I Hate Summer

Okay, now that I have your attention I will explain. There are many things about summer that I love:

• The children playing outside my window, laughing and having great fun
• The fresh berries and vegetables, specially the ones you can pick from your own garden
• Flowers, though I can’t get too close thanks to my allergies
• Cool summer breezes in the evenings
• The smells of BBQs and sounds of people getting together outside

What I don’t like about summer has mostly to do with my health:

• Certain medications don’t allow me to be in direct sunlight and even with a hat and sunscreen I get nauseated and tired very easily
• The heat seems to flare my fibromyalgia and other chronic pain sources so I end up staying in with the air conditioner my awesome hubby bought
• While I am less depressed in the summer, I find that my anxiety is triggered very easily in the heat.
• When you are cold it is easy to just put more layers on, but when it is hot, there is very little you can do about it
• Because of all of this I end up staying in more in the summer than I do in spring or fall (winter is a whole other story)

So, what do I do about this? Do I sit around and moan about how bad things are for 2-3 months?

No.

I find the best way to use my time. There are lots of projects I need to do inside my nice cool house during the hot days. I can pick one and work on it and then move to the next one, making sure I leave time for relaxing in some way. I need to pack up my craft room and if I fill a box, go watch TV or crochet for a bit then fill another box, it should be done in no time.

I keep in touch with the people who me so much to me. And if some of you who fit that category are reading this, I apologize that I haven’t been in touch for awhile. We have been on another roller coaster for the last couple of weeks but I think it is finally pulling into the station!

We go for drives in our air-conditioned van. On July 1st, Canada Day, we went into the valley to check out some houses as we are thinking of moving there with Kay and her kids. We are really listening to God on this one and not rushing into things. But we are tired of the way things are run where we are now. We paid for our unit, but are treated like we don’t own it. I was in a lot of pain, but we were just driving around, getting a feel for the areas we are looking in so I stayed in the van most of the time and was fine.

We also have a small inflated hot tub in our back yard that is very good for my muscles and even my state of mind.

I do things in the evenings when it is cooler, like putter in my very small garden out back, sit out there and read or go to a movie. On Thursday Kay and I went and saw the Magic Mike sequel – great fun!

So, I guess I can’t really say I hate summer, because attitude is everything and I can always find something positive to do or think. 😀