Weekend Favorites

Hi friends. How was your weekend? Mine was full of fun, family, and festive happenings. Let's recap with Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and (Sarah Sunshine and Books) and their Hello Monday blog hop. 

Backing up to Thursday or as I like to say, my birthday eve. Daughter1 had planned a fun birthday outing for  just the two of us, which was a treat. She has three littles and trying to spend a few hours doing something with just her mama took some maneuvering, but she made it happen. 

She and Little Miss arrived about 9:30 to pick me up. Little Miss was so excited to hand me her card and a box of one of my favorite candies-lemonheads, which she needed to sample. I mean how can you not? They also brought me the prettiest vase filled with flowers. The vase looks like a book, one of my all time favorites in fact-Anne of Green Gables. 

We drove to her sister-in-law's home about an hour away so Little Miss could spend the day with her cousin and her other grandmother while Mama and I had some fun. We went to a kitchen shop I absolutely love (The Cook Station for locals reading here) and it's one of my favorite places to browse. 

How many times can I say the word favorite in a single post? Birthdays are for favorites so pretty sure there's no limit.  

This store carries Vietri and Juliska both which are two of my favorites. I wanted to take this whole set of dishes home for Thanksgiving.

My daughter had reserved us seats in one of their cooking demonstrations which includes lunch. The chef  chats while he's cooking and then you eat what's been prepared. Everyone gets a glass of wine too so it felt like an occasion. 

Today's recipe was a most delicious French Onion Soup with a light salad on the side.  I'll definitely be re-creating his recipe at home. 

Such a nice relaxing few hours where we could chat, which is not something easily done when the kids are with us. I love having the kids with us, but time with a daughter where it's just the two of us is so special. Another favorite you might say. 

We picked the boys up from school on the way home and they all came in to say hi to Pawpaw and we were greeted by this-

Balloons, flowers, and chocolate cake. Yum! The kids were ready to dig in but we told them to come back on my actual birthday and they could help us eat it then. 

I facetimed with daughter2 and her littles and everyone was excited to wish Nana a happy birthday. I love it. Daughter2 sent me Laura Wifler's new book (This Side Of The Sky) and I have been savoring her beautiful way with words.

If you don't follow her online I recommend. Daughter2 and I both love her writing and I was excited to get this in my hands. I'll review it when I recap my September reads in a couple of weeks. 

Hubs made a yummy dinner on the griddle that night, using the left over flank steak from earlier in the week-steak fried rice. I'd made the rice first thing that morning as it needs to sit in the frig for a bit before it goes on the griddle. 

We added broccoli, mushrooms, red pepper, onions, peas and carrots and then soy sauce and sesame oil and the requisite scrambled egg. 

So good!

I woke up on my birthday to a beautiful sunrise. The heat has been obnoxious with temps in the  90's so we spent the morning swimming and...paddle boarding. 

Whoohoo! My first time on the board since my ankle mishap. You should know I'm not a natural and hubs likes to take ridiculous photos of me trying to stand, which is not super graceful, but hey I am up and I am paddling and I am a year older so go me. 

Daughter1 and her crew arrived about noon and we all swam and jumped off the dock and then had lunch on the patio. And cake. Can't forget that! Hubs always gets me a chocolate cake with a raspberry filling because it's my favorite. 

We swam some more after lunch before everyone headed home and then hubs and I had dinner reservations at a place we both love. A favorite if you will. 

Hubs had called ahead and told them it was my birthday so even though I still had half a chocolate cake at home I ate the chocolate mousse the restaurant served me. It had toffee chips all around and wow was that ever delicious. 

The sunset driving home was a stunner too...

Saturday was another scorcher of a day and we were up bright and early to tailgate with friends who had invited us to the Clemson game. 

It was an early game (noon) so we did breakfast type foods as our tailgate menu. I made deviled eggs and sausage balls and hubs brought the fixin's for Bloody Marys. I also brought some fruit and cheese and our host made ham and cheese sliders, cinnamon rolls and pigs in a blanket. They even brought me a small cake, Clemson colors of course, which was so thoughtful. 

Look who stopped by to say hey y'all...

I wore the same shirt I wore to the Tennessee game because it was once again 80 million degrees outside and the shirt is technically more Clemson orange than Tennessee orange. Go Tigers! Go Vols! 

My son-in-law brought the two boys to the game so they stopped by the tailgate before we all went in to the stadium. Game day is a sea of orange and the atmosphere on a college campus during football season is the best.  C-17 flyover the stadium-

We did not play well the first half and were losing into the 4th quarter when lightning moved in and everyone had to leave the stadium We didn't hang around because we knew it would be a long while before the game picked up again, plus the outcome wasn't looking like it would be in our favor, but! Lo and behold they came back and pulled off a win. A wonderful way to wrap up a birthday. 

Did you know birthdays are my favorite? 

Love In Motion

I spent a chunk of last week at my Daughter2's house in Tennessee while she and her hubs were on a cruise around the Greek Islands. Swoon! 

Let's pause for a quick sidebar-

That now married momma of two pictured above made a trip to Greece when she was 14 years old. The girls loved swimming in the sea, tasting octopus for the first time, shopping in the market, seeing the historic sites, eating their weight in yummy Greek salads, and roasting under the white hot August Athenian sun. 

Such a fun week for all of us. 

Carry on. 

Daughter2 and her hubs had planned their trip as a bit of a mile marker anniversary celebration (5 years), and because of the distance and travel involved their time away was about ten days. When she first mentioned the trip to me I'm pretty sure my first reaction was, 'TEN DAYS!! WHO'S WATCHING THE KIDS FOR TEN DAYS?!!" 

Yes, in all caps. 

Sometimes things come out of my mouth and I wish I could rewind, but there I said it because seriously, who is watching the kids for TEN days??? As it turns out the plan from the get go was her in-laws would cover five days and we'd cover five days. 

Much better. 

You know once upon a time I was a speech pathologist with over 75 students on my caseload and now I panic at the thought of being responsible for two that are related to me for ten days. Ha. True story though. 

Her two littles are, in a word, busy. Also lightning fast, stinkin' adorable, chatty, curious, and lovable. Keeping up with them requires a clear head and the endurance of a marathon runner. These days I have neither, but I am the Nana and Nanas can do hard things for the people we love. Plus hubs is a great teammate and has an endless array of tricks, funny faces, funny voices, creativity, and muscle so all is well. 

Except! Hubs as you know sells real estate on the lake and he's been working with an out of state client for several weeks who, as timing would have it, would be coming to the lake the very weekend we would be in Tennessee. Bother.  

I mean it's fine because he put a lot of work in for the client and needed that in person time with him, but also it meant I'd be on my own for the last two days of keeping everyone in high spirits until mom and dad came home. 

The thought was daunting. This is how you know you're not young anymore. 

As it turned out everyone did great, the kids too lol. Their momma had left a little gift for them to open each day and I brought a couple of things with me so we'd have new things to play with and distract us. 

Hubs and I drove over to Tennessee last Tuesday and we had one night there with the in-laws still in the house. We enjoy them very much and it was nice to catch up with them once the kiddos went to bed. We ordered pizza for dinner because everyone loves pizza and chatted before calling it an early night. 

Sleep is key. 

They left first thing Wednesday morning and hubs and I took the grands to the Creative Discovery Museum.  Wait. First hubs dropped their dog at daycare. Did I tell you we also had their dog? And our dog? And our dog is not feeling his best these days which makes us wobbly. 

If your kids are not yet married, just know one day you'll be taking care of their dog. That's how it works. 

The Discovery Museum is fabulous. We arrived just as it was opening and beat the crowds that my daughter told me come later. It's really well done, organized, clean, child focused, and lots of space for imaginative play.

Sugar would have been happy to feed and rock baby dolls all day long in the housekeeping section. 

We were home for lunch and then rest and I'd planned ahead and made a pan of chicken divan before I left the lake, so dinner just needed heating and eating. 

Thursday morning the kids have swimming lessons and we were almost late because you forget how long it takes to get out of the house with all the things, plus the kids, plus getting everyone into the car seats, etc. But we made it and hubs got in the pool with them so I was able to just cheer from the sidelines. 

One gift my daughter left was a gift card for donuts so we stopped after swimming and got donuts in this lovely shopping center very close to their home. There's a really nice common area in the center and we let the kids run and play and coincidentally one of their neighbors was there too so all the kids had fun together. 

Afternoons were mostly rest and outside play and usually a show watched while we got dinner ready. Friday morning was meet the teacher day at their new preschool and I told hubs to go ahead and get on the road back to the lake and I'd be fine managing this. And I was. Such a sweet school and everyone's excited. 

We left there and I stopped at Publix to pick up subs for lunch and popsicles because August needs popsicles, and then it was home for the afternoon. I'd brought a new Young, Wild and Friedman play dough kit with me (Reptiles) and I cannot say enough about how wonderful these kits are. I brought that out Friday afternoon and they played with it for a couple of hours Friday, twice on Saturday, and again on Sunday. 

There was a lot of rain over the weekend, but we managed to get outside some each day. We went to the neighborhood pool one day and I took them for ice cream Saturday afternoon. We took a walk each evening which they enjoyed and it seemed to make them more ready for baths and bedtime. I know it did me.  

I arrived home Monday afternoon with two broken fingernails, a mystery bruise on my leg, in dire need of a nap, and a full heart. I love that we're able to give the parents a break now and then. I remember how much I appreciated and needed that when I was in the heavy lifting years of parenting and I want to pay that forward now that I'm the grandparent. 

I think it’s important to make memories together as a family, but also to make time for each other as a couple. Getting away from the everyday craziness of work, parenting, keeping up with the house, and everything else gives mom and dad a chance to reconnect and just enjoy being together.

One of the best ways to keep a family happy and whole is to temporarily escape from them, miss them, recharge, and come back refreshed and eager to resume the routines of daily life. Opa!

A Few Days With My Favorites

Hello friends. It's Friday. Yay! 

We're retired so I'm not sure why the fact that Friday's here is still so exciting, but it is. 

I'm going to recap the past few days which definitely falls under the heading of favorite things, and I'm also going to try to meet the Everyday Image photo prompts at the same time. Mine might land a bit out of order (and I may have missed a couple) but I think that still counts. 

My daughters very rarely post their children's faces online so I have to get creative with my blog pics. I take plenty of their faces for our own enjoyment, and all you need to know is they're the cutest humans on planet earth. 

The most recent prompts Kym (A Fresh Cup Of Coffee) posted were-

wildflowers, water, neighborhood spot (quarterly), nature, adventure, favorite, twilight

We've had our Tennessee grands and their momma here this week and the local grands spent most of the week with us too, so lots of noisy fun was had by all. My favorite thing is having all the cousins together. There's a six year age gap between the oldest and the youngest and plenty of personality to go round. 

Daughter2's hubs had an out of town work commitment all week, so she brought her two sweeties, plus her big puppy to the lake for a few days. They arrived around lunchtime Monday and their Carolina cousins were in the driveway shouting their welcome. Did you hear them? I feel like you might have heard them. 

We had lunch then hit the lake. The lily pad is a great thing if you have little ones around open water. Everyone wears a life jacket or some other type of Coast Guard approved device at Nana and Pawpaws, and they all know they aren't allowed on the dock without one. The oldest (aka the mancub) asked me recently how old he has to be before that rule doesn't apply and I randomly said 18 ha! Maybe? 

Anyway the lily pad is great fun and they all love playing sea monster or alligator where hubs shakes it and tries to grab their feet and they try not to fall off. You can literally stand on the lily pad which makes it especially great for the smallest grands. 

Daughter1 took her kids home for dinner, and I'd made cold shrimp with cocktail sauce, cucumber and tomato salad, and crock pot chicken for dinner. Easy peasy is the name of the game with a houseful. 

After Daughter2's kiddos were tucked in she and I watched the second to last epsiode of last season's The Great British Baking Show. It's only taken us three months but we were determined to finish it up while she was in town. We watched the finale Tuesday night and were happy with the outcome. 

Tuesday was a beach and boat day. Let me just say here that getting five kids under the age of 8 into life vests, sun tan lotion applied, toys, drinks, snacks, towels, and floats all safely on board the boat is not for the faint of heart. Oh, and four adults too. Can't forget the adults. 

The weather was fantastic and we had the best day. All the grands wanted a turn as co-captain so half drove us out to the island and the other half motored us home. 

~adventure~

~wildflowers~

~favorite~

This particular island has a nice long beach and everyone swam and dug in the sand and collected shells and explored the local habitat. 

I wonder if this is our beaver's handiwork or one of his buddies? 

~nature~

We had lunch at home, the littlest cousin had a nap and everyone else rested until we were ready for round two, which was a trip to the neighborhood pool. It's literally about ten houses up from mine, but we still took two cars, several bags, and a trunk full of noodles because go big or go home, right? 

~neighborhood spot~   ~water~

We pretty much had the pool to ourselves which was so nice. Our pool is never jam packed because we have a lake in our backyard.  Also, we definitely sound like more people than we actually are. 

Once home the kids watched a show while Daughter2 picked her pup up from doggie day care and hubs and I got dinner going. My son-in-law arrived in time to eat with us, and hubs grilled brats, we had corn on the cob, slaw, and a big veggie tray. 

Then it was time for birthday presents and ice cream cake celebrating the newly minted four year old. His birthday was the week before but we wanted a family celebration at the lake. 

The cousins went home and the two staying here got so excited when our sprinklers popped up. Whoohoo! Ran through in their clothes like it was the best day of their lives. We'd been boating, swimming in the crystal clear lake, and playing in a huge pool but nothing could top running through those sprinklers in their clothes. Life's simple pleasures are usually the best. 

Wednesday hubs played golf with some friends. It was good lol. He's the king of fun and his back needed a rest. To answer your question, yes. Golf is less taxing on the back than slinging five kids in the air and on and off your shoulders into a pool. 

We girls plus their kids hung out in the lake for a while, then everyone changed clothes and the sisters took all the kids to Daughter1's house for lunch while Nana stayed home with the dogs and made sauce for dinner. 

Nana may have also sat on the porch in the quiet for a quick minute too. Just sayin'. 

The oldest two boys had piano lessons late afternoon so their momma took them to that and Daughter2 and I took the three youngest back to the pool. 

I told you grand parenting wasn't for weaklings. 

After piano lessons the boys moved on to baseball practice, but their dad took over there so daughter1 and her little miss could have dinner with us.   

Which brings us to Thursday morning. Hubs had a work meeting so we girls took the kids to our neighborhood playground to play for a while before lunch, and then daughter2 and her crew got on the road to head home. Boo. 

~everything's an adventure when you're two~

I did laundry and managed to get three sets of sheets washed, dried, and back on the beds, along with two loads of towels, then hit the grocery store to grab a few things I needed for company coming on Friday night, picked up dry cleaning and two library books that were on hold and then back home to put away the 'kid gear'-stepstools, a small table and chairs, the toybox, toys and games, books and more.

For the record...it's all worth it.

Linking today with Kym for Everyday Images 

and 

Friday Favorites with Erika at A Little Bit of Everything) and Andrea (Momfessionals)

A Weekend Recap From The Porch

The weekends go by fast, don't they? We like to say every day is the weekend in retirement, but lately not so much. Hubs and I declared Saturday a no-hurry have fun day and although I had to remind him of the no-hurry bit a couple of times, he eventually relaxed and we had a really nice day. A day date if you will. 

Remember when I was counting those here? I'm still counting, just not posting all of them on the blog. 

Backing up to Friday...

Hubs of course had a dozen projects going so he spent most of the day power washing the dock and bridge. We've hired the staining out this year because that is a back breaking job and some years we pay to have it done. They're supposed to be coming on Monday so he wanted it squeaky clean first. 

Power washing the dock is also back breaking so he earned the rest. 

I took care of some paperwork and cleaned bathrooms, then went to play Mah Jong. Not back breaking, but it can sometimes strain the brain. 

Daughter1's hubs was attending an out of town medical thing last week so she and the kids came over Friday evening for a slumber party. The puppy too, because where they go the puppy goes. He desperately wants to play with the Little Brown Dog, but the LBD is not having any part of it. He lets him know too, but they'll get used to each other. 

The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend long, so we sat outside and played and talked, and hubs grilled burgers for dinner. Little Miss went to bed on the early side and the rest of us snuggled on the couch and watched Hook. Nana might have missed the entire middle of the film due to an unplanned nap, but I'd seen it before so no biggie. That's life in the third act. You fall asleep before the six year olds. 

Actually that has always been me, never a night owl. Does staying awake past 8:30 qualify one as a night owl? 

After some early Saturday morning fishing for the Mancub and Pawpaw, the party goers had breakfast then went on their way. Hubs and I jumped in the car for a drive one state over. We had a lunch destination in mind, then planned to piddle around in some of the shops nearby. 

At our wine dinner this month one of the couples we sat with told us they'd been to a great BBQ place in the little town of Dillard Georgia. I live in the Palmetto State, but the GA border is right down the road. 

We don't often go out for BBQ because hubs makes a mean pulled pork here at home, but the pitmaster at the Blue Hound in Dillard won Season 6 (July 2025) of the Bobby Flay BBQ Brawl and we thought we should taste it for ourselves. 

The drive over was just under an hour, and it's my favorite kind of BBQ place. A small building that sits on the literal side of the road beside a gas station, smoke billowing out of the smokehouse, and already a long line at 11:15 AM. 

I got the brisket sandwich with a brocoli salad instead of chips and hubs had the brisket plate with collards and slaw. He meant to order banana pudding, but forgot. We did get two jars of their rubs to try at home. 

We sat at a picnic table outside and enjoyed every bite. Afterwards we browsed a couple of shops just a few hundred yards away, then headed towards Clayton, which is a cute little mountain town we love. 

We passed this shop on the way to the restaurant and the name forced us to make a stop there on the way out-

They actually had some nice pieces of furniture and then the usual assortment of 'stuff', but we just looked before heading on to Clayton. Which was hopping on a sunny Saturday! Once we got parked we walked to a little shop called White Birch Provisions for a coffee. I think I might like to stay in the White Birch Inn sometime as it looks cute. We browsed the shops on the main drag, but didn't buy anything.  

On the way out of Clayton we popped in to the local distillery there so hubs could get a bottle of their bourbon. I hadn't been in the place in a couple of years and they've expanded quite a bit which was nice to see.

We made the hour-ish drive home and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the lower level porch. I had a small nap (my sleep tank has been fumes the past month) and we listened to music, read, and chatted. Neither of us were very hungry so hubs ate the leftover burger and sides from Friday's dinner and I had a fried egg sandwich.  Sometimes that is exactly what I'm craving. 

Sunday morning kitchen sink view. 

We went to church, then made an exceedingly and unnecessarily long stop at Tractor Supply for a piece of rope for the outdoor shower mirror (the one we had finally broke) and then had lunch on the porch. After lunch hubs trimmed tree branches or some such nonsense and guess where I was? 

If you said the porch you wouldn't be wrong. It's great to be back in almost summer mode. 

Linking today with Holly and Sarah for their regular Monday morning weekend recap party.