Because 99 is HOT.

And that was without the humidity taken into account. It felt like 106. If I haven't mentioned it before, let me do so now.

Summer is my least favorite season.

July and August are my least favorite months.

Sticky, sweaty, gross, yuck.

There. I said it.

Now, we can't bellyache about it too long, though. The young family must find someway around it and get outside for a little bit. I have been trying to follow an "out by eight, in by noon" policy, but even that doesn't work all of the time. Yesterday, it was disgustingly hot by nine in the morning. My children (who love to be outside) wanted nothing to do with the backyard. Shug, my most enthusiastic little outdoorswoman, wanted to go inside and read. There was only one answer. Well, that's not true. We could've gone inside to read - somedays this summer we have just decided to be hermits and enjoy the air conditioning all day. But there was only one outside answer (since we have no shade trees).

Water.

In many forms.

Lots of it.

So, that's what we did. We put swimsuits on at 9:30am and I filled up the little plastic pool in the backyard. You could practically see their bodies revive - like plants that had just been watered after a long dry spell. The plastic pool gained an hour outside for us. By that time, Little Dude was awake from his nap (he had fallen asleep on the family room carpet) and the neighborhood pool was about to open. Fill everyone's glass with ice and several helpings of water, hydrate, sunscreen, and away we go!

Apart from a pool option, I guess the next best thing would've been a shady spot in the yard. Like I said, though, we have no shade trees. The best we can do is make use of the shadows our house casts at different times of the day. Our neighbor's house makes a nice shady spot on the east end of our yard around mid-morning. Sometimes, if there's a decent breeze to make things tolerable for a complete heat wimp like me, I'll spread our outside quilt in the grass. In fact, while the girls were hopping around in the little pool yesterday morning and the baby slept inside, I was blessed with some quiet time in the Word there on my blankie. In the shade, with a breeze, it wasn't too bad at 10:30am.

I've been considering Charlotte Mason's recommendation to have the children outside "every suitable day" for four to six hours. She specified that this was most likely to take place from April to October. Have I pointed out that Miss Mason lived in England? Or that she was writing to mothers in England?

It was 66 degrees in London yesterday. Sixty-six.

So, I've respectfully decided that my dear Miss Mason can keep July and August and I'll take March and November. Four to six hours each day in Ohio in July and August with small children is not appealing to me. We'll shoot for an hour or two in the morning and some after dinner time, but that book and air conditioning are sounding mighty good to me around 1pm ;)

Hubby and I have also decided that we're going to go right along with school next summer. We plan on taking one "long" break in April and May (two of my favorite months!) and just make the third term a summer term. We're inside the entire afternoon anyway, right? I'm really looking forward to that long springtime break after the second term. That's when I really, really long to be outside all day. The snow has melted and nature is so busy at that time of year. I'm almost as excited about that break as I am about having the whole of September off :) Yea!

Tomorrow's supposed to be a little cooler, though. So, hope you enjoy the day!!!

On a brighter note: Exactly one month from today is the first day of FALL!