Summertime

Yesterday they were going to grind the bottom of the stone away from the fireplace to make room for the wood floor.

It seemed like a good time to be out of the house.

Coincidentally, Emma had seen a TikTok video by a delightful looking woman who had a shop in Salt Lake City and was celebrating her shop's 5th anniversary.  She wanted people "to come and celebrate with her."

Before heading to Salt Lake, we stopped at the copy store and I placed an order for the calendar pages I had Emma make for my classroom wall and also for some math bulletin board posters I wanted to have enlarged and printed.

When Adam did our taxes, he asked if I'd spent at least $250 on my classroom.

The answer is yes.

The drive to Salt Lake was nice with Emma.  Twenty-one-year-old Emma is one of my favorite versions.  We chatted and listened to music and I just genuinely like being with her.

The shop was full of young women about the same age as Emma who also saw the TikTok video I'm guessing.

It was a mixture of junk and some really nice things with random organization and pricing--or no pricing.  We picked our way through the chaos and found a few things we wanted.  Emma got a print depicting a French Alps scene and I got a wooden bowl and a brass bucket which I immediately stuck a plant into when I got home.

We had lunch and I texted Adam.  The fireplace hadn't been done yet.

Earlier I had asked Emma if she wanted to go school shopping with Olivia and Lili when they came to town. Emma said, "Yeah, I could use some mechanical pencils." I meant clothes school shopping.

None of my kids like clothes shopping and we've never done back to school clothes shopping because they would rather do about anything else.

We went to Walmart for mechanical pencils and command hooks for Emma's apartment.  Nothing like not wanting to go home to make you remember and accomplish obscure errands that have no urgency.

We went to Emma's apartment and hung some stuff on her walls and watched an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine.

We figured they had to be done with the fireplace so we finally headed home.

About an hour after we got home, they did the fireplace.

***

Anna had to study (she is taking classes this summer), but Braeden joined us for dinner.  We had salmon and I fried some zucchini the way my grandma taught my mother to fry it.  It is soul food for me and I only make it about once a year because it creates a mess.  It is so good though.

Emma helped me and asked clarifying questions as we went.  She wants to make sure she knows how to do it too.

After dinner Adam and the boys changed the spark plugs in Braeden and Anna's car and Emma and I blanched peaches to have with ice cream for dessert.

I love easy summer days and summer food.