A Few of My Favorite Summer Things

"Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you."--1 Samuel 12:24

It's been a busy week.  I've started longer hours at work because we are short-staffed for the summer, and it's been an admittedly hard adjustment for me.  Plus, we had some unexpected plans come up last weekend, which put me behind in housework and all of the other things that I normally take care of on the weekend, so I've been trying to catch up in the evenings during the week.  Today I feel exhausted, and struggled to get through my morning at work.  However, I enjoyed the drive in to work--I love the warm, muggy, hazy mornings that only occur in the summer, and this morning was perfect for that.  That inspired a list of my favorite things for the summer season.  What do you love about summer?

I love the smell in the air!  I love how fresh nature smells in the summer.  This is not as noticeable if you live in town, but the fragrance is intoxicating out in the country.  The smell of roses in bloom, freshly-cut grass, dew in the air...the smell of life and growth that is only experienced in warm months.

I love the heat!  I know that doesn't make me the most popular person in the world, but I enjoy it, because it makes me think of how much fun I had during the summer when I was young.  I don't necessarily want to be a kid again, but summer vacation was what I always looked forward to, because all I did was play outside.  I rode my bike around the neighborhood, roller skated (remember those?), played games with the neighbor kids, swam in the pools, and never wanted to bathe.  Maybe that's too much information, but I never wanted to come in at night and take a bath and have to go to bed.  It cut into my fun time too much.

I love to travel in the summer!  Seems like I do a lot of traveling in the summer, and always have.  You don't have to worry about snow and ice storms making the roads bad, and besides, there are just many more events to travel to in the summer, like festivals, beaches, cookouts, and tourist attractions.  I also just love sitting in a car with the sun shining in and the little air conditioning vents pointed right at me.  This usually lasts for about five minutes, and then I freeze, but I like it.  Just a great time of year to hit the road.

I love garage sales!  These only happen in the warm months here, maybe only six months of the year, sometimes less.  I don't know what it is about shopping for stuff in someone else's garage that is just so fun, but it is--you really never know what you might find!

I love gardening!  Even though I call it my "practice garden", I still enjoy tending the garden beds.  It's great for learning what works and what doesn't; for instance, this year, broccoli didn't work.  It bolted before we could get anything harvestable.  No big deal, I'll try again when I have a large garden--I also think that I didn't have enough room for them to grow.  I'm getting potatoes already, so I'm pretty excited about harvesting those soon.  I seem to do well with lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, and bush beans.  I'd love to grow carrots, strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, and other things, but now's not the right time.  I look forward to having my dream garden someday!

Enjoy the hot summer weekend, everyone!  And thank you to everyone who checked out my turtle cookie recipe in the Little House Living recipe blog hop last week--it was the most-clicked-on link in the linkup!  I hope you enjoy the cookies as much as we do!