The Simple Things of Summer

Day Trip to NYC with my Caregroup–July 8

Java Junction for iced-tea after the market with my Mom…
This little girl was at the market today…so precious…
The market has so much–corn, apples, peppers, wild honey, blackberries, tomatoes, apricots, peaches, plums..it is right in Old Town G’burg on Thursdays from 2 to 5pm
Lauren and I posing at Ikea…
Yes, only one hydrangea has bloomed, but i am proud of it!
The wild blackberries that I picked on my walk the other day

During the last few weeks, I have begun to see the benefits of simple summer days. Our family decided not to go on vacation this year for a variety of reasons, and I have been pleasantly surprised to find that there are so many great things you can do when the calender is not filled up (surprise, surprise!) Long times of reading my Bible, studying spanish, seeing movies like Superman and Lady in the Water late at night, reading Counte of Monte Cristo at the pool, organizing my room, and going to the weekly local market on Thursdays with my Mom have proved to be so relaxing. And then there have been other things: going to Ikea to help Lauren Minard, one of my closest friends, pick out house and wedding decorations, enjoying my one lonely pink hydrangea that my bush produced, (my Dad pruned it last winter and he wasn’t supposed to!), getting iced tea at this cute little cafe called Java Junction in Old Towne Gaithersburg, (this was today’s activity), making ginger granola, cooking for family dinner (the other night was Greek style pork gyros on toasted pita bread with cumin-lime yogurt sauce, arugala, and red onion), doing Pilates and Sports Conditioning classes at Fitness First, picking wild blackberries on early-morning walks in my neighborhood, and hanging out with my family and friends.

We have also been eating dinner out on our deck a lot as of late, and then we sit and talk for a while, which is usually pretty entertaining =) The other night my brother Peter was re-filling his water glass and had quite the little surprise: he took a huge gulp, and then started loudly choking and gagging because it was actually carbonated seltzer water with lemon, and he thought it was regular filter water! He then proceeded to blame it on me because I had made dinner that night…and following the usual ranting that the boys give me whenever I make something unusual (I have been known to come up with my own recipes), he went straight to “the chocolate chips”. “Chocolate chips” is a term Peter and Brett use whenever they tease me about some weird dish that I make–they say, “What, are there chocolate chips in the salad tonight, Em?” I won’t defend myself…but just to get the record straight, Brett was responsible for the seltzer water that night.
The second funny family time was a few nights ago when we were attempting to have family prayer. To make a long story short, we pretty much all took turns falling asleep when it wasn’t our turn to pray, and only got through about a quarter of our prayer list…but hey, it was the spiritual bonding time that mattered, right? =)