The sun is shining, the weather is wonderful, and it's the birthday of this land I love. Thank you to all the men and women around the globe protecting the freedoms we cherish. May we be mindful of your sacrifices both large and small, today and every day.
Doing a little phone dump here because summer is flying by at mach speed and my blog is where I keep track of the time. Actually my phone is where I keep track of the time. If it weren't for the photos snapped there the weeks would be a blur.
So what's been happening in these parts?
Well for starters we had company. Last summer was so strange in terms of no company. No friends coming to visit, no family barbecues or porch sitting, no fun dinners with piles of friends. Nothin'.
We are back in high gear this summer though, and on Monday some of our Maryland cul-de sac neighbors were in the area and spent a couple of days here at the lake. Our children collectively put about 100,000 miles on their Little Tykes car once upon a time, and even though everyone is all grown up I see them still, little blonde pony tails bobbing in the sun, negotiating a turn at the wheel.
There were only about six houses in our cul-de-sac and we all had kids about the same age. It was the sweetest little spot to spend a childhood. We had backyards with swingsets but most of the time you'd find all the kids congregating in the middle of the court for games of kickball, roller blading, flashlight tag, and one memorable winter (I don't need to remind them which one!) sledding down the ginormous hill made of plowed snow right in the center of our street.
The day they arrived the weather was grand and we showed them the lake and even boated to dinner. The next day brought some morning drizzle so we headed over to college town to see what we could see before grabbing lunch. By the time we got home the skies had cleared enough for some cornhole and a swim.
So many shared experiences raising our children beside the bay, and it was so great to see them in person and catch up on everyone's lives and goings on.
Thursday evening I hosted a BBQ for a group from church. Originally I thought we'd number about 15 or 20 so hubs volunteered to smoke pork butts on the Big Green Egg.
We ended up a group of more than 30, and kudos to the grillmaster extraordinaire who started the meat just before midnight and produced a fabulous entree at 6 PM the next day.
We're pooped by the way.
In completely unrelated news, we've been moving my sewing machine table from house to house and I finally said enough, I'm not sewing anymore so let's go ahead and get rid of it. One of my friends made a table out of hers and I told hubs about it and next thing you know we've got this-
I love it! We removed the box from the legs, ordered a piece of glass with a beveled edge, and ended up with a new old patio table.
Also, by 'we' you know I mean the hubs, right?
This morning we looked out and saw two young deer walking across the drive, no doubt dining on something from my yard they shouldn't be dining on, but they are so cute it's hard to be annoyed.
Daughter2, aka the newlywed Mrs., is on her way here as we speak. She's going to spend a few days and collect the sweetest dog in the world who has been staying with us since their honeymoon. Her pup is not well and it will be so hard to send her back to PA in a few days. Dogs fill some of the coziest spaces in your heart but they break it a little bit too.
Daughter2's mister has a work trip this week so she's going to hang out with her momma and I cannot wait to pepper her with questions, talk too much while we try to watch our favorite cooking shows, ask her to straighten my hair every other day, and show me one more time how to do something on my phone that she's shown me a hundred times. I bet she can't wait to get here.
Enjoy this holiday weekend everyone! America may not be perfect, but she learns and she grows and tries her best to stay true to her noble ideals. "May God shed His grace on thee..."
