Weekend Jamboree

The weekend. It was a doozy y'all, and I mean that in a good way. It was my grandson's second birthday. It was anniversary #40 for the hubs and I. It was Father's Day. It was baby dedication day for Sugar at their church. 

It was food and fun and family. 

It was cards and presents and balloons. 

It was baby girl in her Daddy's baptismal gown and a sermon that highlighted marriage on the very day we married. 

It was men supervising the BBQ, the grill, and the smoker. 

It was also college baseball (GO VOLS!), heat, and naps in cribs and on couches. 

I could write a post about any one of those things, but I think I'll just dive in and see where we land. I will very likely write a separate post about our anniversary because someday I have to climb out of the shallow end of the blog pool and get back into deeper waters. There is much to be said about a long married life. Stay tuned. 

Back to the kiddie pool...we made the three hour drive to daughter2's house Friday morning, with a stop at her nearby Publix to pick up subs for lunch. When we walked in the door sweet baby J literally clapped his hands and jumped for joy at seeing our faces. There's not much in the world that can top that. 

We had lunch and both kiddies took naps before the in-law grandparents rolled in. We hung out on the porch and passed Sugar from grandparent to grandparent while little man played. There's a lot of watching the grands do whatever kids do when you're a grandparent. And you think it's all marvelous because it absolutely is. 

Daughter2 made spaghetti for dinner and we watched Tennessee baseball win in the last seconds of the game to beat Florida State and then we watched all the replays and then Saturday we watched the ending a few more times because it was so good. 

Unless you're a Seminole of course. 

Anyway, Saturday morning was the birthday party for sweet baby J. As an aside, I always write my grandchildren a letter on their birthdays and you can read his in the link here (Two-rrific). The birthday was small, really just family and the next door neighbors, but the size was perfect for someone turning two. 

There was a cute construction theme with vests for the guests, and bins of kinetic sand with lots of construction vehicles and assorted road works equipment tucked inside. There were chicken minis from Chick-fil-a, sausage balls, a fruit tray, pasta salad and a scrumptious homemade cake courtesy of his momma. 

Homemade and homestyle are my favorite kind of parties, and J had a ball leisurely opening presents and exclaiming WOW! upon seeing each and every gift unwrapped. Completely precious. Everyone rested, chatted, read, and/or napped that afternoon, then my son-in-law grilled hotdogs and burgers for dinner and then we all pretty much collapsed into bed at an early hour. 

Did I mention the heat? Whew! It was extreme all weekend long. 

Sunday morning I got up and took a walk around the neighborhood before the temperature went soaring, we had a quick breakfast, and the guys all opened their Father's Day cards and gifts. 

We don't really do gifts on Father's Day, but I bought all the men a jar of these pickles I spotted at the local farm stand the other day. They all like pickles and spicy food (these have a whole jalapeno in them, along with lots of garlic and onions) plus the name screamed Father's Day to me. 

We all changed and  loaded up the cars for the short ride to church. There were four babies being dedicated today and big brother was feeling like the freshly minted 2-year old he is up there grinning on the stage with his parents. His dad had one hand on his shirt collar most of the time, but sweet baby J enjoyed every minute lol. 

Sugar of course was just like her name. Sweet. She has the biggest, best smile y'all. It's like a full body smile and her whole adorable face lights up. 

After the dedication portion concluded the whole congregation sang Jesus Loves Me and it made me feel so teary. Getting toddlers and babies and yourselves to church on Sunday mornings is not for the faint of heart, but my daughter2's church is bursting at the seams with small children. Makes my heart so happy to know these young families are doing whatever it takes to get there each week. To raise their children in this upside down world to put their faith in the One who made it. 

The media loves to tell us every awful thing millennials and older Gen Z-ers are up to, but when I'm around my girls and their friends I see hard working, committed, faithful parents raising families and living with intention. These young adults don't make the news, but they are quietly going about the business of living full, productive lives, and the world is less depressing when we remember that. 

My son-in-law is a master griller and he smoked a delicious pork butt for Father's Day dinner. 

There was more college baseball afterwards (GO VOLS!) and it was the perfect way to end a perfect weekend. I think Sweet baby J would tell you that next to the balloons this was his favorite part-

So how did you spend your weekend? 

                              

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for their regular Hello Monday blog party...see you there! 

 

Meetin' And Greetin'

We have a big family. I guess you'd call it big? I have three siblings and hubs has three siblings and all our siblings are married and some have children too, and then there's also my mama and hubs mama, so I guess that qualifies as big. 

And we're all spread out geographically too so it takes several months for the newbies joining our family to meet the oldies already here. It's probably best that these introductions happen in stages because we're all baby hogs and nobody wants to hand over baby boy once they've got him on their lap. 

I get it. 

First things first. Gotta meet the aunt whose been his mama's best friend since the day she was born. 

Next up were the cousins. 

I mean THE COUSINS!! 

These little men were sooooo excited to meet their very first cousin. 

What's a cousin? Does he talk? Why not? When will he talk? Can he throw the ball? Why can't he throw the ball?

Baby boy is well loved by these first new friends who are also family...

Also he's tough-ha! 

Little man was also introduced to my mama when she was in town this month. They share a name which made their meeting extra special. My girls like to share the baby's gender before baby arrives, but they always hold off revealing the name until baby is actually here. I like this. 

Hearing his name was a sweet surprise and made my mama a little teary. His middle name is her maiden name, and it all made me a little teary too. 

My oldest sister and her hubs drove out to the lake to pick up my mom so they were also able to meet their newest great nephew while he is still pretty new. 

My oldest sister loves babies and you have to check her car when she leaves to make sure she's not taking yours home with her lol. 

Then last weekend hubs brother and sister-in-law took his mama for a meet and greet. How awesome is it to be so loved by not only your grandparents but by your great grandparents too? 

I will tell you. 

It's completely awesome. 

Okay little man, that's ten down, thirteen more to go. On your momma's side I mean. Your Daddy's got more than a few folks waiting in the queue too.

Welcome to your great big loud big fun big loving family...

 I suspect you'll fit in just fine. 

Summer Sunshine

Are these the dog days of summer? The Farmer's Almanac says 'tis true and so does my hair. In case you didn't know humidity and thick wavy hair don't mix. Today though, we woke up to lower humidity and even had a slight breeze with our coffee. We know it won't last but we'll enjoy it while we can. 

This is one of the first weeks we've had in a while where we've been without houseguests, have slept  in our own beds every night, and had some time to catch up with friends and events around the lake. Hubs and I were out doing fun things Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday night, which sounds like a lot but didn't feel like a lot. 

There was mah jong, dinner with our next door neighbors at a nearby favorite restaurant, our monthly wine club dinner with a fun table of friends, and on Saturday a music fest 'amongst the trees'...

Bands and BBQ in a cozy corner of the forest. 

My limelights are blooming.

Well, two out of three are blooming. A mama deer gave birth in our backyard and then promptly ate every single bloom on one of the plants. We forgive her. The fawn was precious and we're partial to new and expectant moms 'round here.

Speaking of new moms...this sweet little family had newborn photos taken recently and I love them so much. 

We facetime this little cutie patootie pretty much every day and cannot wait to see him in person again before August arrives. 

And speaking of expectant moms...

Daughter1 is expecting a little girl this fall which means we're going from two grands to four in less than a year, and we could not be more excited!

We're not the only ones. 

Life Is Beautiful

One item of business before we press on...there will not be a Hodgepodge this week. We spent last week with our newest grandson and arrived back home Friday. On Saturday Daughter1 and her boys came out to the lake to spend a few days so whew! The Hodgepodge will have to wait another week. See you back for that on July 6th. 

Now where was I? I think I was saying life is beautiful and there is absolutely nothing in the world to remind you that's true more so than a newborn babe. 

Daughter2 texted us at 5 AM the morning of our anniversary and said to come on over. We had packed our bags the Friday before because we also thought that was gonna be the day, but false alarm. We loaded up the pup and made our way to hubs brother's house to drop our dog at 'camp'. He loves my sister-in-law especially and they had offered to keep Hunley while we were meeting the new little man.

Daughter2 and her hubs have a little dog and we didn't want to add anything else that needed caring for into the mix of a newborn, new parents, and a small dog about to lose rank in the hierarchy of home. We are so grateful we had somewhere our own dog could stay and play so we could focus our attention on the new baby (and his dog lol). Hubs was determined to teach him some circus tricks before his parents got home.

We got to Daughter2's house mid-afternoon then waited and waited and jumped every time the phone dinged and then we finally went to a local restaurant to celebrate 38 years of married life. Mostly though we were fidgety and just so ready to get the call. 

Which we did. Finally! 

Welcome to the world beautiful boy! Born with a full head of hair and cheeks that go for days-

Also, I have tiny daughters who somehow birth big babies. They are completely awesome. 

The dads are pretty great too. Just sayin'-

The new parents made their way home from the hospital the following day and then we basically spent the next week letting this tiny human steal our hearts. 

If you have grandchildren then you know you can indeed spend an entire day just sitting watching them. Many days actually. 

The in-laws arrived on Wednesday so we overlapped by a couple of days which was double the fun. They joined hubs and I in the watching and the marveling and the talk of how perfectly perfect he truly is. 

This world gets messier by the minute, but I hold a newborn baby in my arms and all the noise and turmoil just fades right away. I feel tiny fingers wrap around my own...

And I sit in quiet awe of a God whose design for birth is nothing short of a full blown miracle.

Time For The Hodgepodge

Another week, another Hodgepodge. Just a reminder there will not be a Hodgepodge next week (3/30) as I need a breather. We'll be back the following week, April 6th. Time flies doesn't it? 

Anyhoo, we're here this week with a brand new set of questions. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. What's something you never seem to have enough time for? 

Big organizational projects. Do I not have enough time or do I not make the time? Hmmm... I suppose I have all the time in the world but I prioritize other things over these things so they don't get always get done. For one thing I feel like a need a big chunk of time for these projects and I don't often have an uninterrupted big chunk of time.  I have an hour here and a couple of hours there and I don't like to try to do a big project in tiny little pieces. 

I need to learn to like doing big projects in tiny little pieces. 

2. If you could turn back time and relive just one day in your life, which day would you choose and why? 

This is a hard question. For starters I would never want to actually turn back time. The idea of that is a little bit frightening, knowing what we know, playing timekeeper of the universe when the universe already has the perfect Timekeeper. For the sake of answering though, I'll play along. 

When I started to really think about this question it felt familiar. Then I remembered I had written an entire post on this topic seven years ago (seven!!) so rather than re-invent the wheel I'll link it here. I re-read it and the sentiment still rings true. Here ya go-

Play It Again Or Maybe Don't 

3. Something you enjoy making that takes a long time to prepare/cook? 

There's a buttercream candy I make at Christmas time that takes a long time to put together. Each piece is hand dipped and you can usually tell which ones were towards the end of the process because they are somewhat less than perfect.  The recipe makes close to 100 so I generally run out of patience before I run out of chocolate. 

My family says they're worth it. 

4. A time recently where you needed/gave yourself a 'time out'? How do you do that? 

A time out for me generally involves filling my bathtub all the way up with steaming hot water, dimming the lights, and soaking until all the crankies have dissolved. It happens at least once a week. A hot bath is good for what ails you, the physical and the mental. 

5. Something you've done recently that you'd describe as a 'good time'? 

We had a fun weekend showering Daughter2 with love and baby boy goodies. I wrote about it in a post here- Shower The People You Love With Love

Y'all didn't have anything to do today but read my blog, right? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

One fun thing I forgot to mention in my shower post was my wrapping paper. Stay with me, because it was super special. 

When I was going through my gift wrap station (aka the bags and bins in the attic) my eye landed on a roll of paper that looked familiar. I pulled it out only to discover it wasn't wrapping paper at all, but rather a roll of wallpaper from a baby girl's very first bedroom. The one we brought her home to. The one my dad spent one whole entire day getting the pattern to line up just exactly right. 

This one-

I don't know how this roll ended up in the gift wrap 'station' but what fun it was to wrap baby boy's gift in his momma's nursery wall covering. 

Happy Wednesday everyone! 

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Anyang Hasseo aka Hello

Greetings from the land of the morning calm. Obviously not America-ha! I don't always write when I'm traveling, but since I've got people and dogs in my house this trip it feels okay to blog in real time-ish. I'm
alwaysusually behind here on From This Side of the Pond, so 'real time' is a relative term, but I'm determined to get some words penned before Christmas rolls around and fall happenings feel like old news.

My daughter just told me I'd probably spend the first three paragraphs explaining why I haven't written lately, and another couple talking about the flight over and by then the post would be so long I'd  feel the need to wrap it up without ever really getting to the heart of the matter, which is this-

A brand new baby boy to love.

In South Korea, which is a long way from the Palmetto State but still! He's here and he's perfectly perfect with his head full of dark hair and  the most deliciously squishy cheeks, and we are already head over heels.

His mama is a rock star y'all. Giving birth is always a bit scary, but giving birth in a country not your own where English is not the language of the day requires a heaping helping of faith, strength, and courage, and her well runs deep.

So let's talk for a minute about the trip over because my daughter knows me and she's right when she says I'll overstate it. She also knows doling out a million unnecessary details is kind of my jam, and isn't that why you read here?

The days leading up to our trip around the sun were only slightly crazy. 9,717 miles since October 2nd kind of crazy but whatever. Here's how it rolled out...

The week before we were due to fly east hubs, Daughter2 and I drove to Maryland for the wedding of a boy whose family we've known and loved since our kids were small. We spent the Friday night before the wedding with hubs sister and family, then attended the very lovely ceremony in Annapolis on Saturday. We got up at the literal crack of dawn Sunday to get Daughter2 on her flight back to South Carolina and hubs on his flight to South Dakota for a long planned pheasant hunt and me on the road for the drive further north to my mom's in NJ. I was more or less 'in the neighborhood' and believe it or not this made the most sense.

I know it all sounds nuts and it kind of was, but we tried to just take it one trip at a time, vowed to enjoy the moments as we lived them, and never allowed ourselves a look at the month in it's entirety so as not to lose our minds. We mostly succeeded.

Hubs arrived back in Maryland Thursday afternoon and hopped in the car as I buzzed the airport arrivals lane, so we could hit the highway home. We made it back to SC just before midnight, spent Friday doing laundry, unpacking, repacking, having my hair done (priorities!) and then were back up with the birds on Saturday for our flight to South Korea.

Bring on the Morning Calm please.

We were able to get a direct flight out of Atlanta and a mere 14+ hours later were in the airport in Seoul waiting on our driver for the hour and a half ride to our daughter and son-in-law's home. Easy peasy. And bonus, we beat baby boy here which was such a blessing as we were able to stay with the mancub while his mom and dad brought his brother into the world.

We're Tired. Yes with a capital T. Jet lag is for real when you're in an upside down time zone, and five days in I'm still waking up at 3 AM and nodding off at 7. But!! we're here and we're so grateful for so much.

For the miracle of new life, and for strong willed little girls who grow up to roll with whatever life brings...

For new experiences and the blessing of time...

...the way our hearts expand and grow right along with our people.