happy summer.

So for the past ten days, I've taken an unexpected blogging break — I'm chalking it up to a combination of Mercury's last gasps in retrograde (which, according to astrology.com, "sends communications, travel, appointments, mail and the www into a general snarlup!") and the long-awaited longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice.

Still, the world didn't stop turning during my absence — blogfodder is piling up all around us (remind me to soapbox about the newest addition over at the Spears' trailer, will you?) . . . but for today, I'll ease back into the cyber-saddle with a couple of summer-oriented items I'm feeling the need to share.

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What's your summer going to be about? Renée Trudeau planted this seed with me a few weeks ago: If you were to choose a personal theme for summer '08, what would it be? If you were putting on a t-shirt this summer that said, "Summer of ..." how would you complete it?

I let this question bounce around up in my noggin for a while, and the answer I kept coming back to was The Summer of Summer.

Yes, this summer, I'm having a summer. Not a summer off (since it's not showing signs of becoming the Summer of Independent Wealth), but a real summer. A summer with trips to the neighborhood pool at minimum once a week, with occasional afternoons earmarked exclusively for reading, with a personal retreat to Fredericksburg to celebrate and contemplate my 41st birthday.

So that the close of August doesn't hit me upside with head with, What did I do this summer?, I made a checklist of what I want to do this summer — excluding serious stuff like hit my goal weight and finish organizing my office, and including fun stuff like the above examples, plus:

• Go to the movies on my own on a weekday afternoon.
  
• Go to the Oasis with my husband for a sunset supper.
  
• Go to the bead store with my daughter and make a new anklet (beach-y,sea-washed colors, I'm thinking).
  
• Go with my family to see the Round Rock Express play (we've already got tix for August).
  
• Go with my family to Sea World San Antonio.
  
• Go to San Antonio another time on my own to visit my dear friend, Nicki.
  
• Surprise the kids and take them for ice cream after they've already gone to bed.
  
• Take my kids to the library (we tend to be bookstore folks, though some of my fondest childhood memories are library-oriented).
  
• At their request, take my kids to the bookstore, the dinosaur store (Whole Earth Provision Co.), the Austin Zoo, Pump It Up & Volente Beach.
  
• Take our puppy to the dog park.

It's a longish list, I realize, and I'm approaching it with a do-as-much-as-I-can-without-it-creating-stress attitude.

So, what's your summer tee say, and what's your list look like?

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I clipped the following from body+soul magazine recently because it spoke to me; maybe it applies to you and where you are, too:

Let Yourself Grow
Somewhere between the life you have and the life you want lies the quiet seed of potential. With each new thing you do — the friend you make, the garden you plant, the risks you take — it begins to open up. ... But like all tender young things, it requires enough attention, enough rest, enough sustenance to thrive. For now, give yourself plenty of what you need — maybe even a little extra. Get more sleep. Take a chance. Taste something new. And watch things grow.

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By the way, we can all rest easier as of July 4th, when the final traces of retrograded Mercury disappear and we return to our regularly scheduled astrological programming . :)