Dog Days

I love the seasons. It is one of my favorite things about living in Nebraska. And if I had to pick a season, I would pick summer.

"Hot enough for ya?"

Just about, yeah. I love the heat. I like the sun and the deep down, baked feeling when it is really hot. I like the humid wall of heat that I move through as I walk in between air conditioned places. (It's almost as fun as being warm and cold at the same time. But that's a sensation usually reserved for winter walks with warm torsos and cold extremeties.)

The other fantastic thing about summer is that it's, well, summer. The best part about summer? I am the only person that I have to get up and out of the house in the morning. I can let the kids stay up riding bikes and playing baseball and doing henna tattoos. I can put them to bed without showers.

Of course, my house also gets trashed in the summer, but that's really ok.

Our most widely used room in the summer is actually outside. Our front porch is used for sitting, reading, eating, listening to music, and visiting with each other and with company.

This was one of those days. We are all home from various short trips. The house is full of kids (7 or so?) and they are doing kid things - roasting marshmallows, braiding hair, laying in the rain on the sidewalk...Bill and I are on the porch where we ate dinner with his parents and now sit to visit and listen to music. The porch is noticably cooler than the yard - I think it is the breeze somehow? - and the storm cooled things off nicely.

I want to remember the ease of this afternoon and evening. The intense heat and short but intense summer storm that hit. The happy kids. The grilled food. And the heat. Summer.