Summer is so many things. It’s heat and rain and the blooming of the heliconias which have finally awakened, breaking the soil from their winter hibernation.

It’s hair in ponytails and the familiarity of beads of sweat quickly forming on short jaunts to the car. Humidity from daily rain showers that sprinkle in perfect unison to sun beams recharging the damp, sticky air.

It’s more time in the pool and more time on the boat.

Days where your friends play mermaid with your sea-horse niece that leave you smiling at creative answers when Aubs asks Shan all about where her fins are, and if she’s really a mermaid.  I mean, of course she’s really a mermaid!  Or maybe she’s a land shark?

It’s finally hanging the curtains that I made back in the spring, just in time to catch the edge of sunlight that glazes our home in a sweet golden glow deep into the evening hours.  It was on a whim that I found myself in Ikea, staring at a pair of Ritva curtains and, in a stream of consciousness, mentally turned my blank slate of flax fabric into the Mann O Print curtains I’ve been drooling over.  Twenty minutes and five “screen printing” Googles later I was on my way, curtains in cart and excitement in my step.  It’s part of my 34 flavors of mediocre talent that never quite gets honed down to one fabulous hedgehog ( I’m working on that by the way).

It’s impromptu sleepovers and evening rain storms that keep us bundled up tight at home making a celebratory 4th of July monster cookie drizzled in strawberries and blueberries and creamy bakery icing.

We made homemade pizzas, then settled on a bowl of macaroni and cheese for dinner instead while watching 3d movies together. Accessorized with special glasses that already seem dated in their Back to the Future style gone awry.  10 years from now they will seem even more ridiculous then they do now.  It’s either that or the frightening alternative of being totally in style. I’m not holding my breath.

It’s even more.  Aside from the consistent wet heat, we’ve got other showers going on here, too.  A bridal shower thrown for Jenna by her bridesmaids, all squeezed intimately in our house to celebrate her and this exciting journey she is embarking upon.  A right of passage for any adored girl leading up to her anticipated “I do”.

I can remember this day of mine so clearly before my own wedding.  Driving away from my last shower, the bachelorette party already a month past, the games and silly questions now preserved by pieces of paper in my box of mementos…  and I was ridiculously sad.  Sad, but in a jumbo shrimp oxymoron type of way.  It was bittersweet.  I looked at my mom and soberly said “That’s it.  It’s all done.  Now it’s just the wedding.”  And though I was overcome with excitement for the day to come, there was still so much I was soaking in, and I selfishly wanted it to last just a little longer. 

Self portrait to prove that I, indeed, was there!