Stephen: “It says here that Justin Timberlake and his girlfriend are trying to work through a rough patch and plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro together in January.”

Me: “Yeah, ’cause nothing says I love you like gasping for air while snot runs down your face.”

Got up at 7 while the house was still cool and quiet. Fed the animals and got dressed, then went out to run some errands and go food shopping. At this point, I’m accustomed to the stares I get as my petite self pushes around a cart filled to the brim with the weekly requirements to keep a family of six functioning.

It was hot by the time I came out of the store and I loaded down the back of the Explorer with our groceries. When I got home, Hannah helped to bring them inside, and we sat together eating oranges and enjoying the wonderful chill of the A/C. While I put the groceries away and mixed up the marinade for our barbeque, she hunted down Tumbling Towers, which we then played. I made some iced chai, but was a little disappointed by how it turned out. Of course, not as disappointed as Hannah was after making the tower fall. Twice. In a row.

It was early afternoon by then. I grabbed my latest book selection, Of Human Bondage, and layed down to read. When my eyes grew tired, I napped, the air conditioner keeping it just cool enough to curl up under my grandmother’s light quilt. I didn’t really sleep so much as drifted off into my own thoughts.

I puttered around for awhile after getting up. Did the dishes, surfed the web, watched a little TV with mom. Then I employed my masterful grilling prowess/pyromania and lit a large pile of coals, letting them burn until they were white hot. The heat of the day had dissipated, and the early evening was comfortably warm and breezy. I stood there listening to the sounds of our neighborhood: a mockingbird in a nearby tree, a rooster in the distance, our next-door neighbors horse, Calvin, nickering at me between mouthfuls of grass. I heard a small voice and saw our neighbors’ little girl hanging out their living room window and waving to me.

We crowded around our not-so-large dining room table and enjoyed the summertime feast: fresh salad, corn on the cob and barbequed chicken (which, if I do say so myself, was grilled to perfection) Stephen and I went for a walk after dinner, barefoot on the cooling pavement, and when we came back I took a cool rinse in the shower.