Last spring, I started a new part time job, working as the admin assistant in a local real estate firm. I took a deep breath, put on my big girl pants and figured I was just going to juggle it into everything else I had going on, thinking that once I got through the end of May, I’d have more breathing room. Well, May became July. And then July became November and I began to realize I needed to make some permanent cuts to my activities, because at the rate I was going, that breathing room in November was going to get pushed back to who knows when – probably some February snowstorm that shut everything down for a few days. One should not have to have fantasies about winter snowstorms in order find breathing room and so I realized, I needed to make some changes. Continue reading
Category: another day in the life
Last gasp.
For months now, life has been over scheduled. I realized we had a weekend with nothing planned, no one was working, so I grabbed it and scheduled a much needed beach weekend. Continue reading
Squashapooloza
Last week a friend asked me what we’d been having for dinner recently. “Squash” was my quick reply. Between what the garden has been putting out and what friends have shared with us, we’ve had squash in some form or another for at least one meal a day since some time in July. I keep snapping photos along the way, meaning to share recipes with you (and me, because I often use this blog as one of my many recipe storage sites), but I just haven’t gotten around to it, so here we are with one big squash post instead. Continue reading
Wanderings, with peaches.
Our friends Tim and Wanda moved out to the country a few years ago, to a fixer-upper with a spectacular view and a small grove of fruit trees. When we saw them at dinner last month, they invited me out to pick peaches, an invitation I took them up on last week.
So much for that plan.
This past Saturday started out without much of a plan besides the current house reorganization Pat and I have been working on. I slept gloriously, deliciously late (9 am!) and by the time I got up, got caffeinated and motivated, the morning was definitely slipping by. I thought twice about heading to the market that morning – Pat’s gone for the week, Edie’s still at camp, so it’s just me, which means I will only need a handful of tomatoes to eat in tomato sandwiches all week (and I just so happen to have them!). I did have a hankering for some corn though, so I got myself dressed and headed down to the city market. Continue reading
DIY Furniture Polish
Contraire to popular belief, I do actually clean my house, it just happens to be low on the to-do list, especially this time of year when I’m up to my elbows in produce (just had a bag of zucchini and another one of cucumbers dropped off as a matter of fact) that needs to be dealt with. I prefer to use as little chemicals as possible in cleaning my house – even when I’m not pickling everything in sight, I go through a substantial amount of vinegar on a regular basis. I use it to mop floors, in my laundry in lieu of bleach and fabric softener (and no, our clothes do not smell like vinegar as a result) as well as to spray down the showers after using them to help keep the funk at bay. Continue reading
Late July in the Gardens.
I feel like it’s been too long since I did a garden post. The spring of two jobs and two gardens morphed into the summer of two jobs and two gardens plus assorted side projects and road trips, with the occasional looking after of neighbor’s gardens for three gardens and assorted responsibilities. I have moments where I strongly suspect I may have bitten off more than I can chew, followed by moments of uber frustration with nature but then I have those little moments of zen that make it all worth while.
Backyard jungle
Capturing gnats!
Dancing gnats in the sunlight
The tiniest spider spinning its web
Nasturtium
The tinest spider spinning its web
Scenes from a vacation.
Jumping girls
Walker’s fish!
Trying to get a shot
and another
Sitting on the dock at carp city
In which the children discover they can see under the store at the marina
Feeding the carp (and getting their toes sucked!)
Photo bombing Will
Making movies
Sunscreening himself
Tubing girls
My love.
Chill time.
More tubing girls
Bringing in the catfish
Posing with the catfish
Photo bombing Owen
Photobombing the photobomber
Keeping Walker on the boat
Captain and First Mate
Walker skis!
Huck Finn
The skiing squirrel in action.
Walker skiing
Going for a ride
Lunch on the boat
Later afternoon view from the dock
Water snuggles
In which I hold on for dear life
Back at the dock
Owen practicing his karate kid moves
Briar in her tux
Mollie and Abigail
Captain Will
Edie attempts to get on the tiger
And falls off.
Tricks time
Finally on!
Tubing girls
Tubing Abigail and Owen
Hands free Owen!
Walker and his mama
Watching Walker ski the cove
Floating children
The floating island of children
My girl.
Besties.
Snuggles!
Evening
We spent a few days last week down at Granny’s cabin at Smith Mountain Lake with our dear friends the Smileys. There was lots of fishing, swimming, tubing, skiing, boating and photo taking of it all. Walker, two, doesn’t quite swim yet (although he thinks he can) but he can water ski. Why yes, it was sort of like watching a squirrel. Pat caught sight of a big ole catfish hanging out under the boathouse and made it his mission to catch it, which he did Friday morning. Every male in the house ran down to assist bringing it in, yelling for me to bring the camera. It was a big deal. They now sell little tubs of peanut butter to put on your toes for the carp to suck it off down at Carp City. Of course Edie and Abigail went for it. Walker had me take a few hundred fish pictures, Will had me take a few hundred pictures of Walker water skiing and that’s at least part of how I ended up with over a thousand shots on my memory card from the trip. Mollie and I added clean-out-the-fridge nachos to our meal line up this time – definitely must remember to do that again. I averaged a book a day – nothing says vacation to me more than being able to sit and read for hours on end. The weather was absolutely lovely, with the hottest day being of course, the day we were packing up, which resulted in a last minute jump in the lake, then driving home with a bag full of wet bathing suits which promptly went into the washing machine and hung on the line to dry. It was a wonderful break – thanks to Will and Mollie for having us (and to Granny!).
The point of it all.
“The car is packed.”
“I saw.”
“Did you see what an awesome job I did packing the trunk? I did it in record time too. I even took before and after pictures.”
“So you can post it on your blog and tell everyone how awesome you are?”
“Well, isn’t that the point of having a blog, so that you can brag about how awesome you are?”
A most glorious blueberry patch.
This week’s adventures involved no water fun – instead I opted to stay home and clean, which I know is sort of a head scratcher, but sometimes those time outs are necessary. Not that having a clean house has ever been a priority for me, but since taking on a M-F part time office job in addition to everything else we always seem to have going on, I find the house has moved even farther down the priority list. I despair of ever having a spotlessly clean house, but I did manage to get rid of piles and some mystery odors, so I felt rather productive and virtuous and for the first time in a good month, the den is hospitable again. Continue reading
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 