Prepare for the Solstice

Solstice is less than a week away, and my habit is to have a week of summer fun and attention to welcome the start of this amazing season.

Summer is the wonderful time when we get to slow down, sleep in, play with friends, go swimming, bask in the sun, eat ice cream, stay up after dark... let’s face it; all the best stuff happens in the summer! No matter how old you are, summer is a time to slow your pace and savor the fun and freedom. The shift from spring to summer is worth noticing!

Agenda: 

1. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

2. Read "How to Keep House While Drowning"

3. Giving Each Thing a Home

4. Plan a fun build-up to summer

5. Make Sima

1. Practice a Reverent Way of Being:

Today I will again adopt a Reverent Way of Being for the days before this turning point of the year - which is to say, I try to be respectful and humble, and use a discipline of speech and thought that I find difficult to maintain for long periods of time.

Specifically, I try to be impeccably honest, and tell no little fibs. Also, I try to not gossip or say (or even think) anything negative about anyone. These are my worst habits, and it's useful to practice being virtuous for a few days at regular intervals throughout the year!

To remind myself, I wear this ribbon bracelet with the words: Reverence, Respect, Honesty.

2. Read "How to Keep House While Drowning":

I got this little book by KC Davis (2020) from the library a couple of years ago and thought I'd like to review it this month. It covers all kinds of care tasks - cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, and hygiene - and explains how overwhelm and energy fatigue can so easily stop you from carrying them out successfully, and why that failure brings such a baggage of shame.

Her philosophy is "You don't exist to serve your space; your space exists to serve you. ... There is a big difference between being on a journey of worthiness and being on a journey of care."

Chapter 4 is Gentle Skill Building. She describes a tidying method that breaks the chore into 5 categories (garbage and recycling, dishes, laundry, things out of place, and things with No Place.), as a way to make a big task less daunting. Her process doesn't speak to my condition, but I do like the end part: 

1. Move through a room, and put all things that have a place back into their place, and gather all the things that have no place into a pile.
2. Decide where to put the "No Place" items - either find them a permanent place or get rid of them.

I'm pretty good with putting things back in their place, but I need a daily a habit for the "things that have no place" and the "things that are overflowing" - like this pile of papers and notebooks, and the old paintings in the studio. Maybe a Script for giving each thing a home.

3. Giving Each Thing a Home:

My house care theme for the month is Basic Care and Zen Order. This means do the basics each week (sweeping, dusting, etc.) and find a zen balance of order that feels good.

I've developed a new 2-step Order Plan:

1. Each day before my nap take 10 minutes to tidy one room; gather all Homeless Items on the kitchen table. Make a quick list of places these items should or might live.
2. Each afternoon, empty one overflowing space and sort out things I need and don't need; find spots for Homeless Items  - make sure to leave abundant roominess!

This week I plan to:

• Build the futon drawers and store all the blankets.
• Gather all the cardboard boxes and store in the shed or recycle.
• Clear the pile of papers on my dresser and refile or toss.
• Clear the sewing basket shelf (sew the truck pillow), and use for my snacks.
• Sort the paint shelf and make it self service.

4. Plan a fun build-up to summer:

This week we plan a peaceful and varied kick-off to summer that includes some family-time, some friend-time, and alone-time, and plenty of time outdoors:

• Today is the start of Sun Camp with the grandsons; we will make mint ice cream and a sun weaving.
• Tuesday we will go to the Farmer's Market to find strawberries, and later we will make strawberry shortcake.
• Wednesday is pool day!
• Thursday we will harvest herbs and make potpourri, and go to the library.
  
• Friday is Juneteenth and the Dragonboat Festival.
• Saturday I will plant corn.

5. Make Sima:

Sima is a mildly fermented lemonade, a traditional Finnish solstice drink. 

I grew up in a west coast town with a largely Scandinavian population, where we had an annual festival at the summer solstice, with a Miss Denmark, Miss Finland, and Miss Norway. As a teenager I loved to go to the festival to polka, and line up to buy small paper cups of sima, for 25 cents.

Ingredients:

• 2 lemons 
• 4 quarts water 
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. white sugar + 1/2 c.
• 1/6 c. dark corn syrup 
• 1/8 tsp. dry yeast
• raisins

Yield: 4 quarts-

1- Boil the water in a large kettle.

2- Shave the yellow zest from the lemons, removing all of the bitter white under-layer. Also, peel the bitter under-layer off the lemons themselves, and slice them into very thin rounds. 

3- Put the zest and lemons into two large heat-proof glass bowls. Pour the boiling water over the lemons, and stir in the sugars. When the sugars have dissolved, cover and let the contents cool to room temperature.

4- When the water has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast. Cover the bowls with plastic, leaving gaps or poking holes to allow carbon-dioxide to escape. Let the sima stand overnight, or 8-10 hours.

5- Place 4-5 raisins and a teaspoon of white sugar in the bottom of sterilized quart jars. Pour the sima into the jars, straining it through a sieve to remove the lemon.

6- Cap the jars tightly and leave at room temperature. 

SAFETY NOTE: Be sure to open the bottles at least once a day to release the pressure so the bottles don’t burst. The sima is ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top of the jars (about 3-7 days), but you can leave it a couple extra days to get the best fizz. Chill and serve!