Day 108: July!

July is here and it's not kidding around. It is hot and humid, with some humidity and heat sprinkled on top. It is the type of weather that my friends in New England remind me is coming whenever I brag about a gorgeous 60 degree February day here in the South. I say, gosh I love the weather here in Arkansas, and they say from their frozen world, ah, just you wait until summer! And they're right. Summer in Arkansas is survival of the slow and steady. 

I got out and watered my garden first thing, and then hid from the heat for a while. We spent a good long time at the pool, which always helps. Cooking in this heat is not fun, so the grill is getting plenty of attention. Jeremy grilled some pork steaks for dinner, as well as sliced apples and onions (inspired by Farmer Boy, in which Almanzo's favorite food was fried apples 'n onions) which we paired with leftover couscous. I also added pickled beets and sauerkraut to my plate, and it was delicious. And we didn't have to heat up the house a bit. 

This week, Jeremy took the kids with him to the fireworks stand to get supplies for our 4th of July tradition: shooting off fireworks at the creek and trying not to go to the hospital. We had one scare with a tipped-over firework when Taiya was five and William was two (no one was hurt, it was just a close call), and since then we have gotten very tame with our fireworks show. I'm fine with tame. The kids love it too. I think the only one slightly disappointed is Jeremy's inner 12-year-old boy. 

In any case, we now have all our fireworks for our celebration, just sitting here...waiting... The kids have gotten impatient, and so we set off one last night and one tonight. William had picked out a plastic dragon which we lit off last night: when you lit the fuse it blew sparks out its mouth like it was breathing fire, then smoke out the spines on it's back, then more sparks out it's butt. Taiya picked out a plastic unicorn we lit off tonight: sparks shot out of its horn, then there was some smoke, then sparks shot out of its ears and one raised hoof. I think we were all equally delighted by these.