Lovely!

I found the blog Lovely List recently. Check out what Brandy is giving away!



I'm hoping the winner is Me!

Taking a 'breather'...

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. We had a busy week last week leading up to a busy weekend. All was great but Kevin and I are dead tired and A&O are getting back on schedule after skewed naps and two nights in a row with sitters.

I hope you are well. I'll be back in a day or two...

Simple Pleasures

After having this sitting around for the past year, it was finally installed: a retractable clothesline! I immediately hung the girls' swim towels and some clothes they stripped out of before dinner and I LOVED how it looked. My Mom always used a clothesline and I somehow equate it with "Home". The fresh scent of sun dried sheets and clothes...ahhh...

Good Golly its HOT!

I can't believe summer decided to show up mid August. I'm certainly not complaining (although hot, humid nights can be tough in a 100+ year old house without AC). I want to get a good dose of warmth before the frigid air of winter comes plowing through. Off to make more ice!

Keeping cool at naptime!

Little Miss Fix Its

We're doing a bit of work on our house right now. My Mom and Dad came over for the day on Wednesday to help out. Dad did some electrical work while Kevin continued working on our bedroom projects (look for details on that in a future post!). A&O were drawn away from outdoor play when they saw "Pop" carrying tools into the house. Lucky "Pop," he then had two little "helpers!"

Blueberries!

We finally made it to the blueberry farm! Kevin stayed at home to work on a couple of house projects so my sister Nancy joined us. All decked out in belts to hold our buckets so we could pick with both hands (I should have gotten a pic of that!) we picked for a little over an hour. I knew it was time to quit when O announced that she had a tummy ache. I was surprised to see that A&O actually did put some berries into their baskets to bring home!

After dinner tonight my sister stopped by with piping hot Blueberry Crisp. We added a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream and enjoyed!

Have you been berry picking yet this year? There's still time!

Thrills found elsewhere!

I'm one of those people who like to have the dishes done, toys picked up and each room tidied before going to bed. I also like to have some vague plan for the next day. So last night I looked at the calendar, realised August is well under way and decided we had better go blueberry picking today before all of the berries are gone. I fell asleep with visions of enough blueberries to carry us through next July and humming Blueberry Hill.

Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. It was hot and humid as I hurried everyone to get ready early this morning, with plans to get out of the house by 8:30 for the 45 minute drive to a wonderful farm that specializes in blueberries and Christmas trees! At the last minute I thought to call the farm to be sure of their business hours and got a recording stating they would be closed in the morning because of thunderstorms and to check back at noon to see if the weather had cleared. Ugh! Not the message I wanted to relay to two kiddos psyched to eat pick blueberries.

As if on cue the telephone rang. It was my sister Nancy who lives three blocks away. I told her my dilemma and she said, "I've got blueberries. Come over. I've got an idea!" Five minutes later we were in her kitchen and she was handing A&O mesh strainers and explaining that they were going to go on a blueberry hunt in her house. My sister and brother-in-law had hidden fourteen small cups of berries throughout the first floor of their house and the hunt was on! Five minutes later we had two very happy girls eating many blueberries (and leftover wedding cake from a wedding last night!). Thank you Nan & Dan!

We'll hopefully be going blueberry picking sometime this week. My mouth is watering thinking about blueberry muffins! What is your favorite thing to do with blueberries?

Best Friends

This was taken on a recent trip to see my best friend in Cleveland, Ohio. A&O spent most of the evening hanging out on the swings, just like I did when I was little. I remember sitting on the swing set for hours, barely swinging, talking with my best friend. This reminded me of that so much! It warms my heart to know how close my girls are and how they refer to each other as each other's best friend.

Gold Digging

Kevin recently received a postcard from a local jeweler advertising that they will buy our unwanted gold. Usually most bulk mail advertisements go right into the recycling bin, but with me not working I thought this might be another way of getting extra cash while weeding out the things we no longer use or need (I've been successfully selling baby things on Craigslist and clearing out!). We both dug around in some boxes in storage, found a few pieces of gold jewelry we knew we wouldn't ever wear that had zero sentimental value and headed to the jewelry store. Ten minutes later we had $400+ in our hands! Wooo-hooo!