It's hot here, no surprise to anybody. We do, after all, live in Texas. We don't have irrigation here at the new house, so all my carefully planted flowers from June are slowly dying. We spend a lot of time watering them, ourselves, the dogs. Shadow is a water rat--that dog is always soaking wet. But it keeps him happy, and Caiden too, since he's the Chief Waterer. My plants may be dying, but the dog and boy are always nicely watered somehow.
We had horses here for a few weeks, boarding them. We've arrived at different conclusions: I think they're scary and huge, and Chris loved having them. He and Caiden were sad to see them go off to their new home, but I was secretly rejoicing. Scout got kicked the first day they were here. Dumb dog got all territorial, deciding he couldn't share the pasture with two horses. 100 pounds is no match for 1,000, but he didn't believe me when I told him. Good for all of us that he didn't actually get hurt, since he didn't learn from his mistake and went after the horse a second time. So much for golden retrievers being wimps. I had new respect for his courage, even if he did show supreme stupidity.
Chris and I went to Miami to visit our church campus there. It was my first visit to Miami, and I fell in love with all the beautiful, flowering trees. And Italian food. I had no idea there'd be so much good Italian food there! I was prepared for hot, humid days, but it rained daily and never got about 80 or so. It was hard to come back to hot, dusty Texas. Except that I love hot, dusty Texas, and I missed my children. It was the first time I've been away from all three of them for more than a day. (Although the food, flowers, and rain did help assuage the homesickness quite a bit!))
My sister and her son visited for a week, and we did a whole lot of nothing. It was terrific. I keep trying to convince her to move back to Texas. I don't know that a week of +100 temps will do it, though.
And Addie broke her leg. When I told a friend that today, I mentioned that these things seem to happen to us lately. After all, our entire family has visited CareNow in the last three months for injuries, excepting Addison, so it seemed her ticket was called. And my sweet friend gently reminded me that these things don't happen to us lately, they happen to us always. So true. When the orthopedic surgeon told me the leg was broken, 99% of me was horrified. But the other 1% was saying, "Well of course the child's leg is broken. These things happen to us, you know." I want to let all the strangers we meet, who stare at her hot pink cast and ask me how it happened, that my doctor assured me it's entirely common to break a tibia in a crib slat in the middle of the night, but I don't think they'll believe me. Instead they look at me with much sympathy and compassion, and probably a little bit of that, "She must be a rotten mother" look that we all give people whose children break their legs before they've even cut all their teeth. But she's getting around remarkably well, despite the toe-t0-thigh cast and boot. The boys want to sign her cast, but I'm guessing they'll grab permanent markers when I'm not looking and draw robots and aliens and pirates all over it. So instead I gave her a pedicure to match her cast. A good compromise, in my book.
So that's it. Summer is slowly trickling away, at least on the calendar, although Texas has just wound up for a couple months more of ridiculously hot, melting days. We're spending most of our time inside, cleaning closets and planning for the next school year. It's been a rather calm summer, despite horses, company, and a broken leg. I'm enjoying my break, although if I told you I was spending it reading really great books I'd be lying. Somehow the day is finished before it feels like it's begun, and the days are sliding off the calendar. It's been a nice, lazy summer. I hope yours has been, too.
I feel like Garrison Keillor, checking in from Lake Wobegon, except that I can't think of anything witty and charming to end with. So I'll leave you with this: See you next month. :)