Scenes from a vacation.

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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.

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“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.”

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“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.

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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 →

Rivertime.

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It didn’t feel like I took 500 photos this past weekend, but when I got home and uploaded them from my camera, I discovered I had indeed taken very close to 500 photos.  They can pretty much be broken down by subject to…. Continue reading →

Official Summer kick-off.

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It’s officially summer here at the homestead, and not just because it’s been hot as all get out or because the calendar says so or because I’ve picked the first tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden.  Edie’s bff Soph is home from Guatemala for the summer and we had our first (of many) river days with the Smiley clan, which is our official measure of the summer season.

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Bawlmer, hon.

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IMG_2587 (1024x683)Last week was Edie girl’s first week of summer break, upon which I realized I had failed to put together any semblance of a summer plan, which coincided with the realization that my better half was off to a conference for the week, leaving me to wing it alone, with no plan.  So I did what I always do in that situation – I packed up the car and hit the road to Aunt Jenny’s in Baltimore.  While most of our time up there was spent visiting with family, we did take advantage of being in the city for some fun adventures. Continue reading →

Home.

IMG_2565 (1024x683)My Granny and Granddad’s back yard backed up to a Catholic Church.  All of my aunts and uncles, as well as my parents and myself (and one of my sisters) attended the parish school, just steps from their back yard.  My parents were married in that church, I was baptized and confirmed there.  As kids, we played all over the grounds, including the graveyard (most particularly that graveyard). As the area around it changed and developed, that particular spot stayed the same.  Sure, the uses have adapted – the ‘old’ school is now a retirement home, the ‘new’ school (built in 1959) is now a private Christian school and I’m not entirely sure what the convent is – but the church is still there, its physical presence seemingly unchanged.  For all intents and purposes, it is the spot that is home to me, the one that is always there, exactly as I remembered it, if smaller (because everything is smaller than we seem to remember it). Continue reading →

My must-have ferments.

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So, let’s talk fermenting, shall we?  It’s one of the oldest, if not THE oldest way of food preservation and is frequently touted as having loads of healthy benefits.  I’ve only recently – as in the last few years – started dabbling in it.  I have a sourdough starter, which technically is fermenting, and then I managed to get my hands on a kombucha scoby because Edie was on a kombucha kick, but it’s taken me some time to really wrap my head around the whole fermenting process.  For someone who only vaguely follows recipes, it seemed like the loosey goosey-ness of fermenting would be a solid fit, but I have to admit, it’s taken me a good bit of reading, attendance of several fermenting classes and trying my hand at it more than a few times to really feel like I got it. Continue reading →