Monday Monday

Linking up today with Holly and Sarah for a Monday morning weekend recap so let's get to it. 

Thursday more rock was delivered. Yay I guess. I mean we need more rock, but what a mess we've got going here at the moment. And not just the backyard where the actual project is happening, but the front yard too. All that rock has to be dumped in the front, then brought around back one bucket load at a time. 

Serenity now. 

Trying not to think about the irrigation system and the driveway dings and the plant roots that are suffering in the meantime. Everything is fixable is my current mantra. 

I recommend a sunset boat ride when it's all a little too much. 

Thursday's was a beauty. 

Friday morning I drove into the nearby small big city for my facial. It is perhaps the most relaxing hour of the day-week-year and I love it. As I'm getting out of the car to go inside hubs calls. He's out for a walk but tells me a neighbor just phoned asking if our excavator was supposed to be doing what it was doing and he's headed back to the house to see. 

Serenity now. 

Last week one of our 'rocks' got away from the machine and rolled through the silt fence into the lake. These rocks are more like ROCKS!! so not small and also not inexpensive. We buy boulders. That's how this project happens. Anyhoo, where the rock went into the water wasn't too far from the shoreline so the excavator operator was pretty sure he could snag it, and he did. He also got himself stuck for a short time on the riprap that lines the shore and was this close to going into the lake, machine and all. 

Not the sort of thing you want to hear when you're heading in for an hour of relaxation. 

Thankfully the guys who operate equipment like this have skills, and we got our rock back. All's well that ends well, right? 

After my facial wrapped up I popped into Costco. Question-can you 'pop in' to Costco? Is that possible? Apparently so, because a quick $200 later I was back in the car heading for home. 

We had plans with friends for an early dinner at the local Cabana so we headed to their house around 4:30. We went to dinner by boat which is my favorite way to go to dinner and said cheers to the weekend with an orange crush. I've got my hat pulled as low as it will go because I suddenly remembered my facial. 

After dinner we motored back to their house and floated while the sun dropped into the water. 

Saturday morning there was a huge Trump boat parade on the lake. There are literally hundreds of boats that take part and it's a crazy kind of fun. Back in 2020 there was another huge boat parade and we participated briefly in that one before deciding the traffic was a little too crazy for us. So many boats which created a tremendous amount of wake and we ducked out of that one early.

This time around we got close enough to watch, but not close enough to have our boat swamped. It was fun! DT was on the boat beside us lol. 

Hubs and I got home and decided to go into town to see if we could get a repair piece we need for our pantry door and also to look at some outdoor furniture we're considering for the patio. Fun times. By the time we finished with our errands it was after 2 PM so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant, then spent the rest of the day on the back deck reading, listening to music, and playing a board game we like called Shut the Box. 

Did I mention my freezer? No. Well my ice maker quit working (again!!) and the part had to be ordered, except when the repairman came on Wednesday and got the whole thing out he discovered it was actually a different part, so now I'd need to empty the frig and turn that off too, until it could be fixed. Ugh. I'm so glad I have another frig and freezer downstairs, but all that up and down and back and forth doesn't inspire me to cook. Lunch/dinner out was a win. 

Our repairman Matt (he's been here enough times now we're on a first name basis) is supposed to be coming back Monday (or Tuesday, sigh) to make the repair. He's great and it's not his fault appliances that used to have six hoses now have something like 180.  I'm pretty sure my mom had the same frig/freezer my entire childhood, and well into my adult years too. 

We had a slow Sunday morning and ended up going for a hike to some nearby waterfalls. Outdoor worship is good for the soul. 

As we made our way down the gravel road into the parking area hubs spotted a snake in the road. If you want to spot wildlife in the wild he's your guy. 

It's a timber rattlesnake. Yikes. 

Naturally he had to get out of the car to see it up close and personal and let me just say the snake didn't like it much and he hissed and rattled and I yelled helpful things like "don't get too close!!" Hubs knows a lot about snakes and is interested in all kinds so this made his day. 

The little brown dog was with us too, and he could smell the water a mile away. He just wanted to get on with it. 

And if he could talk would tell you it was a pretty great weekend. 

What fun things have you been up to lately? 

Overreacting To The Hodgepodge

Welcome to another edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions, add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to leave a comment for the person before you, or all the people before you if you have the time. Here we go-

1. What's the last thing you completely overreacted to? 

I know I overreacted to something recently because I distinctly remember hubs finally telling me I needed to calm down about whatever 'it' was. lol. That always goes over well, doesn't it? It's possible it was my first glimpse at the proposal for the backyard, which he knew would be adjusted down. For the most part I don't think I'm an 'overreactor'

2. Your top five snacks? 

popcorn, clementines, a slice of cheese, apples, dried mango 

3. What smell always brings back some type of memory? Elaborate. 

I've asked this question or one similar a few times over the course of the Hodgepodge, and my answer is always the same. While there are many scents that evoke a memory the first one that always comes to mind is freshly mown grass. That smell takes me right back to the Saturday morning summers of my childhood.

Back in the day dads mowed the lawn on Saturday mornings. Or teenage brothers. Maybe there were a few moms tackling this job but I don't remember seeing any. I grew up in a sprawling suburban neighborhood and nobody had lawn services. I still love the smell of mown grass and the Saturday morning freedom feeling it brings.

4. What's something you learned from the last book you read? 

The last book I read was West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. It's based on an actual event, but is historical fiction, set in the late 1930's. When I read books set in this time period I'm always impressed by the resilience of people. How they didn't expect life to be easy, and instead just got on with things. 

I learned a little bit more about the dust bowl too. Last year I read The Four Winds by Kirstin Hannah, another novel set in that same time period, and while West With Giraffes was very different in scope, the challenges people faced were similar. I know I studied the Great Depression in high school, but I don't remember hearing a lot about the dust bowl specifically.  

5. What's the next thing on your to-buy list? Will you make that purchase before the end of the year? 

I have a very long to-buy list, but in terms of large purchases I guess outdoor furniture would be near the top. A new space needs new furniture. I'm also shopping for luggage as my largest suitcase lost a wheel, three birthdays, Christmas, and I need new ear buds too (recommendations are welcome). 

Like a said, the list is long. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

A work in progress...

Happy Wednesday everyone! 

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 565

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. What's the last thing you completely overreacted to? 

2. Your top five snacks? 

3. What smell always brings back some type of memory? Elaborate. 

4. What's something you learned from the last book you read? 

5. What's the next thing on your to-buy list? Will you make that purchase before the end of the year? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Ciao Lunedi

Good Monday morning everyone. I hope you had a nice weekend and are ready for the week to come. Ours will consist of a lot of trucks, a lot of dirt, more big rock, and a little bit of wallpapering too. Not by the same people of course. 

We had a fun weekend. I co-hosted a bridal shower in the Atlanta suburbs with two friends and we had the best time planning and executing this event. We are all long time friends of the bride's parents (we all went to uni together) so we've known the bride her whole life, and it was fun making the day special for her. 

For her momma too, because let's be honest, weddings are a lot about the bride and also a little bit about her momma. 

The bride's family has some Sicilian roots so we went with an Italian coastal theme and the colors were so pretty. We may have gotten a little carried away with all the bells and whistles, but once we started it was hard to stop. 

Hubs and I loaded the car early Friday morning and when I say loaded I mean loaded. We had a table, our own overnight bag, 6 tablecloths on hangers, several boxes of assorted whatnots including the guest book, the recipe binder, a glass jar filled with lemon drops for a game we were playing, a banner, the dog! (he got dropped off at the kennel en route) and 32 bottles of homemade limoncello, favors for our guests to take home. 

When we lived overseas hubs had an Italian co-worker whose wife would gift us a bottle of her homemade limoncello every Christmas. As we prepared to move back stateside hubs told him how much he was going to miss that and she shared her recipe with him. 

Delizioso! 

The shower was in the home of one of the co-hosts and it was the perfect backdrop to our theme. We planned to have lunch around the pool but of course it was 8000 degrees so a tent was borrowed from another friend, complete with two little a.c. units to go inside, and that helped. 

Still it was a really hot day, so we set up everything but the lunch portion of the shower indoors. 

We had some big balloons and a monogram floating in the pool. I volunteered hubs to get in at 8 am that morning to set the weights. 

Everyone had an opinion about where that monogram should be lol. 

It mostly stayed put. 

There were close to 30 people attending the shower. I didn't take any great pictures of the food because we were busy, but the food was wonderful. We knew we had a couple of gluten free diners on the guest list, and at least two vegetarians so we offered two entrees. There was Chicken Toscano and then a spinach and sun dried tortellini dish for the non-meat eaters, along with a Caesar salad and fresh bread. We had a separate salad for the gf folks because we aim to please. 

I feel like I want to tell you that big metal bowl was washed and put away at party time. Carry on. 

We made the tortellini dish, but ordered the Tuscan chicken from an Italian deli so it just needed heating. We put together Italian style charcuterie cups with mozzarella, tomatoes, olives, and salami as an appetizer, and we had desserts courtesy of that same Italian deli. 

This cake y'all..mamma mia! Molto bene! It's a lemon blueberry cake with a lemon buttercream icing, and I am here to tell you that icing was one of the best sweet treats I've eaten in along time. We also had tiramisu which was super scrumptious. 

We decorated with hydrangeas and lemons. Lots and lots of lemons. Jars of lemons, baskets of lemons, bowls of lemons...so pretty! And I loved using some of my Italian pottery purchased several years ago on a trip to the Amalfi Coast.

Actually it was more than several because it was our 20th and we just celebrated 40, but whatever, this isn't about me and how time goes by in the blink of an eye and babies you knew as babies are now somehow brides. 

There was a Prosecco bar because every shower needs one, right? 

Instead of a traditional guestbook we bought the bride an Italian cookbook and had all the guests sign a page. We also asked everyone to bring a recipe and had a binder for those. 

Because it was a large group we opted not to do a lot of group games. There were two things the guests could do during the appetizer hour including 'guess how many lemon drops are in the jar' and 'guess the bride's age' in a series of photos. 

We did have one fun guessing game as a group. One letter from the bride's soon-to-be new name was attached to each bag. Inside the bag was a kitchen item starting with that letter. Everyone guessed the item then the bride unwrapped and will keep the gadget. It's a fun way to gift some of the smaller kitchen items a couple has on their registry. 

The toughest letter was O which nobody guessed. 

Onion goggles. 

Every cook needs a pair. 

The groom's momma flew in from out of town for the shower and it was fun for the southern friends to meet her in person. I think she enjoyed the day and she even won a prize in one of the games. We had reserved seats for the moms to watch the gift opening. 

The host whose home we were in had her daughter-in-law coming to town for the shower, and she created our balloon arch extraordinaire. 

After she got to town at 9:30 PM!! the night before the shower. She's a trooper though and dove right in. And thankfully we had inflated all the balloons earlier in the day. 

I helped a little bit with the assembly so I could learn her technique, but I guess it's tedious no matter how you go about it. I think it's worth the trouble though, because balloons definitely add an element of fun to the day. 

This is the bride's chair. We rented the chair because like I said it was hard to say no to all the pretties.

Now,  do I have a picture of all of us with the bride? No I do not. There was a guest who volunteered to take pictures with a 'real' camera and she took bunches, so we'll have some soon. I might add one later, but in the meantime it's just the details. 

Also, being a bride is so special and I love celebrating them. Now it's onward to the wedding! 

This post is linked with the Hello Monday party hosted every week by Holly and Sarah.  

Friday Favorites Ho Ho Ho

I had every intention of blogging yesterday, but that didn't happen. About a million little things happened instead and that's life sometimes. I've been itching to write about something more than weekend happenings and home improvement but that requires a clearer head than I have at the moment, so a lot about a little it is.

1. Our backyard project. The project itself is not my favorite thing, but I know the end result will be. Once the barge issue was resolved things got rolling. The guys doing the work have laid plywood down one side of the driveway to move equipment from the front yard to the back and so far so good. 

I mean it's a lot for them because the project involves a lot of heavy rock, but they're not complaining and made a good start this week. I keep them supplied with water, gatorade, and a big tub of snacks because that's what I know. 

I was part of the original planning of the project, hubs and I together met with the construction manager, saw the plans and the budget blah, blah, blah but you know how these things go. Or maybe you don't, but how it goes is quite often a new decision needs to be made on the spot, and why does that only happen when hubs is out??? 

He's sticking close to home for the most part, but had two appointments yesterday so naturally the guys wanted me to make sure they had all the pieces in the correct spot, correct height, correct everything. Huh? 

I know from my description this doesn't sound much like a favorite but honestly it is. Forward motion is good. 

2. As if all of the above were not enough, I've had painters at my house two full days this week, and they'll be back on Monday to finish up the guest suite bathroom. It's a big change in terms of color and I absolutely love it. This room has needed zhuzzing for a long while now, and I'm so happy it's finally getting zhuzzed. I will post pictures when it's finished and I have the artwork back from the framer. 

The decorator hung out here most of the morning while they worked and by the time the painters were wrapping up I'd gotten her advice on a very long list of things I'd like to do here. 

3. Next up is this post my daughter wrote. I love it so much-

Our New Normal

4. Morning coffee. We normally have our coffee on the upstairs deck, but the early morning weather has been so nice this week that we sat right here with our coffee instead. 

5. Christmas shopping. 

No haters please. I'm not an early shopper under normal circumstances, in fact I'm pretty much a December shopper, but I'm trying to get myself in gear so I can take gifts for my grands (and their mom and dad too) when we visit in the not too distant future. Congratulating myself for ordering all the jammies in August. Whoohoo!

Linking today with Friday Favorites hosted by Andrea and Erika....Merry Christmas and happy weekend everyone! 

When Life Gives You Lemons Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's question add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Thanks for playing along today...here we go-

1.What was the best (or one of the best) summers of your life? Tell us why. 

Ahh, summer. What's not to love? I have many happy memories of summer fun growing up, but I think I'm going with the summer of 1975. I was a first year 'CIT' (except the year I joined the. program they changed the moniker to LTC which I think was Leadership somethin'somethin', but I'm not even sure now what). Anyway, the camp I attended had a three year training program for counselor wannabes and the first year involved an 8-day hike on the Appalachian Trail. 

I had never done anything like that and wasn't what you'd call athletic by any means. In fact I was a skinny skinny little thing, but I carried that 40 lb pack on my back over mountain and stream and up and down narrow footpaths for eight days straight. I'm not sure there was ever another summer where I learned so much. About myself, about the great outdoors, and most of all about God's faithfulness, His protection and His goodness. 

That summer was an important building block in my faith walk going forward. 

2. When you have a trip coming up do you make a list and check it twice to ensure you don't forget anything? Or are you a 'throw whatever you can think of into the suitcase at the last minute' kind of packer? When returning from a trip do you unpack immediately or leave the suitcase right where it lands? 

I like to make a packing list, if not an actual list then at least one in my head. For big trips (more than a weekend away) I try to lay things out in one of the guest rooms a day or two before traveling, which makes packing feel a little bit less overwhelming.

I am 100% an unpack that bag as soon as we get home. I usually throw a load of wash in right way too, and return the suitcase to the basement where it's stored. 

3. What's your favorite food or beverage made with lemons? Is that a flavor you enjoy? 

Lemon is one of my absolute favorite flavors, maybe even number one. I love all things lemon. Lemonade, lemon bars, lemon candies, limoncello, lemon pie...

Not sure I can narrow it down to just one favorite food or beverage, but chicken or veal piccata or chicken/veal  francese would definitely make the list. I make a couscous dish with cucumber that has a lemony dressing and that's another favorite here. 

4. When was the last time you had to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking I mean? 

The landscapers are here to begin work on our large backyard project. The project is on the lake side of the house, and involves a small hill, plus a bunch of other stuff, but the hill is why they were coming by barge. I think. 

Let me just insert here when it comes to this type of project that has 1000 moving parts I want to adopt an attitude of 'call me when it's done', and believe me I will try. Already on day one I had to weigh in on something because hubs wasn't home but my goal is to be surprised by how beautiful it all turns out lol. 

Anyway, back to the lemonade...the original deal was they would bring all the materials by barge, which let me just say, that particular cost is not small. However, when they started calculating the actual amount of materials they'd need to haul it would have required four barges. FOUR!!!! 

You'd probably faint if I told you what that number is (I sweat just thinking about it), but not to worry, we're making lemonade. Materials can and will be brought over land, which is a bit more of a hassle for the people doing the actual work, and will likely not be great for the driveway or the grass, but these things can be set right when the project is finished. 

Hubs is going to be antsy until the whole thing is done, and he will be down there snapping pictures and asking questions and giving me more updates than I want, so I don't need to worry as long as he's available. 

5. Did you like school growing up? Why or why not? 

I loved school. 

That's me in kindergarten. I think I'm wearing my Easter dress because way back when we dressed up on picture day. 

Really I can't think of a grade I didn't like, except maybe 7th grade which I'm pretty sure we should all just skip. My girls know their 7th grade years were not my favorite either. Otherwise I loved school. I was a good student, I was always conscientious and I liked learning. I still do, and I have always loved books. There were one or two teachers who weren't my favorite, but looking back I can honestly say most of my teachers were kind, caring, and pushed me to do my best.   

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Is anyone on Threads? It's connected to Instagram in some way and I keep trying to read things that take me to Threads and then get a message saying  I need to create an account in order to keep reading. Is it a thing? Is it worth checking out? I feel like Insta is enough to keep up with, but maybe this is the next thing? Or not? 

Have a great Wednesday everyone! 

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Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 564

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1.What was the best (or one of the best) summers of your life? Tell us why. 

2. When you have a trip coming up do you make a list and check it twice to ensure you don't forget anything? Or are you a 'throw whatever you can think of into the suitcase at the last minute' kind of packer? When returning from a trip do you unpack immediately or leave the suitcase right where it lands? 

3. What's your favorite food or beverage made with lemons? Is that a flavor you enjoy? 

4. When was the last time you had to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking I mean? 

5. Did you like school growing up? Why or why not? 

6. Insert your own random thought here.