Summer Break's End / Back To School

While the drought here in Kansas is becoming more severe, this week we finally had a little over an inch of rain.  There’s been plenty of heat, which does produce very short and spotty afternoon showers.  But we were beginning to feel as if there was a force field around our house keeping us dry.  This is the first year that I can remember our rainwater pond got too low to water from and there was no more reserve left in the cistern.  Then Tuesday we had an entire morning of downpours which was enough to fill the pond and yield overflow to the cistern.  It also reminded me to appreciate the beauty in a rainy day.

The drought has brought us one really cool consequence.  We have a friend who is a cattle and sheep rancher and a couple of weeks ago she discovered wild lotus growing in one of her ponds.  The pond was built in 1980 and never has had lotus growing in it before.  She thinks it has something to do with the drought and the water level being so low.  Since the lotus is one of Paul’s and my hobbies, we invited ourselves over.  We heard you could find it growing wild in Kansas but really didn’t believe it. 

Paul finished digging our own second small, ornamental pond, recycling what used to be Turtle Island, giving it a purpose again.  I want to dig up some of the rock from this cliff we live on to line around the edges.  He was only able to capture one of our fish to move from the lily rainwater pond to the new one, Popeye, our one-eyed goldfish.  He was blindsided.

We have all been trying to savor the last bit of summer.  Yes, the heat and calendar say we still have much left of the season but the schools here in Kansas and Missouri say differently.  Our two teacher daughters went back on Monday, while the grandchildren start next Tuesday!  To make it even worse, the local city pools are all closing this week.  For the past few years, they’ve been closing when the kids go back to school because they lose their workforce.  But grandma and grandpa’s little pool stays open until Labor Day!

So we’ve tried to fit in as much fun as possible here at the end.  It’s now a tradition on our last Friday brunch to go downtown on the streetcar to have lunch.  We made a trip to the farmers’ market, (which meant homemade pickles and peach cobbler), and we made it to the parade at the fair.  We had a back to school sleepover with the two oldest granddaughters.  Their littlest cousin ended up being part of the fun due to a daycare snag.  We had a great time going on a nature walk to gather materials and then making a sun catcher box.  And for the grand finale, the Perseids helped us commemorate with an outdoor movie and meteor night and a family sleepover.  Now I for one could use some recuperation time.

I’ve not knitted for two weeks, instead making Amelia’s second birthday book.  Her favorite song is Footloose.  Paul wrote the words for the book, using Footloose’ lyrics as a template.  If you think of the melody while reading it hopefully you can hear it.  I also made a little reversible dress for her.  I embroidered what I thought looked like a lower case “a” on the pocket.  But no one has been able to guess what it is.

Looking up over these photos I'm about to post, I'm struck by how full and wonderful my life is.  I am so grateful for what I have.  Blogs and Facebook are wonderful about showing us the very best of our lives.  But often, while living through all this love and happiness, we also deal with problems, stress, tragedies, and heartache.  Sometimes we just need to be reminded to not let ourselves become consumed with the negatives.