{"id":311,"date":"2016-08-08T11:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T11:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/08\/summer-days\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T02:39:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T02:39:47","slug":"summer-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/08\/summer-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Days"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"summer<\/a><\/div>\n

It has been a good week. Last week was hot and muggy and miserable and full of annoying problems but this week, this week has been what summer should be.<\/p>\n

Of course, the kids go back to school in three weeks. \u00a0Every year we just settle in to summer and it is time to start planning for the new school year. \u00a0It seems to take them half the summer to decompress and unwind from school stresses and then we have to start all over again. \u00a0This has been a good week though and we are going to concentrate on that.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

I took the kids to Old Sturbridge Village. \u00a0I took my daughter back in the spring and wrote about it here.<\/a> \u00a0My son has been wanting to go ever since. \u00a0It is a place we have taken them ever since they were tiny and I am truly grateful that they still enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\"old<\/a><\/div>\n
\"old<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

The village was not crowded so the interpreters had plenty of time to talk and they were full of interesting information. Many of them have worked in various areas of village life so they don’t only know about one aspect of it. \u00a0Their knowledge is very well-rounded. \u00a0 We brought a picnic lunch and ate it sitting on some rocks in a grove of pine trees. \u00a0We spent the day wandering and I loved every minute of it. \u00a0My son told me it was one of the best days of the summer. \u00a0That is high praise from a teenager. \u00a0We saw another mom with two bored teenagers who kept telling her they wanted to go home. \u00a0My son informed me that I should feel fortunate to have him and his sister as children because they enjoy things like the village. \u00a0He doesn’t think it has much to do with parenting because that other mom had her kids at the village too but they hated it. \u00a0He thinks it is just the luck of the draw. \u00a0I would like to take a little credit but I think he is partially correct. \u00a0Anyway, I am glad they had fun and I had fun too.<\/p>\n

\"baby<\/a><\/div>\n

Aren’t these baby birds adorable? \u00a0They look like they are ready to fly the nest. \u00a0I am not sure how they are all fitting in there. \u00a0I am not too knowledgeable about birds. \u00a0Does anyone know what these are? They were cheeping away in a corner of one of the barns.<\/p>\n

\"swimming<\/a><\/div>\n

I have been bemoaning the fact that there are not too many places locally where we can go swimming. \u00a0We have friends with pools but I hate constantly asking if we can use them even though they insist they don’t mind. \u00a0I wanted somewhere close by where we could just pop in for a quick swim. \u00a0It seemed impossible. \u00a0Everything was at least half an hour away if not more and how likely is it that a new swimming spot is just going to appear in town? \u00a0Well, very likely it seems. \u00a0This little reservoir has been closed to public swimming ever since I moved here seven years ago. \u00a0This week I discovered that it has been opened again. \u00a0The photo doesn’t do it justice, I just snapped it quickly to show my husband. \u00a0It is actually quite pretty and very deserted. \u00a0I don’t think most people know it is open again. \u00a0We are going to make the most of it for the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Our big vacation with the kids was a trip to Chicago. \u00a0We needed to visit family and then we spent a few hectic days seeing the sights. \u00a0Unfortunately, we came home more tired than when we left. \u00a0Another trip seemed impossible until last week when we got an email from a vacation homeowner in New York. \u00a0We rent from him almost every year. He had the end of August open and he offered us a phenomenal deal. \u00a0We jumped at it. \u00a0His place is an old farmhouse in rural New York, the only house on 70 acres. \u00a0We hike the dirt roads and roam through the meadow. \u00a0We swim in the pond and look for fossils in the stream bed. \u00a0We have campfires and play croquet. It is peaceful and quiet and lazy. \u00a0I can’t wait. \u00a0It feels like an extra special treat since we were not planning on going this year. \u00a0The only sad thing is that usually my aunt and uncle come for part of the time and they can’t make it on such short notice. \u00a0We will miss them. \u00a0My kids adore them and my aunt and I are very alike and usually spend our time talking like mad. \u00a0It won’t be quite the same without them but we will still have fun.<\/p>\n

I bought books during the hot, muggy, annoying week we had recently. \u00a0I decided a book buying ban was just plain miserable when I was miserable. \u00a0So I bought books. \u00a0Though, now that I am thinking about it, that contributed to the annoying week at the time because my bank decided a $3.47 charge for a book must be fraud and froze my card. \u00a0And then they used an old email address to try to notify me. \u00a0I have no idea why since I updated that ages ago and have been getting all my emails to the new address for a few years now. \u00a0It was a bit crazy but it all got straightened out and I have spent the last week having the fun of getting book mail. \u00a0I will do a separate post on the books I bought when they all have shown up.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

A garden center near me had a huge sale last Friday. \u00a0They do it every year and it is always a bit of a madhouse. \u00a0They drop the prices dramatically and hold the sale for only a few hours. \u00a0The lines to pay stretch on for what seems like miles and I always wonder why I bother. \u00a0Then I get home with a huge number of plants for just a few dollars and decide it was all worthwhile. I bought black-eyed Susans and foxglove and a butterfly bush and several other things that I can’t remember. \u00a0I am never going to be a wonderful gardener but I keep plugging away at it, hoping my gardens will eventually look a little less forlorn. \u00a0That isn’t a forlorn hope, is it?<\/p>\n

Those were the best parts of my week. How was yours?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a good week. Last week was hot and muggy and miserable and full of annoying problems but this week, this week has been what summer should be. Of course, the kids go back to school in three weeks. \u00a0Every year we just settle in to summer and it is time to start planning for the new school year. \u00a0It seems to take them half the summer to decompress and unwind from school stresses and then we have to start all over again. \u00a0This has been a good week though and we are going to concentrate on that. I took the kids to Old Sturbridge Village. \u00a0I took my daughter back in the spring and wrote about it here. \u00a0My son has been wanting to go ever since. \u00a0It is a place we have taken them ever since they were tiny and I am truly grateful that they still enjoy it. The village was not crowded so the interpreters had plenty of time to talk and they were full of interesting information. Many of them have worked in various areas of village life so they don’t only know about one aspect of it. \u00a0Their knowledge is very well-rounded. \u00a0 We brought a picnic lunch and ate it sitting on some rocks in a grove of pine trees. \u00a0We spent the day wandering and I loved every minute of it. \u00a0My son told me it was one of the best days of the summer. \u00a0That is high praise from a teenager. \u00a0We saw another mom with two bored teenagers who kept telling her they wanted to go home. \u00a0My son informed me that I should feel fortunate to have him and his sister as children because they enjoy things like the village. \u00a0He doesn’t think it has much to do with parenting because that other mom had her kids at the village too but they hated it. \u00a0He thinks it is just the luck of the draw. \u00a0I would like to take a little credit but I think he is partially correct. \u00a0Anyway, I am glad they had fun and I had fun too. Aren’t these baby birds adorable? \u00a0They look like they are ready to fly the nest. \u00a0I am not sure how they are all fitting in there. \u00a0I am not too knowledgeable about birds. \u00a0Does anyone know what these are? They were cheeping away in a corner of one of the barns. I have been bemoaning the fact that there are not too many places locally where we can go swimming. \u00a0We have friends with pools but I hate constantly asking if we can use them even though they insist they don’t mind. \u00a0I wanted somewhere close by where we could just pop in for a quick swim. \u00a0It seemed impossible. \u00a0Everything was at least half an hour away if not more and how likely is it that a new swimming spot is just going to appear in town? \u00a0Well, very likely it seems. \u00a0This little reservoir has been closed to public swimming ever since I moved here seven years ago. \u00a0This week I discovered that it has been opened again. \u00a0The photo doesn’t do it justice, I just snapped it quickly to show my husband. \u00a0It is actually quite pretty and very deserted. \u00a0I don’t think most people know it is open again. \u00a0We are going to make the most of it for the next few weeks. Our big vacation with the kids was a trip to Chicago. \u00a0We needed to visit family and then we spent a few hectic days seeing the sights. \u00a0Unfortunately, we came home more tired than when we left. \u00a0Another trip seemed impossible until last week when we got an email from a vacation homeowner in New York. \u00a0We rent from him almost every year. He had the end of August open and he offered us a phenomenal deal. \u00a0We jumped at it. \u00a0His place is an old farmhouse in rural New York, the only house on 70 acres. \u00a0We hike the dirt roads and roam through the meadow. \u00a0We swim in the pond and look for fossils in the stream bed. \u00a0We have campfires and play croquet. It is peaceful and quiet and lazy. \u00a0I can’t wait. \u00a0It feels like an extra special treat since we were not planning on going this year. \u00a0The only sad thing is that usually my aunt and uncle come for part of the time and they can’t make it on such short notice. \u00a0We will miss them. \u00a0My kids adore them and my aunt and I are very alike and usually spend our time talking like mad. \u00a0It won’t be quite the same without them but we will still have fun. I bought books during the hot, muggy, annoying week we had recently. \u00a0I decided a book buying ban was just plain miserable when I was miserable. \u00a0So I bought books. \u00a0Though, now that I am thinking about it, that contributed to the annoying week at the time because my bank decided a $3.47 charge for a book must be fraud and froze my card. \u00a0And then they used an old email address to try to notify me. \u00a0I have no idea why since I updated that ages ago and have been getting all my emails to the new address for a few years now. \u00a0It was a bit crazy but it all got straightened out and I have spent the last week having the fun of getting book mail. \u00a0I will do a separate post on the books I bought when they all have shown up. A garden center near me had a huge sale last Friday. \u00a0They do it every year and it is always a bit of a madhouse. \u00a0They drop the prices dramatically and hold the sale for only a few hours. \u00a0The lines to pay stretch on for what seems like miles and I always wonder why I bother. \u00a0Then I get home with a huge number of plants for just a few dollars and decide it was all worthwhile. I bought black-eyed Susans and foxglove and a butterfly bush and several other things that I can’t remember. \u00a0I am never going to be a wonderful gardener but I keep plugging away at it, hoping my gardens will eventually look a little less forlorn. \u00a0That isn’t a forlorn hope, is it? Those were the best parts of my week. How was yours?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-lately"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2809,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/2809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}