Until this summer, I never quite understood the hype that “weekends off” got. Days off during the school year are rare, and only happen when Cal Poly decides we need a holiday. So these days are filled with homework left over from the week, and the cleaning that needed to be done a month ago. And since the time I turned sixteen, weekends always meant work – work as a hostess to earn some spending money; work at the coffee shop to save for college; and work at the bike shop to pay the bills. [[I'd like to reminisce for a second here on how simple things were in high school, where money was earned to go out with friends, and a $50 balance in my checking account wasn't necessarily a bad thing.]] 

But this summer, AJ and I have discovered weekends. Those magical days that don’t really exist in real life, where the troubles and worries of work and school and life get shoved in a corner and told to stay there until Monday. Come next week, I’ll worry about the duties I forgot to do at the bike shop and the bills I forgot to pay. But until then, I’ll do absolutely nothing of worth to the outside world, but of immeasurable value to me.

Last weekend, while spending time with my family in the San Bernadino Mountains, my aunt gave me one of the best compliments I’ve received in a while. As I was kneading the dough to make AJ’s special cherry pie (like his grandmother used to make), Suzie says to me in her virginia twang, “Raquel, you’re just so domestic, it’s really great.” And while some women would feel that this undermines their sense of empowerment – the empowerment that tells them to go to work every day and climb the ladder of success and make something of themselves – I couldn’t have been more pleased. What makes me successful is not the money I bring home or the jobs I get to do. No, what makes me successful are the things I do to make my house feel like a home, to all who live and pass by here. It’s the things that I do that make me happy, and in turn put a smile on AJ’s face.

And this weekend, in the middle of my domestic chores, I thought and smiled about my aunt’s comment. For all my complaining and crying about people who are rude, difficult school days, and sandwiches made incorrectly, I sure find it easy to forget about when the weekends come around. Because for me, weekends like this one are all about the domesticity.

Scarf in the works!

New strawberry plants to last through the fall.

New broccoli and brussels sprouts plants.

Corn is doing well, with baby corn on the way!

A very poorly made chili ristra to save the abundance of peppers for when the weather gets cold.

Not pictured: bags full of farmer’s market veggies, new native plants for the front yard [[why would you plant tropical plants in a desert?]], two loaves of bread – one cinnamon raisin & the other seeded sourdough, and a clean kitchen.

And to complete my picture-perfect weekend of all things homely, I made this week’s menu. We’ve got tortilla soup planned tonight with a couple friends, BBQ’d potatoes (we have the best method, ever), a big salad inspired by Oh She Glows, and a couple simple nights of rice or leftovers.

This is my last week off before school starts back up again, and I plan to enjoy it. I’m also planning on taking weekends off this fall, and I’m hoping that will ease the stress of school a bit. All I know is that this was a summer to remember, and I look forward to next year already.