On Sunday, it was the first weekend day in a long time that actually had nothing on the calendar! Summer especially can be full of birthday parties, backyard barbecues, nights out on the town with friends, adventures with the kids, farm visits, and beer festivals. That was what my summer looked like. I can’t believe there is only one more weekend left before school starts.

How do you like to spend your weekends? Do you fill them up with lots of planned activities, like to be spontaneous, or like to relax and slow down? I am sure that most people would claim to do all of those.

So what did we end up doing?

After the family that had come for our barbecue had left, I went and bought the 6 year old’s school supplies. By myself. I remember how exciting it was to go get all of the new supplies every year and how I would look forward to choosing new pencils, deciding which pattern was prettiest on the box of tissue, and looking forward to using that new pink pearl eraser. But my son couldn’t have cared less. I understand, particularly since they don’t have much choice (even in brand) for their school supplies and it is much more fun to play in the backyard than go to the store.

And can I say how disappointing it was that the preferred brand of pencils for my son’s school, Ticonderoga, has Microban on all of its yellow pencils?

photo courtesy of Nasa

And I looked at some amazing photos of the auroras created from the solar storm (shown above) earlier this month. See more at National Geographic. The aurora borealis is something that I really, really, really want to see one day. The aurora australis would be amazing too.

We (and by we I mean my husband and children while I browsed pretty photos and watched) harvested the hops that my husband lovingly grows to make delicious beer throughout the year. These hops are always the biggest conversation starters for people when they visit. Even delivery people. Gotta love this town for its love of beer (and coffee).

We read books. Lots and lots of books. Especially books about rocks and fossils. My husband’s aunt and uncle brought the kids some fascinating trilobites that they had found on a trek out to eastern Oregon. My 6 year old was in awe.

And we played. It was a lovely day. Tell me about yours!