Summer Fun by Molly Evans

Molly, it's winter down here but we had three weeks school holidays in late June/July and the 'B' word is banned at our house   I have a boredom box. The kids write down achieveable things they enjoy doing and that can range from arts and crafts, kicking a ball, riding a bike, baking biscuits etc, all sorts of things and each idea gets folded up and put in the box. If they are at a loss of something to do they go and pick something out of the Boredom Box. The rule is they have to do whatever they pull out and it works a treat. And if they are so out of sorts then I send them to bed with a talking book!  Always reenergises them

Cheers

Fiona

I went to fitness camp this summer.  It really changed my outlook on life and my writing.  It was the same week as Nationals, so I had to miss RWA this year.  I think I'm writing better and more focused now.

I love the "Boredom Box" idea.  Good thing my kids (5, 3, and 2) are too little to be bored.  They find excitement in everything.  I wish I had the luxury of being bored, but I've got too much stuff to do! I love summer and wish it would never end.

Where was this fitness camp? I used to go to a women's fitness camp at the YMCA near where I grew up, and dh loved it b/c I came back in the best mood. But they keep changing the week, and I haven't been able to go in 3 or 4 years . . .

I spent a few days by myself at my sister's while she took the kids to Yellowstone. It went by waaaay too fast.

Penn

I know some people don't believe me, but I can honestly say that I've never been bored.  Yes, there is the odd occasion when I can't settle to something but I've never been able to understand how anyone can ever be bored when there are so many things to do!!  Or not do if the mood takes you and you just want a rare brief moment to do nothing, and maybe just sit and enjoy whatever is around you, be that a garden or beautiful countrside or indulging in people-watching.   Aside from whatever hobbies one has, be that sport or crafting or gardening or anything else, there is reading!  I shall never be able to read all the books I want to in a life time!

It's very true, though, that once one works from home and gives up what others refer to as a "proper job", you wonder how on earth you ever had time to go to work!!!  There just aren't enough hours in the day. 

Best wishes,

Margaret

www.margaretmcdonagh.com

Oh, the "B" word! I love it! I remember one time whining that I was bored when I was around seven or eight. I got the "only unintelligent people who won't use their imagination are ever bored" lecture. (And don't even get me started about the "I can't vs I won't" words--my mom had a whole lecture about saying "I can't", too.)

I discovered during the summer of my youth there are many things that imaginative people can do. I do not recall ever feeling bored since then. Reading, writing and playing an instrument, singing, knitting, crocheting, gardening, 'communing' have filled my time for as long as I can remember.

I have very little time off this summer, but in two weeks my youngest daughter and I will be attending a "French Accents" fiddle camp. We will be playing Quebecois fiddle music. I'll be playing the cello, my dd is the fiddler. 

My summer as been busy getting ready for a daughter's wedding. You talk about romance and work.

Susan May

www,susanCmay.com

Nick's New Heart

We've had a winter holiday travelling in the north of Australia during the dry season - it's gorgeous this time of year. Dont think I'd like to be there for the 'wet' though - too humid.  But I can see that I could easily become migratory - summer down south, winter up north.... now if we could just find a way to finance that!  LOL

Laughed at the "housework cure" for boredom - that would have fixed me!

Sharon 

She's in the Dijon area (specifically in Mâlain) until about Tuesday, staying with the family of her former exchange partner from the end of her freshman year in high school (May, 2005).  Then, I was nervous about her ability to get along because she had only had one year of French.  However, her teacher told me that she had such a good accent and did so well that she thought she'd been studying it for at least 3 years prior.  As it happens, all my worries were for naught.  When she apologized to one French merchant for not knowing how to say something, he told her he was shocked because he'd thought she was French. 

Needless to say, after 3 additional years of French in high school and now a year in college (where she's minoring in French), her skills have improved a great deal.  She really has a natural talent for languages, including American Sign Language, which she took in high school, too.  She also placed on the National French Test every year in high school and tied for first place her senior year in the state language festival for speaking and for comprehension.  So I have no worries about her ability to get along now, which is a relief especially since she's not traveling in a group this time but is making all her own arrangements.

From there, they'll go to Paris to spend a couple of days before her return home.  This is her boyfriend's first time out of the country, and he's been studying French from some computer software we let him borrow.  I know they're having a great time!

A friend and I went to Paris a long time ago, back in 1980, but we didn't speak French.  We managed to get along just fine because we could figure out enough of what was written from our studies of Spanish and bits and pieces we'd picked up, but it would have been much easier in general if we'd been at least semi-fluent.