too hot to cook . . . or even go out

so today . . . i ate chocolate covered donuts for dinner. don't worry, they were mini chocolate covered donuts . . .

it's summer. and at my house that means we do things a little bit differently than we do the rest of the year. even though rollie still has to get up and go to work every day, diandra and i have always looked forward to summer, because we were out of school.

when diandra was little, summer meant monitoring her lemonade stands and garage sales. it meant mornings spent at the library and afternoons spent at the city pool. it meant reading books--lots and lots of books. it meant a trip to portland to visit grandparents and the zoo, and sometimes a trip to the beach.

then she got older and summer meant giving her permission to go to the pool without me. it meant she spent afternoons with her friends, and i spent afternoons with my book, inside in the airconditioning--not at the pool. it meant staying up late and sleeping in later. it still usually meant a trip to portland to visit the grandparents, although maybe not the zoo. and then we moved to the beach, so we didn't have to visit it anymore.

now diandra is a grown-up, and she has a responsible grown-up job so she has to work in the summer. in fact, she works harder in the summer than at any other time of the year, because the kids in her youth group are out of school and have more free time. so she takes them to the beach, she goes on bike rides, they go to the movies or hang out at the town center. and so, my summers have changed as well. now i clean out the kitchen cabinets, clean out the closets, clean out the garage (do you see a pattern developing here?) i try to take care of all of the stuff that i just never seem to get to when i am teaching. it makes for a productive summer, but not always a satisfying one.

so tonight i ate mini chocolate donuts for dinner. because it is summer and diandra wasn't here for dinner, and rollie ate hours ago, and i had them, and i could. sometimes, you have to find your fun wherever you can. tomorrow maybe i will eat a salad for dinner. or maybe i will have ice cream . . .