It has been a lovely, lazy August and I have managed, by and large, to avoid my end-of-summer blahs. Hooray!
I have, however, been in complete denial that I am a doctoral student who will soon need to account for her productivity and time. I really have only done minimal amounts of work in that area for the past...oh...four months. At this point I feel like a complete charlatan if anyone asks about how my program is going. I am consoling myself with the knowledge that I have to percolate my thoughts before I produce anything but, let's be serious, four months isn't percolating. It's pickling. I'll have to see what condition my thoughts are in next week when I tug them out of my brain brine. Otherwise they're going to come and take away my student's license, I fear.
So what have we been doing? The first half of the month we were in Utah, visiting family and friends (and I'm going to spend today posting some catch-up posts about that trip for the sake of family documentation).
The rest of the month we've been homebodies. Maddy has decided to take up G on his offer to do his shirts each week for the equivalent $ amount that he pays the dry cleaner right now. First she completed ironing bootcamp, doing practice shirts just to make sure she was up to the task. One thing about that Maddy, her outfits are an integral part of any activity, so she dressed up in her "funky housewife" get up. Whatever gets the job done, I say.
Lauren turned 17 in August. Yes, it's true. Is it just me or does 17 seem many years older than 16? To celebrate, she decided to bring friends to a polo match (see below) and then to WaterFire in Providence. She's prepping to take the ACTs, the SATs again, and driver's license test. She adores her new computer. It seemed like a good idea at the time, since she has a heavy senior year load and will need one next year anyway, but she has to be nudged-persuaded-threatened to get off of it sometimes. (But then, don't we all?) She is researching the feasibility of starting a shaved ice shack in our town, which would make me very happy. I love a good, pink lemon sour/peach shaved ice combo.
Sam turned 12 this month. Suddenly his body has done that endearing tween boy thing where they widen before they lengthen. He has his first suit, a handsome + grey 3-button deal. After being teased by several different people for looking like Justin Beiber, he is desperate to cut his hair before school starts to avoid that particular fate in the future. He's been reading up a storm, going on runs, doing various things with graph paper, and doing sporcle quizzes.
G is trying to catch up at work and church from the vacation. He is astonishingly upbeat about his quite heavy load, between bishoping and lawyering and husbanding and fathering. His outside (and therapeutic) puttering has produced a nice, raised-bed garden that is shooting out the peppers and tomatoes faster than we can pick them (oh! the sweet cherry tomatoes! nature's candy, right?).
Speaking of candy, I'm on week three of no sugar, no dairy. Why? Because I have a bad-boyfriend relationship with them both: I love them much, much more than they love me. Years ago I did this for several months and felt (and looked?) the best I ever have. A combination of headaches, stomachaches, and seeing my vacation photos (you know, the kind where you are wearing a bathing suit and "untag" yourself on Facebook?) have brought me back to it. Heaven help us all.
