The last day of Summer

Today is Labor Day. Labor Day is the official last day of summer in Maine. Winter, by the way, generally starts around Thanksgiving. But fortunately, today was still summer, and even felt like summer. Yesterday Jupiter and I went to Kettle Cove State Park in Cape Elizabeth. We haden't made it there all summer, and I've made it at least once every summer since I was six years old. Jupiter liked the walking paths, but man, was it ever windy at the top of the cliff. I like to follow the trail up there and stare out at the ocean and pretend I can see Ireland. Never mind the fact that the summer I was in fourth grade and got my first pair of glasses, we went to Kettle Cove and I looked at my mother and said "When did they put that island out there?" But now I have contacts, so Ireland is definitely in my line of sight now. We climbed on rocks and looked in tide pools and Jupiter made friends with anybody who was willing, and one grandmother asked me if Jupiter was going into first grade. Seriously, this is how tall my child is. One of the many blessings of adoption....she never would have gotten any height from me. Finally we packed up around 3:30, and stopped at the kiddie water park at Deering Oaks park in Portland to rinse off the sand. Apparently the city of Portland Public works forgot that today was Labor Day, not yesterday, because they drained all the water out of the kiddie pool. The water spraying things were still working, but I have to admit that the normally submerged fountain sprayers looked terrifyingly strong when not submerged. We made it through without injury, went home, and I made pizza with fresh tomatoes, all home grown, and basil. Jupiter even ate the pieces with basil, which suprised me. I expected her to at least kick up a fuss about the basil, even though I strategically hid the basil underneath the cheese. Although this morning I asked her what was in her mouth and she opened it to reveal a huge wad of chives she picked out of the herb garden. She also eats plain cilantro.
Today, since I've been busy being lazy all weekend, I had to do some work around the house. Well actually, Saturday we tried to have a yard sale at Mimi's house. We made $4. So mostly it was more of deciding where all the stuff we put in the yard sale would end up. I have to do something with it so I can park my car in my garage again. Wash dishes, bleach out the tile grout in the shower, do laundry, look for the floor. It's my goal to get the house neat enough that Jupiter can have a play date. Why is this so hard for me?? Well, soon it will be winter and I won't want to be outside so much. Actually, I will avoid going outside until May. Jupiter is already discussing the first snowfall. She can't wait for snow. And her birthday. We determined yesterday it was 52 days until her birthday. Speaking of house cleaning..