Listicles: Ten Things I'll Remember This Summer By

This Labour Day weekend's Listicles topic was brought to you by the fabulous Stasha of NorthwestMommy.com: 10 THINGS I WILL REMEMBER THIS SUMMER BY. For me, this summer was memorable not because of any fabulous trips we took or amazing new experiences we had. We were terribly neglectful of my Summer Bucket List & accomplished few of the things on it. Yet it'll still be a summer to remember for these reasons:

Surviving my entire third trimester during a heat wave. Okay, I exaggerate, but at least half of it was during unseasonably warm & muggy weather. I normally love hot weather, but as any of you out there who've been pregnant know, being pregnant just makes that gorgeous weather exhausting & sticky.

Flies. Oh. My. God. What in the world is it that has attracted so many bloody flies into our house? Big ones, little ones. Fruit flies, Bluebottles, there always seem to be at least ten in every room & it's seriously driving me crazy. Probably getting a CSA that's mainly plums hasn't helped--having 25-50 pounds of ripe fruit sitting in the kitchen for a few days until we freeze, can, dry or eat may be a contributing factor.

The vacationless summer of staying put. I meant to go camping. I wanted to head to Victoria. I really wanted to spend a weekend on one of the Gulf Islands in a cabin or B & B. Despite the Bucket List, none of those things happened. The farthest afield that we went was the Okanagan to visit Sprout's Oma & Opa. However, I don't really count visiting my octagenarian in-laws as a vacation exactly.

Unemployment. I had hoped to find full-time work this summer so that I could work enough hours to qualify for paid maternity & parental EI, but just like the last time, time ran out & nobody wanted to hire a pregnant lady. I did a little temping & looked for work once I finished school in April, but by the time mid-May rolled around, most of the internships I was going for were filled & there would be no way to get in all the hours needed, so I settled into SAHMing for another summer. Financially, working & then getting 50 weeks of EI would have been so much better for us. In terms of the strain on me, working a new job full time nearly right up til my due date? Not sure how well that would have gone.

Procrastinating. I'm normally quite good at this, but this summer has seen epic levels of the putting off of things, I have to admit. Product reviews on the blog, taxes, extended health insurance claims, home repairs, getting ready for the new baby... you name it, I've postponed it.

We finally fixed our deck. Or rather paid some people a lot of money to do it. #5 was a serious factor in this one. The thing was a serious hazard by the time we did it: leaking through to the garage below; attracting raccoons, who dug up through layers of rotted plywood; not to mention being a serious falling risk for our toddler, as the railings were built to 1950s standards, which allow small children to go under, over or through quite easily.

After weeks of construction & many decisions, the thing is now safe & almost done. Here's hoping they finish before the baby arrives...

Being done with diapers! Sprout was finally really ready to toilet train in July & it just kind of happened. There have been a few accidents since then, but only about once a week & nothing disastrous so far. Here's hoping we won't have a major regression when his sister arrives. In any case, it was great to have a little two-month holiday between children in diapers.

Ice cream. I'm going to hide behind the excuse of pregnancy cravings for this one. I discovered last pregnancy that my body somehow relearns how to digest lactose again (I'm normally lactose-intolerant & can't handle much dairy without taking lactase tablets) midway through my second trimester. This time, I started testing it out around three months & by about four months along, I was fully on the dairy bandwagon & consuming litres of the stuff a week. I'm partial to the 4L buckets of Chapman's from the grocery store, but also Blizzards & dipped cones from Dairy Queen. Having a DQ within waddling distance of our house is dangerous, I tell you, made all the more so by joining their Blizzard Club & getting BOGO coupons every couple of months or so.

Instagram. I was a little late coming to the party on this one, only joining late last fall, so this is my first summer of sharing square photos with people I hardly know online every day. :) If you would like to follow me on Instagram, I'm Spokesmama there too.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars Series. I downloaded the first of these pulp-fiction swashbuckling in space adventure novellas (for free here) quite a while ago & after turning off the socialist/feminist/literary critique part of my brain, I quite enjoyed it. I've dug my teeth into the subsequent books in the series, letting my brain float away to "Barsoom" to follow the exploits of the green, white, yellow, red, & black martians when I get a spare moment.



What's made your summer memorable this year? Let me know in the comments below!

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