A Lovely Saturday

** Edited to add this link for a book-sale finder in your area. You subscribe and they send you an email with the big sales near you! I've belonged for years now, and it's a great service. --Leila -- sorry to barge in on Rosie's post. MWAH. **

I don't know about you, but I find that weekends can be tricky to balance. On the one hand, there is the need to relax. On the other, there is the urge to run around and get things done.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~


Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

I'm a non-coper. I admit it. I don't cope too well. That's why our last post was, let's see -- {pretty, happy, funny, real} from last week! Wow.

When it's 100° and a godforsaken amount of humidity, I fold. And yet the dryness! I never water my garden, but I relented in this case. Things were turning crispy out there. I don't know how you Texans survive.

My soul starts to get a little crispy.

Note the hose. From the previous, more crispy weather pattern.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~


Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

{pretty}

This part of the island is where you are now.

Once, thanks to the generosity of friends, we had a vacation on a small island off the coast of Maine. It was lovely. There were basically two places to buy anything, and one hotel. There was beach on every side. Sigh. We stayed in a cute house and thoroughly enjoyed everything about it. (That house was where I got the idea for the colander over my kitchen sink light. Only, that was supposed to be temporary until I got a tin fixture like the one they had.)

The one place to buy something was a little general store that was open for a few hours every day. It was a longish walk from the house and everything cost so much because everything had to be brought in on the ferry. The other place was a gas station you had to drive to in the old clunker left by the owner -- everyone on the island has an old clunker to drive and also at least one dead one in their yard, because it costs too much to ferry the dead ones back to the mainland. Other than the dead cars, it's very pretty there.

We were getting gas and took it into our heads to need to know whether this gas station was further from the mainland than the store -- was it east or west? Not sure what we were getting at. Neither did the geography-free teenager pumping the gas. She was completely flummoxed by the question (and I just don't remember exactly what we asked her, it was probably dumb).

After a few awkward moments she extricated herself by saying,


"This part of the island is where you are now."

Bridal shower gift, thrifted, boughten, and homemade.

Is it just me or has the price point on bridal shower gifts been ratcheted up to a new level?

It's not hard to process veggies for the freezer!

Aren't I a blogging phenom for not putting all this into Wednesday's post?

A pan set I found at a yard sale. It all nests together. I got it for camping, but it's useful for macaroni and cheese (there are so few of us now!) and blanching veggies in small batches.

{pretty, happy, funny, real} -- Suki edition

  ~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~


Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

{pretty}

You don't hear from me much on LMLD, mostly because I've been working my way through a couple of extremely busy years of teaching. Since I switched schools last summer (and added an entire subject area), I basically had two first years of teaching in a row.

Now I'm about halfway through my first real teacher vacation (last year I was working two jobs, one of which did not abide by the academic calendar), and let me just say: the Potomac is very pretty.

Bees and Peas: Two DIY-ers puttering around.

Twenty years ago, if you had asked me and Phil if we saw ourselves putting up veggies and keeping (and losing) bees, we probably would have demurred. Only because we truly wanted to do those things but had no idea how!

We are thinkers, not so much doers. We are over-thinkers. We are talking about thinking about doing, someday-ers.

Dear Auntie Leila: Are fairy tales always appropriate?

Dear Auntie Leila,

I came across your blog a few months ago.  I love it.  I come from a bad background to say the least, am a convert and an only child, and am feeling my way through this whole child raising, possible homeschooling...thing.  Your wisdom has helped me tremendously.  I love how you take things down to the basics and tell us things that we would only get from a loving aunt (if we had one).

I have been devouring your series on reading.  I have a 4 1/2 year old that is basically forcing me to teach him to read! Also, on your recommendation, I read the Abolition of Man and also Landscape With Dragons by Michael O'Brien.

Now that I have those two books in my head, I was thinking of introducing fairy tales to my children (the others are 2 and a newborn).  I ordered a collection of the Grimm brothers fairy tales and a collection of Andrew Lang's tales. I can't believe I've never read any of these!  But, I'm unsure about introducing some of the more...violent or scary tales at this point to the kids.  I've been reading the Andrew Lang book myself and am enjoying it and making a note on the tales I'd like to read to the littles.  But last night I read The White Cat, and though it's a great story, the whole chopping off the cat's head thing gives me pause.  And I wonder if I'm being too squeamish? 

A few weeks ago I read the story of St. George and the Dragon to my son, and he spent the entire weekend hunting and killing dragons.  That's fine, especially since he was "protecting" his sister, and he had great fun, but some fairy tales (especially those from Grimm) seem to border on the bizarre.  I'm not sure if I should just let this go, and get my adult brain out of it and let the kids enjoy the stories or not.  (I know I'm enjoying them.)

Anyway, what are your thoughts/advice?

Thanks for all you do!

God bless,

Candice 

Dear Candice,

Oh, your letter makes me just so sorry about what has been lost in so short a time!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ Observation Hive Edition!

  ~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~


Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{Note on linking: We love having you! It makes our week and makes us so happy that you are stopping by to share our little moment! Please remember to link back to our site from your {phfr} post, and also to leave a comment here on this post! Thanks! We visit each and every one of you!}

What is an observation hive, you ask?

In which I deconstruct a grilled supper and give some recipes, according to my fashion.

By the way, you guys were so very forthcoming about Bridget's hair possibilities! Love it! Thanks for chiming in, that was fun! We'll see what she decides :)

Quick little lap quilt.

When you quilt, especially the way I do, which is to walk up to people and tell them how much you like the print of their skirt and would they give it to you when they are done with it or preferably sooner, people often give you bits of fabric.

Bridget's hair. Tell us what you think!

It's getting somewhat back to normal around here. Under that mercifully thick head of hair there is a long scar and some shaved head! Mama is back to brushing and braiding hair! (I kind of miss that. Our daughters' hair was always brushed and braided or barretted back in some pretty way.)