This summer I have three weddings to attend. I think that is a record for wedding invitations for me. Thankfully I won’t be IN any of them and also thankfully they are all three local so I don’t have to travel out of town. So I’m booking my calendar around those three important dates.

I like to go to weddings – they are a beautiful celebration of one of life’s major milestones. The fact that two people found each other and love each other deeply enough to commit to each other in front of their families and friends and God is a beautiful thing. And the receptions are always a lot of fun!

I have to shop for wedding gifts this weekend and budget my money for a couple nice new dressy summer outfits. I might even splurge on a nice pair of new shoes!

There are two tiers of gas prices around here. In the middle class neighborhoods it is $3.89 per gallon for regular unleaded gas. In the more affluent neighborhoods it has broken the $4 mark and is going for $4.04 per gallon. Obviously,  you want to schedule your fill ups for when you are in the middle class neighborhoods.

We’ve had to adapt by cutting back on the number of trips to the grocery store to just once a week instead of 3-4 times to get fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. Now we will enjoy the fresh foods first and then we’ll switch to frozen and canned foods.

We’ve been in the habit of leaving th TV on in the living room pretty much 24/7. But last night I realized that it’s almost all just noise – there are very few shows that I care to watch. The situation comedies are not funny to me – they seem infantile and I don’t like the way the majority of story lines are about telling lies. Lies are not funny. The TV dramas and reality hows are simplistic and predictable and boring.

So I’ve turned off the TV and put music on the stereo. The music is much more soothing or energizing, whichever the case may be, and  I think my mood has improved tremendously around the house with music in the bakground rather than the annoying noise that TV has become.

My neighbor runs a rather unique small business. She bought a small church that was abandoned and in need of repair, and completely renovated it. Now it is a tiny but beautiful bridal chapel dedicated to providing space for a small wedding, with or without clergy.

June is her busiest month, and May is her second busiest month, followed by September and then October. Even in today’s world where over half of all arriages are ending in divorce, there continues to be plenty of weddings to keep her chapel and other churches and event venues busy with ceremonies throughout the year. And most of her days are filled with happiness and joy with a little stress to keep things interesting.

Summer is here and so are all the bugs. It is so unpleasant to try to sit outside at dusk with all the bugs circling and munching on you that I went and bought a bug zapper from Wal-Mart so I have the satisfaction of fighting back, even if on a small scale. Every time  hear the zap of another bug meeting its demise I have a moment of elation.

Mt next attack will be against the big red wasps that have made a home in my chimney and roof soffits. I will be heading to Home Depot for wasp killer this weekend and plan to kill all the wasps. I’ll leave the other bees, but the wasps must die.