Saturday, August 13, 2011

School Room Buffet



My Aunt Rosemary had a piece of furniture
on her front porch.
It was used to hold stacked wood and keep
it dry.



I've been trying to think of a way to
replace our big book shelf in the school room/family
room.  The shelf holds all our books
and games we play most.
BUT it also gets very dusty and also becomes
the catch all.  I am getting
tired of the clutter.



I thought of moving the games upstairs 
on a shelf and then moving the rest of the books
onto the shelf on the other side of the school room.
I just needed some place to put the copier.
This is where the buffet comes into action.



I could put the copier on that!
Aunt Rosemary said we could move it down here.
So many things in my home remind me of her.
For years, people would give her pieces of furniture
or other things they were passing on.
Rosie also loved to pick at her dump.
Our first waffle iron she found for us at her dump.
We used it for years and were SO sad when
it finally stopped working right.
I have not found one since that I liked as much
as that one.
This will be another reminder of my sweet, fun Aunt.


Tonya, my sister has been talking and talking
about her new "love" of chalk paint!
She paints a whole ton more than I do so I knew she
would definately be one to trust.

(click on "Tonya" and she has a post about using
chalk paint.  On the end of her post, she links to a tutorial
on using chalk paint and waxes.  It was very helpful.)



So I ordered my first can of chalk paint and wax
to finish the piece.
Oh what fun!
I loved working with the paint.
You don't have to strip the old off and can just paint
on the wood without preparing it first!



I especially liked working with the wax to finish it.
No polyerthane!  I loved it and am so happy how it turned
out.  Now the process of moving all the books,
games and added "junk" is not near as fun!
But I know I'll be so happy with a more tidy room.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

What? Three for Lunch?



It seemed so strange.
I grabbed three plates and made three
peanut butter and jellies.
I got three glasses of water.
Cut up the apple into thirds.
Grabbed three handfuls of cherries.



Just the simple process of making
the lunches for three boys seemed,
well, odd!




Usually lunch time makes the kitchen
a hoppin' spot in the house.
The stove is going, frig is being raided and
there are many LOUD voices!



Today was so quiet as the three home
were outside all morning.
I put together their plates and set them
outside and called to
them that lunch was ready.

It seemed an exciting thing to have their
lunch made and set outside for them.
Usually they "fend for themselves". 
This term is used often, it means when I'm not preparing a meal
for them.  

Oh, the simple pleasures of a peaceful morning and lunch
outside.
Oops, just while I wrote that, the door flew open with
a shirtless boy yelling on the top of his lungs.
It WAS peaceful for 10 minutes.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Nineteen Years

Last week was our 19th Anniversary!
Most times I still feel like that young college student,
twitterpated with that handsome, tall dude.
(Although, my body is beginning to tell me I'm not quite
so young!)

We have come to the point in our lives that we
can leave the boys over night.
For many years, that wasn't the case.
It seemed we always had a baby or young boys that
we couldn't leave.
Those were the days of babysistters,
creative dates or bringing the baby
with us.

The year we moved to PA, we were looking
at homes to buy, job interviewing
and celebrating our Anniversary all in one day.
We also had Timothy with us as he was a baby.

Memories are some of the things that keep
our marriage fun.
Often we'll just sit and chat about our early days
of marriage and the memories we've made.
Life was so new and exciting together!

This past weekend we had to drive Brendan
back out to camp.  The camp director asked
if he could come work again on this week as they
were low on staff workers.

Knowing the camp was "near" Lake Erie
(or we drive by it on our way) and knowing how
much I love swimming in lakes, my fella planned
our Anniversary getaway on the lake.

What fun!  Camping on the lake!  We both enjoy
camping.  Friday morning we left here early.
My fella found the back roads to camp.  It seemed to be in the
middle of no where!  but still fun!

We dropped Brendan off at camp and headed
to our camp site.



We had a rather large site.  Perfect for a family of 10
but the family only had two this time.
The tent was set up, coffee perked on the camp stove
and bathing suits gathered.

After our coffee was gone, we walked to the lake.
The water was choppy like the waves of the ocean
but the water was clean and fresh.


We swam some and headed back to our site.
Yatzee and Rummy were the games of the night by
lantern light.

The next morning was cloudy but warm.
After breakfast we grabbed our towels, suits and the rafts.

On the way to the camp ground the day before, 
we stopped and picked
up a few supplies.
I wanted to find an inner tube.  The store was sold out.
I saw swimming rafts for a dollar and grabbed two.
Childhood memories of hours of fun on the lake
with some rafts quickly flooded my mind.
What fun to make some more memories.



We walked to the lake and blew up our rafts.
Soon we were floating on the water,
side by side talking and laughing
together.
I'd jump off my raft, swim around feeling
like a dolphin and
get back on.



Soon we realized we had drifted way out.
The tiny blue spot on shore that was our beach bag
vanished from sight.



Jet ski drivers began to get their skis
on the water and were zipping by us,  creating waves for us to
float over. 
Soon it was time to be over.
Oh, how I dreaded that.
This, to me, is TOTAL enjoyment!  So peaceful,
so refreshing, so many memories!

We headed our rafts to land,  I gathered some
pretty rocks from the shore and we
packed up our things.
What a fun camping trip!


We plan to go back next year for our twentieth
but for longer stay and with the site filled
with 10 rowdy Philbricks!