Well, friends, like it or not (though judging from the overdose of pumpkin everything we are seeing, most people really REALLY like it) autumn has arrived. Summer 2014 has finally drawn to a close, and here we are. My husband is particularly inconsolable. Why God didn’t allow that man to be born on a beach I will never understand.
I thought to commemorate this calendar event we would record some vital statistics from one of the loveliest, though fastest moving, summers in recent history. It really has been magical in many ways.
- Sunburns: 1 (I was outdoors all day every day but also really good about SPF this year so apparently I’m a grown up now)
- Pounds of tomatoes harvested: one million (just trust me, ok?)
- Pounds of zuchinni harvested: two million
- Squash Bugs battled: 70 trillion (let’s revisit that one with a depressing photo, shall we?)
- Pumpkins grown here at the farm: 24 (but they were all destroyed in one weekend by squash bugs)
- Watermelons grown here at the farm: 7 (and they were beauties)
- Total watermelons eaten by me, all by myself, often in one sitting: 16
- Goose attacks by Johnny Cash against me: just one (but it was really terrifying)
- Goose attacks by Mia against Handsome: innumerable
- Bonfires enjoyed here with friends & loved ones: 7 (more to come now that the weather is mellowing)
- Number of times I cut my own hair: 3 (send professional help)
- How many times I won a trophy at a car show with my super cute Jeep-Jeep: 1 (and on a dare I did a cartwheel to celebrate)
- Total number of car shows Handsome & I attended: maybe 8 (they are bone-melting hot but SO FUN)
- Icy-slushie Drinks consumed after long sweaty hours of yard work: 12 (Dr. Pepper flavor for Handsome, coconut for me)
- Number of stings endured: 5 (one wasp, one bumblebee, three Lazy W Honeymaker stings)
- Miles ran: 153 (weak season, but I kind of needed the break mentally and physically, now getting back at it slowly)
- Times I bought new bed sheets and put them on our bed without washing them: 0 (because that’s gross)
- Times I bought new bed sheets and washed them before putting them on our bed: 1 (because I am a normal person)
- Amount of wild Canadian goslings we adopted: 1 (and we love him so much)
- Total number of photos I snapped of my gardens: 857 (times a thousand)
- Total number of photos I snapped of my bees: 438 (also times a thousand)
- Total number of times my iPhone storage was used up as a result: 9
- Prayers answered: More than I have slowed down to count. But to sit and gaze at them in my heart is overwhelming. God is good. Life is beautiful. None of these summertime memories and none of our pain will be wasted. I am filled with gratitude and hope! Ready for the next season, whatever it brings.
So… Happy end-of-summer-start-of-autumn, sweet friends. I would love to hear a few of your memorable statistics from the past few months. Thank you so much for stopping in and saying howdy!
Mr. Avery said it was written on the Rosetta Stone that when children disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other, the seasons would change. Jem and I were burdened with the guilt of contributing to the aberrations of nature, thereby causing unhappiness to our neighbors and discomfort to ourselves.
-To Kill a Mockingbird
XOXOXOXO