And June Is Over!

Here is what my June looked like in a picture a day...

June is a few hours from being over.  We are now halfway through 2017.  And we are also closer to Christmas 2017 than Christmas 2016.  You have 177 shopping days.

The word that comes to mind when I look back at my daily photos from the month and I think about all the experiences that June brought with it is growth.  

The biggest event during this month is that Weber celebrated his 60th birthday.  There was no fanfare or big shindig, just barbecue and friends at our house.  It was a fun evening and a perfect opportunity to give thanks for the many, many blessing that we have been given.

One of the most obvious images of growth at our house was our Tower Garden.  It was filled with lettuce, celery, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  We have enjoyed everything but the tomatoes.  When we started to see the first fruits of the vine reach a good size, we checked them every day, watching for them to start turning from green to red.  The first one grew and grew and then disappeared.  As did the second one and the third one and... After finding what we are fairly sure were green tomato remnants, we assumed that some kind of wildlife, maybe squirrels?, were stealing the almost ripe tomatoes, so we covered the plants with a wide mesh net.  Along came more tomatoes.  They lasted longer making us think that we had solved our problem.  Nope.  The next batch of nearly ripe tomatoes are now gone too.  Our only option now is to get a finer mesh net.  We don't want to spray anything on the tomatoes because I'm not a fan of chemicals and our dogs are in the yard where the tomatoes are.  So, we'll see.  Maybe July will bring with it some tomatoes that we are able to protect from our neighborhood wildlife.  And keep your fingers crossed...so far nothing has touched the almost ready watermelon!

Thanks to our friend Paul, our library was finished this month.  Our number of books has not grown (yet), but the level of neatness and organization of the books that we have grew tenfold thanks to much more shelf space than we had previously.

I seem to have several food photos this month as well.  Perhaps this is why that word growth applies to me as well as the tomatoes! Actually, for the last ten days, I have been working to grow an exercise routine that will help me shrink a little...well, hopefully a lot.  Weber and I have made time for the gym an everyday thing.  I'm hoping that between now and when I go back to school in August that it will have become a habit that being back at work will not break.

And, most importantly, relationships with friends and family continue to grow.  I am thankful that I was able to spend both Weber's birthday and Fathers Day with my entire family.  I am blessed and honored that my friend Joni came to celebrate Weber's birthday with us and that her arrival coincided with Best Friends Day and her departure International Albinism Awareness Day.  We did our best to celebrate each of these occasions appropriately...with knitting and good conversation   and maybe a little food!

I am happy to say that June was a good month.  I am grateful for that since our spring was a little tough.  The unstructured days and freedom to do things that feed my soul almost anytime that I want to is such an amazing feeling!  Needless to say, I am enjoying having the summer off.  For the last 8-10 years, I have taught summer school.  I could definitely get used to this not working routine.  But, that will have to wait for awhile.

So for now...farewell June.  Welcome, July.