On the Road

Good morning!!  It is the 19th of August and I am writing this from our car... inside the Seneca Nation in NY!  We left for a three-week cross-country trip yesterday.  Our first stop was Niagara Falls.  Amazing!  I had been once when I was in high school, but that was a few years ago.

We drive through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania on our way to see the falls.  We took a ride on The Maid of the Mist... and got soaked, of course.  But it was so beautiful!!  God's amazing handiwork.

We then found our campsite.  This was our first time camping... ever.  It went reasonably well!  We had hotdogs for dinner, got a decent night's sleep, and then are Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast as we packed up.

We're on our way to Indiana.  There's nothing we're really going to see there, but it gets us closer to Chicago, where we'll sight see on Wednesday.

I'll try to keep you updated, but no promises!

Teenagers!

Two-and-a-half years ago, I became the mom of a teenaged boy.  Scary, yes, but at that point I still had a preschooler and I felt fairly "young".

Yesterday, I became the mom of TWO teenagers when this sweet boy turned 13!  Hard to believe, but it's true!  We had coffee-cake muffins and sausage links for breakfast, clam chowder for lunch, and steak and fettuccine Alfredo for dinner - all his favorites!

I had made "Samoa" cupcakes last Wednesday for the first birthday celebration, then chocolate cake for Saturday (the second celebration), so I didn't have to bake anything for yesterday, as there were plenty of leftovers.

Happy birthday, sweetie!

Bluebells

Every spring, the Virginia bluebells pop up and we go and take pictures.  They look a little like fog or smoke if you're not really paying attention when you drive by the local streams and creeks.  We usually go out to Merrimac Farms and take a hike, finding frogs, salamanders, etc.

This year, we packed up the dog, drove out there...and found that they don't allow dogs.  <sigh>  We turned around, dropped off the dog, packed a lunch and started out again.  Instead of going "all the way" out to Merrimac Farms, we simply stopped at the little creek down the road from us.  Perfect!  A five minute drive, a creek for skipping stones, lots and lots of  bluebells, and beaver-chewed logs.  The kids had a great time, I got my pictures, and we were all happy!

Happy Easter!

I love going to church on Easter morning and hearing "He is risen" and joyfully responding "He is risen indeed!"  Thank you, Lord Jesus!!

After church, we grabbed the dog, went to my parents' house for Easter dinner, and then the girls did an Easter egg hunt.  They know there's no Easter bunny (they help buy the candy and some years they help fill the eggs!), but it's fun to get candy, right?  The boys are "too old" to do the hunt.  We set a rule a few years ago that 13 is the limit.  No more themed birthday parties, pinatas, Easter egg hunts, etc.   Don't feel sorry for the boys - the girls got SO much candy that they're sharing (and they did know ahead of time that they'd have to share).

This year was a little quieter than last , when we had Nana and Papa Mewes down here to celebrate as well.  They left for Vermont a week or so ago.

Birds

We have very much enjoyed watching the birds this winter.  We are one of the few families in the neighborhood that feed the birds, so we had a LOT of birds.  One day, we had a dozen male and a dozen female cardinals in our birch tree!  This picture doesn't show all of them, but it's pretty close.


We have seen red-winged blackbirds (although their call is a tad annoying), goldfinches, blue jays (until we ran out of sunflower seeds and switched to thistle... then they disappeared), purple finches, house finches, sparrows of all sorts, red-bellied woodpeckers, juncos, titmice, and doves.

Snow

I spent a lot of my youth in New England, but I will tell you, I am gosh-darned tired of snow.  We live in Virginia, not Vermont!  The kids have loved the snow...me, not so much.  Here are some pictures.

Christmas and New Year's?

I went to post about this and cannot find any pictures of these two days.  How is that possible?  NO pictures?  Not even one?  I find that very hard to believe, so I'm going to recap a bit and then hunt down some SD cards and see if I can find anything...anything at all.

Christmas was lovely - as always.  I do love Christmas carols and the cookies we bake for everyone.  It's always good for us to get our eyes off ourselves and look to others' needs.

 My parents spent Christmas day with my sister and her husband, while Tim's parents came to church with us Christmas Eve, then home to our house for our traditional "German" spread (cold cuts and rolls), and then presents!

The next morning we opened stockings, had cinnamon rolls, pomegranate, pineapple, and bacon.  Cleaned up from that and started making lunch - beef tenderloin, twice-baked potatoes, Caesar salad, and shrimp.  Then, I officially closed the kitchen!  There were PLENTY of leftovers and I was TIRED!

My parents and the in-laws returned to celebrate Christmas all together on New Year's Eve.  We all draw names, so that's when we exchanged gifts.  My parents went home to take care of their chickens and cat, then returned to have chicken-fried steak for lunch.  At least we eat well for our holidays!

Oh, and I found some pictures.  Not all of them, but a few.  <whew>