A few weeks ago, I wrote of the charming yet simple wonders of corn. But I left out a piece of the puzzle. A kernel of truth, if you will.
While, yes, corn is extremely comforting to me (it must be a Midwest thing that courses through my veins or something), it also reminds me of something else.
Summer, my friends, has reached its halfway mark. As my mother always says, "Once you hit the Fourth of July (and that knee-high corn), the rest of the summer just flies by."
Over the years, I've noticed she tends to be right more times than not. Before we know it, we'll be back to the old grind, and these lazy, hazy days of summer will be but a distant memory. Yet as my mother also reminded me last week, "Don't start complaining yet."
And she's right about that too. Like always.
Why is it that once we reach a certain age, some of the warm and sunny and beautiful summer days tend to lose some of their beauty in our adult eyes?
Well, I for one am not going to let that happen to me. For the rest of the summer, I'm going to savor all the little gems I can. I'm going to soak up every ounce of sunshine and enjoy the rest of what summer has to offer. Will you join me? Check out some of my favorite ideas:
Good Eats
I'm trying to eat a little healthier this summer - thanks, Jamie Oliver! My mom and I have been eating lots of yummy salads and tomatoes too. Do you like salt on your tomatoes and cucumbers, or is it just me? We've also been enjoying juicy peaches and strawberries, too. Oh, and raspberries! Can you tell summer fruits and veggies are my favorites?
But I still have that darn sweet tooth to contend with. Over the weekend, I bought some sugar cones and had an ice cream cone for the first time in I don't know how long. I dolloped a double scoop of cake batter and vanilla custard from Ollie's. Let's just say I was in pure heaven. I eat plenty of ice cream, but there's something about scooping it onto a crisp sugar cone that gives it an added kick.
Good Games
When I was younger, we loved Clue, one of the only games that brought out my father's competitive streak. Then a few summers ago, my mother and I started playing Yahtzee at least once a day. You should know the routine by now: We pour ourselves a tall glass of Diet Coke, and play three games in a row. It's our favorite game. We recently added a new game to our repertoire: Bananagrams. It's a spin-off of Scrabble but more fast-paced, which I love.
Good Waves
One of my favorite childhood memories is of my father dashing off to the local pool with me the second he got home from work in the hot summer months. He was always that parent, the one that always gave in to my "Just five more minutes" pleas. Every. Single. Time.
There was always something about that weightless feeling in the pool that made me feel like I wasn't disabled, if only for awhile. Sometimes, I just used to walk back and forth in the 3-feet end, waiting for that moment when my feet would meet the bottom of the pool. The hard concrete stung my feet sometimes, but just that motion of, literally, putting one foot in front of the other made me smile, as if I were actually walking. Sometimes I'd even do a little dance, too. I didn't care if anyone was watching, either!
So how will you be spending the rest of the summer? Do lots of things you love. Be a kid. Have fun. And don't care about who might be watching or laughing at you.
