Settling in to Summer

What does summer mean to you? I am excited; this week alone we have hit a bunch of my favorite things. Beach trip with family, checking items off the summer "to do" list, and lots of strawberries and fruit.

There's been some sadness too; they are closing the church where I grew up (incredibly unjustly, might I add) so I went to our last Mass there. We belonged to a different parish, partly because I had always assumed if we wanted to switch back to what should have been our parish, we could, but that wasn't meant to be. I loved the times we went--we usually walked there on holidays to avoid the driving and parking, and spent a lot of summer Saturday night Masses there too. It was good going back, seeing lots of friends of my parents, and saying goodbye to their names on the burial lists.

So a new week begins as an era ends. Dinners:

Monday: Pasta dinner for the swim team. I am bringing buttered noodles, of course.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday but also a swim meet and the Lego build. Not sure how this will shake out except to say: Taco Thursday looking likely.

Wednesday: With Monday spaghetti, I don't think we'll repeat but if I am feeling lazy--maybe we will! There is another swim meet this night so who knows what we will do.

Thursday: Taco Thursday, or Turkey Thursday. If not taco--turkey breast, potato salad, cucumbers and strawberries.

Friday: Happy July 4 to all! We will have a barbecue on our street but my cousins are also hosting an open house so I am not sure where we will end up going. I have all kinds of pinterest ideas for food (strawberry and yogurt pretzel and blueberry flag tray; red-white-and-blue spinach salad) so someone will eat well, wherever we decide to be.

I tried the frozen blueberry yogurt bites on Pinterest but I don't know why (except to be able to say truthfully, "Yes, I used the super cute small muffin molds in the past year")--I knew they would freeze too hard for me. But it was a fine use of on-the-edge blueberries and the end of the yogurt. Frozen, they are too hard and cold for my teeth. Melted, they are just blueberry yogurt. So no waste but not a "do it again" recipe either.

Wishing you a good week full of whatever summer activities bring you joy.