Outside: Summer temperatures slow rolled but they are here now.  It is still very green which is a wonderful treat in the mountain west. We have discovered a young cherry tree at the edge of the woods which appears to have grown up near a larger mature tree.  It has a cheerful sprinkling of little red cherries this year, still a bit sour.  

Reading: I just finished Brideshead Revisited the day before last and am in the throes of book hangover.  It was an achingly beautiful book.  Though it was quite sobering in some respects it was also encouraging and helps me consider a much longer view.  Another author I put off far too long.  Trying to decide on what is next.  

Thinking About: Much.  I was musing during Brideshead over how much longer most things take than I expected as a younger women.  The hard things anyway.  That whole "it's a marathon, not a sprint," saying has taken on new meaning in middle age.  

From the Learning Room:

The girls have picked up the Key To Geometry books (link in sidebar) and are working through them.  We are having Morning Time every day and continuing an abbreviated school day due to upcoming travel.   Current stack looks like this….

The first poem in the Longfellow volume is Evangeline.  Sniff! I read it the first time to oldest children when we lived here in the 90's.  I remember crying and fully expect a repeat experience.  

Around the House:  As part of my continuing education effort I decided to learn to refinish furniture properly this summer.  We have some old pieces that needed serious work.  I have painted furniture before but learned the hard way what happens when you skip some of the instructions.  Turns out there actually ARE essential steps.  This time we got legit with a hand held sander and stripper fluid and have experimented with various wire brushes and sandpaper grit counts.  It was low risk project since the pieces were all free at some point in the past.  It has been hard physical work doing it "right" but also extremely gratifying.  Not gonna lie, this feels something like a super power.  

From the kitchen:

This tastes far better than you may think.  I've been lightly steaming collard greens and using them as wraps.  Super cheap and easy.  There is chicken salad inside these if I am remembering correctly but we have also done tuna and egg salad.  All good.  

Creating: The girls and I have pulled the sewing machine out to cut down some thrifted women's clothing to fit a tween who is all legs.  So far so good.  

Family Stuff:  The man of the house had a very happy birthday.  

I hope summer is off to a wonderful start wherever you are.  (Or winter for my Australian friends.)  It's been good to sit and gather all these little bits and pieces in one place again.  For a time I had been busier on popular social media.  It's so very convenient there as apps on the phone.  A thought can be tapped out as words almost as soon as you've thought it.  Perhaps that is not always a good thing. Morale suffers on a steady diet of contention so I am regrouping once more. Time to inhale all this sunshine and steady on with these many projects.