Farewell July

 Dear July, 

I would say that I am sad to see you go, but that would not be entirely true. I am actually quite happy to give your ridiculously topsy turvy self a shove out the door and proclaim 'good riddance'!

I am sad that you didn't deliver the things July should be made of -- lake days, road trips, picnics, bike rides, library trips... you really failed to deliver, and now you're gone and there's no going back. 

Instead, you delivered fevers and headaches and back to back days of laying on beds and recliners and couches. You delivered a rash and two weeks of antibiotics for Lyme. 

You delivered exhaustion and naps and half hearted enthusiasm to give to girls going to camp.

And grudging endurance for entertaining the lonely only child left at home who was bored out of his mind. 

You delivered a toothache, and carefully eating on one side of the mouth and turning down yummy, crunchy things like the abundant cucumbers from plants gone wild. 

And then, you delivered a tooth extraction and barely eating at all. 

So you see, my dear July, for all of these reasons, I am not at all sad to see you go! 

For a while, I thought you would even rob me of the joy of reading my four books in a month. One cannot read books when one is feverish and head-achy, nor even when one is exhausted and constantly napping. But, I did indeed reach my goal. (Even though I started an audio book and gave it up and started a long awaited, highly praised, self-help book and became so annoyed with my lack of ability to concentrate and threw in the towel on that one as well. For this reason, my list this month includes such trivialities as Mr Poppers Penguins on Libby but it counts, yes it does!)

I listened to Angela's Ashes [a little bit of an odd book, in my opinion. And, to be honest,  one that I finished mostly because I was trying to meet my goal.]

I read The Pie Lady. [Easy to read, as each chapter is a separate, little story]

I listened to Mr Poppers Penguins [my nine year old had read it recently and loved it, so I listened to it with him while I laid around on couches and recliners]

I read The Tale of Hill Top Farm [and fell in love with the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter]

So you see, my dear July, while you didn't deliver the things I would have wished for, you also didn't rob me of everything. I met my book reading goal, I did the laundry (mostly), I fed my people (with the help of the kind souls that live with me) and I held down all the furniture quite nicely. I also welcomed all my children back home, which pleased some of us even more greatly than others. 

I did other things too, of course. But it's easier to look around and see all the things that didn't happen and didn't get done. 

Today, on this first day of August, I am blessed to be feeling quite like my normal self again.... No more fevers, no more toothaches, no more barely eating. If my enthusiasm for the new month is somewhat squelched by looking at the calendar and seeing things like Canning That Still Needs Done, and School Begins, and Big Life Changes Ahead, then it is probably a good time to remind myself that life can be enjoyed even in the midst of it not delivering all the things one wishes that it might. 

In the end, July -- you could have been better, but you could have been so much worse. 

The End