Whining on Repeat

Oh look! I’m whining about the heat again! It feels like a repeating pattern. And yes, I guess it is. The high today is expected to be 104°F (40°C). The National Weather Service is calling for heat index values close to 115 for the rest of the weekend. It is MISERABLE.

The Birthday Bash

Yesterday was my little dude’s 8^th birthday, so we did what any family stuck baking in Texas would do: we went to the nearest beach and tried to hide in the waves. Galveston is our nearest beachy area, so of course that’s where we go. We have a favorite beach there where we’re allowed to drive out onto the beach, set up our little beach tents and chairs, and play in the water.

We aren’t that far from the Mouth of the Mississippi or the mouths of about a million other tiny rivers, so our water isn’t exactly clear and beautiful most of the time (try silty and brown), but it’s still a beach! We take what we can get here, okay…

Anyway, we played in the water, laughed together, and the boys had fun! We all came home tired of course, but it was a fun adventure and a nice break from the heat.

Even better…

Galveston wasn’t crowded! One of the benefits of homeschooling is that, once the public schools all start back, we get to enjoy all the tourist attractions with fewer tourists! So we can do crazy things like drive down Seawall Boulevard at the actual posted speed and not wait for hours to get seats at a restaurant. With kids in the car, which is struggling to keep up with the blistering heat anyway, it’s those little things that make all the difference between a crappy beach day and a fun one.

The party continued…

Once we got home. We all got cleaned up, showered, and rested up a little before I headed out to get cupcakes.

I know, a normal person would happily make a cake or buy something from the grocery store just up the street, but some of us are unlucky on the food game. I’m gluten-free and I have allergies to preservatives that show up in grocery store cakes, so I have to go to the little cupcake bakeries around that make their frosting and cakes every day. It’s more expensive, and it feel Bougie and ridiculous, but I want some cake too, dang it! Cupcakes are my favorite dessert, so if that means I have to be little Miss Fancy Pants to get them, well, I regret nothing.

Oh yeah, the heat…

I went straight to the cupcake bakery and came straight home with my car’s AC on full blast. I had the visor down to try to shield the cupcakes, and I did everything I could to keep them as cool as possible. But there’s only so much you can do when it’s positively hellish outside. By the time I got home, the frosting had started to melt on 2 cupcakes, and the pile of sugary goop was sitting halfway off the cupcake in the box. Oops! Next time I guess I will need a cooler or something to save the cupcakes!

Back to the Party!

Little Mister 8 is my spitfire: he’s the Sith of the kids, definitely the Slytherin in the Harry Potter universe, and if we’re talking Marvel, I think he’s probably more like Loki than anyone else. He’s definitely a spunky dude, and I appreciate the spark he brings to the world. He does things 100% his way, and the rest of us just have to deal. He’s also the cuddler and the one who has the sly sense of humor. You never quite know what you’re going to get with him, but it’s going to be a fun ride.

(Contrast this with Mister 11, who is the responsible Jedi type, the studious one, and the one who would always play as the good guys in any video game. He falls into the stereotypical older kid role very easily, but he is the best big brother imaginable. He adores Mister 8, and Mister 8 adores him right back. It’s a fun dynamic.)

Mister 8 insisted on a Star Wars birthday theme, so I got him some “light side” cupcakes (vanilla) and some “dark side” cupcakes (chocolate). My son loves Darth Vader, so I knew exactly which cupcakes he was going to choose. (I got some gluten-free ones for myself, and because I am much more of a light side kind of girl, mine were vanilla.)

We got Star Wars plates, cups, banners, and a table cloth, and we invited all the grandparents over for burgers and fries for dinner (again, Mister 8’s choice). He had a blast, as did all the other adults and his big brother! My in-laws even gave the kids balloon light sabers, so there were some epic battles in my living room!

Seasons Changing?

Mister 8 is the last of the summer birthdays. My father-in-law will be celebrating his (insert garbled mumbling of his age) birthday in mid-September. If the weather behaves anything like usual, things will start to cool down around then, and maybe we can use our porch for his party. I’m also hoping for some outdoor running then too, if the weather decides to be friendly to such things.

I’m not the only one whining about the heat. I talked to my runner friend Angela earlier this week, and she told me how bad it has been for her. Normally she’s an 80 mile per month kind of girl (running with a giant Rottweiler puppy who is bigger than she is!), but this July she only ran 20 miles.

Think about that. It took a woman who is a very seasoned runner (not a runs-in-fits-and-starts runner like me, but a serious, seasoned runner) down to a quarter of her normal mileage! She also can’t stand treadmills, and they don’t really work for containing Rottweiler-sized puppy energy either! From what she told me, her Rottie would either use the treadmill as a bed or as a snack, so it’s probably just as well that she takes him outside for runs!

Stay cool in this heat, friends, and just remember, Fall is around the corner!