Ugly Hot

     So it turns out that Saturday was National Get Outdoors Day.  I participated in National Hug Your Cat Day and I tried to participate in National Doughnut Day, (who ever would have thought Dunkin Donuts would run out of doughnuts?), so I figured the least I could do was participate in this one too.
     I started the day by heading out to the baseball field to watch my youngest daughter play.  Ginger is a delightful little girl who is social and silly and easy going.  Although she has no real interest in sports, she is always perfectly happy to go to baseball each week.  It may be because she loves to talk to each player as they stop on the base she is guarding.  It may be because there are so many pretty flowers to pick while she mans the outfield.  No matter what the reason, she gets ready each week in her uniform shirt and one of her favorite skirts and hits the field smiling!  A lot of progress has been made with Ginger and her baseball skills through the years.  Until this season, she would frequently be found lying in the grass sucking her thumb during games.  This season she has remained standing at every game!  Another change has happened this year.  She got good at baseball.  Very good.  I think it has been a surprise to everyone, especially Ginger.  That girl can hit!  And catch!  And throw!  Who knew?  This game was no exception.  With the first pitch she sent that ball flying between second and third base and way out into the field!  Like any self-respecting parent would, I screamed, "That's my kid!".  Can you imagine how well she would play if she actually cared about baseball?  After the game a variety of parents came over to tell her it was the best hit of the season. Well there you go.

Ginger "playing" baseball last year

     Although I technically had already been outside for national Get Outdoors Day, I wanted to do even better.  (Was it possible I was really going outside twice in one day of my own free will?)  So when my family left to visit a local farm and pick up our first farm share of the summer, I decided to tag along.  Great Song Farm is a local treasure in my opinion.  The young farmers, Anthony and Sarah are friendly and welcoming and are always ready to share their passion for the farm with you. When we arrived we went straight to the shed where the bounty was laid out.  There were gorgeous mounds of fresh greens each with a placard explaining what they were.  There was head lettuce, bok choy, spring mix, and mustard greens.  There was also fresh basil and garlic scapes and Chinese broccoli.  It smelled heavenly.  I was left to fill our bags while my husband, Dennis explored the farm with our youngest three, Ginger, Oliver and Leo.
     Once the bags were full of fresh vegetables, I went out to find my family.  They were off with Sarah visiting the draft horses.  I had a quick snuggle with the beautiful horses and then we decided to walk around some more.  The kids found a ball and began to play.  I went to the van to grab some water.  In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit this is when I stopped having fun and in all honesty, stopped being fun.  It was hot.  Ugly hot.  It was the kind of hot that made me want to punch a wall.  I wanted my central air conditioning and I wanted it now.

     When I decided to embark on this plan to go outside every week for a year, I did realize that some of those weeks would fall in the summer and more often than not, be very hot.  One of the reasons I chose to start when I did was to get the worst weather over with first. Of course the planning of this journey was made easier since it took place while I was soaking up some ice cold AC in the comfort of the Great Indoors!  I refuse to be discouraged though and I won't consider quitting!!!  I have a lot of summer ahead of me and lots of opportunities to try again.  Who knows?  Maybe I will learn to love the outdoors and sunshine and hot days.  Stranger things have been known to happen.