Hot, muggy days, record heat for the month, in fact. The girls come inside with their hair plastered to their foreheads, sticky and sweaty, dirty and scraped up. We spend some good time at the pool, carrying the kids between the big pool, the kiddie pool, and the waterpark. They need convincing to go down any slides, even on someone's lap. We walk to the park almost daily, sometimes bringing a picnic lunch, sometimes just a water bottle and a book for mommy. Every afternoon, Great Papa sits out on the porch to read, and the girls insist on joining him, sometimes carrying on one sided conversations in little voices he can't hear, sometimes bringing various rocks onto the porch as different treats to offer each other. "Do you want ice cream? Red or blue stripes?"
Last year, discovering the 1000 Hours Outside challenge was a huge inspiration and help to me in ordering our days. It is amazing how much all of our moods are affected by something as simple as prioritizing outside time. We didn't quite make it to 1000 hours last year, and I decided that we would try again this year and see if we could make it. Then May came around and I didn't keep track of a single hour. We did continue going outside; I can assure you we didn't spend the whole month locked inside air conditioned rooms. But with everything going on in our lives, and there's been a lot, keeping track of how many hours we were spending out under the sky fell completely off the priority list. After moving up to Minnesota, I debated to myself if I should just ignore keeping track at all until next January or if I should start again and count from June 1st to June 1st. In the end, I decided that the attempt of reaching 1000 hours is such a good motivator for me to do something that helps so much for all of us that it was worth it to start again. So far we are at 88 hours for the month, which I'm pretty happy with. We will see how close we can get to 100 before July starts in a couple days.
I thought perhaps that getting hours outside without a fenced in yard would be difficult, but really it's been remarkably easy. The girls are always asking me to go outside, and they enjoy having such a big yard to run around in, ride bikes, chase Skipper, and play ball. The park is only two blocks away with plenty of shade and a bench perfect for me to read on, so it is an easy yes, much easier than getting everyone packed into the car with a diaper bag and spare clothes. Despite the heat, we are averaging over 3 hours a day outside.
Without rain, the strawberry crop this year was very small. We were lucky to get any berries at all, and if it wasn't for Aubrey tipping us off, we wouldn't have. They were only open for berries one day, and we got enough for some jelly, some frozen, and two pies. The girls enjoyed taste testing all the berries, and though the berries were very small and therefore very time-consuming to clean, they were bursting with flavor.
The draught that we have been in for most of the month of June seems in some ways to be a metaphor for how 2021 has been feeling. For us, this year has been much more draining and difficult than last year. Last year had many big, eventful, awful things happen, but for the most part they did not really affect our daily living, and that's something I am very thankful for. However, coming out of that year, we already felt emotionally burnt out. Facing another busy season, the relentless nausea and exhaustion of the first trimester of pregnancy, a cross country move, and a job transition, with all the things that go along with that has at times made the days feel like a desert through which we are passing, desperately looking for water anywhere. Add to that the fact that this is the year I caught Covid, that Nick and I have spent weeks and weeks apart this year, that the house market right now is crazy and only keeps getting crazier, and that Nick has been working overtime hours for all six months of the year so far, we are exhausted. Even just the small tasks involved in moving, like phone calls, feels like too much at times.
On the other hand, the month of June has been thankfully somewhat of a reset for me. A bit like the rain we finally got a few days ago. Having time to just play outside and read and not be the sole person responsible for cleaning the house and cooking the meals has been so nice, as well as finally coming out of the nausea and the need for daily naps. We still have a lot coming up on the calendar, and plenty of exhausting things at that, but I'm thankful for the break that I have had before we get into the craziness of July. June is the only month from October until now, that I didn't make at least one 7.5 hour drive from Indiana to Minnesota or back. It's been kind of nice to just be.
But after having a little time to catch my breath, I'm ready to start making lists again. I've been working on a "bucket list" for July, although perhaps it'd be better to call them simply goals. In any case, I decided to share them here so as to have some semblance of accountability at the end of the month.
-Do 1/2 hour of physical activity/exercise a day. We had been trying to stay on top of workouts, but that has completely gone out the window these past few months. I can tell my strength and mobility are really taking a hit, especially considering the added factor of pregnancy, and more than anything I would like to gain some of that strength back so that the last months of pregnancy will be easier. I'm allowing a good walk to count for this, but I also hope to do some strength exercises as well.
-Get 100 hours outside. In 31 days, this ought to be doable, but we will see.
- Post on the blog at least two times. I've not been great at keeping up on blogging, but lately I've been feeling like getting back into it and I simply need to force myself to put in the time.
-Finish rereading Harry Potter. I'm part ways through book four right now, and if I read a lot, I should be able to finish up my rereading in a month.
-Finish up the Harry Potter game we are making. Sam and I are working on a very cool Hogwarts game, and we want to finish it in time to play it before he has to leave for his apprenticeship.
And that's all I have for now. Nothing particularly exciting, but hopefully it is all doable. I will report back at the end of July as to how I did.
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