10. We finally took the plunge and bought a Nikon D60 last weekend. For the first 24 hours we just stared at it. And the user manuals. It’s been at least as distracting as a new puppy.

9. With our newfound equipment, we decided to enter the professional arena. We signed up for an account on Shutterstock. Then we snapped the required ten pictures and sent them off, confident in our photographic prowess.  48 hours later all ten pictures were rejected. Not one, not five, but all ten. Perhaps we’ll keep our pictures within the confines of Bona Vita where we can rest comfortably, self-deceived about our abilities.

8. Elliot returned from college and then turned around and left on a mission trip to Nicaragua. The resulting laundry/unpacking/laundry/packing flurry was almost as distracting as the camera.

7. Memorial Day Weekend. Not as much  a celebratory barbecue as a frantic pre-vacation three-day spring-cleaning plant-the-garden-in-an-afternoon event.

6. It’s the last week of school. Need I say more?

5. Mom’s slightly obsessive tendencies result in a desperate need to force her children to finish every single last page of every single textbook.  The last week of school is both eventful and emotional as a result.

4. Seven National Piano Guild auditions, one SAT subject test in Latin, one freshman pre-registration, one senior piano recital, and standardized achievement testing all fell into the same fourteen-day period.

3. The family van is dying. After 220,000 miles, it’s making strange noises. Groaning, grunting, grinding. It doesn’t accelerate like it used to. It has also been attacked by rust, that malicious culprit that seems to take joy in destroying cars, especially those originating in Michigan. However, Mom and the mechanic are conspiring together to force one more year of miles out of the van.

2. Our first set of guests. We’ve been preparing our Michigan home for our first set of vacation renters.

1. Frantic planning and packing for summer vacation that solidified not a moment too soon. More on that coming soon.

So what are your excuses? Why does preparing for a relaxing summer take so much energy?

My high-school literature class is reading An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis this semester. As I was preparing my lecture notes yesterday, I came across a quote that explained, in a nutshell, why people love to blog:

“Being the sort of people we are, we ant not only to have but also to analyse, understand, and express, our experiences. And being people at all — being human, that is social, animals — we want to ‘compare notes’, not only as regards literature, but as regards food, landscape, a game, or an admired common acquaintance. We love to hear exactly how others enjoy what we enjoy ourselves.”

Why do you enjoy blogging and reading others’ blogs?

I may find time to post a recipe now and then, but it will probably be sporadic at best for a time.

I hope to be able to post more regularly sometime in the future, perhaps next summer.

Andrea has instructed me to list 5 things that I am addicted to and then pass the award on to 5 blogs that I enjoy and follow.

I am addicted to the following 5 things:

My family

Talking on my cell phone while driving

Food

Reading 18th- and 19th-century novels

Coffee

I am awarding the Fabulous Blog Award to these five lovely blogs:

• Ms. Tee at Delightful Home
• Amy at How Small a Whisper
• Jena at Organized Everyday
• Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Lori at Lions, Tigers, and Boys, Oh My!

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” -  I Thessalonians 5:11

“Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau