Friday

It's Friday, people. Or, as we're calling it in our house, Fall Break Eve. Ginny has the next 2 weeks off from school, and as is my wont, I have grand plans for our doing lots of fun and exciting things. In reality we will probably spend most days in our pajamas watching Disney Junior and eating cereal or popcorn for lunch. Who's excited?

I am still a bit giddy about having a cell phone with a camera that takes half-decent pictures, and I've been having way too much fun with Instagram. Here's what's making me happy.

A few girlfriends and I drove into Nashville last Friday. We went to Burger Up and then walked down the street to Jeni's. It was sprinkling when we got there. It was pouring when we came out. We got drenched... and it was totally worth it. I had Loveless Bisquits + Peach Jam and Black Coffee. Yum.

We had a really foggy morning last week -- so much so that I could barely see to drive Ginny to school. Slightly nerve-wracking, but so beautiful, too.

Ginny had spirit day at school (GO WILDCATS!) and I gave her a fancy braid for maximum school color impact.

This week her school held a Fun Run fund raiser and she ran 35 laps. (Around what? I didn't ask.) She had been looking forward to it for weeks. Last night she told me that she wished every day could be Fun Run day. Personally, I don't feel that the words "Fun" and "Run" should ever be uttered in the same sentence, but I am really, really glad that she loves running. In this case, at least, don't be like me, child.

I put Livy's hair in pigtails today. The joy that this brings to my soul is more than words can tell. She couldn't be any cuter if she tried.

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Good-Night and Goodwill

You will be relieved, I am sure, to learn that Olivia is, in fact, completely normal. Which is to say that after 3 glorious, miraculous days of laying down in her bed and going right to sleep, she has discovered the advantages of unfettered access to toys at bedtime. Also, it is fun to get up in the middle of the night and stand in the (gated) doorway and yell for milk to be brought on a silver platter. Okay, I made up the silver platter part, but the rest is true. Unfortunately. Like I said before, I'm no fool. I figured this was coming. I was holding on to the tiniest shred of hope that it wouldn't, but who am I kidding? Naps are still going pretty well, though, so I shouldn't complain too much, I guess. And really, as much as I like sleeping at night, I'm pretty used to dealing with wakeful children at this point. Just please, please don't take nap times away from me. I'm so not ready for that.

In other news, I took Ginny to the doctor yesterday (no big -- her allergies are just wretched this time of year) and, according to our custom, we went to Goodwill to wait for her prescription to be filled. Here are a few things that I did not bring home.

This beautiful, weird 55 year calendar (made in Pakistan) caught my eye. I've never seen anything like it and it took me a few minutes to figure out how it worked. I almost bought it, but decided against it. I mean, it's only good for 6 more years.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. My only hope is that Jonathan has not moved on to actually building this horrifying device. Poor LEGO guy. He doesn't stand a chance with that spear/bazooka.

Gorgeous antique sewing machine. Ginny spent the longest time trying to figure out how one would go about threading it. I couldn't figure it out either. I don't think the table is original.

Oh, how I wish I had a record player. Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town AND Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Is In? Gold, indeed.

I circled this drop-leaf table several times before I accepted the reality that we have absolutely NO place in our house for it. Sad face. It would make a great sewing table. In another color, of course. I don't do... whatever color that is.

There were several racks of Halloween costumes -- both of the "boughten" variety and the DIY variety. Basically they stuck all the formal dresses on the same rack with the Elmo and Elvira costumes and called it a day. This little number caught Ginny's eye. Naturally.

I did buy a pretty, insulated Corning Ware coffee pot to decant into when we have guests. Do you take cream and sugar?

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Well, That Happened: Summer 2013 Edition

Summer is over. Today is the last day of Ginny first week of 1st grade. Yeah.  

I had all sorts of great plans for summer. We were going to go to the Splash Pad (We did -- once.), the zoo (twice), the Frist Center (nope), the movies (twice)... basically I thought we would get out of the house and go somewhere new and exciting at least once a week. Realistically speaking that's the most I can handle. Actually, that isn't true. As it turns out, realistically speaking, all I can handle is taking Ginny to her allergy shot once a week and doing my grocery shopping at Walmart (*SIGH*). Is it crazy and terrible that I hate leaving my house? It's not like I'm a hermit or anything. I just hate driving and when we go out somebody always misses a nap or a snack and someone (or everyone) always ends up crying and, I don't know about you, but that really kills my buzz. People don't say that, do they? Whatever. It stinks. 

We did manage to have a little fun (mostly accidental), despite my failures as an activities coordinator. And since I finally got a smartphone (WHOO-PA-DEE-DOO!) I actually took pictures of some of it. Ah, the wonders of this modern age. 

We met Granny for dinner at Cracker Barrel when Trav was out of town.

We went to the Splash Pad and Livy wore her green hat.

I took Ginny to the movies a couple of times. She loved it. And ate a lot of popcorn.

We saw Aslan at Goodwill. 

 We (okay, just Ginny) played with inchworms. 

We took silly selfies.

See? Even Alice thinks it's best if we just stay home.

We (okay, just Ginny again) played Fairy Princess.

 Cora... well, I don't really know what to say about this.

Livy had bed-head...

... and read books with Sissy. And yes I am going to paint the girls' room. But not in either of those colors. And I don't know when. Eventually.

Also, it rained. It rained a lot. And I got trapped in my car, in my own drive-way, with a sleeping toddler and the only reasonable thing to do was to just wait for it to clear up. So I took pictures with my phone and listened to the BBC A History of the World in 100 Objects podcast. Nerd alert.

This darling girl was serving salt and pepper to her baby doll, and talking so sweetly to her. Actually, that was my blond, blue-eyed baby doll when I was a little girl. Who'd have ever imagined that I would one day have a blond, blue-eyed real baby of my very own?

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The Inconstant Gardener -- an update

Look! My garden is still alive! And what's more we have eaten and enjoyed the fruits of my (minimal) labor! Wonder of wonders. These pictures were taken pretty early in the day, and you can see that the sun exposure isn't terrific, but things seem to be coming along reasonably well in spite of that.

I forgot to plant thyme initially and realized that I simply can't live without it (Who can?) so I plunked some down in the middle of everything else. I think it will be fine. It throws off the symmetry, but I'm learning to live with that kind of imperfection. The citronella is growing like mad, but sadly doesn't seem to be any good at keeping the mosquitoes from turning me into an all-you-can-eat buffet when I go out in the evenings. Ginny regularly picks fresh mint leaves to eat when she's playing outside and I have plans for some homemade Backyard Mint ice cream sometime in the very near future. We have had several strawberries -- only one at a time, unfortunately, but Ginny gets a big kick out of picking them when they are ripe and is generous enough to share a nibble with Livy and me once in a while. Next year I will plant more. Ginny also picks the catnip for Alice and Cora but they don't seem at all interested in it. Maybe I should try drying some? I go out nearly every day to pick fresh herbs for something I'm cooking. This makes me very happy.

The tomatoes are getting tall and 3 of the plants have tiny green fruit on them. The fourth has a few blooms, I think, so I am hopeful. I've been pruning them -- removing all the branches from the bottom 12" or so of the stalk, and picking off the suckers when I can find them. I hear that helps. We'll see. The marigolds haven't grown much. I may be deadheading a bit too aggressively. Something has been eating my pepper plants, so I don't know if they are going to make it, but I cut the tops off a few onions the other day to use in a recipe and they've already grown back! Did you know you could do that? I put in a yellow squash that is going to need a lot more space eventually, but maybe by then the lettuce will be done and I can pull those plants out to make room. I also planted some zinnia seeds that I hope will bloom. I like having flowers between the vegetables. All of the Romaine lettuce I planted died. Too much rain? I don't know, but the red leaf is happy as can be. When we came home from the mountains, Ginny and I picked lettuce. A lot of lettuce. Some to eat and some to share. That's what gardens are all about, right?

This is all very experimental. I really have no idea what I am doing. I just put stuff in the ground and see what sticks. Every year I learn something. What works and what doesn't. What we'll actually eat and what we won't. Every year I do a little better, and if that translates to every year we eat a little better then that's enough for me.

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Les Poissons

Last weekend we drove over to East Tennessee to spend a few days in the Smokies. Of course we had to check out the aquarium in Gatlinburg. Not bad for a bunch of fish.

Olivia loved it. She was constantly pointing and saying, "Whassat?" 

Livy loves fishes, especially the big ones.

This is the famous Shark Lagoon, a 340-foot long tunnel through shark-infested waters.

Ginny petted the horseshoe crabs. 

And got up-close and personal with some jellies.

 

I call this one "Accidental Self-Portrait with Penguin."

Nice place, but I didn't want to live there. (Do click on that link, if only to see how small and adorable Ginny was two years ago when we visited the aquarium in Chattanooga -- where I do want to live.)

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