contain me

One of the best things about a summer schedule is that there is no schedule.  Random late nights, sleeping in and spur-of-the-moment picnics at the beach gives us summer relief from all the rigid demands of class assignments, school fundraisers and other activities throughout the school year.

But now that our house flood has instigated an unplanned renovation schedule, we're trying to contain our daily activities to limited areas of the house (with limited access to dishes, party bowls and other summer needs that are packed in storage) while trying to maneuver the ebb and flow of contractors and building materials...all while maintaining the summer enjoyment of "non-scheduled" family activities.  Understandably, this has presented a new list of demands that has stalled our "non-scheduled-schedule". 

I guess this summer we really have to take "go with the flow" to heart and more than ever I will need to balance my children's need to go out and explore, while preparing a house and being accessible to renovators who need decisions on material choices.

We'll just go with the flow and use paper plates instead of my pretty summer patio dishes. We'll just have go to the ice cream parlour for lunch when there's too many people in the house to cook.   In between choosing flooring and paint colours, we'll try not to be too contained and just hop in the car or bikes and go....

...and just let the sunshine lead us to the end of the dock so we can dive right into summer.

 Fruit Containers

One of the easiest things to add a little "umph" to a party table setting or picnic, is to create one special display item. If you don't own party bowls (or like me, have little access to them),  these fruit "containers" helps set the tone for casual entertainment or makes the perfect hostess dish to bring for a summer soiree.  They're easy to make (usually you just have to hollow out the fruit), and there's less dishes to do (bonus!).

Above picture: My kids loved making the little dragon fruit ice cream bowls (just cut in half, then hollow out by eating the contents!).  Below picture: For a recent party, I had to bring a fruit salad and used the watermelon as a "basket".  I took a paring knife and just created "v" shapes, to make a pretty edge.

Enjoy!