Thoughts, books, and stuff....

Fall is here.  The sky was grey this morning but the sun broke through and now its a sunny seventy-five with little humidity  I had today off work.  Gotta love the PTO.  I took today off to have a broken tooth fixed and spend some Q time with my thirteen year old daughter.  That consisted of matching dental appointments, matching numbness, a two and a half mile walk around town, a Subway run and a Walmart run and then the break down.  Anyone else have a teen kid?  Show of hands?  This school year has been a slight nightmare.  I am guaranteed my kid is going to breakdown any evening between the hours of seven and nine because of....math.  It's not that she can't do it it's that she has to have reassurance that she can do it.  Oh thee of little faith...  We always end up checking her work and its correct.  Of course on our wonderful "Girl's Monday" she would need to get to cracking on her school work because school never stops even if you only go two days a week.  Of course that led to the break down of the day.  Which led to me getting super frustrated because the kid can do it she just is thirteen and says the stupidest ish ever and I'm like WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?  But today I went ahead and reached out to the teacher who told me all is well in COVID School and not to fret.  

If I didn't have ball I think I would trade my afternoon coffee for an afternoon whiskey.

I do love my kid.  A lot.  

And here are some other things I am loving...

1.  Panera App

In a world of not really wanting to touch anything or talk to people my Panera App has made my lunch life so much easier.  Even more awesome is there new Duets menu with a half size salad or sandwich and a cup of soup for $5.99.  Download the app, get the free pastry, and thank me later.

2.  The Dearly Beloved

Have you read this book?  No?  OK read it.  It's such a good and thought provoking book about the good and bad in life and faith and lack of.  It's set in days long gone by (fifties, sixties) and it is the story of four people...two couples as they maneuver about their youth and young adulthood into their careers and lives.  There is heartache and there is joy and there is the desire to slap some people.

3.  All Things Reconsidered

Good book by a favorite podcaster, Knox McCoy.  I feel like I know he and Jamie Golden like my own close friends.  Knox's sophomore release is a nice follow up to The Wondering Years.  In All Things Reconsidered he seriously talks about the things he has reconsidered in his life - from Big Bird to God.  Read it.  And if you haven't read The Wandering Years - its awesome.

4.  Pumpkin Spice Coffee Great Value K-Cups

In layman's terms the Walmart brand k-cups in pumpkin spice.  I am not a huge pumpkin spice fan but these are pretty good.  Not so overwhelming and you are in charge of how you make your coffee so it doesn't have to be a diabetic's nightmare.  They will never top the caramel creme ones Great Value makes.

5.  Fall ball...

The joys of being on the field with a dozen middle school girls.  God save us all.  I don't know what it is but this age is such a challenge that I love yet hate all at the same time.  Our team has lost two of their two games.  Glad I'm a Cubs fan...I'm used to these kind of seasons.

6.  Dove Beauty Bar

I made a vow to cut the plastic.  That means back to bar soap.  I enjoy it.  Weird - its nostalgia maybe to being three years old and my mamaw only allowing me an inch of water in the tub to get clean in because you don't play in a bath tub.  Everyone knew that playing in a bathtub meant busting your face open.  Swear she told me that.  I get the pink Dove Beauty Bars - those are the best things in the world.  I wash my freaking face with them and I must say my skin is looking great (I also use toner...) and they smell so good.  I'm really going back to basics I should type more about that.

7.  Challenge accepted....Tide in a box.

Another nostalgic piece of childhood - powder detergent.  Yep...switched back to it too!  OK I know you can get the liquid in the paper carton now but I like powder.  I didn't realize how much I liked powder until I started back on it.  Whoa that sounds like I'm referring to something else I did use powder and started back on it in the same sentence.  TIDE not anything else people.  TIDE.

8.  Stuck on some Outlander.

That freaking Scottish porno has really got me sucked in.  Oh?  Its not a porno?  Coulda fooled me.  Actually, I just finished season three and its more like when they bow chicka bow wow it looks like animals on Discovery Channel but anyway....My sister-in-law said it starts to suck when they "come to America" - spoiler alert they never really came to America the whole show was filmed in Scotland.  My only issue is when they go to the "West Indies" its blatant they are in Ireland.  You can agree NC and Scotland look a like but the Caribbean and Scotland - no honey no no no.  Anyway since I'm watching on Netflix I have to wait ever so patiently for season four to reach the 'flix because they stop at season three.  Major bummer.  

9.  Election ads are killing me smalls.

Between the deforestation that both sides of the aisle are doing with their mailings and the horrid ads they paid too much to make I really need everyone who strives to be a politician to take a freaking pill and go to sleep for like fifty years.  Please and thank you.

10.  Bye Facebook.

I have an account but I took the app off my phone.  I hate Facebook.  I really hate it.  What I hate the most is this...

Person:  Did you hear so and so died?

Me:  Oh my gosh!  WHAT?

Person:  Yeah.  Why didn't you know?

Me:  I hadn't heard.

Person: Ummm Facebook, Amanda.

Me:  Palm to forehead Ughhhhh.

I hate Facebook, Boomerbook, ugh.  Now I say I will allow FB for Fridays so I can take a glimpse of what "news" I need and then delete that ish back off my phone.  

A few things to add to this post that I'm working on over the course of the next thirty days:

We're All Adults Here - reading this or rather having it read to me.  I am liking Jenna's Book Club.

I was reintroduced to The Nester again a couple weeks ago.  You know what drives me nuts?  When people have super smart yet super non-novel ideas and they can make bucks off of them and make people like me slap my forehead and say, WHY DIDN'T I DO THAT ALREADY? Total respect to Myquillyn on taking the bull by the horns and reminding us of what is important in a home.  So my current plan is to thin out the storage of ish in my house.  I actually started this already by filling up laundry baskets on excess crap I do not need.  Of course this all came on the heels of my husband getting a few boxes of his things from his late father's home.  I'm a tosser he's a sentimentalist.

I have a YMCA membership and they said they are going to start charging me again.  That means I need to carve out work out time - intentional work out time, in a gym, with other people.  Scary!!!

Ratched...I pressed play and Mary Mother of Our Lord...can I get through it?

Pumpkin patch on the agenda of my brain but not the agenda of my agenda....it must happen.

Fall Ball needs a dub.  Here's hoping they will start swinging at pitches and actually hitting them in the next couple of weeks.

Yard sale?

***

That's it.  That's all I gots.

Read It! All Things Reconsidered

 

Today is the day I finally get around to posting about a book I recently read that I liked.  I don't waste time writing about books I do not like.  If I didn't like it then I didn't finish it and well...no point in writing about that, right?

Here's a book that I did like.  I actually read his (Knox McCoy) first book The Wondering Years when it came out a couple years back and that book is one of my most favorite reads of all time.  I was very excited to fiinally get my hands on his second release - All Things Reconsidered.

I am going to be very honest in this and not say too much about the book because I have a tendency of spoiling things.  This book really made me consider all the the things I have reconsidered in my life.  Marriage, country music, religion, recipes, food choices, t.v. shows.  Strangely enough Knox and I are very much compatible in thought.  

The idea that the way we view things evolved throughout our life experiences is not new.  But it is something that worth discussing and bringing into the limelight.  A few things this book had me raising hands and screaming yes to include - Uncle Joey, homosexuality (no link I promise), and faith.  

McCoy makes you laugh and he kind of drives you nuts with how many times he references Hamilton (that was the one part of the audio book that was overkill.  I love Hamilton too but it felt like every other breath was Footnote Hamilton Reference).  This is from publisher Thomas Nelson and Knox is what I would consider a faith adjacent writer but the way he does it very much born-in-eighties-navigating-life-in-my-thirties style (something I can totally relate to.) He's fun and not in your face about his faith.  He discusses it the way you would with friends over coffee on a random Saturday morning.  You laugh - a lot.  You agree - quite a bit.  You disagree - it happens.  

This book is a quick read but well worth your weekend :)

Click here for more information!

See ya later with another book pick...hopefully!

Currently: September Has Started!

Day two of the ninth month of the year from a galaxy far far away...I am linking up with Anne In Residence today to share with you things that we (I) are appreciating, anticipating, collecting, starting, and finishing!  I feel like I need to mix up the order and start with...

Starting

A new month which is really a new year but ONLY this for this month.  I feel more of that new year vibe in September than I feel in January.  January is just blah for me - the holidays are over and its winter and I'm just not in my most lifted spirits then.  But the fresh start of September?  It cannot be beat.  School has returned (it really has here!) and everyone is returning to a routine (though it may be a bit awkward) and that brings balance back.  Balance brings the ability to crush goals, right?

Appreciating

I appreciate teachers who can keep kittens corralled.  I meant to type kittens.  I think of all young animals kittens are probably the least in ease of keeping under control.  They can climb and jump and have very little regard to anything or anyone around them.  Every morning I drop my son off at school and I think about a teacher that is with him and eighteen other kids seven hours a day without much of a break who also has to keep the kids six feet apart.  No.thank.you.  I appreciate their diligence in following all the mandates.

Collecting

Can I say I'm refusing to collect anything?  I'm in a very less is more state of mind so any collections I may have had I do not have now.  However, my laundry room needs to be trashed - the whole thing!  It is a collection of single socks without a match, paper products, and random other junk that needs to be trashed.

Anticipating

The continuation of not watching anything on local television - if it isn't streaming it isn't for me.  The continuation of not listening to local radio - SiriusXM Fly all the way.  Nelly makes my life better.  The continuation of making my way to the mailbox with the recycle in also in hand in hopes that they really do recycle paper and that there really is a recycling center.  The continuation and build up of more people around me chattering more about things such as viruses and political activities - ugh no pass.

Finishing

Well read my post from Sunday for more on that! 

Later tater!

Hello "last" week of summer...

Oh Sunday how I love you so so so much.  Sundays are so strange for me - I love them and the slower pace they afford but I also loathe them as I am one of those folks who gets anxious over the start of another work week.  Why?  I haven't the slightest idea.  In the back of my brain from about afternoon I start getting that anxious feeling about how tomorrow will be Monday.

Of course once Monday rolls in I'm fine with it.  So strange.

Today though - this Sunday we're sitting upon - this Sunday is more.  This Sunday is the one I consider the last of summer.  Never mind our Carolina temperatures will continue to bask in the upper eighties and nineties for a few more weeks (I love it) and no worries over humidity levels increasing to the largest ones we feel through the year.  We still have that glorious sunshine even though it has started putting itself to bed around 8:30 PM here instead of nine or thereafter.

I am following the mainstream when I say that this is the last week of summer.  Though I don't care much for mainstream the idea that next weekend will culminate the summer 2020 is something that I fall susceptible to.  The kids in the north will return to school.  My kids have been in school three weeks.  Football season will attempt to kick off in a mere fourteen (?) days.  My garden is shriveled and has relaxed on production.  The pumpkins are being picked.  The pseudo pumpkins are swirled in beverages at Dunkin' and Starbucks.  And my babies are one year older.

That is really what it is for me.  My favorite season is closed each year by the beginning of a new age.  First, my son.  This year he moved from seven years to being two years short of two whole hands in years circling the sun.  On Friday my firstborn will walk into her first day of being a real teenager.  Thirteen.  I could say it feels like she was born just yesterday but it doesn't.  It feels right for her to be thirteen.  It didn't seem to come at the speed of light but more at the speed of sound.  It was fast but not so fast that I feel like I have lost precious time.  In five years I will write this differently.  

In five years...

That truly isn't very long at all.  She will be considered a legal adult who can do things like vote or serve alcohol as a waitress for a part time job.  Her brother will be entering his teen years.  Strange how that all works.

As the bathing suits are packed away the softball cleats come back out.  Another nod to the change of the seasons.  Fall ball - just softball this year no soccer due to the pandemic.  I looked at my calendar this morning - at all the glorious blank spaces and thought of how quickly they will be filled in with "practice" or "game" and "double header".  

By trying to be ahead of the game (pun kind of intended) I started making out the menu for September.  Chili, chili pie, roast...all those comfort foods coming back into play even though I know very well the house will have to freeze us out to make that food taste the way it should when you serve it on a day that hit eighty-nine degrees.

At the top of my staircase is a wagon filled with bags of fall decorations.  Mainly it is all for Halloween because eight year olds live for Halloween candy.  Over at Lowe's Home Improvements mums are 2/$10.  Next weekend on my planner I have a sticky note that reads:

• *Clean out the summer garden
• *Plant mums
• *Put out the fall decorations
• *MOW FIRST

Because I am a true Southern girl my summer dresses are preparing to go into the closet where they sleep until April of the next year while the booties and darker shades are preparing to take their spots.  New York may say you can wear all those whites year round but at nearing thirty-nine years old it was well embedded in my thick skull that after Labor Day you put the white away.  

And so it is time to start putting some things away like the summer of the pandemic.  But first - we must go get slushies one day after work, pluck the remaining fruit from the garden, burn our butts on the leather seat of the car, and wear all the tropical prints we can fit in seven days.

Here's to the last week of summer!

xo

Friday 5!

 Let’s just jump on this! I went shopping earlier in the week at Banana Republic. In case you weren’t aware, and I don’t think you would be, BR is my favorite of all places to shop. I have never been let down by quality when I opt for BR. 

Today I’m sharing my new loves from my recent shopping excursion.

Since it’s August I opted for their new arrivals which transition into fall ever so nicely. I bought this faux wrap dress in a petite small.

This dress was originally bought to wear while here on vacation but it can really be a work dress, Saturday dress, or beach dress! I bought this one in petite medium since it’s a bit more fitted in the hip.

I love these linen blend pants! These won’t be a transition piece but I will definitely rock them the next two months! Petite 6.

My daughter and I we’re shopping together. She said this dress was “old lady” then I tried it on and she said, “Oh my gosh that’s so cute!” Yep! It is a super cute dress. Petite 6.

Click here for Banana Republic’s Factory Store!

Read it.

I finished it right before we came to SC. Probably one of the best books I have ever read.

OK! Back to the beach! We only have a day before we start the trek home. Totally bummed to have vacation wind down but it’s all good!

*b*

Lazy Day!

Hello, friends! (From vacation!!!)

Ocean Isle Beach was hit by Hurricane Isaias. It did a lot of crappy damage. Flooding, fires, more fires...terrible. 

Thank goodness for my mom’s beach place. Her renters vacated the day the storm hit. We came on down! It’s been wonderful. 

We have had great beach time and today fabulous lazy time. Today brought rain and storms so after a stroll around Broadway At The Beach and lunch at Nacho Hippo we came back to the condo to be 100% lazy!

Now that I am all cozy in my hoodie and sleep shorts (that I may wear out since ya know...beach) I keep thinking about everything to come. Next week the kids have open house for the 20/21 school year and that means school supply shopping. 

Then my mind starts thinking about creating a new schedule. We have been on the same schedule for basically 5 months! Though, I am super excited my son will be in school four days a week I am slightly stressed at wondering how school will really go. I also feel like I should run to Walmart and buy a couple new planners to start planning every meal and movement from now until...

Wait! I am on vacation! I am sitting beside the Atlantic Ocean and I have like two more episodes of The Last Dance to watch. It’s August 2020! For the love of God have I not learned I’m not in control?!?!

Back to my lovely, lazy vacation!

Links:

Broadway At The Beach

Nacho Hippo

North Myrtle Beach

Ocean Isle Beach

The Last Dance

*B*

Weekend Recap

I guess...technically...my weekend is still going strong since I am off work this week.  Yay vacation...er.

Today is supposed to be rainy ridden and blah.  I have big plans of staying in my pajamas, making waffles, and watching loads of television.  Maybe later we will bust out for something "real" to eat and to bowl.  We shall see no rush on anything, folks.  No rush at all.

The weekend was fun though our plans were shifted.

Tee Ball season is over!

Saturday morning was the last game of the 2020 spring summer season.  This was my little guy's first time really playing anything baseball related and the verdict? He's ready to play soccer again and if he never picks up a bat and ball again he will be OK.  He did really improve his throwing and even caught a few catches made to him on first base!  But his thing is soccer.  I really hope there is a soccer season.

Coach Mikell (haha) enjoyed hearding his eleven kittens this season.  I think he preferred the little ones.

We made it to the pool!

Since we didn't get to leave for vacation after teeball we opted to go to the pool for the day.  This was my first trip to the YCP Pool this summer.  It was nice since it was pretty much empty with the exception of maybe twenty others in the baby pool.  There is nothing better than that gentle lull to sleep in the chair by the pool.  Ahhhh so good.  Since we are technically on vacation I'm refusing to cook so Saturday night we redeemed a giftcard at Cracker Barrel for dinner - it was so good.  But isn't the food you don't cook the yummiest?

Sunday Fun Day!

After two cups of coffee on Sunday morning I decided to paint the laundry room (only finished one wall) and then go pull weeds in my flower beds.  After that all I could think about was the need to be by the water.  So I rallied the troops and we loaded up to have a late lunch on Lake Norman.  The Blue Parrot is our favorite spot for fish tacos, pasta salad, and shrimp wraps.  It was so good and so nice to be by the water.  Our little guy picked out a boat that he thinks we should totally get...its only $78,000.00.

Good news!

That little Tropical Storm is set to make "landfall" down at Myrtle Beach overnight.  It looks like rain and wind nothing much nothing crazy.  Ocean Isle Beach let us know that we will probably be able to come on down tomorrow.  We are all very happy but cautiously excited.

Tacos & Beer Kinda Day

My vacation started on Friday at 5:30pm....

The the NC coast shut down in spots due to a "hurricane" south of Florida.  Y'all - I cannot even.  I am beyond angry and frustrated.  I was so pissed I went to Walmart on Friday night at 8pm (they close at 8:30) and bought a vacuum cleaner.  If that's not pissed then I don't know what is.

Actually, I needed a new vacuum.  But it sounded like something I would do if I was out of my mind.

That stupid "hurricane" now a tropical storm is still sitting wayyyyyy down in the bottom of Florida and its a freaking tropical storm now.  It's not even a hurricane.  It's not even close to us.  But don't tell that to the weather channel who prays every single weather event is a mass catastrophe - sick bastards.

Woooo sahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I'm trying to be very positive about this batch of foul lemons and make lemonade with extra sugar.  

While we wait to see if we will be allowed to actually go on our vacation (which I paid for months ago...) I have decided we will have fun every day by doing something different.  Yesterday, the day we should have left, we ended up at the pool.  Then we laid around (except my husband, he doesn't do that) and then we used a Cracker Barrel gift card and got dinner.

Mama don't cook on vacay.

I really didn't want to go to the food market (I'm not using any other term for a grocery store anymore other than food market because I like to say food market) but we ended up there anyway.  Our cart - I should have snapped a photo - all JUNK.  Cookies, ice cream, ice cream, cookies, and ok some fruit.

Today I think we will go bowling.  I heard bowling allies are open again.  Of course knowing how this state rolls as well as our luck as soon as we pull in the parking lot the governor will decide they can only be open from 9am to 9:15am and you cannot use a ball.  For you out of staters - did you hear that our governor has stopped alcohol sales after 11pm?  I believe he has chlamydia and COVID confused.

Another nugget to add to this is that I decided since we're on a delay of sorts I would take this time to re-organize my house.  Ever doing that...last night I knocked out the kitchen but I feel the need to do it again.  I also am making a list of all the crap I need for the house....this staycation is becoming expensive.  

You know I have never been an excited for autumn kind of girl.  I hated going to school growing up, Halloween wasn't fun to me, the only perks of fall I could see were more bonfires, football, and my birthday.  But I'm not so sure I won't be pulling out pumpkins and planting mums as soon as possible. 

Oh ish - that's the fall fashion picks from Vogue?  I change my mind. 

I haven't done too much in the way of bitching over 2020 but after the last oh I don't know five months I am kind of over everything.  And I mean every freaking thing.  Essential worker, fine ok I like to make my money the legit way.  Wear a mask and don't go close to people, sounds like a plan I'm a Scorpio.  Coin shortage, yeah ok whatever.  Your kids are kinda going to school kinda not and we will probably just pull them out of this new schedule all together within a few weeks of it starting, sounds like a normal government plan.  But when you close my damn beach down because of a reason that isn't quite logical....jump the gun much, folks?  

Maybe we should all just dance in a thunderstorm and lick the bottoms of our shoes.

I think I'm going to scratch all plans and find some water and have a taco and beer.

B

What's Up? 7.2020

What is up?!?!

What we're eating this week:

We eat out two days a week so this week those days are Monday and Friday.  I love eating out.  I love letting someone else cook for me and just being responsible for, you know, throwing the trash out.  Anyway the days that we aren't eating out I'm planning on doing nothing but easy meals.

Tacodillas - pictured - basically the stuffings of a taco but in a quesadilla.  SO good!  Kids love it, husband loves it, I love it.  I got these off my eMeals account.  If you don't like sitting around making lists for the grocery store and are sick of eating the same old thing you should give eMeals a try.  We love the recipes and the ease of allowing the app to compile the grocery list and then send it on to Walmart Grocery or any local grocer (Instacart) to shop for me.  It's a working mamas bestie.  Here's my link so you can check it out.

Also on the menu this week are:  Chicken Lo Mein and pork chops!

What I'm Reminiscing About:

When my mom had a pool...Of course she sold that property for what now seems like ages ago but man do I miss that pool.  The kids loved it too.  I have toyed with the idea of putting one in but I don't think that's really on my list of things I just have to have right now. 

What I'm loving:

These long summer days.  I love being home after work and still having so much day light.  I love the heat and humidity (though I realize I'm the only person other than maybe one or two others who can truly say they don't mind 80% humidity and 94 degree weather.  It is a gift.)  

I'm loving my Smirnoff Pina Colada Seltzer.  Smirnoff is my choice for seltzer over Bud Light and if I have to I will take a mango or pineapple White Claw.  But did you know Smirnoff has the lowest cal/carb count?  Yes, girl.

But where can I find THIS pack?!?!

What we've been up to:

Teeball! Since COVID knocked out spring sports teeball, baseball, and softball were all moved to the summer.  Personally, as a kid who played summer ball, I think summer is the best time for softball/baseball because the kids are out of school and the days are longer and there's just a more pliable dynamic for going to the ball field when you don't have to worry too much about the next morning.  

My husband and his late dad's Bronco has also been a thing around here.  At the start of July the title was signed over to my husband so he's been working non-stop on restoring? cleaning up the 1987 beast o' Ford.  Isn't it ironic how he gets this machine the year Ford reintroduces the Bronco?  

My daughter is learning the value of work ethic.  No sitting around all summer in our house - she's been going to work with my mom and I think she likes it.

Dreading:

Nada.  Life is too short to dread crap.

What I'm working on:

Am I supposed to be working on something?  I didn't get that memo.  Oops!

What I'm excited about:

When this publishes I will be just a few days out from vacation!!!  This year we are returning to Ocean Isle Beach.  OIB is our FAVORITE vacation spot.  We started going years ago and then the person we rented from sold their place and we were out of luck - except for my mom getting her place about thirty minutes south.  This year we're returning to OIB and will be over on the Intercoastal Side of the island.  I'm so excited!  We're taking the bikes and the best part?  Friends will be just up the coast at Oak Island so we plan to get together with them for a fun beach day and night in.  

Now that is throwing it back to the OLD days at OIB!

What I'm Watching:

My daughter and I finished up Gilmore Girls and GG A Year In The Life.  Now we're watching Parks & Rec but since I watched it back when it was ya know....airing and she's already finished the series we just watch it to laugh at Andy.

We did watch Hamilton and yes it totally lived up to all the hype!  I think if more historical musicals used rap I would be more inclined to view.

Did you watch Lennox Hill?  Whooooooo!  I loved it so much!  But man am I queasier now than ever?  I used to never mind watching something a bit gruesome like surgery but now I'm like a little kid!  I squirm and cover my eyes and hold my breath.

I enjoyed (shocking) Palm Springs on Hulu.

Reading:

American Dirt  I'm not finished with it but I can tell you this book is a really good read.  I don't want to put it down but duty calls so I have had to stop in the middle of chapters to do things like clean or cook or sleep but this book is really worth your time.  

One of my favorite places is Mexico.  Its beautiful and the people are kind.  But it's also a horrendous mess with the cartels running everything that happens there. Though this book has a totally different main character than I would expect from a novel based around fleeing Mexico I like to think the situations found in these pages will open American's eyes about the struggle that truly exists to flee a murderous society to find a better life.  This book has had me holding my breath and be on the verge of tears.  

And I'm only half way finished.

Reminscing here - your's truly on the beaches of Mexico 2017.

I'm listening to:

Well T Swift had to surprise everyone and throw out a new CD.  I'm currently listening to it but I'm not in love with it.  When she announced last Wednesday she was releasing a new CD I was like, ok cool.  My daughter is a T Swift junkie so its perfect when she releases new stuff in August/September because guess whose birthday is in early September?  My kid!  Of course she's totally loving the new music and I'm just kinda like mmmkay.  

Maybe it will grow on me - I do like it better than Lover.

What I'm doing this weekend:

Jacking up a team of four to seven year olds on cupcakes and then going to the beach!

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Let's just enjoy all the good stuff before school starts back (yes our schools are going back on a modified schedule in person) and before my baby turns another year older.  August is always a big month in our house.  

Quiet Peace

My father-in-law is dying.

That's a hell of an opener isn't it?  I think he's sixty-three years old.  Yeah, think.  For some reason I think he was born '57.  I say that because my aunt was born in '57 and I'm pretty sure they would have graduated together.

He dropped out.  He would have graduated with her I think.  

I think.

He dropped out because his dad died.  That's what I was told.  There was the farm there was no dad he dropped out.  That's it.

My husband grew up with his dad.  His mom exited when he was very young.  She made her choices and left.  We can judge mothers all day for this but until you know the situations you should really keep your mouth shut.  I learned that the hard way, I guess.  But this post isn't about a mom in 1985.  Its about my father-in-law.

To say I married a daddy's boy is a slight understatement.  His dad has been his hero, his number one, his go-to for as long as he's been alive.  He was with him through single dad times, married dad times, dirty divorce dad time, etc etc etc.

They have memories that I know nothing about.  They have a history that is deeper than deep and bruised and also filled with immense dad/son laughter that I could never understand.  

Never, ever could I comprehend.

This world is small and this county is smaller.  My dad knew his dad when I would have been very tiny and my husband would have a been a year tinier than me.  They played golf together on Sundays.  That really translates to a bunch of rednecks on the golf course killing Budweiser and smoking cigarettes and probably saying words not fit for Sunday.

I only learned this nugget of information after I shared that I had met my husband.

The first time I met my father-in-law he was smiling.  He looked like a scruffier version of Sam Elliott.  But that's only because he has matching hair on his head and the same facial hair.  And they are both pretty small guys.

He didn't say much at all and neither did I.  

I don't remember my first thoughts of him.  I guess I was indifferent because this was a just a guy I was dating (his son) and it probably wouldn't amount to much.  

Much to our surprise that first meeting would lead to fourteen years of knowing one another.  And still fourteen years of not much talking.

But I like that.

Here's what you may not know about me - I prefer quiet over mindless banter.  I'm just fine in a silent room than in a busy one.  If there are no words then there are no words and there is no problem whatsoever with that.  Sometimes its good to just be.

I think he felt that way too.

The father-in-law that I knew...what do I remember most?

I remember him being the best man on the day I walked down the aisle to marry his son.  And now I realize what a big deal that was.  He suffered from social anxiety and I did not really know this until a year or two later.  He could not stand a crowd and it just so happened we had a crowd of about eighty in the church that day.  But he did it.  He stood there beside his boy.  He held it together.

I remember him loving that first grandchild of his.  Our daughter.  The thing about scruffy dudes that are dads is that they generally become mush when a baby is around.  But that baby has to be of some relation to them!  I remember the night she was born and when he held her.  There is a look that comes over a new grandparent - I saw it on my mama's face, my dad's face, and my father-in-law's face.  

It was the same look that he had when he held our second child, his second biological grandkid - a boy.  

I remember him having some hard times and him asking me to help him a little.  He was embarassed but sometimes we hit a rough patch, no matter who we are, and we help each other.  I couldn't get what he lost back but I could help him not get in that situation again.

I took a job teaching at the community college.  He signed up and took the class.  It was how to opearate Windows.  The class was filled with his peers and they were more afraid of those desktops than kids of the boogie man.  But we had fun.  He was a good one for me to pick on during class...and he didn't mind.

Our early years in our marriage were riddled with bumps.  My father-in-law kept his dad perspective and when his son didn't want to man up he treated him like a boy and reared him back up to closer to being a man.  I know that this paragraph sounds harsh but I promise you my husband would agree.

He never hated me.  If you know my in-laws then you know that that is a big statement.

My father-in-law was a very simple person.  He wasn't brilliant, he wasn't reaching for stars, he stayed in his lane.  He enjoyed his son and his cows and time on his tractor.  He liked to go to Topsail and ride bikes.  He liked pizza but was a meat and potatoes guy.  He enjoyed playing basketball back in the day with his son and his motley crew of friends.  He loved to watch the kids unwrap their presents on Christmas Eve.  He also enjoyed sitting in the beating down sun watching that first grandkid play softball even though he was undergoing some trying chemo treatments.  And I remember a freezing morning last fall when he came out and took on way too many steps to watch the youngest grandkid run around like a wild hooligan on the soccer field.

The man loved Pepsi like no one else I have ever known in this world.  

He always had a pot of coffee on (we were born to be friends.)

He had his chair and he had his ways.

My father-in-law is dying.  He's in a hospital bed in intensive care with one lung in his thoracic cavity.  The other one was removed nine months ago.  The one that remains cannot manage and is riddled with bacteria and fungus.  An internal vent has been placed inside him.

My father-in-law - the quiet man.  Of all the things I can write in this post or say in person I just want him to know I respected his ability to quietly take it all in.  I enjoyed his quips when he did decide to say something.  I'm thankful for his son because God knows I would be bored if he hadn't had that boy.

Today as I type this I send up a prayer to the God I revere and the one that he denied - have mercy on that man and let him just be so that he can have peace.  

Quiet peace.

xo

(Old) Pinterest Account Finds!

Good morning :) I hope you are all doing super well on this Wednesday.  

Last weekend I purchased myself a new computer for Mother's Day.  Since the kiddos are virtually learning I gave the youngest my Chromebook and decided it was time for mama to upgrade.

After I set up the computer I was logging into my accounts and guess what I found?  My original Pinterest account.  HA!  I thought I just had one account but apparently not.  The account was obviously set up in 2015 and it was actually a lot of fun to look at what I had pinned back then.

Also it brought back some memories like:

*That year I had strep throat three times

*I was still running then

*I was planning a possible vow renewal but we opted for Mexico instead a couple years later!

*I had an 18 month old and a nearly seven year old so there were several pins for mamas of little ones

*I still LOVED pineapples

Here are some of my favorite things from the old Pinterest account:

Taco Empanadas

I think I made these about ten times after I pinned them!  They are so good and the kids loved them too.  I need to bring these back into the rotation!

This quote

No words.  AMEN!  Here's the pin.

This dress/tunic/coverup

Boho should just be called classic.  I mean its not going anywhere!

A good drink (for mommy)

I pinned this from Tumblr.  This is one of those iconic summer college drinks and I cannot remember the name of it but I do remember a tme when I drank a lot of these and didn't have to worry about calories, carbs, sugar, taking care of other humans.  

A Life Hack 

I may have learned a while back that if you have a loved one who suffers from stinky feet a good tip is to have them soak their feet in tea.  (Unsweet, wink) Well why wouldn't I have thought about this for unsavory smelling nooks and crannies of your home?!?!

xo