On Hoarding, Frostiana, Independence Day and Hair

ice cream pie

Since I last blogged, I've been on Pinterest a lot.  By "a lot" I mean a couple hours every night.  I lay next to Husband in bed cradling my iPad and I plan vacations, dream of crafts I can make once I use all of the organization tips I'm pinning to find any flat surface in my house and think about recipes I'd like to try.

I haven't done anything remotely crafty in 18 months and I'm too lazy to cook.  As for finding the flat surfaces in my house....let me just say that remains a dream.  The dining room table, all of the countertops and end tables are piled high with junk that I just can't seem to throw away.  Am I a hoarder? Probably.  I'm getting there, at least.  No trash or multiple cats yet, so I guess I'm not too far down the hoarding path.

That's sorta why I love Pinterest.  It's digital hoarding.  Once I get the real mess cleaned up,  I can invite people into my home and not have to apologize for the hoarding because Pinterest is neatly organized, and it lives on the giant, nebulous internet.  Want to literally laugh out loud?  Literally?  Go to this woman's blog (if you can handle the foul language).  She tries the recipes and crafts and writes about it in a very comedic way.  Pintester. 

In other news, our choir sang a big schmaltzy program at church on July 1st.  Lots of patriotic music and Frostiana, which are seven Robert Frost poems set to music.  They are sort of art songs and generally I don't like art songs.  These are particularly difficult because there is an entire orchestra playing with the choir.  We performed them well, some would say, but I found the entire experience challenging.  Of the seven, Choose Something Like a Star was my favorite.  Here's a video someone made on You Tube and I think the choir is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 

We had a lovely July 4th at home.  I didn't wear a bra at all that day, because to me that is what Independence Day is all about.  My son set off about 200 smoke bombs on the driveway.  I asked him after about the 50th one if he even knew what we were celebrating.  He rolled his eyes dramatically and responded that Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of the Statue of Liberty.  Then he finished with a very dramatic and sarcastic, "Duh!"  We finished the day with a back yard cookout and ice cream pie.  Mmmmmmm. 

My boy with smoke bomb dust everywhere

Son is now finished with coach-pitch baseball through the local YMCA.  He throws with his right hand but bats as a lefty.  Just like George Brett.  I guess George did pretty well with that combo.

Daughter is half girly-girl, half rough and tumble kid.  Tomorrow I'm taking her to one of those braid shops.  Between the swim lessons and the playing hard outdoors, I can't keep up with her hair.  I think we may do the cornrows for summertime.  I can handle her hair during the other seasons.  She's now 3-1/2 and seems to have a split personality.  She is either sweet, cuddly and funny or manipulative and deviant.  I like to think the second half of that reflects her superior intellect.  

At the nail salon

Most of the students have been off campus this summer and I've taken some time to tweak my lectures.  I'm assigned two new lectures this year and hope to get them knocked out in the next four weeks, because once the students come back to campus I will be very busy.   I'm also trying to develop some sort of curriculum in professionalism, so I have a lot of work to do before they return.  I'm completely caught up in the clinic (my EMR in-box is empty!) and that feels great.  I still love this job so much.  I love teaching and love patient care.  I can't imagine doing one without the other.

So that's pretty much what my summer has been like thus far.  Hope yours is going well.