Breaking Lately

 

Lately, we've been eating dinner outside/frequenting parks, fields, and trails/purging and organizing our house, while finding ways to make it function better/hanging loads of curtains/enjoying strawberry season/going to Lake Winnie, again/and being involved in a couple extra things that we don't normally do.

A couple days turned into a couple weeks, and a couple weeks showed me that I need to force myself into a little break from blogging. I've blogged regularly for a few years, yapping and processing and photographing about my life. I intend to continue all the chatter beginning early June. For now, I'm spending some extra time processing and tending to a couple of things in my life and it's taking more out of me than I thought. 

Thanks to the couple of friends (and my dad) who noticed my absence here and said something. It made me feel seen and appreciated. Enjoy the rest of May, as this is one of the best months for us all.

Lake Winnie, Part 1

For someone who doesn't like amusement parks, I'm in love with our small local Lake Winnie. Call it nostalgia. At the end of each school year, for what seems like my ENTIRE childhood, we spent a day a Lake Winnie. It was only a school trip for a few years of my childhood, but the memories are so strong that they feel like they were there every year. Last Friday, my mom and I took Burl and Fern. 

Burl wanted to know exactly what rides he was tall enough to ride. He wanted to do all the dangerous stuff. Holy teenage years, Batman, Burl has no fear. Fern took one tearful, painful, ride in the swings, then she was ok to go on almost anything. 

My mom and I lost our minds when we found out that we could leave the park and come back for more. We had big plans of bringing at least Fern back for a nap and stay until dark. By 2pm, we decided to all four return home. We convinced Burl to come home by telling him he could watch Batman and eat ice cream while Fern slept. At 4:59pm, I checked the hours to see what time they closed that night: 5:00pm. We couldn't go back. Our biggest oversight of the day. Burl cried for a few minutes but was ok eventually-my mom and I still haven't recovered. It's been five days. We won't feel better until we do the whole day again on a night that they stay open later. 

We laughed at all the pity we felt for ourselves, but my mom and Lauren started to write poems.
Here are only two of them:

Burl was so kind to let Ferny nap, unbeknownst to him the trip was a wrap. 

Lying here in my bed so lonely and sad, with memories of Lake Winnie a fun day gone bad.

We have full intentions to return within a month. A full day of playfulness with my kids is such a sweet treat and I'm ready for the adventure! If you're a local, then I would highly recommend it!

{Insta}Friday

It's that time again for an InstaFriday where I post a few pictures from my Instagram and add a sentence or two of explanation-because one social media outlet is not nearly enough:

Every since I was a young girl who loved to babysit, I've been a big fan of airplane. For all of Winter, I've been working on The Double Airplane. I've stayed inside by the couches for all of our crash landings, but during a little yard time, I tried it outside. Nailed it! And look at those precious smiles. 

Stop the world: dogwood branches do GREAT inside. I pulled some down recently to use for our egg hunt, and someone let me in on the secret: they do great in water. I put on them on my mantel and took a picture of the cutest, cleanest square area of my house. Notice the floor is not in the picture. Don't have a dogwood tree? No problem, pull a Meg and steal from your nice neighbors. 

Best night ever. My brother Daniel works at a new restaurant called Beast and Barrel, where they specialize in meat. We got four invitations to the soft opening, where our food was free. Since Joseph went vegetarian and John was willing to stay home with the kids, Lauren, my parents and I went. We were there for three hours, laughed incredibly loud, made new friends, and ate five different animals (cow, duck, quail, buffalo, pig). Lauren fits in perfectly with our family-especially since Lauren, Windy (her mom), my mom, and I were together so much we were our own family unit. Oh, and the food was out of this world!  

After Easter lunch, I asked Daniel to take a family picture of us in our fancy clothes. He took about 24 pictures and the outtakes were just as good as the good ones. Brothers make the best out of anything. 

Camping picture. I've made this my phone background. We've found the perfect campsite that is close to the bathrooms but tucked into the woods. It gives me full body shivers when I look at it, because this is the perfect example of my happy place, my very happy place.

This was taken on the streets of downtown after 11:00 pm after we just finished a Nickel Creek concert. Chris Thile, the number one mandolin player in the world, is back with his original band. They put on an incredible show and it almost made me wish that I was a musician. We ran into so many friends and had a great crowd of friendly faces as we were blown away by their talent. 

My Ferndays when Burl is at school are always an adventure. She's up for anything as long as I'm with her. She loves the attention and I love giving it to her. I'm also teaching her the fine art of Treat.Yo.Self (click that link). White Mocha extra hot, half the mocha, no foam, no whip for me, because I'm easy-breezy, and apple juice and goldfish for her. 

I've already posted this, but, come one now, it's worth repeating.

I made a decision on some new curtains. I had to text Lauren, my mom, my decorator aunt and post to Instagram for advice that these curtains looked good. Full story to come later...

I love cilantro. And fish tacos. And mexican street corn. And eating outside. And cute iPhone pictures.

Happy Friday, people! I've got some high and low adventures planned for the next couple of days. I hope the same goes for you!