For those of you who live in a cave, it’s been FREAKING HOT here in Sanford the last several days. We’ve hit 100 a couple of times now and it’s barely the first week of June. I foresee a loooooooooong, hot, miserable summer.

Growing up, I spent my summers on the lake. My dad bought a boat the summer I was 6 and we spent weekends swimming, skiing, and enjoying the water on beautiful Lake Tellico. Sometime during my middle school years, my parents bought a condo on Watts Bar Lake and we often spent entire weeks down there during the summer. Of course, it rarely gets quite as hot in East TN as it does here, but it was so nice to spend those hot summer days on the water.

Before we moved to Sanford, we lived in Florence, SC. We had some pretty hot summers down there, too. Which is why we bought a house with a pool…I so loved being able to fall out the back door and go swimming whenever I wanted. I’d take my son out for several hours in the morning/early afternoon and then when he got tired and had to take a nap I’d take the baby monitor out and just float and read and enjoy the water. We also utilized it a lot after he was in bed…my husband and I would go out and relax in the pool together almost every evening. Then we had to move here and couldn’t find a house in our price range with a pool.

You don’t realize just how lucky you are until you don’t have any of this stuff. Now I’m just grateful for a sprinkler. But I’d give anything to have my pool back…