Stuff to Do During the Lazy Days of Summer

Each summer I imagine all the things we can do now that we don’t have to compete with homework and after-school responsibilities and I try to cram all the stuff we don’t get around to from September to June into the two and a half remaining months of the year.  Despite not getting anywhere near through the list last year, this year will be no different.  I still imagine a photo gallery wall going up our staircase and cleaning up my garden into a beautiful, functional outdoor office.

Here’s a few other items on my summer to-do list (with input from my kids)

• Find all the terrapins at the University of Maryland College Park campus and get ice cream from the dairy
• Catch a few movies – we’ve already started with opening day viewings of Fault in our Stars and How to Train a Dragon.
• Find more fresh-made ice cream spots near us.  Or during our travels. We stopped at a road-side stand o Route 50 (Maryland) for scoops of Princess pink and Cookies & Cream.
• Plan our roadtrip for the summer (we’re thinking about heading north)
• Read a lot
• Pack up for a local daytrip or some hometown touristing.

So far, we've had a good start.  Unlike our normal routine - we actually cancelled a few weekend plans and rearranged our schedule to get away to the beach for the weekend.  We had a nice small town visit to Berlin, Maryland - America's Coolest Small Town - located just before you get to Ocean City, Maryland. We walked through town (it’s something quaint about a town that’s still sleepy and quiet on a Sunday morning), ate cupcakes in the sweets shop, played with toys in an antique toy shop, and bought a few skeins of yarn at the small-town requisite yarn shop.

We've started off with a small departure from our normal hustle and bustle days.  Looking forward to another beautiful summer.

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Kayaks, Campfires, and S'mores

We trekked out to Cape Henlopen this past weekend for our annual Girl Scouts trip. We had a great time and I think the girls might've actually learned a few things while we were gone. Imagine that!

The weather was beautiful for hanging out at the beach.  For September, that means sitting on the beach in a cozy sweatshirt - for adults. For teenage girls it means running into the cold water and acting like its not cold at all.  That's where my duty as Troop Leader kicks in to make sure no-one gets swept away in a tide or shivers to death.  We also enjoyed kayaking.  Last year, we were on a nearby river because of the high waves, this year, the guides decided to let us brave the waves.

Kayaking at Cape Henlopen

One of the girls was really nervous about kayaking, the tide and cold was not helping. After a few minutes in the boat, she demanded to be let out back on shore.  She watched her fellow troop members for about 10 minutes, and then softly suggested that she might try again. She took a deep breath and climbed in the boat with me and we paddled on down the shore a little ways.  When we were back on the sand she sighed, smiled, and said she was glad she tried it again.  To me, that's the whole point of these adventures - not to make them expert kayakers, but to build the girls' self-confidence and learn to deal with their fears and nervousness.

Back at our site, we worked on our camp-cooking skills.  Forget the hotdogs and pot of beans.  I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich.  Cheese and a flat-bread wrap, wrapped up in foil and thrown on the grill - it was delicious!  For dessert we had Campfire Apple Crisp. Last year we made banana s'mores and peach cobbler, we're expanding our camp dessert repertoire.

Campfire Apple Crisps

• Slice the apples, one apple per girl
• Place the apple slices on foil
• Sprinkle with oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon - to each individual's taste
• Wrapped up the foil, making sure to close the packets so any steam would stay inside
• Put the apple packets over the hot coals/campfire.

We let them cook long enough to enjoy lunch and a game of volleyball.  We opened them up and - tada! - enjoyed moist, sweet individual apple crisps.  I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of "let's cook with the kids for the sake of fun," but I do believe kids need to be taught to cook.  These were really easy to make and something the girls could try with their families at home, using the oven.  They can even expand their cooking by trying different fruits like  peaches and blueberries.

Do you ever outgrow S'Mores?

And as Girl Scouts, everyone's got to contribute to the event.  Our assignment was supplying the s'mores for the big campfire. Yes, chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers for 150+ girls and leaders.  Accompanied by guitar playing and campfire songs.  And as it always seems at the beach - lots and lots of stars!

Find out more about the Girl Scouts at the official website - www.girlscouts.org.

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Go on - Get the Bikini

The summer days are dwindling down and perhaps you've done a good job in avoiding wearing a bathing suit all summer.  Isn't that one of the most stressful shopping trips known to woman-hood? Especially after you've hit a certain age and had a kid or two or four? Especially if you could, if you had to, live on chocolate cake and coffee ice cream?  Stop denying yourself the cool refreshment of the summer pool and get to a bathing suit shop. In fact, go ahead and get the bikini, if you want to! 

I own one-piece bathing and bikinis, two-pieces if you prefer. My one-pieces are the traditional sports, racer-back bathing suit that I wear when swimming laps and the other is a simple black suit. Like the LBD, everyone should own a flattering black bathing suit.And I have a pile of bikinis. Yes, I wear a bikini. Why? Especially, with the whole four pregnancies and love of chocolate thing? Because, once I tried one on, I realized, I actually didn't look as bad as I had feared. Now I'm not claiming I'm ready to walk down the Victoria's Secret runway, but I don't look like Dumbo's momma either.

Picking out a bathing suit takes time. Lots of it. Probably one reason moms never have new bathing suits, or when they do, it's something they grabbed off the rack at Target while picking up toothpaste, dog food, and a mixing bowl.  So, first, you've got to make time. Leave the kids home or go while they're at camp/school/a playdate.

 

Where are you going shopping? Whether its Target, a department store or swimming suit specialty shop, pick somewhere with a variety and options you really do like and can afford. So, how much should you spend? Don't necessarily get the cheapest one. Spend a bit on the one with stretch (look for Lycra in the materials) and that fits you really well.  The cheap ones will sag after a few wears and that doesn't look good on anyone. And of course, end of summer is a great time to get suits on sale. You can also check sports stores and swimming shops, especially if you want something sporty, for end-of-season clearance. You're better off with one great suit that's going to last and not fade, then a bunch that you're going to be throwing out by next summer.

 

Now - on to the store!  Grab up everything that you think you would like. Don't worry yet whether you would look good in it or not, just get it. Skirted polka dot? One-piece with cutouts? String bikini? Black one-piece? Whatever, get it. And don't worry about what all those articles say about what bathing suit fits your body, given some "imperfection." Do you ever look at those models? That one showing off the suit that covers a "problem tummy"? Please. If I looked like that chick, I'd be wearing a bikini to PTA meetings (and isn't mine glad I don't?)  So back to my point - get all the ones you like. Now go find a dressing room.

 

Hang up all the bathing suits in a couple piles - most likely will like, maybe this will work out, and ooh! If this fits, I'm going get an ice cream cone! 

 

Start trying them on. It'll take a couple for you to figure out what does and doesn't look good on you. I found those skirted one's did nothing but make my thighs look bigger, so threw all skirted things out of the running. Figure out what works, what you like, what makes you smile at your reflection. 

 

Pick out your favorites from your pile of what makes you happy. And admit it - you didn't look as bad as you feared. Remember that show, Look Good Naked or something like that? Those women - and probably most of us in real life, too - think we look worse than we really do. We should be nicer to ourselves.

 

Now, before you change your mind - hurry to the register with your bathing suits. Then grab your best sunhat, a good book, and head to the water.

And tell me - what kind of bathing suits make you smile at your reflection?

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ebooks vs. real pages

I'm still stuck between e-books and real books.  For all the convenience, portability, and, of course, no storage space of ebooks, I still like the feel of paper, of dog-earring pages, and flipping back to recall whether I remembered the story right.  Ebooks are good for the books that are good reads, but not real keepers that I feel I need to store on my shelves forever.  But real books are so much easier to lend or share with a friend.  And what else am I going to do with all these bookmarks and name plate stickers?

On our recent family vacation, I carried along a copy of Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox on my iPad, along with a dozen or so other books, and two paperback books in my suitcase.  I generally don't like reading two books at a time, I get easily confused about which character and plot line belonged to which story, but I do make the rare exception.  In this case, I read my ebook while on the plane.  Then I switched to the paperback when I got out to the pool and the beach.

Why this distinction?  Take a look at my paperback - a true "beach read".

It survived a couple rides on the lazy river tube ride at the hotel and a couple days lounging on the beach.  The pages are wrinkled with pool water and interlaced with sand and salt.  Can you imagine what this would do to my iPad?

My daughter, on the other hand, is obviously, a better keeper of e-books.  That's all she carried - plane, beach, pool, dinner, laying in the bed.

My husband, the tech-y, is sure that eventually I will forego the real books and read everything on a nook or Kindle.  Has this man not noticed that I still have a film SLR camera on the shelf?

Today I don't feel like doing anything...

I wish I had a cumulative pedometer for the past few weeks. Between some of Europe's largest museums and the largest church in the world, slender streets and cobblestone paths, airport terminals & train stations, I know that our feet have logged in a couple marathons. So today, we'll take Bruno Mars' "Lazy Song" as our theme.

Today, we didn't do anything. We ate breakfast at McDonald's, which the kids loved because the pancakes come with your choice of chocolate or caramel sauce, no plain ole maple syrup. Then we went to the market and bought sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies, water, punch, and sangria and headed to the beach.

Then we did nothing.

We swam in the Mediterranean, floating so easily on our backs and giggling to be able to see our feet in the water! I read a book sitting in the sand. The kids were amazed, intrigued, confused by the topless sunbathers and swimmers, then went back to swimming and floating in the water. And when the food was gone, the lifeguards climbed down from their chairs and the sun was ready to leave us to go shine on our friends back home, we rolled up our towels and flip-flopped off the beach.