Throwback Monday

There's a trend making it's way around social media where people are sharing what their lives looked like in 2016 . It sounded like fun so here we are. 

Ten years. I had to scratch my head a little to remember what we were doing in 2016, but thankfully I have a blog to help with that. 

Turns out we were building a house. Ha!



How do you forget that? 

I guess I've successfully blocked the process from my memory, but at the time it seemed to fill our every waking moment. 

When I say we were building a house I mean the entire year of 2016 was dedicated to that endeavor. We actually broke ground on September 24th of 2015 and then it proceeded to rain for the next month so we didn't start construction until mid-October of that year. 

And it took a looooong time. Almost fourteen months but who's counting? My camera reel from 2016 is filled with a lot of red clay, lumber, plumbing, and stone. 

And that was pretty much it. 

I mean not it it, but the home build did consume our time and our thoughts and our lives for the entirety of 2016.

As home builds do. 

In other old news...having newlyweds in the family made for a happy distraction in 2016. Daughter1 and her hubs married the year before and promptly moved thousands of miles away, which incidentally would become a trend for them going forward, although we blessedly didn't know it then. 

God gives us grace for the day y'all. 

I made two trips to the Evergreen State that year and I loved it. I didn't love the distance, but I'd never spent any time in the PNW before my daughter1 moved there, and I thought it was so beautiful. 

The trees...all the green...I loved walking in my daughter's neighborhood with her picture perfect view of Mt. Rainier. 

Loved walking the path through what I dubbed the Jurrasic forest and then the way it opened up into the wide expanse of the Puget Sound. 

Loved hanging with this guy too of course. 

He was an adorable and only slightly naughty one year old puppy who had no idea he'd be coming to live with us just three years later.  As I said, grace for the day. 

We bought a boat-

Our dock went in before the house was even framed, and this was smart on our part if I do say so myself. 

I mean hubs was all over that so I can't take any credit but having the dock meant we could hang out in the lake while the builders did their thing. 

May 7, 2016...dipping my toes in the lake from our dock for the first time. 

We had to navigate through the overgrown prickly brush on the hillside to get to it, but still we were a step closer towards calling home home. 

What else? OOOhhh the apartment. It was actually kind of fun living in a furnished apartment while we built. I could clean the whole thing in about an hour and best of all daughter2 lived in the same complex.

She was teaching school and we got to see a lot of her and her sweet Greyhound. 

Scrolling through pictures I see we had time with extended family, some fun weekends spent both here and away with friends, some of whom we haven't seen in a while which makes me a little sad, but also grateful for the people whose paths have crossed ours whether for a season or forever. 

I see too, that taking sunrise/sunset pics has been a thing for at least a decade. 

Mostly I'm struck by how ten years feels like forever. I'd almost forgotten we lived in that apartment because life flows like a fast moving river and we have to keep paddling forward. 

Still, it's okay to glance over your shoulder now and then. 

Cheers to the next ten. I don't know what they'll bring...

...but I know there will be grace enough to meet us there. 

Marching To The Beat Of The Hodgepodge

Welcome to the brand new month of March and another edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for your blog neighbor there. Here we go-

1. Is March coming in like a lion where you live? Aslan, Simba, Elsa, The Cowardly Lion...your favorite 'famous' lion? 

Not a lion no...how about a porpoise? A fish? Cats and dogs? We get a lot of rain this time of year so one of those animals feels more appropriate. That being said, temps are not frigid, snowy, or excessively windy and I'm pretty happy about that. 

I relate often and a little to well to the Cowardly Lion, but Aslan is my favorite. 

2. In what way do you 'march to the beat of your own drum'? 

Don't most adults march to the beat of their own drum? I am not someone who worries a lot about what others think, I don't play the 'comparison' game, and am pretty content in my own skin. I enjoy the quieter and more introspective hobbies of reading, writing, and daydreaming which might be a bit out of step with a lot of people, but it takes all kinds to make the world go round. 

3. What item that you don't have already, would you most like to own? Any chance of that happening soon?

A golf cart? I don't think it will happen soon (not this summer anyway) as we have a long list of things we'd like to do here, and that purchase is pretty far down on the list. 

4. March is National Flour Month...are you a baker? Cookies-cakes-or pies...your favorite sweet treat to bake? What's the last non-sweet thing you made that called for flour?

I bake. Does that make me a baker? Yes. I'm a baker. I enjoy baking and cookies are my favorite. I have better luck with cookie baking than cake baking, and find cookies a bit more forgiving. The last non-sweet thing I made that called for flour was a skillet pork chop recipe that required dredging the chops in a flour mixture. I don't do that sort of cooking often anymore, but they were delish.  

5. There are 31 days in the month of March...where were you and what were you doing when you were 31? If you haven't hit that milestone yet, then tell us where you were and what you were doing 31 months ago? (if math is not your thing, that would be August 3, 2018)

Ahh 31...what a lovely age and season of my life. There was no need to color my hair, I could read a size 8 font unaided, and I didn't worry too awfully much about how many carbs were contained in a slice of pizza.  

We were living in the wilds of northern NJ with our almost three year old little sweetheart and her baby sister, a six month old little darlin' who was not a fan of sleeping and who loved me with her entire being. So much so that she did not like me out of sight for too long, including 1, 2, 3, and 4 o'clock in the morning. Every morning. It was a completely exhausting and truly precious time. 

Just for fun I thought I'd look back at my blog and see where I was 31 months ago too. 

Well that was a mistake, as it naturally sent me spiraling down a rabbit hole. August 3, 2018 hubs and I were in Washington State with the cutest little just turned one year old on the planet. 

Daughter1 and her hubs had flown to Colorado for a conference and a few days of R & R, and we were left in charge of the smiliest, busiest, chattiest, most adorable little mancub around. (you can read the post I wrote about that in this link)

Now here we are 31 months later and baby boy is a big brother, nearing his 4th birthday (what???!) and somehow living even further away from his Nana and Pawpaw. And we thought Washington was far! 

photo credit: Sincerely-Shannon 

On the bright side, we are hoping and praying and it is looking like we will be celebrating his birthday number 4 in person on this side of the globe. Life is hard, but also oh so sweet, don't you think?

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

What's a blog good for if not a little nepotism now and then? Daughter2 has once again dusted off her blog, and is back writing there this month. If you have the time, pop over and say hi.  And if you're a teacher you'll especially enjoy Tuesday's post. The link is here-It's Elementary

Auld Lang Syne

In our house we're saying the new year starts today. I know technically 2019 is a whole week old, but that first week of January was an extension of our holiday. And since Daughter2 doesn't go back to work until the 7th we're giving ourselves permission to start the new year then.

Happy New Year!

We squeezed in a cross country trip over the break so we could ring in 2019 with the cutest boy in the world and we didn't get back until Saturday so we're all dragging a bit.

The weather in Washington State this time of year is not quite fabulous, but the first day of January did happen to be gorgeous.

Sunny enough for a walk with the whole crew and not warm enough for just a t-shirt unless you're my son-in-law who did start out with a sweatshirt but ditched it pretty fast.

The mancub loves him some football. It's his favorite word to say and he shouts it with the same sort of intonation a game announcer would use.

We had a little outing every day including a trip to the nearby zoo and aquarium. There was a break in the drizzle that day so we managed to see some of the zoo animals outside before moving indoors to the aquarium.

Such a great location with gorgeous mountain views and sounds of The Sound as a backdrop.

Mostly we hung out at home, stacked blocks, read books....

....worked puzzles, and chased the Roomba, definitely a favorite pastime!

We sang songs, had dance parties, laughed and fed and bathed and loved every minute with this cutie patootie and his mama.

He doesn't suck his thumb a whole lot, but he also doesn't stop moving a whole lot, so when he's tired is when we snap pictures. 

These sisters are just the sweetest and they had such a nice time together. Not as much time as they'd like, but thankfully one of them gets married in 109!! days and there's also a shower in the mix before then, so not too long til they're together again.

It's a happy new year!

It's a bit o' honey life

These early school starts mess with my head. Why do kids (and their teachers) go back to school in the middle of summer? It makes August feel so much less summery, don't you think?

Well it's still summer in my book and I've got the houseguests to prove it. My sister and her family are visiting and since they live up north it's still summer in their book too. Also, summer doesn't officially end for another month. More actually, so why must we always be in a hurry to get to the next good thing? Let's smell the roses here today, k?

Somebody celebrated a birthday while we were visiting the Evergreen State. Y'all. He is the sweetest little boy I've ever known and we absolutely could not love him more. He walks and talks and smiles all the live long day. He reaches up his arms for me to pick him up and our current favorite thing is when hubs says, "Rock n' Roll!" and the mancub does a little dance that is too cute for words.

Daughter1 planned a sweet little celebration with a few friends and the sun shone and he enjoyed his party. She wrote all about the party on her own blog (here) but I will mention this adorable banner she hung across her fireplace mantle.

His picture each month of this first year of his life. So precious!

While my daughter and her hubs were traveling hubs and I manned the store so to speak. We tried to take a little outing every day because busy busy busy one year old baby boys need a little outing every day. Whew!

One of our favorites was to a nearby nature preserve on a crystal clear afternoon. As an aside, the PNW is not known for its fabulous weather EXCEPT summertime.

Visit in the summertime and you find yourself thinking 'wow, I should live here'.

It rained buckets in sunny South Carolina while we were away but not a drop fell in Olympia which is where this little gem is situated. We walked the trail around the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and what a pretty spot!

We stopped to watch some heron play Go Fish...

We peeked through a duck blind...

We attempted binoculars which was really more about how they tasted than what you could see, but still...

Grandparenting helps me remember what it was like to be a young mom. 

Answer me this-why is a one year old better at the art of selfie taking than a grown woman? He is giving me a thumbs up here though. It's like he's saying, 'Yay Nana! We're both in the picture and that's something. Next time we'll work on your ridiculous facial expression and where to put your head in relation to the camera so it's not ginormous, but yay Nana!'

Of course before leaving town we did what all good grandparents do...

We gave him his very first taste of ice cream. If these pictures had sound you would hear mm-mm-mmm!

 Life is full of sweet things baby boy-

You most of all.
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