Summer Fun

Walk or bike ride? Walk.

Favorite picnic food? I'm not really a picnic person. I like potato salad and mac salad, but I'd rather throw a pb&j in a backpack and climb a mountain.

Pool or lake? Lake.

Favorite flavor of ice cream? Cinnamon buns. Chocolate chip cookie dough. Or vanilla in a pinch. Bring on ALL the ice cream. Except chocolate 'cause that's nasty.

Ice cream cone or in a dish? Dish. No thanks on the soggy, drippy cone mess.

Flip flops or slides? Neither really. I prefer Teva style sandals that stay on your feet. That said, I do want something I can just slip on and off for the ease of running in and out of the house this summer when we're playing in the yard.

Jean shorts or jean capris? Again, neither really. I don't love jean material. So restrictive. I'm all about comfort.

Favorite summer fruit? Berries. Apricots.

Corn on the cob or cut off the cob? On the cob. Plain. No butter or salt.

Favorite summertime song? Summertime by The Sundays. Or DJ Jazzy Jeff. Or Janis Joplin.

Favorite summertime activity? Hiking.

Favorite berry? Black raspberries.

Bikinis, tankinis or one pieces? I haven't gone swimming in years. I have a two piece with a skirt bottom. Unless the elastic is shot I see no reason to buy another one.

Dresses or skirts? Dresses. I like not having anything squeezing my mid-section.

One word to describe summer? Hot. Haha.


Inspired by Beth.

2018 To Do List: May, etc.

1. Rearrange/clean the family room to make it a more usable space
2. Read at least 28 books - three books finished in May (14/28)
3. Hang snow shoes
4. Hang rabbit art (x2) in my son's room
5. Acquire a hammer ✅
6. Get rid of clothes my son has outgrown
7. Get rid of clothes I don't wear/like
8. Go swimming, preferably in a natural body of water
9. Go to the Adirondacks
10. Take my son camping in a tent in the woods for at least one night
11. Frame 2017 school pictures ✅
12. Spend less money on weekly groceries - efforts underway
13. Try shopping at Aldi ✅
14. Eat more veggies
15. Eat more fruits
16. Journal more
17. Complete 365 Mile Challenge - 58.4 miles for May (161.7/365) Best month so far!! 
18. Refinance my mortgage - process initiated
19. Make my own kombucha
20. Get my son to use the potty
21. Get new glasses
22. Decorate the house in some way for smaller holidays (Valentine's Day ✅, St. Patrick's Day ✅, Easter ✅)
23. Grow some sort of veggie this summer (zucchini? tomatoes?)
24. Have the driveway sealed
25. Take down the baby gate at the top of the stairs to the family room ✅

My May mileage really kicked into high gear with all the biking I've been able to do. All the bike miles are "commute" miles back and forth from the parking lot at work. After having put all these miles on my folding bike, I do wish I'd opted for a bike rack instead. The folding bike is great in a lot of ways. It's super easy just to toss in the car and drive off at the end of the day. However, it has no shocks and doesn't shift well (or at all?), so it's not the most comfortable on bumpy, hilly roads.

I started the refinance process at the end of May, and have a tentative closing date in mid-July. As anyone who's ever bought a house or refinanced a mortgage knows all too well, this process requires a lot of time and attention. So I'm anxious to put it all behind me.

We've managed to get peepee in the potty a few times, but we're not making much headway. The boy is a bit too attached to his diapers. Argh.

We planted a few zucchini seeds and a billion marigolds seeds, all of which were destroyed by rabid squirrels. OK, maybe not rabid, but they show little regard for our desire to grow things.

In other news, I took an undergraduate course on Child Development in May. I just finished the last piece of coursework last night, so phew. One less source of stress. It was A LOT of reading.

I also took the advice of a colleague who'd had success using it and downloaded a dating app to my phone. I can't (won't) date in the traditional sense (dinner and a movie), so this may lead to nowhere, but it's a few minutes of entertaining swiping every now and again. I can tell you one thing: dudes need to learn how to take more pictures besides the "here I am holding a big fish" pose and the "bare-chested in bed" pose. No thanks.

Summer Wishlist 2018

I've seen a few other bloggers create summer wishlists or bucket lists and it seems like a fun idea. Some of the items here are ones I pulled from my 2018 To Do List, but some are new. They may not all be possible, as money is EXTREMELY tight. But that's why it's called a wishlist, right...

• go berry picking
• go to the beach
• climb a mountain with a fire tower with my son
• go camping (in a tent)
• get ice cream from the ice cream truck
• go to the farmer's market
• go swimming
• hike to a waterfall

(That's all I can think of right now, but I may add more later if inspiration strikes.)

What's on your summer wishlist?

Mother's Day on the Bog

What better way is there to spend Mother's Day (or any day) than with a hike at Second Home Nature Center? That's what we did, returning to the favored Bog Trail. The weather was perfect, starting cool and warming more than 20 degrees while we were out. We saw tadpoles, a giant snapping turtle, several painted turtles, fish, and frogs. We threw LOTS of rocks and sticks and watched people paddling in canoes.

Throwing rocks.

2018 To Do List: April

1. Rearrange/clean the family room to make it a more usable space
2. Read at least 28 books - two books finished in April (12/28)
3. Hang snow shoes
4. Hang rabbit art (x2) in my son's room
5. Acquire a hammer ✅
6. Get rid of clothes my son has outgrown
7. Get rid of clothes I don't wear/like
8. Go swimming, preferably in a natural body of water
9. Go to the Adirondacks
10. Take my son camping in a tent in the woods for at least one night
11. Frame 2017 school pictures ✅
12. Spend less money on weekly groceries - efforts underway
13. Try shopping at Aldi ✅
14. Eat more veggies
15. Eat more fruits
16. Journal more
17. Complete 365 Mile Challenge - 34.3 miles for April (101/365) Best month so far!! 
18. Refinance my mortgage
19. Make my own kombucha
20. Get my son to use the potty
21. Get new glasses
22. Decorate the house in some way for smaller holidays (Valentine's Day ✅, St. Patrick's Day ✅, Easter ✅)
23. Grow some sort of veggie this summer (zucchini? tomatoes?)
24. Have the driveway sealed
25. Take down the baby gate at the top of the stairs to the family room ✅

I continue to plug away at my reading and mileage goals, but otherwise April was pretty slow for the to do list. My reading time during lunch has been much interrupted of late, which is frustrating but goes with the territory job-wise.

I've fully incorporated Aldi into my weekly shopping routine. I go there first, purchasing as many items as possible, then I race across the road to Wegmans to get the rest of what I need (items not available at Aldi). The only line in my monthly budget that is at all flexible is food. So I am focusing my efforts on spending less money on food since it's the only item I can control. I already switched to store brands whenever possible and stopped buying organic. But it's not like we can live on rice (my son won't eat rice). This past week I spent a total of $59 between the two stores and $11 of that was diapers (dude really, really needs to start using the potty). I am taking advantage of some food items already in the freezer and pantry, so I won't always be able to get the bill down that low. And of course now that I'm into an Aldi/Wegmans rhythm my Aldi is closing for renovations until the end of June. Sigh.

I may share more about my finances and budget in another post.

Birthday Weekend

Saturday morning (my birthday) we took it slow. We both needed some slowness after the mad rush Monday through Friday to get us out the door to school and work on time. Eventually we headed to Target so I could collect my free birthday drink from Starbucks (a large Green Tea Latte) and a couple cake pops. We also picked up hay for the guinea pigs and yeast because the grocery store hasn't had any for 2-3 weeks and I was craving some homemade bread.

From there we headed for Second Home Nature Center for my annual wildflower hike. Alas, the never ending winter wasn't really working in my favor. We found a few spring beauty, hepatica, and blue cohosh in bloom. Even that surprised me. I thought we'd come up completely empty. The trillium and trout lily were in bud, just barely. It was overcast and sprinkly, but still fairly mild. We also heard two barred owls calling ('tis the season) practically on top of us, but I couldn't search for them because my son was at the water's edge doing his best to throw everything not nailed down into the water (including himself?).

We encountered a man with his two year old son and got to chatting. He made it clear he was single and I tried to indicate the same, but nothing came of it. Do I need to be more direct? (That's not gonna happen.) Or was it the fact I hadn't showered in days? Who can tell.

That night we went to Panera with my dad where I collected another birthday freebie, a yummy tulip cookie. My sandwich was probably the worst I've ever had from Panera, but of course I ate it anyway.

The weather on Sunday was cold and dreary and raw, which made me grumpy. But at least I had fresh bread.

How was your weekend?

Trying to get my phone to ficus on the blue cohosh flower.

Currently

Drinking: Water. Black tea. Kombucha. Same as always. I found a new to me kombucha flavor yesterday and it is fantastic.

Watching: I started catching up on Designated Survivor this weekend because I finished my re-watch of ER. I think I had 7 or 8 episodes of Designated Survivor on my DVR, so I'll be working on that for a while before moving on to the next show.

Reading: Balanced and Barefoot by Angela J. Hanscom. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. It's Fall by Linda Glaser.

Playing with: Wooden marble track. Shape magnets. Penguin ball.

Feeling: Miserable. I'm so sick of the constant drip, drip, sneeze, cough. It's been a good four months straight and I'm OVER IT. I scheduled an appointment with an allergist for mid-June (their first available, sigh). 

Enjoying: We finally had a mild, sunny weekend! It was fantastic. We went for a hike, played in the yard, walked to the playground, and generally just enjoyed being outside as much as possible.

Looking forward to: More warm weather. The end of the semester.

What are you up to these days?