MISTY'S MORNINGS

  Last week was full of summer goodness :: road tripping to drop one son off at soccer camp at the University of Virginia, then exploring the countryside around Charlottesville, Virginia with my husband and two other sons. It was an ideal vacation. We hiked hidden trails , toured historic homes , sampled locally made wines and crashed every night after a refreshing swim in the hotel's outdoor pool and hot tub. We had no defined schedule to keep and simply followed our noses to whatever interested us. When it was time to go we actually felt ready and eager to return to our preferred rhythms and routines. Coincidentally, I came across this article on the  vanishing vacation on the drive home and my husband agreed that after our holiday he feels ready to get back to work with a fresh frame of mind. Surprisingly I too am happy to get back to the laundry and the cooking and the  dri...

Where I live the Bradford Pears have bloomed and blown and the Cherry Blossoms are in full blossom.  Even though that means our allergy season is now officially underway, I cannot help opening our windows every morning in hopes of hearing the birds singing to greet the day.  Springtime has conveniently coincided with my personal recovery process from knee surgery.  As I am slowly re-gaining mobility on crutches it seems an added encouragement that the weather is also improving and the trees are welcoming my return with their flowers. What a treat it would be to be able to put down my crutches in time for Easter Sunday and walk again on my own! (I am doubtful but one can hope.) Sharing with 52 Photos Project :: Petals

As  Murphy's Law would have it, I had a cell phone crisis while reading Chapter One of The Hands Free Mama by Rachel Mary Stafford . I reached my cell data limit a full week prior to the turnover to a blank data page. A full week early.  This has never happened before. Not even close. At first I thought it was my kids.  Surely they had been streaming Netflix on my phone at basketball games all month. "Those little guys are racking up all my data!" I thought. "They really have a problem with screen time and it must be stopped. Time to tighten the reigns!" I checked the data usage. Nope. It was me. All me. Does it make it any better that I was live streaming lots of Joyce Meyer podcasts while driving alone  to and from millions of appointments and errands over the past few weeks? They're Christian and uplifting, right? Oh, and I must admit to watching a fair amount of The Blaze TV while preparing several freezer meals for my family. I must stay on...

How can it be February already?  The past two weeks of snow day drama made January evaporate as quickly as the frost on the tree branches. Now here I stand looking into February with these tasks on my mind: ~ Prepare for my mother's arrival on February 13 (she is staying for two months which requires intense bedroom/closet/drawer/bathroom preparations) ~Valentine's Day prep for school parties and a dance for our middle schooler ~ Plan two birthday parties for my boys turning 11 and 12 this month (send invitations, buy gifts, cakes, make arrangements etc...) ~Prepare my own accommodations as I will move into the downstairs guest room for a while post knee-surgery ~Continue the "Great Purge" of closets and drawers to clear my mental clutter and make the family run smoothly without much help from me ~Stock up on groceries and freeze ahead meals to assist my mother ~Finish my ...

Unlike last Wednesday when we awoke to a snow day glistening in the sun , today's snow day is the very image of winter, smokey gray sky and everything else draped in starkly white snowdrifts.  I can tell the boys had enough of the snow last week because they went out once and came back in quickly.  Their teachers sent them home with homework this time in anticipation of missing several days and it looks like they'll have plenty of time to get it all done. Our dear neighbor had to make it in to work and promptly wound up stuck in front of our house.  With a little shove from my husband he managed to make it out of the neighborhood. Hopefully he is safe and sound on his ship by now. Our beach town is ill equipped for snow this deep.  They declared a state of emergency last night and have brought in snowplows from elsewhere to help clear the roads. In the rush of excitement for this snow storm I stocked up on goodies. I plan to make a M...

It must seem like overkill to our relatives up north that we make such a big deal of a few inches of snow falling in one night. Having grown up in snow country and raised my boys in Chicago during their younger years, we are more than comfortable with a little snow. I think that's why we notice its absence all winter long here by the sea. We have been praying (literally) for at least one snow day this year and now we are on day two of no school!  What a treat! We pulled out the snow pants, boots and mittens and had a good laugh at how much the older two have grown.  RW's pants are at least three inches too short but they still fit around his slim waist so they worked just fine. They first headed outside at 7:00am yesterday.  Then again at 10:00, 1:00, and 4:00.  By that time I found myself silently grateful that we only do this once a year.  What a pain it is helping these boys out of muddy bo...