2020 Tom Foolery

It's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged anything more than the weekly Hodgepodge, so thought I'd play catch up here today. Talk about what's been been going on in our little corner of the world.

So what has been going on?

Well there's a pandemic. Did you hear? Ha! Whew. It's getting old, isn't it? I heard someone say it's starting to feel like a heavy wet blanket across the shoulders and I think she's right.  Today when I got up I thought, "I need a day off." From what though? It's not like we're doing all that much but I feel like I need a day off anyway.

Earlier this week, or actually I guess it was last week, but who really knows because everyday is a lot like the one before, and a-ny-way...I opened the sliders to greet the morning, steaming cup of coffee in hand, took a deep breath, and yuck. The air smelled so fishy.

We live on what is one of the cleanest lakes in all of North America and it never ever smells fishy, but this day it was definitely smelling fishy. I looked out towards the dock and saw a huuuge turkey vulture eating breakfast, right there on our shoreline.

Raise your hand if turkey vultures kind of skeeve you out? Yeah.

I told hubs he needed to walk down there, because I don't care if it is 2020, investigating and dealing with dead stuff is a man's job. It was in the handbook we were given when we said I Do.

There wasn't a handbook, but I do have a mental list of rules and this is one of them, which hubs knows so he walked down there and then yelled for me to bring the camera. Hmmm. I yelled back, 'Is this going to be something I can't unsee?' and yes it was, but I brought the camera anyway.

Y'all. This vulture was chowing down on the biggest catfish I've ever seen. His head was the size of a basketball and with his mouth wide open he looked even bigger. Hubs dealt with it, but all I could think about was how a vulture casually dining on the worlds biggest catfish right in my backyard is pretty much 2020 in a nutshell.

Let's change topics. We had an earthquake. I know! We were sitting on our deck early Sunday morning and we felt the rumble, the deck shook a little which was a bit disconcerting, and our hanging lanterns started swaying. It lasted long enough to make you think, and we found out later a quake measuring 5.1 on the scale had it's epicenter about three hours from us.

We also were treated to a rainbow last week which I guess balances things out. We've had so many rainbows this summer, so many crazy rainstorms where the sun keeps right on shining, I guess even the weather doesn't know which way is up right now. I do love a rainbow though, and while this one wasn't quite as vivid as the last it was still so pretty. After the weather cleared hubs and I hopped on the boat to catch the sunset because we knew we'd get a good one.

We were right.

This has nothing to do with the weather or unusual occurrences (unless you count people coming over for dinner as an unusual occurrence), but we had some friends come for dinner Monday evening (outdoors of course) and I baked this salted caramel butter cake that was as delicious as it sounds.

I took this right after I poured the caramel butter sauce over the cake, and after it cools you remove it from the pan and drizzle the top with a salted caramel syrup. So good! You can find the recipe here. 

In other delicious news, this little guy is all of nine months old now and he is such a joy.

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon 

Big brother started a little preschool program two mornings a week and we are just loving watching them both grow and learn and discover something new about the world every day.

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon 

The distance stinks, and hubs and I might throw tiny little pity parties for one another now and then, never in the same moment though, which helps. My daughter is wonderful about keeping us connected, which we appreciate more than words can say.

Sunday evening we kayaked with a few neighbors over to a nearby island because you never ever tire of sunsets on the lake and this one was a beauty.

The temperature was perfection, the night quiet, and the lake still. With every exhale you feel your cares float further and further away.

When life is fragile and uncertain it helps to know the One who sets the sun.