Summer Report Card

Living in a place like Los Angeles would drive me crazy. 82 degrees and Sunny everyday, year after year would get so old for me. I LOVE the changing seasons of New England. I love that I live in a part of the country that routinely experiences 110 degree temperature swings between the hottest Summer and the coldest Winter days. I LOVE how defined our seasons are up here. I love it all: damp , dark earth to plant in and new buds in Spring; Scorching Summer days in the pool; crisp, clear Autumn air and electric colors blazing from trees everywhere; Outside in the snow then in for cocoa by the fire in Winter. I get so giddy when the seasons change...there's so much promise, so many great times to be had exclusive to each season.
This Summer went by in a flash. As we move on to my favorite season of the year, I thought I'd take a look back and give Summer it's due. Being that school is back in session, I'm going to go at this report card style:

Swimming: A-
comments: We had the pool up nice and early this year and got use out of it pretty much every day in June and July. This year, it seemed like the average temperature went from 95 to 70 degrees in a matter of a few days, and the pool came down a bit earlier than usual. The kids loved it though...and the wife LOVED it. Gavin even took his first dip in the lake this Summer...jumped off the dam and everything. Had the swimming season not ended early, I would have graded this subject an A+

Garden: A
comments: First, the positives:
1. we put in the biggest garden we've ever maintained.
2. the whole family chipped in to manage it this year. Gavin was a great harvester.
3. Used our veggies and fruit for some great recipes (more on that in a minute)
4. Great crops: CUCUMBERS, tomatoes (still paying out), squash, pumpkins, basil, strawberries, blackberries, PEACHES!!

Now the Not-So-Positives:
1. Weeding: weeds got the better of our bean and pea crops
2. Not-So-Great crops: Peppers (not the right soil ph, I think. Blueberries (need to build a frame for nets, the birds got most of them), Apples: need to find a good organic pesticide.

All in all, it was a great year in the garden. There's a new 40x4 foot raised bed going in for next year. Going to add an herb garden and start to plant 'maters and peppers in the ground as opposed to pots. Also, my father picked up 2 cherry and 2 nectarine trees...those should be fun next year.

Recipes: A+
comments: With our garden veggies and fruits, we enjoyed some GREAT homemade food, including: pesto, herb infused dipping oil for bread, strawberry and blackberry jam, pickles (a HUGE favorite, we made over 5 gallons of pickles this Summer), salsa, and red sauce. Next year we are going to start canning to keep much more of our produce to use all year long.

Vacations: C+
comments: Vacation? What's that? Actually, we did head out of town a few times this Summer. We went down to New Jersey a few times to visit Chrissy's family, which is nice. Honestly, we didn't do much else except for a few day trips. Our kids are still so little. We did buy a pop-up camper which needs a bit of TLC but should be ready for some Spring camping next year. We're psyched to be able to hitch that baby up and get lost in the woods for a few weekends next year.

Birding: A
comments: spotted 38 confirmed species of birds on our property this Summer and 3 or 4 others that I wasn't able to identify. I'm still waiting for the day that I spot an owl in one of our trees. That's my white whale, right there.

The Pond: A+
comments: we used the pond more this Summer than we ever had before since having kids. Gavin is a champ in the boat and canoe. He sailed a few times with Pa and even used the outboard motor with me a few times. Ivy sometimes gets a bit squirmy on the boat, but if we sneak up on some ducks or geese, she'll usually cool down and just chill and check them out. The Heron-spotting was superb this year. We saw a Great Blue Heron on about 80% of all our boat trips that we took. We caught a bunch of turtles and frogs (quick side note: Gavin caught his first frog all by himself last week. Nice.) It's such a blessing to live on the water.


All in all, a pretty good report card. Summer 2010 was certainly an enjoyable one.

Autumn has crept upon us, and the Fall flavors are already starting to spring up around the Leo homestead. In fact, Chrissy made up a delicious batch of apple spice cookies earlier tonight. We're working on our Fall projects: getting the yard cleaned up, cutting/splitting/stacking our wood, finishing the homeschooling room to get ready for use soon, Chrissy's perpetually getting lesson plans and schooling activities together for Gavin. There's a few other projects to get to around the house to batten it down before the weather really turns cold...all in due time.

I hope you all, as well, had a wonderful Summer. I hope your are as excited for Autumn as we are.

In family worship last week, we read Ecclesiastes 3 and talked about the different "seasons" of various aspects of life. Those verses help me. They remind me that when I'm down, I won't stay down. They keep me from letting pride creep in when things are going well, and they help keep me focused on the task at hand when things aren't going so well. The seasons of our lives are constantly changing. Hallelujah for a merciful and unchanging God.