I recently tweeted "Late July is the Sunday evening of the summer." Every Sunday, right around 3pm, I get so bummed about "back to school and work" that I can't even enjoy what's left of the day. By the time 60 Minutes starts I'm fighting off anxiety.

As part of my Wholehearted commitment, I've decided to sink into these last few weeks of summer and enjoy every drop of unscheduled time, lazy days, and fun house projects.

Our big project this summer is a new pool! It was supposed to ready on July 4th, but we've had so much rain that we're a few weeks behind schedule. If everything goes as planned, we'll be swimming this week! By the way - they finished filling the pool on Saturday night. On Sunday morning I went out to take my first look and dropped my iPhone right over the side. I have a feeling it won't be the last phone in the pool.

I'm also going to use this time to think through a blog overhaul. I'm not going to change the look, but I am considering a new writing commitment: blog five days a week. I'm thinking that I'd include a combination of posts - my reasearch, home life, opinion pieces, more inspiration interviews, etc.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for the blog - I'd love to hear them. It would be so helpful to know what you enjoy reading!

I'll be back in a few. Hope you're having a wonderful summer.

Last week I came home from Whole Earth Provisions with an awesome Archie McPhee yodeling pickle. I could hardly wait for Steve to come home so I could share the little plastic miracle with him. We both love a good yodel - especially from someone like Don Walser.

Before he even had time to put his bag down, I pushed play. The pickle yodeled. I did a little jig.

The color drained out of Steve's face. He looked at me and said, "Oh my God. You're turning into your mom."

I grabbed my pickle and walked away. I had no idea what he was talking about and I was pissy - he rained on my pickle parade.

This past weekend I took the kids to my mom's house for a quick afternoon visit. I told her the pickle story and we both shrugged our shoulders like, That was a weird thing for him to say. Who knows what that means?

Then, in total excitement, my mom said, "Speaking of cool things! Look at these chickens that I bought the kids. When you squeeze their stomachs their eyes pop out and candy comes out of their bottoms. They even cluck!"

The end.

Do me a favor? Tell me something quirky that you share in common with one of your parents. Make me feel better. One lucky person will win . . . a yodeling pickle. Or maybe squirrel underwear. Swear.