Just Beachy

We have a beach trip coming up later this summer, plus the Hodgepodge questions this week have a beach theme, plus this month's Share Our Lives link up (which I missed) had everyone sharing their favorite vacation memories, and all this to say (finally!) I've been thinking beach-y thoughts. 

We live on a lake now which is beautiful, crystal clear, unsalted, and shark free. We don't do a lot of summer beach trips anymore because it takes a lot to peel us away from our happy place in peak season. 

Lake life is chill and there's no sand to sweep out of every nook and cranny at the end of the day. Our lake is big and there are quite a few islands scattered throughout that have small beaches which we occasionally pull our boat up to, and then haul chairs and snacks and sand toys over to spend a few hours beachin' it. 

Mostly though we swim off our dock, we jump off the back of the boat when we're out in the wide open water, and we motor over to friends docks for float parties and relaxation. 

Still I periodically need to see the ocean. 

I need to remember I'm small and the Creator of the universe knows precisely how many grains of sand lie beneath my feet. I need to feel the remnants of saltwater on my skin as I watch the sun sink into the water at the end of a glorious day. 

I've been to a lot of beaches on American soil and elsewhere but when someone says favorite I always return in my head to one place- Marco Island. 

When we started going to Marco, only people who lived in Florida seemed to know about it.  Marco was a sleepy town without much going on, and while it's not a crazy tourist trap today, it's not unknown either. 

The first year we went to Marco daughter2 was still sleeping in a crib so we're talking many many many moons ago. Hubs helped organize a meeting there and got to know the hotel manager, so when he brought us back later that summer the manager upgraded our room to one with a walk out which was perfect. We'd spend the morning at the beach then the girls would nap and we'd open the french doors and park ourselves in lounge chairs on our porch. It was perfect. 

This trip made it our place and we went back often as the years rolled by. 

Marco is covered in seashells and sorting through them to find ones that were special and unbroken was always a favorite activity. 

We spent our days sitting on the beach, reading books, talking, thinking, making plans, walking, exploring, eating at our favorite places and just soaking up all the family time our hearts could hold. 

I've read that while children may not remember every detail of a family vacation they do remember the overall sense of family closeness that develops when you travel together. Sounds and smells and tastes later in life can trigger memories from trips taken when they were young, and these trips become part of your family lore. 

It's been a number of years since we've been back to Marco. Life and all that jazz. But in my mind Marco Island will always be 'our place'. 

One that holds precious memories from the days when we were a family of four...

 When little girls waved goodnight to the sun as it sank into the sea...

of laughter shared...

and problems solved...

...a beautiful peaceful place where plans for the future that is now were born. 

This post is linked with Talking About It Tuesdays hosted by Joanne at Slices of Life

The A-Z Yadda Yadda Yadda...

Hanging on by my fingernails but I can see the finish line...  

Y is for Yesteryear 

'time gone by'

Two days left in the challenge and I've reached the point where I'm literally surveying my family for a word. I even pressed the 5-year old who suggested 'you' and 'yellow', which just might be my words because it's 9:15 PM and I got nothin. 

My daughter sang out yodelayheehoo and we all laughed. I'm not saying no to that one either. 

Actually yodelayheehoo makes me think of The Sound of Music and how my girls loved to sing along, how we all loved to sing along, and how my hubs can (and occasionally will) bust out the line, 'There's a family in Salzburg' sounding exactly like Mother Superior. How it makes us all laugh and is just one of those family things that nobody but your own family gets or finds funny.  

There's a name for this and it's called familects. It just means one family's way of speaking, and can be anything from expressions to nicknames to stories told. Experts say familects not only help forge connections within a family, but they also have the power to draw us back together over and over again. 

Every family has their thing. Their own language and shared humor. It's one of my favorite things actually, that invisible thread that pulls us all in tight when a funny (to us) word or phrase is used, or a reference is made to some nearly forgotten long ago moment in time. 

The way something small or silly or sentimental reminds us we belong to each other. 

'There's a family in Salzburg...'

Pressed Between The Pages Of My Mind

Whoohoo! We've reached the halfway point in the A-Z Blog Challenge today, with 13 letters down and 13 left still to write. Go us!   

 M is for Memory

'the power or process of recalling what's been learned and retained, 

especially through associative mechanisms; the fact or condition of being remembered; 

a particular act of recall or recollection  

In this season when we refer to the term memory we're talking about one of three things- 

Remembering...pretty much anything. Why did I walk downstairs? Into this room? Out to the garage? Why did I come into the pantry? What did I do with that statement-receipt-document? What did she just tell me her name is? 

Names are tough in this season. I used to never ever ever forget a name. I was once the Director of a large preschool and kindergarten and I knew 300 names and the faces to go with. Now someone introduces themself and my brain short circuits. I try to give myself a mnemonic when I meet someone new to help remember their name, otherwise it flies right on out into space.

Initially when things like this happen you wonder if you have some sort of serious memory disorder, but most of the time it's just plain old aging. Not always of course and if you're truly worried you should see a doctor, but everyone I know who is my age-ish says the same thing. They're not as sharp as they were a decade ago. They don't remember names the way they used to, and multi-step tasks require greater concentration than one would think. 

Less multitasking, more let me give this my undivided attention and get it done. 

Hubs and I have many a conversation that goes something like this-'What't the name of those people who lived next door to us in xyz state? They had a daughter who was friends with our daughters and he worked for a software company and blah blah blah.....' 

Then hubs will answer with a name that's close but not quite right, like he'll say Joe and I'll say no it was Jim, Jim!! Yes! Jim!! And then we put our heads together and come up with the last name and a few more details and then we congratulate ourselves and also feel a little bit like we just finished a 5K. 

A lot of thinking in this season requires a collective brain. Truth man. 

Remembering the past...if you're on Facebook I'm sure you'll agree those timehop photos are like a zinger to the heart. You're scrolling along when all of a sudden BAM! there's your daughter at her high school graduation. 

So you look at another picture, then another, and before you know it two hours have passed and you haven't done any of the things you intended to do, because you've spent the better part of a morning traveling down a rabbit hole. 

And then there's your children having children. Few things wing you back a couple of decades the way your kids having kids of their own does. I think we're always looking for all the ways our grandchildren are similar to their parent, the child we birthed.

And when you do get a glimpse, in a look or a gesture or the way they turn their head just so, it makes your heart go squish. 

Watching your grown children feed and love and care for their children takes you back to that time in your own life...to the exhaustion and the frustration and the sweetness most of all, and how ding dang fast it's all gone by. 

Making new memories...this is true and important in every season, but I think I'm more aware of it in my third act. Hubs and I are both currently healthy and we're active people. I was at the doctor Monday for my physical and she asked if I'd had the pneumonia vaccine and I said 'am I 'old' enough to need that?' 

Sometimes I forget my age. 

I want to enjoy spending time and doing things with the people I love, talking to the most interesting little people I know hearing about all they are discovering, wondering and loving. I want to meet new people and see new places, hear other people's stories, what they've experienced in their lives. 

On the whole I think we remember the milestone events that happen within the life of a family, but I want to remember some of the smaller moments too. I so wish I had more pictures of my girls with my own parents. We never lived in the same town, so photos with either set of grandparents are typically of the birthday or holiday celebration variety. These are of course very special, but it would be sweet to have more of the everyday ordinary snaps taken with them. My mom played such great imaginative games with my girls and I wish I had captured more of that. 

My grandchildren (and my children for that matter) don't always want to have a picture taken, but I annoyingly persist and eke out a few every now and then. They'll thank me someday. My dad died unexpectedly young and I treasure the pictures I have of him with my girls. It's cliche to say it I know, but it's also true...we're not promised tomorrow. 

Easter, 1992

We have today and today is as good a day as any for making a memory. One that will feel tender and precious as we look back on it in the years to come. 

Linking this post with Talking About It Tuesday hosted by Joanne at Slices of Life 

Decking The Halls

If you're looking for this week's Hodgepodge questions you'll find them here. Today's post is linked with Talking About It Tuesday, hosted by Joanne. 

I like to post a few pictures of our holiday decorations each year a) because it makes me happy, and b) it's a point of reference for next Christmas when I'm wondering where the fat red Santa sat or which ornaments were on my range hood.

We said we were doing less in terms of decorating this year because, while it is our year to have the girls and their families for Christmas, my oldest is still across the pond and my youngest has a baby so we said we'd come to her. 

And I guess we've done less, but we haven't done nothing at all either. Typically we have more than one decorated tree and I've kept it to just one this year. Wait! two...but only one is decorated. The other tree is on the dock and hubs just puts lights on that one which is fun to see from both the water and the house.  

Wait...we have three trees, or maybe 2.5 is more accurate. We always have a little tree on the bar and it does have ornaments on it so I guess that counts but that's it. 

There is also a teeny tiny tree in my powder room but I don't think that counts even though it's cute. 

We did not put a tree on the screened porch like we normally do, nor did we put a big tree in the pool table room so I guess you could say we simplified.  A little. 

I always like to decorate my mantles because they make the house feel Christmasy. Just seven short years ago this was our mantle-

And here we are in 2024-

Love grows y'all. 

My fireplace is two sided and the keeping room mantle is all Santa. Except for the Nutcracker standing guard, but other than that all Santa. 

I like my kitchen to feel festive and we debated whether or not we'd put up the wreaths this year, but in the end we said yes because who doesn't love a kitchen decked out for Christmas? 

It's hard to take pictures in my house. There are so many windows and also I'm not very good at it with my crummy phone camera, but mostly I blame all the glass. 

We have a big piece of furniture in our entry and we put lights and garland on top then hang ribbon down the side to hang any photo Christmas cards we receive. One of my favorite things. 

My king's guard always gets a bow this time of year. I know it's not part of the official uniform, but we make an exception at Christmas. 

I've had my nativity set since our very first married Christmas. The original Joseph broke many years ago and I found a stand in with a slight pituitary problem, but it works. I love getting this out every year. 

Are you sentimental about the ornaments on your tree, or is yours more a 'designer' tree? Mine is definitely heavy on the sentiment, which is how I like it. My favorite British taxi, specially made by the artist for the women's club I was part of when I lived in England. He put our club initials on the license plate. I always hang the taxi near Big Ben which is another favorite. 

The year the Queen passed away I got this one for each of my girls and one for the hubs too. 

This is the kiddie korner...ornaments my girls made in kindergarten-

And now there are ornaments those once-upon-a-time kindergartners own small children have made for us, the grandparents-

I sit in a chair beside the tree in the early morning hours and like to read my Bible there. Seeing all these grouped together reminds me to pray for each precious child, the littles and the bigs. 

Daughter2 gave me this one last year because she knows me. I enjoy choosing a new ornament for everyone each year and that's always part of your Christmas stocking. I try to find something related to that particular year, a favorite hobby, a geographic location that is meaningful, a pet, etc. It's personal in some way and is one of my favorite things to buy each year. 

Wishing you a Christmas that's merry and bright! 

Five Minutes Of Pattern

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks- 

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-pattern

I remember being a little girl of about nine or ten, accompanying my mom to the fabric store. Back in the day there were lots of fabric stores and there was always an area set up with big conference style tables where you would start your hunt for just the right thing. 

There were enormous catalogs to peruse...McCalls...Simplicity...Butterick...these were my favorite, and we'd spend a lot of time trying to find something I loved that my mom would be able to sew. Choosing the fabric was my favorite part of the experience and sometimes I'd want a particular material, but my mom would explain it wouldn't work well with the pattern we'd chosen

We'd settle on something then go home to lay out the pattern and cut the pieces of material to fit. She'd pin and sew and I'd try on, and it was fun to watch it all come together. My mom loved buying fabric and had a couple of trunkfuls she never made into anything, but couldn't part with either. Sometimes when I think of my mom I picture her at her sewing machine. She didn't have a dedicated room but she made it work, sometimes in the dining room, sometimes in my brother's room after he went off to college. 

I learned to sew somewhere along the way, mostly by watching and my mom teaching, but also in Home Ec in junior high and high school. Is that still a thing? I learned to follow a pattern, but I didn't stick with it and don't own a machine anymore. 

I have a lot of friends who quilt so I know there are still fabric stores out there, but they seem few and far between now. Do you still choose a paper pattern or is everything somehow digital in the 21st century? Do you sit in a store in a too big chair and turn pages in a too big book until you find the dress that calls your name? 

Do you lean over your mama's shoulder and beg to press the pedal and guide the fabric through the machine? Does she lean over yours as she helps you hold it straight? 

Do you grow up and write a blog where a word sparks a memory? 

A Throwback Thursday in 514 Words

I saw a little blurb somewhere recently that said we're closer to the year 2030 than we are to the year 1999. For some reason that doesn't sound right to me, but do the math and you'll find it's true. While 1999 might sound like the not so distant past, when I consider where we are now and where we were then I find myself thinking, 'Only two decades?'.

In 1999 my girls were 9 and 11. Wait, what?

And now it's 2019 and I'm a long, long way from the every day parenting of tweens (although nobody was calling them that back then). The telling them to brush their teeth and don't forget your backpack and I'm picking you up after school because you have a piano lesson kind of everyday ordinary that's both exhausting and precious.

I glanced back through some pictures from that year and saw a family camping trip, Halloween costumes, and The Bay Bridge Walk.

I saw neighbors dressed in 70's wear for hubs big birthday.

I saw pink bathing suits in the summer sun and girl scouts at Antietam.

I saw blue eyes and innocence.
Blond hair and soft smiles.

The words to Baby Hit Me One More Time might have scrolled across my brain.
I might be singing it right now.

N'Sync or Backstreet Boys? How do you choose? We couldn't Google them back in the day, or maybe we could have at some point during that year, but mostly we didn't know what Google was. It was born in 1999.

I do know many a Friday night was spent at Blockbuster agonizing, debating, and compromising over which movie we would rent. "Are we old enough to watch Titanic?" NO! Raise your hand if you miss Friday nights at Blockbuster.

Raise your hand if ruled television viewing with an iron fist in 1999.
It was easier back then.

In 1999 the Euro was established as the common currency of the European Union. Pshh. Who needs to pay attention to that? As it turns out we did, but the European Union was nowhere on our radar in 1999. Do you know what was on our radar in 1999? Y2K.

Everyone had their knickers in a knot over the looming technological disaster that would hit at the stroke of midnight all because the new decade would end in 000. We stashed cash. We bought bottled water. We filled our gas tanks. We had cans of cans of canned food and powdered milk. We went to bed singing along with Prince on New Year's Eve and woke up in the year 2000, everything still humming merrily along.

1999. One year in the life of a family. One year of mothering daughters who laughed easily and loved big. Daughters who made me want to be more like them.  

We went to Disney World in November of 1999. Hubs had a work trip and we joined him after.
Time marches on y'all and thankfully so does fashion.

And little girls grow into women, and moms of once upon tweens become grandmothers who smile at the way they still laugh easy and love big. Still make me want to be more like them.

A Christmas Medley

Joining in with the Wednesday Medley today, hosted by Terri over at Your Friend From Florida. Everyone's invited to play along. Here we go-

1. Wednesday, December 19, 2018 is National Hard Candy Day! So the first question today is to ask if you enjoy hard candy, especially the kind we usually see during this festive time of year? What is your favorite? Which hard candy brings up the best memories for you if any?

I do like hard candy, but it's not something I buy on a regular basis. My mom used to always have a bowl of the Brach's hard candy Christmas mix this time of year, and usually some ribbon candy too which I think looks better than it tastes. 

As far as a memory goes though I'm going to say Reeds lifesavers. You don't see them very often, but whenever I see them I think of my dad and Sunday mornings. He always had a roll of Reeds lifesavers and would give us one before church if we caught him opening the roll. Butter Rum, Rootbeer, and my favorite-cinnamon. 

2. Holiday shopping! Are you finished? If you could spend an entire day in just one store, which one would it be and why?

I think I'm finished, other than the groceries of course. I don't feel quite as organized in the gift department this year, but I think we're good. 

Spend all day in a store? I guess maybe Barnes and Noble because I love to read or Nordstroms because I could try on shoes all day and I always enjoy lunch in their cafe. That being said I do not enjoy all day shopping. I am good for a couple of hours then I lose steam and focus. 

3. What holiday dessert describes you and why?

I was stumped but it's the 21st century which means there's a quiz for that. (here)  Turns out I'm a cookie-easygoing, happy anywhere, good with all age groups. Not sure how that makes me a cookie, but I think the descriptor fits. 

4. What is your least favorite holiday side dish?

Hmmm...is there a side dish I don't like? Can't think of a thing, but I suppose I could pass on a green bean casserole. I'd rather have my green beans sauteed and a bit crisp. 

5. Now be real! There is one on almost every tree. What is the ugliest tree ornament you have ever seen?

No ugly ornaments on my tree. 

6. Tell us something random about your week.

It's all about Christmas round here...

Merry Christmas to all you Hodgepodgers turned Medley-ers! 

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." 

Isaiah 9:6