Gray Matters

Hello friends. I'm back home today after spending five days at my brother's house in NJ helping with my mama. My sister and brother-in-law (my mom lives with them) had the opportunity to take a big wonderful trip, some of it work related for my brother-in-law, and I hope they enjoyed every minute. We had my mom spend that time they were away at my brother's house.  

Caregiving is not easy and my sister and her family do so much on the daily for my mom. I'm thankful my siblings and I are a team as we try to make the best decisions we can for her. The 9th decade of life comes with some hard things and we want to treat her with the same sort of tlc she has given to us all our lives. 

While at my brother's I decided to try and meet Kym's everyday image photo prompt challenge. I spent a lot of time in the house sitting and commenting on the Olympics with my mom, coloring, reading, and thankfully getting out for a walk every day too. 

It was gray. Every single day. Gloomy gray. Not raining, but not a full minute of sunshine either. As a result most of these pics are gray too. Here are the most recent prompts, some of which required me to get a little bit creative-

middle-at work-shadow-weathered-pink-current project (quarterly)-sweet 

middle-my brother lives on a river and there are a lot of ducks and geese wandering the neighborhood. Some are swimming, some are sitting on the frozen water, and some are moseying down the middle of the street like they own the place.

at work-tree trimmers were at work removing branches from power lines in the area. This guy gave me a peace sign when I went by, but I missed catching it with my camera. Story of my life. 

shadow-honestly this was the hardest of all the prompts because the sun was out for approximately 3.4 seconds while I was in town. It was gray gray gray all day every day, so you have to look hard to see my shadow in this one. 

weathered-a tough one. How about the great outdoors? It's looking a little rough after weeks of snow on the ground. 

pink-my sister-in-law has quite the green thumb and the most robust Christmas cactus I think I've ever seen. It's just about finished blooming, but still has a touch of pink showing. 

Note to file: get a Christmas cactus

current project-my mom enjoys coloring so we did a lot of that while watching a lot of Olympic coverage. Pretty sure I could give commentary now on curling, women's slopestyle snowboarding, and the Nordic combined. 

sweet-my brother and sister-in-law are big on healthy eating and exercise so while sweets are not banned, they're not available 24/7 like some places I know. ahem. This is a good thing, right? Every afternoon about 3 PM my brother made my mom and I a cup of tea and there was always a little cookie to go with. 

My mama loves sweets so we had small desserts a couple of nights. A brownie bite and a spoonful of ice cream were the perfect combination. 

I've spent a lot of time thinking this week about how lucky we are to have in-laws in our family who love our mom and are willing to do whatever needs doing to make her feel safe and comfortable. What a gift. 

Everyday Images Mid-October

I'm joining Kym at A Fresh Cup of Coffee today for her Everyday Images link up. She posts new photo prompts every two weeks (on Thursdays) and leaves the link up for the whole two weeks, so lots of time to make it happen on your own blog. 

I got a new phone for my birthday a few weeks ago and the camera can do a lot. I need to spend some time learning all the bells and whistles but I enjoy these bi-weekly prompts to encourage and remind me to take more pictures. The most recent prompts are-

listen~matching~clock~current season (quarterly)~dishes~orange

I found a couple of these to be somewhat challenging, but that's part of the fun.  

Listen-

I've mentioned before that hubs and I are reading through the Bible this year, and we're actually listening as opposed to reading. We use the Bible app and we're in awe of the narrator and his ability to pronounce long lists of seemingly un-pronouncable names and places. 

After the daily reading we listen to Tara Leigh Cobble's podcast called The Bible Recap where she helps bring clarity to whatever was read that day. 

Every day looks different here and sometimes we sit with our coffee and listen. If we have somewhere to go that's a bit of a drive we'll listen in the car. I actually like that because there are fewer distractions. Last week we listened on our drive into the mountains. Day 284!! So happy we've stuck with it. 

Taking the word listen in a different direction...we are loving our backyard waterfall. 

The sound is bliss. 

Matching

I had a hard time with this one and resorted to taking a picture of two matching catalogs we got in the mail this week. They arrived on the same day too, and I have no idea why they're sending us two???  I have ordered from this company several times, but I never order via the catalog. 

Do you still get magazines? How about catalogs? Do you ever order from a catalog, or are you like me and you go straight to the website? I suppose the catalogs remind me of companies I don't think about on a regular basis and that's probably a good thing. I do enjoy browsing catalogs of all kinds and sometimes find gift inspiration there. 

In case you're wondering this company's Kringles are yummy. Not a paid endorsement, just an opinion. Carry on. 

Possibly a stretch here, but I also took a photograph at the restaurant we ate in last weekend, that I thought might work with this prompt. We ate at the bar and I liked the symmetry of the matching glass hangers on either side of the bar. 

I spy dishes on the counter, and now that I look at it, those bartenders kind of match too. 

Clock-

There's a clock in front of an old hotel downtown and while at the fall fest I snapped a picture as we walked by. Jogged by? The streets were packed with people and I was trying to keep up with hubs and friends who were on a mission to get to the next stage. (I wrote about the fall fest here-The Weekend Roundup)

Current season-dishes-orange-

I'm going to combine these three prompts because I feel like my pictures suggest that. For instance, is this our current season or is it orange? You decide-

Here's another-

We belong to a wine club that meets once a month and I snapped this picture at the October dinner-

I hit the trifecta with this next picture. These jars sit in a corner of my kitchen and I change them out seasonally. Right now they're saying fall. And orange. And dishes. 

I got this mug last year when I was Boo-ed by a neighbor. Does your neighborhood do this? You find a bag of fall/Halloween goodies on your front porch from an anonymous neighbor and you take the little ghost out of the bag and hang it on your mailbox so everyone knows you've already been hit. 

Then you put together a bag,  pick up a ghost from the neighbor who organizes it all, and leave the bag you made on one of your neighbor's porches. It has to be a neighbor who doesn't already have a ghost on their mailbox because the ghost is how you know who's been Boo-ed and who hasn't.  I love this mug and have my afternoon tea in it this time of year. 

Also, everyone has doorbell cameras so it's not as easy to be anonymous as it used to be lol. Still fun though. 

Happy fall y'all! 

Everyday Images From The Weekend That Was

Hello friends. It's Tuesday, but of course will feel like Monday all the ding dong day. I'm linking with Joanne for Talking About It Tuesdays, Holly and Sarah at Hello Monday, and with Kym for her Everyday Images prompt today, using pics I've snapped these past few days. This week's photo prompts are: 

at home-bright~town~miniature~empty and/or full~ design 

At home...

While this is technically a covered deck, it's also pretty much where we live. We spend a lot of time right here and the view never gets old. When you step inside my house you see the lake. It feels natural to walk right on through the great room to sit right here. Come on over. I'll bring you tea. Or coffee. Or a glass of wine, a pillow,  and a good book. 

Bright-

Good morning sunshine...

I stepped outside Friday morning and it was so bright. Perfect. We have our coffee on the deck most mornings and the sun was doing it's thing behind my potted plant, which is hanging in for the arrival of fall. 

town-

I've got hubs on board with the photo prompts and he keeps an eye out for something that might work. He suggested this one. 

I had to run to the Dollar Store to pick up a couple of things I needed for his birthday dinner (paper plates and birthday napkins) and of course when it comes to Dollar Stores we all have choice. Why is there a Dollar Store every few hundred feet everywhere you go? 

Anyway, our street address is in one tiny town, but we're kind of in between two tiny towns, and there are Dollar Generals any which way you want to go. I opted for the one close to town so I could snap a picture. I took this on Labor Day and a lot of shops were closed so the sidewalks were quiet. 

We like this little town a lot. It feels a little bit like you stepped back in time, but there are a couple of fun brew spots, a nice library, some shops I enjoy browsing and two good coffee-breakfast spots. Plus a cheesesteak place that is legit. I grew up in the land of the cheesesteak so I'm a harsh critic. Tiny town does one that tastes like the real deal. 

We've been going to church in this town too so we're here at least once a week. 

miniature-

These two little guys love my lantana...

empty and/or full-

I'm going with full. As in my heart is full. We had the loveliest weekend...the weather was pretty much perfect...there was college football and boating, and family here to celebrate hubs birthday. A super relaxed Labor Day weekend. 

design-

I had some college girlfriends here two weekends ago and one of the girls sent me the loveliest thank you gift. Our hummingbirds were putting on a show while everyone was here and she loved watching them. She found these solar lanterns with a hummingbird design, which need just a six hour charge in the sun. 

We happened to be on our screened porch when they came on and the design is beautiful, both on the lantern itself-

And on the table where it's sitting. 

I liked it so much I ordered one and sent it to my sister-in-law on Saturday, and true story-I placed the order at 8 am and Amazon said she'd receive it between 10 am and 2 pm that same day. A marvel of the 21st century y'all. 

Hope your Labor Day weekend was light on labor! 

About Last Week

Good Monday morning friends. Trying to get back in the groove here after a week away so lots to catch up on both in real life and in blog life. Grab your coffee because I'm going to jam a week's worth of activity into a single post. It's my niche. 

Actually I have one more related anecdote to share in it's own post so there will be a p.s. tomorrow. 

Linking with Holly and Sarah and their Hello Monday hop, and also with Kym and her most recent Everyday Image photo prompts, which this time around are -at home, station, selfie, beginning and/or end, pebbles, and scenery. 

Let's get to it...

We live on a lake so typically stick close to home in the summer months. We haven't taken a whole family vacation since my oldest daughter got married, so this year we decided to get the entire gang together and head to the beach. 

We chose Hilton Head because a.- it's beautiful and b- it's a reasonable drive from here. Daughter1's hubs couldn't stay the whole week due to his work commitments so we wanted to make the location somewhat convenient for him. 

~scenery~

Hilton Head is beautiful. It's lush and makes you feel like you've escaped somewhere tropical.  The whole island is very well planned and signage is low, so you're not looking at billboards every few yards. 

~scenery~

The landscape features beautifully manicured lawns and golf courses, soaring Palmettos, threadlike Spanish moss dripping from the trees...

...and beach grasses growing along sandy dunes. 

~scenery~

We rented a house through Airbnb and it worked out well. It was situated near the front end of the Palmetto Dunes section of HHI and the location was perfect. 

~at home~...for the week anyway

The property backed up to the lagoon,  home to so much beautiful and interesting wildlife including huge chatty osprey, blue heron...

...or the grandpa birds as my grands call them, and something called snake birds. If you've never seen one they're wild. They look like a snake as they come out of the water, but then when you see the body you relax because you realize its a bird and not a snake.  

Of course there was the neighborhood alligator present too, because no trip to the island is complete without one. 

The house had a little dock perched over the lagoon and it was not designed with little people in mind. 

I think they left one section open to pull kayaks in and out, but we kept a tight grip on the kids eager to watch the gator. 

The pool was a big hit...

The house had three suites on the lower level and two bedrooms upstairs, one with bunks, for the kids. There was a big table for dining and we ate most of our meals in because dining out with five under the age of 8 is not an every night kind of thing. I'm sure I don't need to explain lol. 

We all drove separately and hubs and I took our time getting there. We took the back roads because I-95 is one of the worst roads in America and we love small town USA. My favorite thing about a road trip is seeing something new, especially if it's historic. A sampling of my google history from the drive shows the following-

Gold mines in South Carolina, Redcliff Plantation, images of purple sage (relating to our audio book), egrets vs. herons (all egrets are herons but not all herons are egrets), the Long Cane Massacre grave, does Spanish moss kill trees-the answer is no, and what is a Barbados nut plant

There's more but you get the idea. It was a nice ride and there was zero traffic. We stopped for lunch in Bluffton, about thirty minutes before reaching HH, a casual spot that had the most delicious blackened mahi taco-

So good, and they came with a warning-ha! 

As we got nearer the ocean I could just feel the tension leave my body. Salt air does that. 

Initially when we saw the forecast for the week we were a little nervous. There was a lot of rain predicted and while we did have some rain it was mostly overnight and we had beach time every day. We had rain one afternoon just as we got back home, but mostly the cloud coverage and breeze made it really pleasant for sitting, especially with small children. Daughter2 brought a tent with her but they only set it up a couple of days.  The sun shone but the clouds kept it from being too much. 

This is where I planted myself pretty much on the daily-

                ~my station~

We arrived Saturday afternoon, unloaded and set up house, then grabbed dinner at a beachside spot in Palmetto Dunes. The weather was threatening but didn't let loose until we were back home. 

We typically spent mornings at the beach, and half of us packed lunch and stayed into the early afternoon. Daughter2 and her crew went back to the house for lunch so they could settle Sugar for an afternoon nap. Our house was about a quarter mile from the beach so a super easy walk on a wide paved trail designed for both walkers and cyclists.  

I didn't walk. I drove, and actually hubs drove me because I'm still nursing my ankle. I wore the boot off and on and kept it wrapped while on the beach. I didn't do any swimming which was a little bit sad because I love to be out in the waves, but that didn't seem sensible right now. Hubs and I did take a couple of short walks. The sand was flat and packed and the beach is wide, so really nice for walking. 

Everybody thought so...

Daughter2 and her family also drove to the beach because the amount of gear with kids this age is a lot.

Daughter1 pulled a wagon loaded to overflowing with sand toys, boogie boards, a beach bag and her little miss, and then the two oldest boys rode their bikes. What a treat to ride a bike on the beach! 

The first few days we were there hubs also hauled his surf rod and assorted fishing gear down to the ocean to see what he could catch. Not a lot, but he and the boys had fun.  

Afternoons were spent mostly in the pool, napping, working puzzles, and in general relaxing until it was time for dinner, usually eaten at home. My son-in-law picked up fresh shrimp to go with the steaks he grilled. We each took charge of a meal and that worked out well. 

We went out for a big family dinner on Monday night-Skull Creek Boathouse for those who frequent HH.We went on the early side and didn't have to wait. It's a great spot, with a pier you can walk out on, wonderful food, and a pirate ship playground for the kids which they loved. 

Little Miss rocks the beach waves. I'm having fun buying matching dresses for the grandgirls when I can. These are from Stitchy Fish and they were so cute, and the fabric was really nice. 

As an aside, I try not to post pics of my grandbabies faces on my blog these days. Every now and then one will land there, but I check with mom first. My oldest especially doesn't really want their faces on the Internet and I'm also not posting swim suit pics, which is what most of my beach photos are. 

Okay, back to what I ate because I know that's why you're here. I had stuffed shrimp and it was scrumptious. Our server took a pic of us all at dinner and we took a few snaps of the whole family out on the pier later. The weather was delightful and I'm so glad we were there this week instead of the one prior when all anyone could talk about was the heat. Which was outrageous. 

One night we went to Shelter Cove for ice cream. I had Eskimo Kisses which was coconut ice cream with chocolate truffles covered in fudge. Yum! One grandson who shall remain nameless dropped his before we left the shop, but the server was really nice and gave him another. Vacationing with kids is not for the faint of heart lol.

The boys were skeptical when we told them the pebbles under their feet were mostly crushed oyster shells. True story though. 

~pebbles~

Hubs and I went back to Shelter Cove Friday afternoon to browse a gallery I'd seen that had some pretty things. Still looking for jut the right thing for our outdoor dining space. My son-in-law grilled fresh swordfish and more shrimp for dinner that evening. We taught the oldest grandsons how to play Mexican Train dominoes this week so there was one more game before everyone did some packing for our Saturday check out.  

Can't forget the selfie prompt. This is as close as we got...

~selfie~

A man on the beach noticed our attempt and helpfully intervened. Also, he was from some small town near St. Louis where hubs mother lived a long time ago, so a lot of conversation happened too. Hubs is firmly in the 'never met a stranger' camp. Not sure why I'm not wearing my sunglasses, but it was evening and I guess not bright? 

Except I'm squinting so it was bright enough. This is why I don't take selfies. Too much overthinking. 

And suddenly it was Saturday. Leaving is the hardest part. You wake up and take your coffee outside like you've done every day since arriving, and you smell the sea air and then sadly you remember you're getting in the car to head home instead of to the beach. Boo. 

Here's how it started-

~beginning~

Til next time...

~the end~

Hop over to Hello Monday and Everyday Images to see what others have been up to lately.