Seasons: Turn, Turn, Turn

For some reason, I occasionally get reflective when I am vacuuming the house; I often think about the passage of time and how things change. Perhaps I get in such a mood because I'm cleaning up the dust and dirt that has accumulated on the floor over time?

Anyhow, I've been trying to do an extra-thorough clean of our house this week, which has caused me to think about different seasons of life. I thought about specific seasons that in which I am involved right now, and the ones that we have been undertaking since the beginning of the year. Since the year is a little more than halfway over, I thought I'd write what seasons and repeated activities have comprised my family's year thus far. Some of these seasons have ended, but most of them have not:

• House projects
• Gardening projects
• Extermination projects!
• Nightly "Wordament" tournaments before going to bed
• Traveling independently (we have yet to travel as a complete family this year!)
• Family weekends together
• Sunday dinners with Gram and Bop
• Therapy
• Introspection
• Reading fiction!
• Superheroes
• TV shows for Me and J: American Idol, White Collar, The Mentalist, Downton Abbey
• TV shows for J: Mad Men, Arrested Development, Modern Family
• TV shows for Sam: Blue's Clues, Busytown Mysteries, The Avengers
• iPad games for Sam: Angry Birds and Cut the Rope

On a smaller time frame, here are some of the things that comprise our most current season, as of the past few weeks:

• Root beer floats
• Corn on the cob
• Blueberries
• Pie
• Sunburns
• Carpenter ants
• Painting white trim in the house
• Weeding garden beds and spreading wood chips
• Prepping for next year's art history courses
• Watercoloring (J)
• Designing a photos book for co-workers (J)
• Sounding out words in "First Reader" books (Sam)

I like that life is varied by different seasons. I like that there are times for certain seasons, and I (often) like that seasons end. I also like that some seasons are able to repeat themselves, in at least one form or another. Even when one season ends, it's nice to know that there the possibility that you might enjoy something (or even a whole season of something) at another time.