that is over and the big piles of stuff that are all over the house and in the garage are gone, and a bit of cash in hand takes its place.  I’m just having trouble mustering up that last measure of motivation needed to prepare for the sale this weekend…cleaning out some more spaces, making the kids clean out their spaces, picking up some boxes to display things like books in, organizing the sale stuff, putting an ad in the paper, picking up some signs…

<sigh>  Some sunshine would help.  I know it would.  I could use sitting in it on the patio as a reward for myself after getting some of this done.  (I know, I could use the lack of sunshine as good time to do these things while not having to feel like I’m missing out on the sunshine while I work – but that’s just not the way my brain works!)

I also acquired a new computer last week, and I’ve got all the file moving to complete, iTunes to organize, and upgraded software to get used to.  Where did that ability to “go up a folder” by clicking that little up arrow disappear to??  I have to use the back arrow!  Either they are wrong in thinking that’s an improvement, or I’m missing the better way they expect me to do it somehow…

Drip Drip Drop Little April Showers…

April is certainly living up to its reputation in Kentucky.  As long as we don’t turn to desert this summer, we will have the most beautiful fall ever – and I will head to the mountains to hike with camera in tow!!  That is the thought that’s getting me through the cabin fever.  That and the fact that the sun did bless us with its presence all day yesterday.  My daughter had a soccer game, and while the teams warmed up before the game started,  I revolved my chair to the light, leaned back and basked in the warm rays…aaah.  Nothing in nature feels better than sun and wind on your skin – preferably at the same time.

Another thing that has helped is my new obsession – poscard trading!  I can’t seem to pass up the possibility of a trade, so I’ve got so many in the works that it’s practically a full-time gig to keep up with them!  LOL  I’ve got trades in the works from Northern Ireland, British Columbia, Ontario, Italy, Taiwan, and several US states!  I think the best part, though, has been the email communication with these people.  That will make receiving the cards so much more special.  After much thought and discussion about the ways to store our collection, we’ve decided that a photo box is best, so that we can categorize, always read the back, and not have to be concerned with the card fitting in the slot like we would with an album.  We also think it’d be cool to cover the box (eventually) with stamps.

It was nice to write, but laundry and dinner beckon once again.  That’s the story of my life.  Guess it’s song-quoting day in my head.

Oh, yeah, just saw Disney’s Bolt – excellent!  And Bedtime Stories last week – absolutely hilarious!

TTFN 😀

Aaaaaahhh…the great outdoors!

Woo hoo!  The weather broke and I got to go hike a bit!!  My dh and I managed to get in a hike while the sky wasn’t dripping and the frosty wind was around the bend.  It feels great 🙂  I dare say that having to wait so long between hikes proved to make us a wee more winded on the hilly terrain, but we shall sleep well tonight!  I’m a little concerned now about my 100 miles by the end of May goal.  (What?  You haven’t read the Hiker page?  Well, get on over there and catch yourself up!)  I’m not giving up, but the weather has not been cooperative, and there is a surgical setback coming my way.  Fret not 🙂  I’ll be fine…more details when I know more…no sense in babbling on about nothing!  Right now, I’m determined not to let that stop me, however.  My shoes are quite muddy, but sans the minors, dh and I managed to keep the car void of evidence that we’d been prowling soggy trails.  I shall have to hike in mud or parched earth (fat chance of that before May, LOL) in order to reach my goal with the recovery period I’ll require.  I really want to do it though.  Maybe I’ll celebrate by carving a 100 miles stamp!  Ooh, now I’m onto something…who’d want it?  Me!  I’ll make it interesting to boxers somehow!!

Well, my little sweetie girl is waiting for the computer.  She wants to find a Hula dancing lesson online for a school Adventure Points Project for the Pacific Islands.  So I’ll write later.  There’s much to tell 🙂

Where’s the Draught When You Need It?

Can it rain anymore? This soggy ground is spoiling my hiking goals! Yes, of course I can hike in the rain. But I don’t want to 😀   It’s not that I think I’ll melt, but I’m sure I’ll have to clean muddy shoes and a muddy car -not really worth it! (I’m feeling more and more like it’d be worth it the longer I have to wait, though.)
The most frustrating thing of all is that this summer, when the grass is scorched, the pavement is threatening to burst into flames and the flowers look like month old cuts in a forgotten vase, there won’t be a rain cloud within miles!  I’m aware that complaining about the weather is fruitless and whiny to boot, but I’ll indulge myself anyway 🙂

School is still going very well on all fronts. Both children, the one tired of bringing home hours of homework each week (turning school days into 12 hour shifts) and the one who sleeps in and still gets all the work done by the afternoon hours were very, very ready for Christmas break! It came just at the right time, and lasted just about for the right amount of time, although we’ve taken an extra week most years before this one. I could stay on break indefinately, however, because I have lots of hobbies and interests to pursue that just get barely paid attention to when school is in session. Maybe empty nest syndrome won’t affect me so greatly…
Nah. I’ll probably forget all about my own interests for awhile!
I’ve got quite a few years to avoid thinking about that, but the older my children get, the more it comes to the surface of my musings. I’ve tried to encourage independence in every area from the very start, not at all being one of those parents who felt displaced by the insistent “Me do it!” plea from confident toddlers – isn’t it our job to teach them not to need us?? I’m always perplexed when parents get all worked up over their child’s growing independence. Didn’t they see that coming? Not that I’m not emotional about it sometimes. I think it depends on what it is. For example, I wasn’t at all ruffled when my daughter began to insist on fixing her own hair. A little embarrassed at times, maybe, by her “creative” hairdos (lol), but certainly never feeling regretful about giving up the job! It’s only when their independence cramps my ideals about the way things should be done that I feel a twinge of desire to do it for them – but that is not because I seek their dependence on me. It is because I sometimes just like things done my way 😉 hee-hee
We had wonderful Christmas and New Year holidays, made extra special with more time than usual with family, and the return to reality is both welcome (because it’s fair and unavoidable) and despised (because it would be nice to be together all the time and live on a barter system and scrap this “American Dream Life”).
I’ll close with a quote from a good song: “I wish the real world would just stop hassling me.”
🙂