Merry Monday

Hello Monday. It's still Monday right? The days are a blur this time of year and you just have to roll with it. I'm linking with Holly and Sarah for the weekend recap party they host every Monday. Here we go-

We had a fun weekend spent with hubs brother, sister-in-law, and his momma, not counting of course that Tennessee football game, which was possibly the worst game played in the history of ever. Let's speak of happier things. 

It's not a straight line from our house in SC to theirs in TN these days, due to the wrath of Helene. The interstate remains shut down so we have to take the long way around. 

Long but absolutely beautiful I will say. The road that runs across the mountain from NC into Tennessee is one of the prettiest in all of America. Dusted with snow it was just breathtaking. 

As we came in to Tennessee we saw more remnants of the hurricane. Yellow piping is piled high all along the highway from a plastics plant that was destroyed by rushing water. 

Lives were lost here and it's still such an incredible mess. 

We picked up my mother-in-law on our way to the lake where my brother-in-law lives, and got there just in time to see the Clemson-Texas kickoff. We were rooting for our hometown team, but they ended up losing and then things sped rapidly downhill from there. 

That Tennessee game. Whew! It was painful. My sister-in law had ordered Chicago's famous Lou Malnati's pizzas for dinner and that was the highlight of the evening. 'Nuff said. 

Sunday morning we all went to church together. Their church choir performed their cantata which was so lovely. 

We had a charcuterie style lunch, then spent the afternoon chatting, soaking up some Vitamin D on the sunny back porch, and watching the women's volleyball championship on TV. 

Sunday evening we took hubs mom out for a delicious meal at one of our favorite Italian spots-Bella.

Hubs passed a shop window with a prop that goes with his suit and we had to snap a picture. 

This suit brings out the best in everyone. People stop to wish us merry Christmas with a big smile on their face, and to tell us how much they love it. An easy way to spread holiday cheer. 

Monday morning hubs and I headed south about an hour and a half to Daughter2's home near Chattanooga. We take a back road so it's a country drive with pretty farms dotting the landscape along the way. We made a stop at our favorite smokehouse Bentons, home to the world famous Benton's bacon, and still made it to Daughter2s by lunchtime. 

Sweet Baby J literally jumps up and down and claps his hands when he sees us getting out of the car and it is the best thing ever. Truly. Whatever is weighing you down dissolves at the sight of this precious little boy so happy to see you he can't contain it. And baby sister is right behind him, giving us her whole body smile and showing off her newest skill-walking! 

The excitement level is at a ten with littles in the house and we are here for it. 

Merry Christmas Eve Eve everyone!

Hiya Monday!

Good Monday morning everyone! We had a lovely weekend and are still soaking up summer here. 

Thursday night we had our monthly wine club get together. Yes I'm going back to Thursday night because Thursday night will always be the start of a weekend for me. I blame college. 

Seared sea scallop with a lemon beurre blanc, Miller Farms pickled radish and watercress

Also, we're retired so as hubs likes to say, 'everyday is Saturday'. 

potato leek soup topped with pork cracklins and basil oil 

Besides the two courses pictured above we also had a veal marsala with wild mushrooms, golden raisin, spaghetti squash, and micro greens. Then a fourth course which included duck confit ragout with house made pappardelle, San Marzano tomatoes, Pecorino, Romano, and Ricotta. 

Dessert was a bananas foster cheesecake with caramel stroopwaffel. Yum! The entire menu was so delicious and the wines were wonderful too.  

We are kind of exhausted. When we got home from dinner hubs announced he was not doing a thing on Friday, and we did manage to have a mostly low key day. There was more catching up on laundry happening (yes, still!) then I spent most of the rest of the day in the office sorting, shredding, filing, and dealing with the paperwork mountain that had accumulated while we were busy enjoying in person time with our family.  

Friday night a couple we knew casually but not real well, invited us out to dinner. It was fun getting to know them better over Italian food eaten at a local restaurant we enjoy. 

Saturday morning we loaded up the car and the little brown dog and drove over the mountain to East Tennessee to spend a couple of days with hubs mama and his brother and sister-in-law too. We had not seen his mama in person since March so were overdue for some actual face time. 

Hubs family lived in Kentucky for a few years when he was a child and my brother and sister-in-law had very recently been back to that same small Kentucky town. They brought back everyone's favorite barbecue and had frozen the extra so we had that for dinner, then caught the sunset before watching more of the Olympics. 

Question-what do we watch when the Olympics end? 

Sunday morning hubs and I accompanied his mama to church and then to a light lunch afterwards. We went back to my brother-in-law's for a short nap (hi hubs!) and then late afternoon some friends hubs and I have known since college invited all of us to their house for dinner.  

I didn't take any pics of the women, but that's hubs in the middle with one of his best buds on the left and his brother on the right. When hubs and I were first married and lived in Knoxville we spent almost every weekend at this couple's house. Seriously we'd pack a bag and bring some board games and our favorite tunes and we'd move in with them for the weekend. They only lived a few miles away from us, but it was just so much fun to make it a whole weekend. 

Our hosts grilled ribs and we talked about many things old and new, but most importantly our high hopes for Tennessee Volunteer football, which we're all excited about. Go VOLS!  

We have a busy week ahead. Our once small, now somewhat larger than small ahem, backyard project is hopefully getting underway today. We shall see. 

One other note before I dive into this day...my daughter1 and her family (husband plus three small children) have moved to England for a six month stay while her hubs completes an orthopedic surgical fellowship. She blogs. Her writing is rich and precious and so real. If you'd like to follow along visit her blog at Sincerely Shannon. Her first entry related to the move is here-Hello, we've moved. They landed a week ago last Thursday then left for vacation the following Monday. Carpe diem! They were determined to squeeze in some fun travel on top of the actual move travel they'd just done before her hubs reports for work. 

We all live large here. 

Linking today's post with Holly and Sarah for their regular Hello Monday blog hop. Happy Monday everyone! 

Many Big And Little Bits of Life

I feel like I'm overdue for a post filled with all the little bits of life that have been happening here. Some actually not so little, but maybe not big enough to warrant their own post. Or maybe they do, but time won't allow it just now and I want to catch up so here we are. 

Strap in for some quick and random topic changes and pictures that don't want to center on the page. 

Fall. My favorite season and this has been one of the prettiest we've had in a long, long, time. The color has been spectacular and as it happens we've been putting miles on the car traveling here, there, and back again through tunnels of gold and along southern back roads painted red-yellow-orange. Autumn reminds me the world is full of wonder and it is God who orders change in the seasons and in our lives. 

I read a really really good book. It's labeled YA but if you read the reviews you'll see adults are the readers who truly get it. I recommend-

Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

I'd given hubs tickets to see Jim Messina in the nearby small big city for his birthday back in September, and last week was the concert date. A bit inconvenient timing wise as I had to see the orthopedist at 1 PM and the concert wasn't until 7:30. Then hubs looked at his calendar and realized he had a haircut booked for 9:45 so what all this nonsense meant was two trips to town in the same day. 

Bother. Town is an hour away which meant there and back and there and back and we'd also just come home from driving the coast of California and knew we had another road trip that next weekend so whew!

Anyway, we loved the show. For any kids reading here today, Jim Messina was once upon a time part of the duo Loggins and Messina (yes, Kenny of Top Gun music fame). You older 'kids' probably know he was also part of Buffalo Springfield and a founding member of Poco. He kicked off the show with House at Pooh Corner and what adult doesn't feel a twinge of nostalgia when they hear that tune? 

The next weekend we trekked through a lot of autumn splendor to spend a couple of days with our daughter2, her hubs, her in-laws, and sweet baby J who still needs a blog name. The weather was perfect and we spent a lot of time relaxing on their back porch, wandering around a local Octoberfest celebration, and then on Sunday celebrating with their church family at little man's dedication. 

It was such a nice service and he wore his daddy's baptismal gown and loved almost every minute. The pastor invited all the kids in the service to come up front and watch and then the congregation sang Jesus Loves Me while baby boy checked out his new friends. 

He is an absolute sweetheart. 

College football. Our team is back and we are loving it. The Tennessee Vols are undefeated and it's feeling a bit like 1998. Little guy was sporting his checkerboard overalls because they're raising him right. 

We watched the Bama game at daughter2's house and when the Vols won in the last two seconds everyone forgot there was a baby sleeping upstairs. What a game! Our hometown team (who we also love and root for) is also undefeated and suddenly college football is fun again. 

We drove home on Monday and then were supposed to go to our own college homecoming that next weekend. You may recall Daughter1 was due with her baby #3 the first week of November, except God had other plans and here she is, two weeks early and perfectly perfect-

My heart can hardly take it. 

Truly. My heart is so full, and while life right now feels a wee bit crazy I am so grateful for every sweet, loud, anxious, joyful, big and small moment and mile traveled that has brought us to the now. 

To Infinity And Beyond

We made a little road trip loop around East Tennessee last week, and had so much fun house hopping from one daughter to the other, then back again. It's a three hour drive to Daughter 2's house, a gorgeous drive actually if you go the back way-

Twenty miles of the road look like this-

The road hugging the Ocoee River, with lots of pull offs that are hard to resist. 

We headed to Daughter2's house first and spent the night, treating her to dinner out, then spending the rest of the evening sitting beside her on the couch so I could keep my hand on her belly and feel baby boy kick. 

She's used to me. Plus, isn't that what all mothers do? 

Daughter1's house is another three hours further so we got back in the car the next morning and made our way there. We'd given Daughter1 and her hubs a hotel gift card to use in Nashville one weekend and since my son-in-law was celebrating a birthday this was the weekend. They don't live far from the city, but live music venues + toddlers don't make for the best mix, and we wanted them to experience the music while they're living nearby. We were in charge of the boys. 

Or they were in charge of us? 

The grown kids didn't head into the city until Saturday so we had one day with our daughter too. It was absolutely gorgeous weather wise, and she took us to a nearby trail for a walk. 

The boys brought their scooters and we brought the dog, and everyone enjoyed the morning. 

Hubs and I had a full day planned for Saturday because when you're in charge of littles distraction is the name of the game. We went to a nearby park and did all the things. 

We see-sawed...

and climbed-

and swung-

and picnic-ed-

Hubs taught the men to play horseshoes...

Which he would say was a little bit like grenades, but they had a lot of fun. On the way home we made a stop at a shop we'd passed that advertised fish and reptiles. As it happened a family was in the store with their ginormous boa constrictor wrapped around the dad so that was pretty exciting. The mom told me they had four more at home. Shudder. 

Everyone was good and tired but we opted to skip naps and watch Encanto instead, all snuggled up on the couch. We liked it and the music is good. 

There's a big pond in the kid's neighborhood with a nice paved walking trail all the way round and it's a great place to walk the dog. After the movie was over it was back outside for a trek around the pond. Everyone wants to hold the leash so there's always a bit of negotiating, but life is all about taking turns and we make it work. 

Our pup is off-lead trained and very rarely on a leash, but he's patient with all the clipping and the unclipping and then the re-clipping and more unclipping. Perhaps he remembers the mancub from his puppy days and knows he was loved by him from the beginning?

After our walk we loaded back up in the car for an early dinner at Chick-fil-A then home for showers and bed. The kids too. Ha! Seriously you don't have to worry about getting your 10,000 steps when there are toddlers in the house. 

Their parents arrived home late Sunday morning, which meant there was time for one more game of Guess Who before we said a tearful goodbye and made the three hour drive back to Daughter2's house. 

Her hubs grilled wings and we spent a relaxed evening sitting beside the firepit in their backyard. Then we got up Monday and drove another three hours home to our own house and felt happy and sad all at the same time. 

If ya know ya know. 

While there's still quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in getting to our girls and our grandchildren, there is far less than at any other time in their married lives. We'll happily take it. We're so grateful for the time we spend and the memories we make with these boys who love us big and wear us out...who keep us young and fill our hearts to 'infinity and beyond'!

How Is It Still January?

Hi. Happy Monday. Let's catch up. On what I don't know because it's been pretty quiet round here, but I'll think of something. 

For starters...drumroll please....It's a BOY!!!

Daughter 2 and her hubs found out their baby's gender a little over a week ago, and it's all boy all the time in this household. Building our own football team one little man at a time. 

You can read her update in the link here-It's Elementary

God's design for families is completely amazing. I never imagined I'd be Nana to a houseful of boys but here we are. And I love it. LOVE it!!! I also love that these cousins will be close in age because cousins who are friends are such a blessing. I look forward to more noise, more chaos, more giggles, and lots more little boy hugs and smooches, which are my favorite thing on my list of favorite things. 

What else? 

The drive from my house to Daughter2's house is spectacular. As long as I'm the one driving I mean, because its a windy-curvy-bendy road that whips around a guardrail-less mountaintop, then hugs the Ocoee River for 20-something miles. The ride along the river is truly something special to see.  

In other news, I just finished this month's book club selection-Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan, and I really enjoyed it. The story is a fictional account (emphasis on fiction) of the love affair between C.S. Lewis and the woman who became his wife, Joy Davidman. Mostly though it was the description of Oxford and the English countryside and seeing it all for the first time that really won me over. Be still my heart. 

Quick topic change because hey, it's Monday...I know I was going to post the end result of our home improvement project, but y'all it is literally the project that never ends...it just goes on and on my friends...name that tune? If you were raising littles in the early 90's you know it as well as you know your own name, but I digress...our projects...almost there but not quite there. Closer but not closed. 

My builder's wife is a decorator and she's been an enormous help. She and her hubs are coming out this Friday to bring the brand new window treatments we had made for the office, a definite step up from the sheet that's hanging there now. And she's bringing a lamp she thinks will work in the room and maybe a small table to set the lamp on, so whew. Almost. We are almost there. 

I also need pillows for the Murphy bed and a chair for the worktable and I also need to decide if this worktable is right for the room, to which I say yes it will be fine once everything is in place and I have a chair to go with, but hubs is iffy. 

Hubs is so often right about these things, which is annoying but also helpful. We will see what the decorator thinks when she's here. And they're staying for dinner because we still like our builder, which is not something everyone who builds can say. 

The wood in the stairwell is also an 'almost done' kind of thing. Still no electrician, so while the wood is a beauty we need lights installed and the switch plate attached. Almost. Close. 

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, isn't that how the saying goes? 

I promise I will post pictures and details one day in the not too too distant future. Daughter1 and her family, along with some friends of theirs, will all be here mid-February. My aim is to have the office completely finished by then. Or at least more almost finished than it is currently. ahem. 

Christmas feels like eons ago and almost every day I speak as if it's already February, yet somehow it's still January. January is kind of forced down time for us and we need that I think. We're like bears who rest in the winter months storing up energy for a busy spring and summer. 

Happy Monday everyone! 

Let's Just Call This One November

We've been trekking across and around East Tennessee for the past ten days so I'm going to lump all the fun into a single post before December rolls in and Thanksgiving is so last week. I know technically Thanksgiving really was last week but I enjoyed living and not writing about it in real time.   

Anyway, Thanksgiving

Wait, let's back the sleigh up to the weekend before Thanksgiving, which is when we loaded up the car and the dog and the everything and made our way to hubs brother's house in Vol country. Nobody is happier to road trip to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law than the little brown dog. My sister-in-law is one of his favorites and she does not spoil him at all. 

There's nothing quite like a game live and in person in Neyland Stadium and that's where we were (along with 100,000 of our closest friends) the Saturday before Thanksgiving. 

The Vols had an away game Veterans Day weekend so they were doing a number of things at this game to honor those who've served. Lee Greenwood was at the game with his son and they sang God Bless The USA while the big flag was unfurled on the field which was such a treat. Winning is fun too.

On Monday morning we drove another three (or is it four?) hours to Daughter1's house. She's an hour behind us which isn't much, but somehow it still messes with your head. 

We settled in and spent four days having all the fun with the sweetest little men we  know. That fun included building giant houses made of waffles...

 Reading stacks and stacks and stacks of books -

Playing lots of Go Fish and no less than seventeen games of Candyland which, if you know you know, ahem-  

There were also  lots  of snuggles-giggles-wiggles-and sloppy kisses given which will need to hold me over til the next time we're together. 

I helped in the kitchen and delivered my grandmother's china to her great-granddaughter (daughter1) and loved Facetiming my mom to show her the table set with her momma's well loved crystal and flowery plates. So so special. 

We left Daughter1's house the day after our feast and drove another three hours over to Daughter2's house so we could see the new digs. So so cute. We had a wonderful time visiting with her in-laws and it was nice to have a second Thanksgiving of sorts with them and also my mother-in-law.

Because my sons-in-law both have jobs that sometimes require them to be 'on call' (aka no travel) we were not able to have everyone in the same place, although we were in the same state. Daughter2 and her hubs moved into their home three days before Thanksgiving but she rallied and invited her in-laws and also hubs mom to spend the holiday with them in their brand new home. 

That they moved into three days before. 

My girls are awesome. 

Raise your hand if you've had a few too many carbs in the last ten days. 

Raise your hand if you're not sorry-ha! 

We left Daughter2's house Sunday morning to take my mother-in-law back home and spend one more night with hubs brother and sister-in-law. We were all pretty pooped so we chilled on the couch, napped, and caught up on everyone's holiday eatings and doings. 

While my girls are geographically the closest they've been to one another in many many years, and to us too, we will not have either of the 'big' holidays this year with both girls in the same house. This is the thing I long for most when holidays roll around, the thing I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for, and the thing I was expecting this year. 

I wait a little longer. 

I make a list of all I'm grateful for, which includes happily married grown up girls who've made loving homes for their growing families...

...for grandchildren who fill our hearts to overflowing-

 

...for the beauty of a late November sky-

A reminder of how deep and wide and high God's love is for His people.