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I hope you liked the letters this month. It was nice to spend so much time in the sunshine, making words and thoughts and little stick men appear on clean sheets of paper.

Your impressions that we are leading an idyllic life and this sort of existence is unattainable for the masses are both rather erroneous. I guess the snapshots I sent you do make our life look like something from Pinterest. Right now Thad has the largest mosquito bight on his arm that the world has ever witnessed, so his existence is miserable and it is rubbing off a bit on me. In addition, today is horribly hot and muggy, like we always forget summers can be, and we have no means of cooling the house. So it doesn't feel at all idyllic. I need to clean the house, too, and have been procrastinating like mad, so it's not even pretty at the moment. I think the way we live is very manageable and attainable for everyone. You don't have to move out to the middle of nowhere and toss out your television set to do it. (Although it helps.) We just finally figured out what decisions we have to make, and how to stick to it. Get rid of all your stuff and learn how to make mayonnaise from scratch. It's really very simple. 

I haven't much news for you. Thad's mosquito bight: reported. Weather: duly noted. What else is there to say, other than that I am now remembering what it's like to be hot and sweaty when I wake up in the middle of the night, and that I am not remembering how I made that marvelous iced tea last summer? I have strong belief that the knack will return to me.