Summer is almost over.

Two local grandchildren, Samuel and Geri Ann, started back to school with registration Friday. Geri Ann's middle school softball team played four games last week plus in an all-day tourney on Saturday. I am always reluctant for summer to end, and this year is no exception. Fall and spring are my favorite seasons, but I feel a certain melancholy at the death of summer's greenness. The start of a new school year has always seemed to me as the true new year rather than January 1 in the middle of the year.

Brian came down to mow his government ground, and he worked hard all day long and into the evening on Saturday. He did not work any harder than Trent and Brianna and Sam played, however. It was so hot that without Geri Ann here to encourage them to get outside and play dodge ball, they stuck under the air conditioning watching videos and playing their various electronic games in a world of their own.

I had dallied on Friday and postponed my grocery shopping trip until Saturday morning. Guess I wanted to stay under the air conditioning also. I had okra cut up to fry for lunch when I came home and thought with sliced tomatoes, I would serve the fried chicken I bought at the Kroger deli and the apple crumb pie I bought from the Apostolic church women's group outside Krogers on the sidewalk in the heat. I was attracted to the teenage girls at the table and wanted to encourage them--and I also did not want to fix a weekend dessert. When I got home, I found out David was working as Brian was, and I decided to just serve the chicken and tomatoes and fry the okra for supper.

Just as I went up to start supper, David called and said he'd bring home a couple of the bake-in-your-own oven pizzas, which he did with a large salad. So I did not cook supper. Brian wasn't in yet when we finished eating, and I left everything on the dining room table for him. Before I got upstairs to clean the kitchen, however, David had put everything away. I had an easy Saturday in the kitchen.

And because it was so late when Brian got through mowing, his plans to make home-made ice cream up at their camper and invite Sam up for that instead of the usual smores got postponed until after church today at our house. Home-made ice cream is one of Brian's specialties at campsites.

Before we left for Sunday School and church this morning, I put a meat loaf and beef roast in the oven, so all I had to do when we got home was make instant mashed potatoes, slice the tomatoes, and finally fry the okra. The bake-sale pie had not been cut yet, so that was still available to go along with the truly delicious ice cream. Brian and the kids had to start back to Lake Saint Louis, and we sent some tomatoes and okra home with them for Mary Ellen to enjoy this week since she could not be with us today.

I ran by the Cedars' house yesterday morning for the first time and went through the changed rooms. The workers were up on the roof, and they didn't even know I was there. It is a long way from finished, but I love the open spacious look.