Valeria Out Loud

With Father’s Day now behind us, the Summer, well, beach season, is close to officially kicking off. Four more days people!

Which is a fun season to be in New England.  Obviously, the weather is hotter. The days are longer. The people are cheerier and chill.

But in New England, life really changes. The sleepy beach communities and artist colonies along the waters come alive, and are packed. The seafood is more a plenty, and too good for words. The Summer music/concert scene is back.  Fruits and vegetables are at their freshest, which means the farmer’s markets are in full swing-my favorite shopping pastime. Tourists from around the globe visiting. Wearing less clothes, or beach clothes, but still needing a cozy hoodie at night. Free movie nights on the Esplanade. There are late nights on the patio with friends. Eating ice cream becomes more of a necessity to keep cool. Fireworks. The rooftop and seaside decks open up. Chilled white wine takes on that familiar meaning again. The kids play outside longer.  The waters along the coasts are not ice-cold, and everyone starts sporting a tan.  Even yours truly. Yup, this super pale gal turns a nice shade of… ivory. Hah.  Sadly, I am the only Sicilian woman I know that doesn’t break into an envious golden tan too easily.  Even my fairest of Irish friends get a tan in 30 minutes of full sunshine. One to make me jealous!! So, needless to say, hanging with me definitely is a perk if you’re tanning. I deflect a constant stream of sun to you. No joke! But my goal this year is to change this. I am going to get dark if it takes me every darn day sitting in the sun for hours! Dark! I tells ya! 

…Summertime. Sigh. We have a lot going on, which can either make or break this Summer.

Make the Summer?
We finalized our Cape trip and a few fun days/weekends of “daycationing” along the shores. And are in the mental planning stages of BBQs & get togethers.  This will be our 3rd annual Summer family trip to The Cape. A tradition I have been wanting to start for so long, and happy to realize we are already 3 years into! Yeah!

All this planning is fun, and making me feel real good. Which I need. To think about the Summer. Fun clothes. The brightness all around. The sunshine warming my skin. The gentle breezes of the beach… aww man! I get all giddy. I think I am heliophilic.  (Heliophilia – (n.) a desire to stay in the sun; love of sunlight.)  No, seriously.  Even though I have the hardest time tanning, with high SPF on I should mention, that feeling of the warm sun on my skin… I… I crave it! Gah, I just love it! And I NEED IT!  I do, literally, wait all year for Summer!

So, bring on the 80+ degrees and full days of sunshine!!  This girl needs a smoking hot tan!

Break the Summer? And, possibly, the bank.
Another adventure coming up is our much-needed home renovations!  Yeah, let’s keep feeding the money pit!

We started window shopping for cabinets, countertops, tiles, and appliances this Saturday in place of our usual date night.  Which was major for us, to finally visually come together on ideas and aesthetics.   I mentioned the renovations casually before, and the reality is it is going to be another HUGE house project! Oye…we need to completely gut three spaces for a whole new kitchen/dining room, a new bathroom, and a new laundry space. There isn’t a way around it.

So, Poorsville here we come for a while..again.  I am ok with it. Gotta be anyway, right?; and I have to keep in mind that we will have a whole new modern, comfortable way of living, which is the point.  It is an excited nervous feeling I have about all this. We have a house we didn’t build and can’t control, (a little Vampire Weekend for ya), which means ..it needs a lot of upgrading. Which then means, it’s going to be an expensive project.. and time-consuming.   I am exhausted just thinking about it!

And you know I will be posting to you guys with pics and updates!

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So, needless to say, I have somewhat of a big Summer planned..and this is along side family and friends’ birthdays, my new nephew’s birth coming within two weeks, holidays, anniversaries, working and the girls going to camp. And, still in Summer, the girls will be starting school insanely early (in August!).  Which brings me to my happiest mental landscape for the end of the Summer..both children in school!  I know, I sound selfish, but I am really not.  They are great kids, and I love them, too much at times; but this relief of not having to work from home with a child harassing me hasn’t happened in almost 8 years!  This brings a whole new meaning of happiness working from home.  Which I desperately need!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and, that all my very sweet & handsome Fathers out there had a wonderful day!

xoxoxo