Summertime and the Livin’ is Good? Top 8 reasons Summer is toooo long

Let's thank whatever deity you believe in that Melissa over at The Literal Mom joined the blogging world this year. A veteran of "top" lists like this, The Literal Mom is also an awesome supporter of other bloggers, featuring guest posts by other mommy bloggers on various topics, both important and funny. Please run to her blog now and offer her thanks for all she shares, especially right here.

1. Summer becomes winter. In other words, you reach a point where you can’t go outside. Why? Too hot to go out, too sweaty to have fun, too many mosquitoes.

2. Pool food makes you fat. “Hi, I’ll take fried with a side of fried. And ice cream for dessert.” Abandon the pool for the state fair? Makes you even fatter. We now have deep fried Snickers at our state fair. Delicious – even IF it’s heart attack on a Styrofoam plate.

3. No matter how much stamina you start with in June, there’s a tipping point, about now, where entertaining your children for 13-14 hours a day is impossible and listening to them entertain themselves with “I’M BORED,” arguing and fighting is even worse.

4. 1000 calories of ice cream per week guarantee a 3 pound weight gain by week 9. That’s math my 4th grader can do. But it’s self-control I apparently can’t do.

5. GOOD LORD, where did the routine go?

6. Back to School shoe shopping is more painful than a root canal. Or maybe more painful than being drawn and quartered. Tarred and feathered. Sliding down a razor into a vat of alcohol.

7. Too much TV starts feeling like child abuse. Like watching their brains turn to goo before your eyes. See #1 for why too much TV starts happening. What do YOU define as too much TV? I define it as when the breaks in between TV watching become shorter than the TV watching itself.

8. No matter how much you’re DONE with summer, the end means a new chapter in your lives. A new milestone reached. And my friends, watching your kids grow up is hard. Gratifying, but hard. Excuse me, I need to go have a good cry now.

What surprises you every summer? What makes you look forward to fall?

The Literal Mom talks about all kinds of fun stuff at www.literalmom.com. Come on over and check me out. Become a subscriber and let’s go through the journey together. Why? Because together, we are stronger. Hope to see you soon. Thanks, Stephanie!

Making Lemonade

In this nearby town, there's a little boy with a lemonade stand. But he's not your average little boy, and he isn't sitting behind the usual cardboard box or folding table. He's wearing a full suit (no matter how hot the weather) and he stands behind a very fancy wooden stand with a clearly Kinko's manufactured sign proudly displaying his name.

Seeing this article on being a lemonade stand entrepreneur made me think of him and took me back to a simpler time.

I was lucky to have grown up next door to my godparents and their three kids. They were close in age to myself and my brother, and we got up to all sorts of shenanigans.

Like most kids, we had our own lemonade stand at the end of our road. We weren't quite aware of just how out of the way we were, so most days were spent getting tan and getting high off our own supply.

But one day a jogger ran by. He was clearly at the end of a long run and was looking longingly at our lemonade. We were holding it up, tantalizing him with our 25 cent wares.

He came up to our stand and we were all standing a little straighter, putting our professional entrepreneur hats on as we said "how many cups do you want, Sir?"

And he admitted he wanted one. Oh so badly. But sadly, he did not bring money with him on his run. But he'd gladly pay us later.

We pointed to our mailbox and said he could leave it in there. Forget how stupid it was that we just gave this strange man our address, we were SO excited.

Every day that next week we ran to the mailboxes, anxiously awaiting the 25 cents.

It never came.

I've been thinking about this lately because the best part was our parents were totally supportive. I mean, of COURSE they knew we'd gotten taken (if you can count being out nothing as "taken," since we didn't purchase ANY of the items for this lemonade stand with our own non-existent money) but they totally indulged us. And when the money never came rolling in, they feigned shock and horror at the violation.

Now, I keep change in my car and any time I see a lemonade stand, I always stop and buy a cup, even though I haven't had a taste for the sugary stuff in forever. Hey, I may be working for them someday!