Oh, What Do You Do in the Winter time . . .

This post is in honor of my family members who groan, "How can you stand it?" after asking how hot it is here in July. It is also in honor of the author of the Primary song and the author of all of the family magazines ever published who all seem to think that every place in the world has four traditional seasons. (As the lyrics say, "Oh what do you do in the summer time when all the world is green.") Excuse me? All the world? Come now. And I have to say, it chaps my hide a bit to get my Family Fun magazine's endless winter articles about fun in the snow and endless summer articles about things to do outside. Here in the great desert of the southwest, in the Valley of the [eternal] Sun, we do not go outside in the summer unless we are swimming. So I think all of that justifies a little rubbing-in-your-face when I hear reports that it is snowing in Utah in April. Right? So here we go . . . 

Oh what do we do in the winter time when our part of the world is green?

We picnic each day, We go to the park to play, without a cloud in the sky.

If that's not what you do, please don't cry. 

Oh what do we do in the winter time when our part of the world is green?

We drink fresh lemonade, that we ourselves made, from the lemons on the tree up high.

If that's not what you do, please don't cry.

Oh what do we do in the winter time when our part of the world is green?

We go to the zoo and eat fresh citrus too that we don't even have to buy.

If that's not what you do, please don't cry.

Oh what do we do in the winter time when our part of the world is green? (or maybe not-so-green as these pics show!)

We go on a hike, and we all ride our bikes until the sun has gone down in the sky.

If that's not what you do, please don't cry. 

 

And that signals the end of my creative juices for the night. And don't worry, come September, I'll be the one crying. But right now, we're loving the months of 75 degrees.

"The Happy P Family Moves to the Desert"

In honor of our 4th anniversary here in the lovely desert of the Southwest, please enjoy this little story, told in the manner of one of our beloved kids' books, The Happy Hocky Family Moves to the Country.

We are the P Family.

See the empty townhouse?

The P family is moving from New England to the desert. "How exciting!" say the P Family members. Here is the P family's new house. It is a FUN house. It's has its own colony of mosquitos breeding in the green pool water in the back. It has its own hive of bees living in the front column. It has its own lovely green carpet. What a FUN house.

A New Game: Let's Play Find-My-House!

There are a lot of fun new games to play in the Southwest. This one is called find-my-house. Mommy and Little Boy P have gone for a walk. Now which street and house is there's?

This way? Or was it this way?

New England Words/Southwest Desert Words

The Northeast and the Southwest have the same words, but sometimes those words have different meanings . . .

Northeast Words

Fall

Winter Mountain hiking

Mexican food

Old house

Local History--Man with a Gun Home invader

Southwest Words

Fall Winter

Mountain hiking

Mexican food

Old House Local history--Man with a Gun

Home Invader

Counting Game

If the P family moved into their home on Halloween and they just had their 4th Halloween in their home, how long has the P family lived in the desert? You're right. FOUR WHOLE YEARS.

Look, the yard on the FUN home looks a little greener!

Look, the carpet in the FUN home looks a little less green!

Look, the P family leaves the desert in the summer to go camping with their new friends!

The P family is going to be OKAY in the desert!

1. Memories of fun adventures and places in the past, 2. Anticipation for fun adventures in the future, 3. Old friends and new friends

I'm officially declaring it.

The National Weather Service declared the official end of the Arizona Monsoon Season on September 30. The astronomical charts declared September 22, 2008 the official first day of fall. And tonight I am declaring today, October 5, 2008, the official first day of Summer Diminished. 

Those of you not lucky enough to be residents of our fair Valley of the Sun may not know that there is, sadly, no such thing as fall/autumn in Arizona. After living here for almost 4 years now, I can finally discern differences in the other seasons, but fall? Not a chance. And yet, it's not quite as blistering hot as it once was.  It's definitely not fall, but it's also not quite the I-must-get-out-of-here-before-I-sweat-to-death summer. It's "Summer Diminished." And at 85 for our high today, I think it's time to declare it officially begun. (Although I'm afraid that this does not mean we won't return to the high 90s in a week.) This exciting day does, of course, warrant a photo or two. The first one is taken from one of the windows in my kitchen. See the diminished sun? (If not, don't worry, you just don't have the practiced eye of a deseret dweller to determine the sun's nuances.) The second one is at the very end of sunset, just to highlight the presence of clouds in our eternally blue sky. 

I'm still mourning the loss of fall, but hooray for Summer Diminished!

1.  Cooler days, bright evenings, even cooler nights   2.  General Conference!!   3. Brownies & family game night