I thought you might like to know that we've completed many of the activities on my summertime to-do list. Here's a little rundown:

1. Go to the beach. Check.

2. Go hiking. Not yet.

3. Go camping. Check. Same as the beach trip--two activities in one!

4. Take Beth to the pool. This we finally did just yesterday. You see, we live near a great park that has a small wading pool, which I knew from years past is usually filled with water during the summer. I was looking forward to walking over there and splashing around. But every time we went to the park, the pool was dry and empty. I concluded that they just weren't filling it up any more. Too expensive? A waste of water? I didn't know, but I decided we'd just have to drive a little farther and pay money to go to the big new water park.

Well, it turns out that they do fill up the wading pool--but only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. A knowledgeable 10-year-old filled me in when we were at the playground last week. Of all the times we've been to the park this summer, it's never been on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday afternoon? Strange, but true. So we went over yesterday and the girls had a blast.



Lucy didn't want to get in at first--but doesn't she make a cute little sunbather on the side of the pool?




Then she decided to investigate a little further.



And finally went all the way in!



We'll definitely be back. Too bad we didn't figure out the pool schedule earlier in the summer.

5. Pick blackberries. We've only done this once so far, and we only got a few berries. Not enough to complete No. 6.

6. Make blackberry pie. This is a priority on my to-do list. Summer is not summer without blackberry pie.

7. Make blackberry jam. Again, not complete yet, and something I want to do soon.

8. Re-paint and decorate Lucy's bedroom. Not even close.

9. Refinish the little table and chairs for Lucy's room. I've been thinking about it doing that often. Does that count?

10. Make curtains for Lucy's room and the kitchen. Lucy's curtains are half-done, and I have the fabric for the kitchen curtains.

11. Run a 5K. I have the entry form all filled out for the Eat and Run 5K on Sept. 15, and Lady and I have been running every morning most mornings about three times a week. I have no plans to win. I just want to finish, and not finish in last place among all the old ladies who are walking rather than running the route.

12. Read the new Harry Potter book. Done :).

13. Go to the Shakespeare festival in Ashland. Done last weekend. I need to write a whole post about how great it was, I think. It truly was wonderful.

14. Make pesto out of my own fresh homegrown basil. Done. But it was truly disappointing. Due to the pathetic yellowish nature of my basil leaves this summer, my basil did not have the nice green color it was supposed to have. The yellowish leaves combined with the other brownish and yellowish ingredients (nuts, garlic, olive oil, Parmesan cheese), made it look like this:



I showed it to Beth and she got an impish grin on her face, like surely it was a big practical joke and I couldn't really be telling her that this was something we were supposed to eat. "Ewww, Mom," she said. "Gross." Eric's reaction was similar: "That looks like cat puke," he said. And I have to admit, he's right. I did not serve it to my dinner guests that night. I just couldn't set that out on the table.

It tastes good, though, it really does. I've been eating it. It's just that no one else will put that weird brownish gunk in their mouth. And I can't really blame them.

15. Stay out late and watch the summer meteor showers. We tried, but it clouded over before we saw any, and stayed clouded over for the next day, so we never saw any.

16. Take Beth to the fair. Check. We went to the Linn County Fair on Free Day, and she loved all the animals. Especially the pigs. Why? I don't know, but we had to walk through and admire them all twice.

So--good progress so far, I think. And for us, with no member of our household in school, the summer doesn't really end next week. It ends when the weather gets too cold to do summery activities. So we have maybe another month to go to cross all these things off the list.

I better get off the computer and get busy.