The Summer Checklist

We’ve had such odd weather since the kids have been out of school.  So much rain and cool temperatures, that it has not felt like our usual summers have.  We’ve spent a lot more time in front of computer screens than I like to admit, which is why today, when the sun was streaming down hot in the back yard, I went out there and got all sweaty, hosing down the kiddie pool.

I tell you, the value of an inexpensive tub of cold water on your back patio can not be over-stated.  The mid-afternoon dunking of the feet is a ritual I have sorely missed during the oddball days of this summer.  Not only is it an excellent way to cool off, but it’s also a nice, quiet time to relax and catch up with the kids.

Since I’ve been thinking about a party we’re throwing this coming weekend, I grabbed a few relevant books off the shelves and took them poolside with me:

• Summertime Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family by Sara Perry
• Everyday Celebrations: Savoring Food, Family, and Life at Home by Donata Maggipinto

In Summertime Treats, I found a recipe for “mocha madness”, which looked very much like a Frappuccino.  I tried it tonight – pretty good!  Not quite the same as Starbucks, but it’ll do in a pinch, and cost a whole lot less.

Everyday Celebrations is broken down by seasons.  Naturally, I flipped right to the summer section.  Now, the recipes and ideas in this book aren’t particularly practical for a family of picky eaters and kids who don’t care much for organized craft projects, but I think we got our money’s worth out of the title page for the summer chapter.  It read:

summer sensations

shuck corn, pick tomatoes, squeeze lemons, crack lobster tails, make a daisy chain, breathe in the briny scent of the sea, dance in a sun shower, scatter rose petals on your dinner table, sit on the porch, wave sparklers, plant honeysuckle, sip champagne under the stars, lick an ice cream cone, hear the ocean in a shell.

have a summer fling with your senses every sultry day

Well, that sure makes you want to squeeze every last drop of summer living out of this month, doesn’t it?  So I read it aloud to the boys, pausing after each item to ask if we’d done that particular activity yet this season or not.  It didn’t take long before there was a fit of giggling brought on by the fact that we were saying NO to every item.  We got to the end of the list with a pretty lousy score of two out of fourteen, at which point I put on my sternest face and said, “You boys have failed summer! You will be required to repeat the season!”

Well, needless to say, they were all for that idea! 😀

This weekend we are having a party for no good reason other than we feel like having our family together for a nice summer evening.  There will be grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and now there will most definitely be corn-shucking.  And if I can figure out how to make it happen, there will be sparkler-waving, too.

Hooray for summer!