I Love Lists

From Mama's Losin It (I also love writing prompts): List your 7 favorite summer items. Hmm.

This has been an odd summer. June had no plan; July was jam-packed. July was also the coolest on record (so a good year for our HVAC system to fail, actually!). The garden is lousy because of the weather but I cannot complain. Really. I haven't seen much of either sister, but plenty of my mother, who is still recuperating from her knee replacement surgery. It's just been atypical.

So 7 items? Let's give that a try.

1. Iced Coffee. Leo is letting me drink coffee again, and life is better because of this. Hot coffee on hot summer days, though, is unappealing. I don't make coffee strong enough at home to take ice, so this is something I only do outside the house--Bread Company, Starbucks, the Gelateria on South Grand. Bevin and Bridgett Go To The Starbucks Drive Through could have been the title of last summer's movie of my life. This summer, not as often, but this week? I drive past coffee after dropping girls off EVERY DAY at swim camp.

2. Highlights. I have ash brown hair starting to go, well, a little more ashy (gray). And I completely, totally, trust my hairdresser, Jo at Salon St. Louis. I never thought blonde would be the choice for me, but 3 summers ago she lightened me up a bit and gave me some nice highlights (that match Maeve's natural streaks, I mean, could that girl have better hair?). Come October, she'll take them back out and let my hair go natural (minus the gray) for about 5 months. But March comes along and I'm ready for them again.

3. Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad. Stick your face in.

4. Sandals. I have bad feet. Really bad feet. All winter I wear orthotics in my shoes and try not to think about how old I am. But summer comes and I am rewarded for all my hard work with...birkenstocks! Yay! Just kidding. My feet love them but they look like...birkenstocks. And then I discovered, thanks to Ann, QVC (don't laugh). (Ok, you can laugh). QVC sells pretty birkenstocks. I have a pair of black leather ones that criss cross on the top. A pair of three-strap blue ones, but the blue is actually a paisley print. They last for freakin ever but next summer I'm going to get another pair.

5. Bike trailers. We're back on the bikes, now that Leo is sitting up and seems sturdy enough to ride on bike trails (not on the street, mind you) in the bike trailer with Maeve. It means I haul an extra 100 pounds behind me; Mike has Sophia on the trail-a-bike (temporary tandem). I love biking. My mind is blank when I ride bikes.

6. Clothesline. I am not faithful to the clothesline in the winter--I have a line in the basement for things that cannot be dried in the dryer, but for the most part, I use my dryer in the winter. When things warm up, though, I love my clothesline. I love the smell of sheets dried in the wind, I love the magic way the sun bleaches baby stains, and I do love the meditative process of hanging clothes up and bringing clothes in. Things get put away faster and everything seems to work better for me. Just me. Mike hates it when I line dry his jeans. Sophia things line-dried clothes are rough on her skin. So we still use the dryer some...

7. Flowers in my yard. The surprise lilies are up; a few weeks back were Sophia's stargazers. Before that it was flags and daylilies and vinca and iris. Marigolds try in my yard, but don't do too hot. Hostas are blooming, the live-forevers are starting, and that first harbinger of warmth, the daffodil, reminds me every year of the heritage in my yard. My grandmother Penny planted them, from daffodil bulbs in her yard, which are from her mother's yard, which her father brought home in his pockets from beautification projects he did with the WPA. Love them.

So that's my 7. Harder than I thought it would be. Like I said, it's been a weird summer...