The Weekend

Hubby and I took a quick trip to the cabin on Friday and came back late Saturday. It was a quick trip, but really did us a lot of good. It has been busy busy this summer with the kids and his new job, so we have not vacationed at all.

We went up to tidy up around the cabin and get it ready for fall. We have promised ourselves some downtime in the fall.

We stopped and ate in Montgomery. I bought me a really cute outfit from J Jill. I will have to share it later. We got in before dark, but just rested Friday evening.

Saturday morning, Hubby fixed a bit of breakfast and I cleaned it all up. Then he headed out to weed eat at the bottom of the hill. I walked down to the lake and it was quite peaceful. For about 30 minutes, it was actually pleasant with a nice breeze.

Path to the lake.

This was my view from the gazebo. 

We actually have access via one of those docks on the left, but have never in over 10 years used it. We love the feel of being in the woods, but close to Auburn.

This is the gazebo where I drank my coffee.

I was surrounded by shade, so I am sure that is why it felt good and it was early.

I did feel guilty that he was working. I brought him an occasional water.

Football season will be here soon.

Although I think I am going to try really hard in mid August to make a quick trip between Mama's closing on her house, and Lindsay and Tyler's closing on there house.

The first game is Clemson, and Lindsay and Tyler are snagging those and taking Tyler's parents. We wanted to make sure everything was nice for them.

All in all, it was a great weekend for the Hubby and me. We went in to Auburn Saturday afternoon and got Lindsay and me our clear bags for the games this year AND a new t-shirt.

I finished a book and started some new stitching, so I will pop in with that tomorrow.

So blessed,

Sandy

Curly Hair

I grew up with curly hair...problem...wrong time period. A teen in the seventies was definitely not in vogue with wavy-kinky-WILD hair.

I worked really really really hard to straighten those curls.

Orange rollers were a major part of my high school years, the kind that were the size of soup cans. I pulled all my hair on top of my head and wore three orange rollers until my hair dried. While it worked for a winter inside day it did NOT work in the humidity of the south. I battled those waves and curls with the might of a Samurai warrior.

When daughter Lindsay reached high school, the advent of hair straighteners that really work saved her from the perils of teenage woes due to hair issues.

At some point, she suggested I should try it on my hair. Oh my ---y'all, a whole new world was opened to me.

I have worn my hair in a nice sleek bob to shoulder length "do" ever since.

Lindsay suggested the other night after seeing someone on TV that I should try mine curly again.

I had my regular hair appointment on Friday morning, so she curled it all up for me.

It is funny, it is still curly when I let it dry naturally, but not nearly what it used to be. Age has straightened it up tons.

It was a nice change...not sure if I will wear it this way everyday.

Hubby deemed the curly look a bit more casual, and my usual not so casual. 

I am undecided on the look.

Thankful for hair straighteners,

Sandy

Mama's House Sold...

Popping in today with good news. 

I spent yesterday trying to bake a cake and getting ready for small group coming for supper while on the phone negotiating a deal for the sale of Mama's house in Brewton.

Praise the Lord... we were successful. I didn't get what I had hoped, but in the times we are in and the age of the house, I slept on it last night and felt good this morning.

A huge load off of my mind. I will be doing a happy dance when I hand over the keys to it.

Our small group made it over last night and no my house wasn't perfect. Life has been real busy lately, but I decided to just go with it. Ladies, we need to do more of that...just go with it.

I made the cake and Hubby grilled the pork loin and others brought a dish.

About halfway through, I thought to take a picture...

It shows just what I am talking about not being too perfect. Peanut butter sits right in the middle of the dishes. It is Lucy, the Springer's jar of peanut butter to take her meds with.

We ate on real dishes, but I pulled out all my leftover pieces of paper for dessert.  So, I think there were four different designs.

Real life folks...

Now, there is to be no more baking for me for quite a while.

Sandy

Catching My Breath

I genuinely feel like I am just trying to catch my breath. I have been waaaaay too busy the last couple of weeks. It is summer for crying out loud.

Oh it is summer alright...heat-filled days that make you feel wilted the moment you walk out the door. My flowers looks sad. I love summer because it always meant freedom from out of the home work. I still do love the long days and sunshine.

Extreme heat is hard though. We have to hold on for a good while though.

In some less whiny news...

Lindsay and Tyler will be staying in Fort Walton Beach. He took a job locally. There will be travel in the Panhandle because that is what construction people do. He has to finish the job in Jacksonville and I am not sure how much longer that will be...hopefully less than a month.

They made an offer on their first home last night. Unfortunately, they chose Destin. I hate the traffic, but they had good reasons for their choice. Believe it or not the homes were cheaper than over here. Fort Walton Beach has no zoning which I have written about before, so it is a hodgepodge of stuff. Lots of the choices were older and would need a lot of remodeling, often with a higher price tag than newer houses in Destin.

I will share pictures if they get it.

In the meantime, I have had lots of cooking to do lately. Lots of sick people, etc. I am about tuckered out on baking. We are having our small group over tomorrow night for supper, so I have at least one more day of kitchen duty...then it is take me out for a few days.

We went to see the Blue Angels this weekend. It is a tradition to go over for the Pensacola Beach show. I only took one picture. Mama insisted that she wanted to go. I was really worried about the rough boat ride, but she wouldn't take no. The 81 year old wildcat actually did very well, although the weather was superb and no rough waters.

My only picture was one she had someone take.

The Blue Angels were wonderful as always, but very sad too. They flew with only 5 which is a stark reminder that they lost one. So sad.

I have been stitching in the evenings if I was so tired I just wanted to go to bed.

I finished August very early on. It is the last of them. August 1st, I will do a recap of all of them.

I have been stitching on something for the farmhouse since then.

For one more bit of hopeful news, someone looked at Mama's house in Brewton and are checking with the bank today. I am just hoping and praying for some good news on that this week.

Trying to find some down time,

Sandy

Boating, Reading, and Farm Day

Dropping in for a quick update.

I thought July 4th was going to be a slow day at our house, but it ended up being rather busy.

My aunt and uncle (Mama's sister and her baby brother) slipped away for a visit with Mama. They have managed to come quite a few times, but usually my uncle's wife comes too. She had to work, so they slipped off for a quick overnight visit. 

We took them out on a morning boat ride. My uncle is exactly 20 years younger than my mom. Their birthday is one day apart. Baby boy of the family.

Mama was super excited. The three of them and one other aunt have a great time together.

Then that afternoon, we ended up having Paul Allen roll in with all his friends, so we had to quickly throw food on the grill.

Honestly, last week got away from me. I can't really tell you what I did with the days.

I did read a bit.

After finishing Killing Reagan by Bill O'Reilly, I read I Love You Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan by Nancy Reagan. I am done reading about them, but both were interesting reads.

I finished the letters one on Saturday evening, while on a boat ride. Hubby fished and I read while we drifted along.

He looks pretty serious...

I have also read The Summer Girls, part of the Lowcountry Summer trilogy by Mary Alice Monroe. I seem to be in a reading funk, because I really didn't get too excited about this one. It is definitely a beach read. It started off good, but I lost interest and just kind of ho hum read to finish. I haven't run to get the second one.

I have started the last of Susan Branch's books, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside. I will have actually read the three books in chronological order with this one, but not in the order she wrote them. I liked the others, so we will see.

I have almost finished cross stitching my August cottage. I am really ready to be done with them. I like seeing them on display, but I am so ready to cross stitch something else.

Hubby took the day off, so we went to the farm. We trimmed all the plants around the farm house and  I cleaned up the Hoosier cabinet. Hubby sanded some on it and we discovered it has a pattern etched on the doors.

I played around with just seeing how things might look on it. This is not the plan, but I just used some stuff laying around and snapped a picture.

You can see all of Lindsay and Tyler's stuff still there, but Tyler has two job offers....HERE!!!

He may have a nervous breakdown trying to pick the right one, but I think it is a good or better situation, so that is good in this mama's book.

They drove around looking for houses Sunday afternoon.

I am definitely smiling.

Sandy

A Very Random Post and a Long One at That

July...

I wasn't really ready to take down the June cottage since the redo was just up a couple of days. I guess I am not really ready for July either, but there is no slowing down time.

I love July's cottage. Red, white, and blue is always a good thing. 

Now for some random musings.

Below is the Hoosier cabinet that belonged to my great grandparents. I really should have moved one of the doors so you could see the sifter. We have to finish putting it together and plan to sand it down some because it has been painted along the way.

That hideous rug is still there.

It is sitting in the farmhouse. As you can see, I have done nothing to the place. 

I have two excuses reasons that I will use...

One is just plain lack of motivation lately.  I just got sidetracked with Mother and life that I kind of felt like I was doing good to keep one house going let alone think about something else.

The second I have failed to mention, but will let you in on because of the piles of stuff behind the cabinet.

My daughter and son-in-love are in a transition place. They had to move out of their rental quickly at the end of May. They won't know until the end of the summer if they are going to stay here in Fort Walton Beach or move to Jacksonville.

I will be in a state of serious depression if the latter happens. No, seriously, I want what is best, but I am hoping the Lord wants them here.

In order to keep them from having to find another place quickly or pay for storage, we moved all of their furniture to the farm where there is plenty of space. There is stuff everywhere. Tyler works in Jacksonville during the week and Lindsay is here. 

They moved in downstairs which was killing them as they are very self-sufficient motivated kids. It just seemed pointless to throw money away when downstairs is like an apartment anyway. Hubby's sister made her feel better about it when she reminded her that many years ago, she and Uncle Al and Kristan had lived down there for about 6 months when they were building their house.

Big houses can be useful...hard to clean, but useful.

I do think Paul Allen is struggling with his sister in his stomping grounds...I have promised I will return it to its former look when they leave.

And that should be at the end of August.

Back to the farm.

The fig tree is loaded. I don't like figs. Mama does, so I told her she could eat to her belly was full. 

In the last week or so, I started thinking about the farmhouse again. This fall I will try and get motivated again.

I have brought a few things from home such as the pitcher and bowl and the ducks.

I bought two of the lanterns on sale at Kirklands and the birdhouses. I plan to paint the birdhouses. I don't know what color yet.

I am letting the colors in the curtains I hung above the kitchen sink in the farmhouse guide me.

Basically, that means blue, green, red, and yellow. More of one color in one room and more of a different color in another room.

There are two of these baskets there. I like both.

I told you this was random.

That was only part of the bell peppers we grew.

I am going to have to do a whole post on what I have learned about gardening this summer.

I bought some fabric this weekend to redo some pillows for that gingham sofa at the farmhouse. 

It has red in it...

Oh, and I have decided to bring home the painting that we have at the cabin at the lake to put above the gingham sofa. It has a red barn. The print above the sofa is gorgeous, but not for the sofa. I will find another use for it.

Gingham sofa with pillows that will be recovered.

I will have to find something more appropriate for the lake to replace the barn painting. 

Only picture I had of the print of the red barn.

I took the barn print there years ago, because I loved the picture. We had it hanging at our former house and it just didn't go in a house of the bayou/bay.

More randomness...

I came home from the farm on Saturday to one of my most favorite casserole dishes in the world on the floor and broken.

Responsible parties below.

The Golden actually might be remorseful.

I was so sad. It was a wedding gift from a couple who were my Sunday School teachers at Auburn. 

It wasn't part of any china set, but I loved it. I don't think the broccoli and rice casserole that my family loves has ever been served in any dish other than that one.

They should both have sad faces.

Even more random....

I finished reading Killing Reagen tonight. I liked it very much. I actually haven't read any of the Killing books by Bill O'Reilly, but I liked this one. At some point down the road, I  might choose to read the one on General Patton.

It is quiet here on this July 4th weekend. The kids all had other plans. Lindsay and Tyler are in Jacksonville for the weekend and Paul Allen has a long time friend in town for the weekend, so this set of parents is sad and lonely.

Proud to be an American even if it is quiet on the homefront,

Sandy