Door

Continuing with the 31 Days To Telling Your Story Challenge with prompts by Kate Motaung over at Five Minute Friday.

Today's prompt-door

Back in 2012 I was participating in a month long photo challenge and one of the word prompts was door. I remember writing that post (you can read it here) and how much I enjoyed looking back at some of the doors hubs and I have walked through in our married life. We'd had eight homes by then and have added two more doors to the mix since.

I guess we never stop opening doors.

I liked that post. Writing out our moves in timeline form helped me see with the clarity of hindsight how one seemingly random place we called home was not so random after all. How one stop in the road of life taught us things, grew us up, made us ready for the next.

Almost two years ago we walked through door number ten.

This house.

The one we could only imagine would stand where the trees grew thick and the red clay ran deep.

The one we built from the ground up.

We live here now.
It's home.

Two years ago we opened the door and once again invited change into our lives, perhaps more change than any move we'd made previously.

Location, lifestyle, people, circumstance.

Most of the pictures I take here are from the back side of my house because the view is lovely there. You see that's the thing about doors, both the literal and the proverbial...

You have to open them to know what's on the other side.

And wherever that door leads you...well as they say round here, you'll need to sit a spell. Put your feet up, pour some coffee, catch your breath.

Of all the many moves we've made, I've probably resisted this last one the most. I blame it on mid-life, the empty nest, this unsettled feeling I have most days of not knowing quite who I am in this new season of life.

So I write about it, and it helps. I read what I wrote in seasons past and rest in the knowledge God is still teaching me things.

Still growing me up.

Still making me ready to swing wide the doors in front of me and walk on through. 

Friday Five Ish

I intended to participate in Five Minute Friday today, but I saw the prompt and changed my mind.  This week's one word prompt was 'intentional' and that felt too deep for me this morning even though I did  just use a form of the word in my first sentence. 

Let's talk about fluff instead. 

First of all, this little mancub! Look at him sitting up in the grocery cart! 

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon

Y'all he is just the cutest thing I've ever seen. We FaceTime often and I wish I could crawl right through the screen and kiss his rosy cheeks in person. 

photo credit: Sincerely Shannon

Hubs and I and refer to him often as the mancub because he's like an adorable little bear, and so full of personality. I think mancub might become his blog name. 

In other news, we had snow this week. Not SNOW!!! but snow. It stuck to the grass and made the trees gorgeous, but our roads have been fine. My daughter2 teaches a couple of counties over and they are still closed today so I guess they had more ice than we did. It doesn't take much 'round here. 

Snow was predicted to begin overnight Tuesday into Wednesday and I was so happy to wake up and see a blanket of white. Not a deep blanket, more like a flimsy coverlet, but still so pretty. Hubs will tell you he does not miss the snow at all but I miss it a little. I love the way snowfall brings a silent stillness to a planet that surely needs it. 

Plus here in the southland there's no chipping ice off the front steps for days on end, no fifteen foot icicles hanging from the gutters causing damming which then causes water to run down the interior wall of your home, no sooty black snow mountains in parking lots making it hard to see, and no week after week of sub zero temps. In fact it's supposed to be sunny and low-60's tomorrow which makes it easy to love a snow day in January. 

Hubs and I have both been reading a lot this month, mostly by the fire because snow!  I just finished  The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine. Has anyone read it? The book got great reviews on Goodreads, but I didn't care for it. The characters are so unlikable and the dialogue felt like high school. It's been compared to a Gone Girl type thriller, but I'd say that's a ginormous stretch. Would be curious to know if anyone else has read it and what they thought. 

One interesting thing, the 'author' is actually two sisters who've combined their names to form the name Liv. They live several states apart but write back and forth via FaceTime and email. 

Besides reading we've been watching some Netflix and catching up on our favorite shows including The Good Doctor, The Brave, and Victoria. Is anyone watching Victoria on PBS? It's really good and filling the TV viewing void left by The Crown. 

Our girls gave us a Legacy Box for Christmas and we finally got that sent off. It seemed simple on the surface, but of course I excel at complicating the simple. We could send ten items in our box-VHS tapes, 8 mm tapes, photos, or slides. Twenty five photos count as one item. We have all our 'baby' tapes on VHS and I knew we needed to start with those, but hubs was keen to send in some 8 mm too because all the Europe years are on 8mm. I think it's 8mm? It's not VHS and it's not DVD so it's whatever that technology thing was that came after the DVD but before the iPhone camera. We'll be getting everything back on DVD plus a memory stick. 

We knew the VHS tapes were in a box in the garage, and hubs was certain the 8mm were in the camera bag. Except they weren't which led to us opening all kinds of boxes in the storage area which led to a trip to Goodwill and the dump and then turning the house upside down trying to find those tapes. I was 100% certain I had not seen them or touched them since the move. Hubs was positive we had them when we left NJ, but I swore up and down I had not laid eyes on them. 

Except somehow they ended up in a totebag in my closet. 

oops. I kind of sort of now remember dropping the bag in there mid-move and then promptly forgetting about it. Obviously. On the bright side, we got some of that storage area emptied and the legacy box mailed so all's well that end's well.

Happy weekend everyone! 
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Rolling Into May

Hello whoever is reading here today. Is anyone still reading here? Is anyone still writing here? Ha! It's not that interesting, but I'm glad you've stuck around.

We had a nice weekend. Hubs was traveling last week so Friday night was a wash. He didn't get home from the airport until almost 9 PM which is practically my bedtime so, like I said, 'not that interesting'.

Saturday morning we made our first spring trip to the local plant nursery. Raise your hand if your eyes are bigger than your gardening skills. I just love all the pretty things, including two pillows and three botanical prints which I know are technically not plants. They do add beauty to a space though, and now they're mine.

I've been looking for cute pillows for my covered deck and I love the color and the pattern on these.

This wall in my kitchen has been waiting for the exact right something and I feel like these prints are that something. Never mind how many holes went into my freshly painted walls to get these where I thought they needed to be. Hubs was not a happy camper, but the prints cover all the tries so calling it a win.

Daughter2 and her boyfriend and our favorite greyhound came over after lunch and we took a boat ride. Wonderful while you're moving, but we stopped by a friend's dock for a quick hello and the humidity about killed me. I won't even mention what it does to my hair! Plan on seeing me in a ponytail and ball cap from now until October.

Isn't she just the cutest? I can hardly stand it.

The boys had just enough time for a quick game of corn hole while I got dinner on the table. I'd fixed BBQ in the crock pot with all the fixin's (that's baked beans and cole slaw for those not in the know) and it was yummy. Note to self-use the crock pot this summer so you're not a slave to the kitchen while everyone else is out having fun.

I took this pic from our screened porch. Our lower level driveway makes the perfect court.

You've heard of a pool shark? Well Daughter2's boyfriend is the equivalent in corn hole, but I'm going to beat him before summer's end. Gauntlet thrown.

After church on Sunday hubs and I made a run to Home Depot to pick up a screen and also odds and ends we forgot to buy at the nursery on Saturday, namely new garden gloves for me and fertilizer for our freshly potted plants.

This is so not interesting, but let's carry on.

Raise your hand if you spend a bajillion dollars at the nursery every single weekend from May -October? I love all the patios, decks, porches, and assorted outdoor spaces we have here, but it's gonna take a lot more pots than we've currently got on hand to make it look lush.

Question-does it need to look lush when all you really care about is the lake right in front of you?

Some friends invited us to drop by Sunday afternoon and we decided it was an MG kind of day. I haven't ridden in the MG since we left NJ, and I'd kind of forgotten how much I love it. Perfect convertible weather too-

FYI-convertible hair and lake hair have much in common.

We spent a fun few hours on their deck beside the water, and more friends dropped by, and then more friends dropped by, and before you knew it the clock read 7 PM and I was re-thinking my dinner menu. Re-thinking is code for, 'Do I really have to cook dinner???' Hubs read my mind, so we had ham and cheese sandwiches on the deck and turns out that was the perfect way to wrap up an end of April weekend.

So what interesting or not so interesting things did you do as the calendar rolled towards May?    

Beauty and Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

It's a lazy gray Sunday afternoon so I thought I'd spend my time wisely and blog. I've already had a nap and watching the Florida-SC game was making me tense so here I am.

Hubs and I have been in the new house for about four months now, but we really haven't gotten to explore too much in the nearby area. Weekends have been filled with other 'stuff'...unpacking-travel-houseguests-holidays-illness...you get the idea. Also I've blabbed about it at least twenty times, maybe more.

There's an abundance of waterfalls in our little corner of the world, and I'm determined to see them all. A few are better enjoyed by boat, but we can get to those later. We chose something nearby on Saturday and off we went.

Issaqueena Falls.

There's a legend behind the name and it goes something like this-Issaqueena was a Creek Indian maiden, and way back when the Cherokee made an attempt to kidnap her. The Cherokee believed evil spirits lived in waterfalls, so she supposedly saved herself by hiding on the ledge just behind these falls.

Naturally hubs needed to venture across the slippery rock to stand behind the falls while I did my usual helpful thing and shouted, 'Don't fall!' He didn't.

It's a steep rocky scramble down to the bottom of the falls, and why do I always get behind a dad toting a baby on his back? Makes me sweat worse than the hike down.

We knew there was an old tunnel nearby that was worth checking out so we asked a couple of people if we could walk from the falls and they looked at us like we were crazy. We drove, but turns out it was less than half a mile and we could have easily walked. Maybe they noticed I was already sweating (that baby in the backpack y'all!) so they suggested we drive?

Stumphouse Tunnel is cool! It's not often you get to walk inside a mountain, and I was glad I had my jacket with me. The temperature drops quite a bit as you go further in.

It's  DARK!, which makes it just a little bit spooky. Also I was silently freaking out thinking bats might call this place home,  so I stuck close to hubs.

Stumphouse is an unfinished railroad tunnel started before the Civil War and intended to create a train line running from Anderson SC to Knoxville TN. They quit working on the tunnel in 1859 when the legislature refused to fund more construction.

Hmmm...everything old is new again-ha!

Fun fact-Clemson University acquired the tunnel in the early 1950's and cured blue cheese there. They still make blue cheese, but have recreated the tunnel environment in an on campus setting.

You know, if you don't hike you miss a lot of local history and natural beauty.

And if you don't pop back here tomorrow you'll miss my thoughts on another kind of beauty.
The kind named Belle. See you here!

Full Circle

Hi everyone! No, you're not lost...it's still me, just with a brand new look on the blog. I want to thank my creative and supremely patient Daughter1 for working her design magic here in giving me a new space to love.

We've been talking for a long while about making some changes, and she knew I needed time to get used to the idea. Your blog becomes your brand in a way, and I was pretty attached to mine. I also knew it was outdated, and no longer a reflection of this new season of life I'm in. Once she showed me her vision I was sold.

When I came up with the name for my blog some eight years ago I had no idea what I was doing. I was living in the UK and really wanted to call it From The Other Side of the Pond. That's an expression commonly used in talking about England, but the name was already taken. I fiddled with the words a bit, came up with From This Side of the Pond, and voila! a blog was born. It's funny how that title has traveled with me, and remains so true to who I am and what I write about,

At first, England was this side of the pond referred to in the title. When we relocated back to the states New Jersey took on the title, and England was once again the other side of the pond. Flash forward seven years and I'm writing waterside from a new pond. Technically a lake, but hey that first pond was an ocean so I think this counts too.

There's a certain symmetry to the title of my blog that I find very satisfying. I love the soft colors, the simpler design, the less busy look. These elements mimic what I'm seeking in real life these days, and I look forward to writing in this new old space.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

I don't have a lot to say today because we pretty much did nothing over the weekend. Oh, and it was also glorious. Sometimes nothing is everything you need.

Did you watch the Superbowl? We watched, right down to that last painful minute when the Patriots pulled out a win. None of my teams were in the Superbowl this year, but I can still get all wound up about a game. I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for Tom Brady the first half of the game, then heartbroken for the Falcons when it was all over.

I will say I didn't think there were any really fabulous ads this year, but I did love the Raggedy Old Flag bit they played pre-game. I'm glad politics stayed mostly out of the Superbowl and it felt like the country came together for about five minutes yesterday.

And props to Lady Gaga for dangling above the stadium and for singing live and for inspiring me to work out today-ha!

I haven't said too much about the house lately and that's mostly because we moved in mid-November, then BAM! Thanksgiving rolled in along with some company, then it was pretty much time to think about Christmas, then hubs and I traveled the entire month of January, arriving home on Tuesday, with company here on Wednesday, then they left Friday morning, then more company came Friday evening, then they left Sunday, then I collapsed on the couch for a week in an effort to get over the horrendous cough hubs shared with me, and now here we are Monday.

Which is why I haven't talked much about the house or posted pics of the finished product. Ain't nobody got time for that!

I'm blogging from our home office on this Monday morning, and it needs help y'all. Actually I call this room the library because we had floor to ceiling bookshelves built in, but mostly right now it looks like I'm readying for a jumble sale. All the 'jumble' is behind the desk and if I sit just so at the computer I can see the lake but not the piles. That strategy has been working for me up till now, but I guess this is the week I deal.

The piles are mostly photos (yep, still an issue in my life) and there's also an abundance of throw pillows that don't quite fit anywhere in the house, but that I can't part with either. And there's framed artwork and photographs that either need re-framing, re-matting, or a new home with Goodwill. Somebody's got to decide and it looks like that somebody is me only I'm easily distracted.

What distracts me? How pretty the view is right outside my window. Thoughts of summertime. Paperwork. Planning how best to spoil my grandchild. A baby shower brunch happening here next month. Thinking about Daughter2s pup who is still sick with we don't know what. Income taxes. What I'm fixing for dinner. Still need to think up this week's Hodgepodge questions. Laundry. An email I need to send. An appointment I need to re-schedule. The book I'm reading.

It's not just me, is it?

Okay, nose to the grindstone and all that. I will leave you with a picture I snapped on Wednesday morning. The early bird definitely catches the wormsunrise round here.

Now if only the early bird could keep that momentum going past noon.
She's going to try!

Hey 19

So how are your to-do's looking on this 19th day of December? Mine are mostly done, or at least I think they're done, Christmas wise anyway. House wise is a whole 'nother story.

Who moves in the middle of November? Ka-razy!

Every day I do a little wrapping, a little baking, and a little rearranging of our household goods. Still trying to decide on where to place a few miscellaneous tables, lamps, and assorted keepsakes. Still need to buy a few things and still need to hang more pictures, but Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was this house. I figure if it took fourteen months to get here I can give myself two or three to organize.

Painters come tomorrow and I will be so happy to say goodbye to all the blue tape. For those not in the know, when you move into a brand new house you slap a piece of blue tape everywhere there's a ding-scuff-oops-mark of any kind and then the painter knows right where to go with his brush. Let's just say hubs has a super keen eye and there is mucho blue tape round here.

Somebody will also be here tomorrow to replace my laundry room counter top because they originally cut the counter out of the material meant for my garage counter and put my laundry room material in the garage. Bother.

Note to self-clear off laundry counter. Also-do laundry.

Somebody is also supposed to come jiggle something or other in the icemaker downstairs so it doesn't sound like a jackhammer running. We've never had a stand alone ice maker before, but I'm pretty sure that's not how they're supposed to sound.

And somebody is supposed to come replace a thing-y in our indoor fireplace and that's all I know about that. Except not to turn it on until they've been here. That's important.

While all the nonsense is happening on the home front I'll be getting a hair cut. I could not have timed the appointment any better if I'd tried. Hubs will be here managing things and I will be catching up with my stylist while she works her magic on my hair.

This girl gets here tomorrow too-

Okay so she's really more this girl now-

But in my mind she's always that girl.

Last night hubs and I watched The Sound of Music. It was playing on TV and kind of made my heart ache for little girls in the house.

Little girls who grab clothes from the dress up box and act out the 'So-long, farewell' routine with their parents as audience.

Little girls who giggle and snuggle and burrow their way into one another's hearts as only sisters can.

Little girls who haven't spent a Christmas apart in twenty six years, but who will adult like the bosses they are from either side of the country come December 25th.

Miles apart, but close in heart we'll ponder that long ago silent night. We'll welcome the day that love came down...

...and give thanks for the ties that bind.

Enjoying Home And The Holly Days

If you're looking for this week's Hodgepodge questions, you'll find them here. 

I spent Monday at the mall.

I think I deserve a medal.

I'm not a mall shopper, but we do what we must for the people we love, especially at Christmas. I do most of my shopping in boutiques away from the mall, on ETSY, and in various other online retailers because dealing with the mall puts a chink in my Christmas spirit. It's actually not the mall so much as the mall parking lot. As my grandma used to say, 'Land sakes alive!' 

By the way, I'm just going to go ahead and add some Christmassy house pics to this post because if not now, when?

view into the great room from entry hall

I'm hoping I won't have to make another trip to the mall between now and the 25th, but never say never. I'm trying to get it together here, but we're still hanging pictures, moving furniture, and soiree-ing with friends so it's possible I've dropped a ball or two along the way.

Friday night our builder and his wife came over for dinner which apparently is something of a construction miracle. Several people I've mentioned this too told me they weren't on speaking terms with their builder by the time their home was completed, or possibly even a few months prior to completion. We still love ours, and had a really nice evening.

great room fireplace

They helped us hang pictures and will bring the last of our window treatments out sometime after Christmas. Mrs. Bob the Builder is having a chair recovered for me and we look forward to more dinners, and boat rides too once boating weather returns.

barn doors with the telly hidden behind 

On Saturday hubs and I dashed down to Atlanta to celebrate the university graduation of a friend's daughter. It was a lot of fun and I'm determined to make time for people and not just my to-dos in this season especially.

fireplace in the keeping room

The house isn't dark, although most of these were taken at night, but it's tricky getting a good photo in here. When I turn on more lighting there's too much reflection, so dark pics it is. I really need to get my good camera repaired...I suspect that would help.

a peek into the kitchen 

In other news, I have not wrapped a thing. True story. Wrapping is on the agenda for Tuesday, then getting the long distance gifts boxed up and posted can happen Wednesday.

Or Thursday.
Depends how I feel about facing the post office. 

                                                                  range hood all decked out for Christmas

Daughter1 and her hubs will be celebrating Christmas on the west coast this year which means mailing packages. I will resist inserting a boo hoo here because I need to set a good example, but boo hoo. On the bright side, we have a west coast trip planned for early in the new year and that helps a lot. 

I will have my Daughter2 here to spoil over the holidays and she's always a comfort. Plus she bakes like a rock star so bonus points. I'm loving my new range so much, but still haven't mastered all the bells and whistles. Daughter2 and I are going to figure it out together, because according to the owner's manual I can bake five trays of cookies at the same time without shuffling a single tray or rack. We shall see. 

 the dock

In the meantime...stay holly and jolly friends! 

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You're Never Too Old For A Time-Out

So hubs decided he needed to organize and clean out the upstairs garage.

At 6 PM.

On a Tuesday night.

For some reason this really irritated me, and it's okay for me to say it because he knows. Let's just say when I'm overly tired and overly 'whelmed' I don't hide it very well. Our furniture and belongings were delivered just over three weeks ago and in that time we've also had overnight house guests, hosted Thanksgiving dinner, and put up two Christmas trees. Still, everything is not yet in it's rightful place and that makes him twitch a little. Prior to moving in he knew unpacking and figuring it all out would be a process, and he said sure, fine, he's okay with it, but...

We've been married for 32 years, 5 months, and sixteen days so I knew he would not really be okay with it. Hubs subscribes to the philosophy of a place for everything and everything in it's place, and if that means tackling a garage at 6 PM on a Tuesday night so be it.

I on the other hand, am more Scarlett O'Hara and will think about that tomorrow.

Thirty two years people. It works.

I wish I were more like him in this respect, but since I'm not I went ahead and gave myself a time out.

When my girls were young I didn't really use the phrase time out, but I did employ the concept. One daughter may have spent a large chunk of the third year of her life 'sittin' on the step' because my heavens she had a will of iron and needed the last word.

Her mother's daughter in every sense of the word.

It's why I know there are times I need to send myself to the proverbial step, and in this house I've decided that 'step' will be here-

My master bathroom.

Specifically my time outs involve filling that tub all the way up with steaming hot water, turning down the lights, and letting Calgon take me away.

Well not Calgon because do they even make that anymore? Truly I could sleep in this tub it is that comfortable.

Hubs doesn't quite get the concept of time out and interrupted me twice, but he needed that garage organized. Here's how it went... I'm soaking, regaining my equilibrium, and he comes in to the bathroom carrying an enormous bin of miscellaneous linens that I've purposely left in the garage because that's where we're leaving things we're not sure what to do with. I need to go through this bin and see what fits on the current bed situation, and decide what to keep and what to give away. Hubs says that sounds like it should take two seconds, which I suppose in theory it should, but I just could.not.deal with one more thing on Tuesday night.

So I asked him to put it back in the garage and he did, because 32 years, 5 months, and 16 days doesn't happen without both of you knowing when you gotta go left or turn right.

And because that's true, when my 'time out' ended I looked through the bin and made the call about what to keep and what to give away in about two seconds, and everyone was happy.

I'm telling you a hot bath is good for whatever ails you.
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