Mid-August Everyday Images

Linking with Kym today for her Everyday Images party and Joanne for Talking About It Tuesdays. 

I really enjoy the snippets of everyday life this photo challenge offers, and I also like having a place to drop random snapshots that reflect life in this season. I like reading the prompts and then looking for something in my world that fits. It's a bit of a creative mental exercise, and who doesn't need that now and then. 

Okay, here we go. The most recent prompts are-

dessert~gradual~on the road~imperfect~tangled~selfie (quarterly)~restful 

dessert-

We had our August wine dinner last week with a Spanish theme. Don't judge the quality of this flan by the quality of this photo because the flan was absolute perfection. 

We had a guest presenter who did a wonderful job presenting the wines and the stories behind them, and I told hubs I wanted to buy some of this one mostly because the bottle is pale blue and so pretty. 

I help teach Mah Jong in my neighborhood and one of the new learners makes beautiful cookies and brought me this lovely box of treats as a thank you. 

Chocolate chip shortbread and flip flop sugar cookies. 

Both are scrumptious and I so appreciate a thoughtful gesture like this one. 

gradual

We love a home improvement repair/project of some kind, and we've had one happening here-

Gradually. Over the course of a few days. 

Actually what I said a minute ago was a lie. I dislike home repair projects and hubs walks around the house and yard in search of them. This is a good thing most of the time, because homes require upkeep. Ours is nearly ten years old (can you believe it???) so there will be some things that need doing from time to time. 

The joys of home ownership. 

Shoutout to roofers working in this heat. We had to have our chimney repaired due to a blah blah blah and it required two different groups of people to make it happen. One did the flashing/roofing portion and the other reattached the stone. 

I can tell you right now my hubs is going to have a lot to say about the inaccuracy of my explanation, but just know a repair was necessary and a repair happened. 

Gradually. 

Having the incorrect rock delivered didn't help, but they corrected the order and it's all good now. 

on the road

I live on a lake. If you're boating this is the road-

imperfect

I'm going to call this one perfectly imperfect. This Japanese Maple sits beside our waterfall and currently has a single bright red branch. Giving us a peek into fall I guess. 

No worries. It was 97 degrees here this weekend so fall is not in a hurry. 

tangled

We had a bit of a breeze happening on Sunday, albeit a scorcher that felt Saharan in nature, and our flag got itself wrapped around the pole. I perched on the very edge of the narrow side of the dock, leaned way out in a precarious manner, phone in hand, while hubs yelled things like 'don't fall' and 'I could do that for you ya know'. 

Got it! 

selfie (quarterly)

True story. Selfie taking is not in my skill set. Hubs offered to snap a picture but I said that goes against the very definition of the word so here ya go-

It only took me six tries to get one I could call a small success. 

restful

Lake life man. It's restful. 

Unless you have ten people on your roof, scaffolding attached to the side of your house, and a cement mixer in the drive. Otherwise, yes it's restful. 

Okay, now scroll through your camera roll and show me what ya got. 

Words And Pictures

Hello and happy Monday. I intend to do a catch up maybe tomorrow, or maybe Thursday, or if not then sometime, but not today. Today I'm making the trek back to the lake after a week spent watching my Tennessee grands. 

Not for the faint of heart. 

Also, highly recommend. 10/10. Except when it's not, but it's for sure mostly 10/10. Grandparents reading here are nodding because iykyk. 

Keeping it easy today with a few random snaps that I'm linking with Kym's most recent Everyday Images Photo Prompts. Linking too with Holly and Sarah because it's Monday and some of these pics are weekend related. Today's photo prompts are:

at home (monthly)~in my cup~path ~Tuesday tranquility~ summer~golden hour~

out for a walk (quarterly)

at home (monthly)-

We had a few friends for dinner on a recent Thursday evening and it was a lot of fun. There were twelve of us and everyone brought something. Hubs grilled a cut of meat called a Teres Major and served it with cowboy butter and horseradish on the side. We'd never tried this particular cut before, but the butcher suggested it and we loved it. It's said to be second only to the filet in terms of tenderness and we would agree. 

I also made stuffed shells filled with a mixture of cheeses and zucchini and we had yummy appetizers, a delicious and refreshing white bean salad, a cucumber tomato salad, and blueberry cobbler for dessert. 

This outdoor dining space is one of my new favorite spots 'at home'. 

in my cup-

I rarely drink soda anymore. Almost never. Unless I'm in charge of a two-year old and a four-year old whose parents have been out of town for ten days, then all bets are off. 

This was my last night in charge. A glass of wine sounded nice, but I needed to keep my wits about me so opted for caffeine instead. 

path-

I snapped a picture of this cool piece by the artist Baggs McKelvey at the Discovery Museum in Chattanooga Tennessee. She primarily does large scale, site-specific installations using a variety of materials, which in this case is toy cars. 

Tuesday tranquility-

last Tuesday...

We were en route to Tennessee and stopped for lunch at a tiki bar sort of place about halfway to our destination. The restaurant sits across the street from a popular lake and is all open air which was nice. We had our pup with us so it was lunch in a covered outdoor space for the win. 

summer-

My daughter's garden is bustin' at the seams and we've had so much heavy crazy rain while I've been here that her tomatoes have been overwatered. I'm doing my best to pick and the kids eat them almost as fast as I get them in the bowl. Still we're not keeping up.  

Her okra got ridiculously ginormous overnight. Not sure if these jumbos will taste any good but the kids were impressed. The flowers on the okra plants are so pretty. 

We can't pick the blackberries fast enough. It's also been really wet so I haven't tended the bushes the way I would have if everything wasn't soaked, but we've eaten our share of these beauties too. 

One more summer snapshot, no explanation needed...

golden hour-the golden hour is defined as the first hour after sunrise and the first hour before sunset. It's when the sun sits low in the sky and creates a soft warm glow. If you read here at all then you know this is my favorite time of day to snap a picture. Here's the most recent-

And then just a couple minutes later...

out for a walk (quarterly)-

Pawpaw and one of his grandgirls...

The grandgirls adore their pawpaw. I hope once in your life someone greets you the way these little girls greet their pawpaw when he walks through the door. It's literally life giving. 

I enjoy these photo prompts which are posted every other Thursday.  Hop over to Kym's for a new batch this week. I do have a few grandparent-y related thoughts to share still so will get to that one day this week. Happy Monday everyone! 

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)

Everyday Images

I enjoy the Everyday Images link up hosted by Kym (Another Cup Of Coffee) and thought I might try to make some of my recent random photos fit the prompts. Bloggers tend to snap a lot of pictures and a prompt like this one is a nice place to set them down. 

Kym posts new prompts every two weeks and the most current are-

flag, simple and/or complicated, at home, Wednesday weather,

 doorway, movement, and branched

Well flag is an easy one because I'm adding patriotic decor in spots around the house and several feature flag motifs-

This is on my coffee table, a little vignette that's fun and festive. I chose poppies because they make me think of soldiers and sacrifice. The pop of red in a little blue floral vase is so pretty. These are artificial poppies, but look so real. I ordered them from a company called Luv Sola Flowers which I think is out of California. The stems have some bend to them which made arranging easy. 

Love my 'smells like freedom candle' too. What does freedom smell like? For some reason I immediately think of freshly mown green grass, which is not the scent of this candle, but that's the first thing I thought of. The label on the bottom says gun powder, but I had to check so I don't think it's obvious. 

Since we're talking flags I also bought hand soap for my powder room and some disposable towels, both with red, white, and blue flag designs on them. 

Simple and/or complicated-

I spent Thursday afternoon cooking. I made dinner to take to a friend as part of a meal train (pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and glazed carrots), then made a big pan of ziti to have ready to go for Friday night's dinner when my two sisters, my brother-in-law, and my nephew will be at the lake. 

And I made hubs and I a big cobb salad for our Thursday dinner. I'll make a dessert tomorrow but it felt simpler to devote an afternoon to the bigger cooking as opposed to spreading it out over a couple of days. 

Hubs is grilling wings Friday too but that's his department and he's got it covered. 

at home-

I'm writing this post at 8 PM on Thursday and this is the first I've sat down today. Maybe all week? 

Here's the sofa on our upper deck which is pretty much my favorite place to sit and it's currently on point with my patriotic theme. Happy birthday America! 

Wednesday weather-

Hmm. I take a picture almost every morning, but did not snap one on Wednesday. It was drizzling when we got up, we had thunder at one point, humidity, clouds and then a very pretty sunset. We had gone to dinner with some neighbors and I attempted to take a photo of the pastel skies from their driveway. 

Doorway-

I didn't have anything that fit this particular prompt so I scrolled back through my camera roll and found a photo I took back in March that I never posted. Yes, of course that counts. You make your own blog rules, right? 

I took this when I was visiting my daughter2 in Tennessee and we shopped in the prettiest little store. Even the doors were beautiful-

Movement -

Well the beaver family has returned. Not the original beaver family because ahem, they're goners, but maybe one of their offspring? 

He's movin' alright. Moving is good though because we do not want him stopping and staying a while. 

We started seeing one good sized beaver swimming from the back of the cove towards the channel, which means he swims under our dock bridge. You have to get up very early to see him (which we do) and he is busy. As a beaver. Ha! That saying has merit y'all. We watched him one morning swim across our cove and under a neighbors dock all while carrying a large branch with the leaves still on it. Crazy! But kind of interesting too. 

On Tuesday he had a friend with him. Oh boy. 

We don't want him/them setting up house on our property so we're doing what we can to deter them . I don't think I'll elaborate. 

Also, I wrote back in 2020 about the beaver who ate his way through our hillside landscaping and if you've never seen one you might think they're cute, but I'm here to tell you they are not actually cute. One reason we put in the waterfall was to save the hillside and the beavers have not come up the hill since so it's working. 

branched-

This one feels like a challenge. Technically they're under some branches-

These two deer were in my neighbor's front yard the other day. They were not bothered by me at all. 

Happy weekend everyone!