Really August? Are you half over already? Where did my summer go?

These are the “Not” things I am fretting about:

• Not having enough time on my bicycle.
• Not tubing down the river yet this year
• Not enjoying enough of the music opportunities here in Lanesboro.
• Not building our raised vegetable beds.
• Not getting enough miles with Miles, the resident Goldendoodle.
• Not attending yoga class. I have only made one class this summer (because it occurs during the breakfast hour!).

But wait. Let’s look at summer through the “glass half full” option.

• Mark and I entertained fantastic guests this summer, most of them from here in Minnesota. But others from Singapore, England, Canada, California, New York, Connecticut, Texas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, New Hampshire, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, New York, and Virginia. It could be I have missed a state or two in my roundup!
• Mark and I enjoyed seeing The Commonweal Theatre’s productions of Three Musketeers and Souvenir this month.
• I have read several outstanding books this summer, including “Me Before You,” “Bohemian Flats,” and “A Backpack, a Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka.” I am currently reading “Dear Committee Members” and “April 1865.”
• We participated in Lanesboro’s Buffalo Bill Days parade, sold pies during the Art in the Park on Father’s Day Weekend, and also entered the baking contest during Rhubarb Festival.
• We have seen many friends and family this summer in Lanesboro and are waiting the arrival of several others.
• We learned how to make homemade strawberry jam. If only we had made more of this wonderful delicacy!
• Mark is making dill pickles today. Beet pickles are on the order for tomorrow and sweet pickles later this week, using his mom’s super top secret recipe.
  

  Mark loves to make pickles…sweet, beet, and dill.

Enough of the half over and the half full. I am going to make a goal of enjoying every minute of this glorious summer, until it gives way to fall.