Rainy Summer Afternoons

We have entered that time of summer in Florida when afternoon thunderstorms are part of the daily routine. Every afternoon around 3:00, the heavens open up and rain down on us. I actually love this time of year. Our yard does, too. After weeks of brutal heat, the water refreshes all of us.

Even Big Molly loves the afternoon showers.

Last weekend, Chris and the kids hung out in the garage during the afternoon downpour.

I poked my head out there a few times to see what was going on, but they kept telling me it was a secret. All they would show me was this frame Chris was building, but they wouldn’t tell me what it was for. So, I went back inside and let them continue their little secret project.

About an hour later, they called me downstairs to our basement. Well, it’s not really a basement. Florida homes very seldom have basements because of the water table here. But our house is a split level home, so we have the main living floor (living room, dining room, kitchen), the upstairs (bedrooms, office, and two bathrooms), and then we have this downstairs floor, too. We call it the basement, but it’s above ground. When we moved into this house, we planned to turn this room into a playroom. We are actually getting ready to begin that renovation in the late summer/early fall. But, until then, it has always just been this big junk room. It needs new floors, new walls, a fireplace removed, an in-law kitchen removed, and a bathroom remodel. There is lots of work to be done down here, which is why it has taken us so long to get to the project. But we are now getting to the point where a playroom is much needed.

(This is a picture of part of the room on the day we moved into the house. Picture this, but now add in miscellaneous furniture and toys that we are storing down there, and that’s what it looks like today.)

But on this particular rainy afternoon, Chris and the kids did the best they could to turn it into some kind of usable space by building a ping pong table!

When we lived in Connecticut, Chris had a pool table out in his Man Cave in the garage. One year for his birthday, I have him a ping pong table topper than sat on top of the pool table so that he and his friends could either play pool or ping pong. But when we moved to Florida, we sold the pool table and so the ping pong topper hasn’t been in use for a few years.

That’s been unfortunate because Chris grew up playing pool and ping pong in the game room at his house. And all throughout high school and college, I played with him, too. But we haven’t played in years.

Now, though, our kids are (sort of) old enough to play with us, and it was even more fun than I remembered.

We even tried to teach Gracie how to serve…

We spend a lot of time chasing balls around the room, but we spend more time laughing.

We have been playing down in the basement almost every day now. Just an hour before or after dinner with the kids. It has been such simple fun.

And simple fun really is the best way to spend a rainy summer afternoon, isn’t it?

*****

P.S.  Those reusable water bottles I posted about a month ago are on Zulily today for $9.99 for a set of five!  Not a Zulily member?  Click here!