tonyandkirsten.org

It’s the day after Labor Day, so summer is now “officially” over here in Minnesota.  While Labor Day is considered to be the last fling of summer in many places, it is even more that way here.  The State Fair always ends on Labor Day, the pools close their gates one last time, and the kids go back to school the next morning.

Summer always seems short here in Minnesota.  I don’t think it really feels like summer until the neighborhood kids are done with school for the year, and here in Minneapolis it was about mid-June when schools let out for summer break. The pools don’t open until around June 15th, and this year it wouldn’t have been warm enough to go swimming until then anyway.

We did “Mission to the City” with Urban Refuge at the end of June.  Looking back on it, it kind of feels like this was the beginning of our summer, because it was only really warm and summer-like outside for maybe a week prior to this.  I participated in almost all the Mission to the City activities, while Tony did the night and weekend events.  We even brought the kids along for some of the events (they liked helping out at the BBQs).  I really enjoyed having the time dedicated to serving in my community and learning more about the city I’m living in.

Fourth of July followed quickly after Mission to the City, which was followed by Tony having back-to-back deadlines at work, during which time he slept very little…  …And Tony also had the misfortune of getting sick while not getting much sleep, which resulted in him developing Pneumonia.  Tony spent the rest of July recovering and trying to get lots of sleep.  During the month of July, the kids and I spent a few days at the lake cabin with my mom, and also tried to get out and enjoy summer with trips to local parks and pools.

We made it to Ames for two weddings in less than a month in late July/mid August and also made a family trip to the lake cabin the first weekend in August.  The kids and I crammed in more and more trips to the pools as the month of August wore on, knowing that our outdoor swimming days would soon be over for another long 9+ months.  We all went to the Minnesota State Fair a little over a week ago and spent a day enjoying plentiful farm animals, 4-H projects, and, of course, cheese curds and various foods-on-a-stick. We enjoyed our final summer weekend this Labor Day weekend by doing projects around the house, going out for a picnic and concert at Lake Harriet, and having a special Labor Day dinner on our back patio.

We also tried to have a garden this summer, with a only small amount of success. (And by “We” I mostly mean Tony with a bit of help from Madeline.) Our back “yard” is really a big patio with raised garden beds surrounding it.  And a huge old Catalpa tree shading the whole thing.  We started tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, carrots, sweet corn and beans in small seed trays inside the house this spring.  We only wanted to make a minimal financial investment in our vegetable garden, since we knew that our conditions were not ideal for garden success.   So far, we have harvested a couple dozen cherry tomatoes (mostly picked and eaten one or two at a time by the kids), about 3 regular-size tomatoes, and one very tiny carrot. Only one stubby corn plant survived, and something ate it’s one ear of corn.  The peppers didn’t flower until recently, so won’t have time to develop before the frost.  The eggplants never did much.  We might still get some beans and a few more carrots.  And we’ll still get a few more tomatoes before it gets too cold.  At least we can have hope that maybe next summer we can have a better spot for a garden — we’ve already decided not to stay in our current house when our lease expires in 2009, whether that means moving to another house here in Minneapolis or moving back to Iowa or elsewhere if God so leads after Tony’s current job is finished.

The weather today is appropriate for the first day of “fall” — though it was approaching 90 degrees yesterday, today it’s raining and below 70 degrees during the mid-afternoon. I was originally planning on beginning our family’s fall schedule today and starting Madeline’s first day of home preschool for this year.  But, my mom asked if Madeline could come and spend a couple more days at her house (Madeline’s third trip to stay at Grandma’s house since the beginning of the summer).  So, our “fall” and our preschool year at home will wait until next week.