Summer, or at least the summer life that exists between the end and beginning of the school year, is coming to an end for us in a week’s time. We have one more fun adventure to go on before it’s over, but still, I am feeling a sense of regret—regret for all that we did not get to, for aspirations and expectations left unfulfilled (I did not, for example, make pickles!!) Time, I think, to celebrate and commemorate all we did do!

:: We walked everywhere and took full advantage of our urban neighborhood.

:: We were together enough that if I ever went to grab a coffee or a carton of milk on my own, inevitably I would be asked, “where’s your crew?”

:: My “crew” and I thrift shopped and yard-saled. We found 90s crop tops (my daughter), early gameboys (my son), and baskets (me).

:: We explored forests, climbed mountainsides, and swam in rivers, but have not been to the ocean once! (This will change this week!)

:: We visited family in North Carolina and explored the flea market, meandered through museums, caught lightening bugs, and showed our kids that Southern Hipsters exist (in Durham).

:: It was hot often. Too hot to cook, but we ate cold peanut noodles and fish tacos and sometimes just popcorn.

:: We made ice cream and frozen yogurt and endless batches of popsicles.

:: We binge-watched 90s TV and Bob’s Burgers and Cosmos and Wes Anderson movies.

:: We walked to the top of Mt Tabor often, usually dragging someone along who did want to go (sometimes that was me).

:: We helped out friends.

:: We picked and froze 30 pounds of berries, and have nearly finished eating them all (feeling regret for not stockpiling more berries).

:: We visited the library and accrued many fines (always worth it).

:: We gave the walls and trim of half the rooms in our house a fresh coat of white.

:: We hosted friends and family from near and far.

:: We listened to records, streamed KCRW, and watched dumb videos on YouTube.

:: We filled sketchbooks, covered things in patches, and burned things with a magnifying glass and the sun.

:: We propagated house plants from cuttings. We let others get brown and wither and die.

:: We spent five days camping at our happy place along the river, swinging in hammocks, letting our feet go numb in the frigid water, and building pine cone shelters.

:: We cleaned out the basement, photographing and then giving/throwing away years of meaningful, but no longer useful, things.

:: We all took photos—rolls and rolls of film, sometimes the big digital, but mostly with the phones in our pockets (these are all snapshots from my phone).

:: We summered. We did just fine.

—SCB