what to do . . .

I've been thinking a lot about my posting frequency.  I love my blogging community and I've made some dear and wonderful friends ... LIFEtime friends, even ... through this medium.  But honestly, I missed *me* when I wasn't blogging.  I love flipping through old posts and reading what I was up to, scrolling through the photos, reminiscing and getting all nostalgic.  I really enjoy writing and this has been my best outlet for that for years!  So frequency . . . 

Weekly would serve me best.  Life is so busy, and because I tend to write about life (because the good Lord knows I don't do enough quilting/stitching/etc. to write a post monthly, much less weekly), weekly posts would be great. Just not sure if I can keep up with that.  Writing a blog post takes time, effort, and energy!  But I think that will be my *goal*.

All that being said, what a week! Tuesday evening was Ellie's band concert.  It was a fabulous evening of fun music.  Ellie is first chair clarinet.  It's fun to hear her each year and appreciate how far she's come.

I brought Edith home with me, and while she was there, this photo came up on my screensaver . . .

That was about six months ago.  Edith and I decided to recreate it for comparison . . .

Starry is a BIG girl kitten!!  We had to laugh!

Wednesday I had some work to take care of at the Camp.  I've got one last Eagle Scout project that I'm managing:  the deconstruction of the turtle sanctuary.  The RV and the Nook have been moved.  It's the first time I've been out there since that happened, and it hit hard . . .

But it's all good. Taking a walk, I spotted a little toad.  I've still got the "eye"!

I had lunch at a new-to-me (and I think, relatively new to Huntsville) restaurant, Tupelo Honey.  It had a really cute vibe, and the food was fabulous.  But what really made me happy was the water glass . . .

Yes, they do sell them, and yes, I did come home with one!

Thursday evening was the end-of-the-year program for the girls' homeschool community, Classical Conversations (which Jocelyn directs). While they'll continue to do math and reading through the summer, their Thursday CC days are done for the summer!

The program was terrific and it was fun seeing each class do a presentation, showing off all they'd learned.

Friday night was a Trash Panda night!  I love baseball games . . . the atmosphere is fantastic!  

And we live less than ten minutes from the Trash Panda Stadium, so we try and do a couple of games during the season–especially on a Friday or Saturday night, when they do fireworks!

Today I hosted a mini stitch-in for my inner circle stitchy girls. I totally meant to get a selfie of us, but got caught up in the cameraderie and it slipped my mind.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  I continued to work on my Coming to America project.  I think I've made good progress!  

This will be my slow Sunday stitching (see the lineup at Kathy's Quilts), if I'm able to do any!

I downloaded and proceeded to 'thumb' through May's Primitive Quilts and Projects, and came across this darling wool project:

If I have time this week, I'll kit it and get started! 

A very Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate! ♥ ♥ ♥

:)

off day, work day, birthday . . .

Backposted (because how ever many years from now I'd regret not having posted these pictures along with their stories)!

March is off to a great start!  Our first Friday was a lovely, mild day, so Todd and I hit the lake.

It was mild enough to slip my shoes off while I read. Get some sunshine on those toes.

See how smooth the water is?  Just the perfect day for fishing! I'm not sure what he was pulling in, but it was big enough that he got out the net. At one point we were sitting in a spot with a ton of birds, and another pontoon came barreling through . . .

I didn't catch the aftermath, but it was kind of like a bowling ball into the pins! Knucklehead.  

It was a lovely day and they're starting to get a little longer.  Still too short for my liking.  But we change to daylight savings time next weekend, and we'll get another hour of lake time on the back end (which is where I prefer it)!

Thankful we had a restful day on Friday, because Saturday was a Camp MACOBA work day!

Disaster Relief uses our work days to train for the chainsaw team.  It works out well for both of us!  I think they stocked up enough firewood for the upcoming camping season.

It was a full day (for them).  I limit my working to the kitchen and helping serve lunch!

For all the racket that chainsaws and tractors and log splitters made, it didn't take the deer long to come out of hiding once the crews cleared out . . .

And then Sunday we celebrated my Jocelyn's birthday (which was actually on Monday).  We celebrated, but somehow the only pictures I managed to take were of . . .

My baby.  Who thinks I make a good teething object.

And a good sleeping pillow. ♥

:)

evey explorer . . .

Backposted (because how ever many years from now I'd regret not having posted these pictures along with their stories)!

Even though having all the girls is fun, Todd and I have decided that it's more special (for us and for them) if we have the girls do sleepovers one at a time.  They're all just so different and they all want focused attention! So we started with Ellie in December, and we had a movie-watching, pillow-making, popcorn eating great time.  All indoors.  LOL!

Evey's turn was next.  She had all the things planned.  We would ride on the gator, play in the little creek, watch a movie, eat ice cream and popcorn, and watch my iPad in bed.  Whew ... that's quite a checklist!

We really had a lovely time . . . we explored all OVER the camp!  (We both wore our boots for this expedition.)

We had such a delightful day!  She's got an adventuror's heart.  I made note of several things she said during our long walk, and wrote a poem for her:

Leaves that rustle under foot,

A happy, joyful sound.

Undaunted by the lack of path,

Her own way she has found.

Water, stones, pine cones, thorns;

All of them she conquers.

To her the wilderness belongs,

A canvas hers to wander.

We also found a "quilt" for Piglet, and made a ton of pom poms!  

We got everything checked off Evey's list and then some; it was a real good sleepover time.  And *very* different from dear Ellie's sleepover!

Joc sent me this about midway through Evey's stay . . .

I guess this means I'd better go ahead and schedule Edith's sleepover.  <grin>

:)

all the things . . .

What a great weekend! Thursday evening kicked it off (I am so grateful that our office is closed on Fridays) with our monthly guild meeting.  We had a good turnout.

Our program featured our Comfy Quilts Committee, along with one of the services that receives our quilts.  There was also a nicely stocked free to a good home table.  I dropped off a stack of magazines and grabbed some pretty fabrics that caught my eye!

Speaking of fabric, Diann of Little Penguin Quilts had shared a cute stitchery she was working on, and it was framed with the cutest pumpkin print!  She shared with me the info on the selvage, so I could hunt it down.  Consequently, look what was in my mailbox on Friday . . .

I mean, it's so cute, right??  Pumpkins *and* acorns.  It doesn't get more me. <grin>

We had several different groups visiting the camp.  They had beautiful, crisp weather for it!  I took some foliage shots . . .

I'm so thankful I am able to live out here!

I prepped another (finally ... I've been so lazy with any kind of stitching this week) Thanksgiving bowl filler.  This one is the turkey:

He's so cute!  I've got three of the five done (or will have done before the end of the day). 

The turkey will be my slow Sunday stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts!

Saturday was game day!  Snacks were all about sausage today.

Sausage balls and Rotel dip!  And when I say snacks ... I mean our meal!  LOL! Roll Tide for the win and for a guarantee in the SEC Championship game!

And I'm just going to leave this here . . .

You're welcome.  Happy Sunday! 

:)

event hopping . . .

It was a fun ... but busy ... week-to-the-end!  

Sunday, we celebrated Evey's SEVENTH birthday!  Good gravy, where has time gone??!

She is feeling very grown (she's seven, after all), but still a huge fan of Piglet, so she was very pleased with the Piglet scrunchy, necklace, and earrings we gifted her! 

This little girl has larger than life feels ... you can definitely see it in her sweet face!

Mid-week, I got a call from James ... they'd taken June to the ER.  She'd tripped and fallen, breaking and dislocating her elbow (because one or the other wasn't enough).  

June seemed to handle it all in stride (especially once they gave her something for the pain). Something about that age ... your limbs are a force to be reckoned with as they grow and grow!

She got a lovely green cast for her troubles.  She's got this ... it's hard to keep June down!!

My last event with Essential was on Saturday.  We hosted the Essential Women re-Connect Retreat at the camp (and I was on the planning committee)!

The decorating team did a terrific job of making the pavilion look pretty.

I had a lovely group of ladies at my table.  Smile!

One of our favorite activities was making "jar-cuteries"!  Isn't that just clever?? They were super easy to put together, and were very yummy, too!  We had a lot of fun with these.  I'm happy to share the instructions with anyone that might have interest.  Good way to enjoy a personal charcuterie!

I did a little talk on hospitality and thank yous ... to that end, I whipped up one of my little pineapple mugrugs/candle mats as a door prize (mind you -- I did that Friday night)!  

Saturday was a full day ... but evidently not just for me! I love getting photos from the Panter crew!  Sawyer battled it out on the soccer field . . .

Look at that fierce concentration and focus . . . his typical 100%!

And Olivia ... 

She tried out for her local ballet company's production of The Nutcracker!!  James told me she practiced and practiced her audition dance for weeks.  Now for the patience to hear back!  It might mean a December weekend trip to the west coast!

Tonight I'll head to Huntsville to spend a couple days with the local grandgirls.  And soon I will be sharing BABY EZRA pics!!

:)