Ah, summer…..
The last 7 weeks of the past school year was, without a
doubt, the most overwhelmingly busy period of time I’ve ever experienced. At
one point I was updating the (color-coded, highly detailed, yes we really do
need that level of planning) family calendar and I actually sat down on the
floor and cried, because I had no idea how it was all going to get done.
Amazingly, it all did get done. Not always particularly well,
but everyone passed their classes and the library fines got paid and John wore
the correct clothing to the band concert and nobody starved and the authorities
were not summoned at any point for any reason. So I’m going to chalk it up as a
win.
I can’t help but think there is some kind of collective
cultural amnesia that fogs our brains around early May; why else does every
adult person in charge of anything decide that their event is the One Special
Thing Which Must Be Done Right Now? Which is how we end up with karate tests,
band concerts, commencements, welcome meetings, end of the year celebrations,
birthday parties, graduation parties, baby showers, campouts, class trips, and
78,000 GROUP PROJECTS FOR SCHOOL in the last 4 weeks of the year. (I’m looking
at you, History Teacher Who Shall Not Be Named. WTF, dude? I thought we were on
the same side here. Six teenagers are not available at the same time outside of
your classroom, because everyone’s life looks like this.)
So imagine my delight when the calendar magically cleared
and all I had to do ALL DAY LONG was get my kids out the door for swim
practice. And since they have alarm clocks and know how to use them and
practice starts at Stupid O’Clock, this mostly consisted of yelling at them
from the comfort of my bed where I was lounging around and checking Facebook on
my phone. The hardest thing I had to do all day was make my own coffee. It was
freakin’ beautiful.
Now, the whole summer is not going to look like this. We are
going to get back on track in July, and go places and do things and stop
reduce the binge-watching. But after 10 months of the relentless school year
schedule, it’s good to take a couple of weeks to let the house go all the hell
and eat nachos for breakfast and play board games.
We are also going to make a lot of popsicles, because Anna
has somehow managed to talk me into buying all sorts of nifty molds and we have
a whole entire book of crazy popsicle recipes. (Seriously, how did we end up
with 4 sets of molds? Can’t we use Dixie cups and wooden sticks?) The initial
foray into frozen wonderfulness meant that we had 3 – count them, THREE –
different recipes going at once but, alas, limited freezer space (pesky food,
always getting in the way!). And that is how we ended drinking lavender
lemonade on the deck while we played board games. And that, too, was freakin’
beautiful.
From Perfect Pops: The 50 Best Classic & Cool Treats by
Charity Ferreira. Possibly we will make every single one of these over the
summer.
Lavender lemonade
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons packed fresh lavender blossoms, rinsed, or a
tablespoon-ish of dried ones if that’s what you have on hand
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Combine the sugar, half the water, and the lavender in a
small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture
comes to a simmer. Let it stand until cool, then strain into a bowl.
Add the lemon juice and remaining water. If you’re turning
these into pops, this is the time to pour the mixture into molds and freeze it.
If you’re going to drink this, fill a glass with ice and
pour about half a glass of this mixture, then add more water because it’s going
to be waaaay too sweet and concentrated even for the teenager, who basically
eats like a hummingbird. If you’re really lucky, she’s going to add food
coloring to make it look like lavender lemonade instead of plain old regular
lemonade, and it’s festive indeed.
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