a mid-morning picnic

The hot humidity has been bearing down on us as the temps have been above ninety-degrees. It finally came to the point yesterday when I broke down and shut the windows and screen door and turned on the air conditioner. It takes a lot to make me do that.

A summer breeze is one of my most favorite things. It gets pretty windy up here on this knoll we call home, and we usually get a nice cross breeze through our main living area when I have the front windows and the back French doors open.

Yesterday, though, when I opened up the windows, I didn't feel a cross breeze at all. It felt more like a hot, sticky, muggy cloud entering the house.

Hmmm. But I love the hot, sticky days. Yes I do. And so on days like today, when it's up over ninety and the humidity is so bad it makes your chest feel heavy, I do have such a hard time not going outdoors. I've heard in the south that during the summer months, people stay indoors between the hours of 9am and 8pm just because it's so excruciatingly hot. I get that. I do. But when you only get  a few short months of warm weather, well, it seems a shame to stay cooped up all day in an air-conditioned house. I have the other eight months of the year to do that.

So yesterday, despite the oppressive heat and humidity, we filled up a tray with stove-popped popcorn and bowls and headed into the shade for a nice mid-morning picnic. Our trees, having only been recently planted by us after we built twelve years ago, are still pretty small and don't permit for much shade. We do, however, have a nice shady spot over near the edge of the woods that has always been perfect, cool, and shady.

After spreading out an afghan, we enjoyed our bowls of popcorn and chatted about life, Bible school songs, and other such things. Midi joined us, of course, and used her gorgeous puppy eyes to beg for some popcorn for herself. (Which she is very good at doing.) Ian did some cloud-watching while Lily played on the swing.

We even had a wonderful breeze that made the picnic quite enjoyable. Eventually we packed everything up and headed back into the house.

It was a wonderful, well-spent hour. Definitely worth braving the heat and humidity.