ramblings from an arkansas farm girl
If she could have chosen any life, her mornings would have begun on a small screened porch surrounded by trees and clover and breezes off the lake.
With strong, hot coffee,
a favored paperback
and thoughts to fill a page.
If she could have chosen any life, her afternoons would have begun with a worn gravel road,Continue Reading
Three cheers for summer! This year, I say we take time to rediscover the lost art of summer. Slow down. Stop trying to orchestrate the picture perfect summer and instead enjoy some hot fun in the summertime “old school style”. Waaaaay back when I was a kid, summer meant hours of bicycle riding and exploring ditch banks and guzzling cherry Kool-aid in the shade of a mimosa tree. Now mimosas are drinks, the tree variety is considered trash by many, and summer is pre-planned to stave off kids’ idle brain drain. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
Work a few of these simple simon activities into each week from now until Labor Day, and you’ll have a more relaxing summer. Promise.
1. Play in the water hose. Drink from it too.
2. Go on a picnic. Grill hot dogs. Who cares about calories or the gritty sand that somehow made its way onto the bun?
3. Lay on a quilt and watch the clouds float by. A quilt hand-stitched by your grandmother.
4. Lose yourself in a trashy summer read. It’s allowed in summer.
5. Eat ice cream in the sun. Nothing fancy. Neapolitan scooped into a plain cone. Or, support your neighborhood ice cream truck. Or, both.
6. Go for lots of walks and always carry change. You never know when you’ll find a neighborhood lemonade stand. If you have little ones at home, man your own lemonade stand in the front yard and donate the proceeds to a good cause.
7. Catch lightning bugs in a mason jar or at least sit outside and watch them light up the yard. They are extra amazing this year! (Release them before bedtime, though.)
8. Swim in a swimming hole.
9. Eat watermelon. Plant the seeds even though they probably won’t come up.
10. Sleep on sun-dried sheets.
11. Splash in rain puddles after a summer shower. Make mud pies, too.
12. Color. Breathe in the smell of crayons.
13. Tie-dye something.
14. Skip rocks.
15. Roast marshmallows.
16. Swing.
17. Wade a creek.
18. Nap.
19. Climb a tree. (Watch the Busvlogger’s tree-climbing video HERE! Hilarious.)
20. On the hottest day of the year, spend the afternoon at the library where the air is always cold and the books are free.
These are just a few of the gazillion ways to celebrate the lost art of summer. What else?
Happy Summer!
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]Let’s slow down and celebrate the lost art of #summer. @Crayola @LtlFreeLibrary #LostArtofSummer #gracegrits[/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Hot Fun in the Summertime, Sly and the Family Stone
Summer begins and ends with the sound of the screen door. Although most screen doors open and close year round, that sloooowwww swing open followed by a sharp slap shut sounds oh so different when the days are long and lazy. The screen door gets a summer workout as barefoot kids run in and out a hundred times a day. How many times did Momma yell, shut the screen door, you’re letting the mosquitoes in!?
In fact, she says that to me every time I go home.
I particularly like the sound of the screen door at the lake. I consider that music to be the song of summer. The slapping sound echoes across the cove.Continue Reading
