It was a very relaxing vacation.

It was a lot like camping on the water, but with beds and showers. We cooked, fished, ate, and swam. The kids tubed and jumped off the top of the houseboat. And I had some paper and pastels and water colors to play with... but I really don't like anything I drew.

Everyone jumped in

 

...the slide was fun too. They recommended that you use some of the dish detergent to get it really slippery. I was surprised by the suggestion, but it worked really well. (No, I didn't slide or jump. I'm chicken. But I did get in the water once or twice. Very slowly.)

The water was beautiful

 

The last night we fished a lot

...and I caught this one, which wasn't really very big -- but we cooked it and ate it anyway. We had to eat at least ONE fish, right?

 

You'll notice I don't actually TOUCH fish. Or bait.

The End

Here is the group shot on the last day, everyone survived. :)

 

Me, Frank, Nick and Steve separated from the Jacksons and we headed home for Jersey. It was a pretty long ride, but I was happy because I got to eat at a Cracker Barrel finally.

The post script to the vacation is that I've been home for several days now.

And I've been sea sick ever since I took the motion sickness patch off. Bah.

The thing about gardening

that you forget in May, when you plan to spend your entire summer in the garden, is that in Jersey in July it is just too damn hot to be outside!

 

Even so, my garden is doing fabulously well. It is huge and green and getting bigger. What it is NOT doing, currently, is producing anything you can eat. There are huge green vines that should eventually have string beans on them, and huge green leaves and flowers for the zuchini, and huge green plants full of tiny yellow flowers and a few small hard green tomatoes.

I suppose, eventually, I'll start getting a bounteous harvest. I'm a little worried, though. I need to get a LOT of veggies to make up for the money I've spent in the first place, starting the garden. Not to mention the money I spend on the water, watering it every day in this heat.

And I'm pretty sure that the harvest will start coming in at about the same time I decide to go away for a week. And Frankie won't know enough -- or care enough, anyway -- to pick the veggies. So by the time I get home, it will be all past its prime.

Or the squirrels will find the veggies before I do, and start nibbling. I've seen the little buggers hovering around the edge of the garden, just waiting.

Flutterbye

 

Nick was looking out the front door this morning, and found this butterfly floating through our garden. He kept his eye on it for me while I ran for my camera, and I managed to get a few nice shots before it fluttered away.

This is the reason I don't believe in putting weed killers or pesticides on my lawn...

I have to look it up and find out what kind of butterfly it is. We never see this kind around here.

I'll let you know what I find out...

(Jozien, you probably already know!) :D Anyone care to guess?

A Hopi Elder Speaks

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . .
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."
Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time!"
"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.
"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
"The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

-- attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder

Hopi Nation
Oraibi, Arizona


This post is a repost from Nancy at Life in the Second Half.

...and i have gone onto borrow it from Natalie's blog

Such profound words are meant to be shared...

Go on *You* know what to do

... And I borrowed it from Nolly Posh....

Sowing

It's a glorious day out, isn't it?
Another new beginning, another next stage... who knew there would be so many chances?
I'm sowing so many seeds, so many possibilities. I have no idea what will happen next.
Maybe it will become dark and gloomy and cold soon, but who knows?
For right now, it's beautiful, and I'm sure going to enjoy it!

Morning, Glory!

 

It's a beautiful day... and the beginning of the NEXT stage of my life, I guess! So far, all signs are excellent! I woke up bright, and early, I got some things done, I played around a while, I've had fun AND structure.

No tea-time this afternoon, as I have an appointment at 4, so I won't be home. Tomorrow, though, certainly!

And it's funny how much I've written today in the small amount of time I've had to write. I haven't felt in the mood to blog lately - but today, it all came back to me. Today, I'm excited about it again.

My time is my own, and it's beautiful!

Writing and painting

Good morning!
Long time no see, eh?

Well, I've been finishing up my career, and setting myself up for a nice summer at home. For some reason, I haven't felt like I have much to say lately. That's about to change, though. Even if I have nothing to say, once I'm out of work I'm planning on writing religiously. One of the bad things about being unemployed, for me,has been a lack of structure. So I plan on creating some structure for myself by alloting certain time to write, and certain time every day to paint, and certain time every day for tea. And I plan on writing even if I have nothing to say.

I have work today and tomorrow, and that's it. There are a lot of emotions associated with that, some good, some bad... well, I guess I'll have that to write about.

But that's not today. Today, I'm in work. I have tons of things to do before the end of my career :)
so I'll talk to ya tomorrow...

Prom Pictures... Just a few!

Two things

Thing one
and
Thing two


No, not really :)
they look cute

They're going
to the prom
(more photos tomorrow!)

That's one thing.






The other thing
is that I've finally gotten up the nerve
to be in an art show
October 9th

so I better get hoppin'!

Bucket Lists

Hi Mom :)

 

I'm writing on here again, sorry I've been away lately. I've been writing a lot on the Iselin blog, and it's been keeping me pretty busy. I'm trying to post something new every single day over there -- even when it's only a quote or a photo.
I figured I'd work on this blog again more consistently when I had time, after I lose my job, but I guess the truth is that I'll always have the same amount of time that I do now -- not lots of time, not ever. Busy busy busy!

So with losing my job, comes a new alignment of priorities. One of the things I've been thinking about a lot is ... what do I really want to accomplish in my life before I die?

I've thought about the "bucket list" -- the list of all the things you want to do before you kick the bucket. I guess in my case, I'm really thinking of all of the things I want to do before I get another job, because another job will probably mean longer hours than I've been working. If I'm lucky.

Other people have bucket lists with things like climb Mt. Everest and sky dive. I don't want to do those kinds of things, they aren't me. I've got much more modest goals.

So I'm going to start another list on my side bar over there >
and it's going to be all about the things I want to accomplish
and having it written down should help me focus on getting it done
Maybe?

That picture of me up there? It was one of the things that was on the bucket list
(like I said, I have very modest goals!)

I went to Gyp's Tavern up by KMSR this weekend.
All of the other scout leaders have been there. I never went. I always wanted to stay with the kids.
But the kids are certainly old enough to not need a mommy with them, and I wanted to have been to Gyp's at least once! So there I am, having a shot of Jack at Gyps.
It was lovely. :) It was totally worth it.

Happy Husband's Day!

Well... I just made that up, really. But I wanted to tell my husband how much I appreciate him, because I know he's having a bad week. Month. Maybe year? But really, dear, it's going to get better. (I'm playing the lottery. I've gotta win eventually, right?)

 

This is my husband. He's cute, isn't he? He's a very nice and nice looking guy. Everyone who meets him likes him. He's good-natured and pleasant, and he's very intelligent. He's strong, organized and a hard, fast worker. He knows how to get things done, and get them done in the shortest amount of time possible. Frank and I are opposites.

We've been married for a very long time. VERY long. He was my childhood sweet-heart, if you think about it. He's the second guy I dated, seriously. Seriously.
Frank is better known around here as Thor. I don't know how that got started, exactly. I have a few ideas, but nothing I'm certain about. But really, it's Frank. I hope he doesn't mind that I've outted his identity.

Frank has been working VERY HARD lately. He's done some SERIOUS work around the house, and that's not even mentioning the work he has to do at work. And work's been no fun for him lately, and he's been working there for a really long time. And he really doesn't complain (much.) All he really wants is a nice neat house, dinner on the table, a beer and his favorite tv show.

But, instead, he has me.

I don't clean very much, and I cook sporadically -- and what I cook is usually NOT the kind of food the serve on cooking shows. And I don't like the same kind of TV shows he likes; for example, I'll be watching Glee tonight. He won't.

Plus, I get cranky pretty frequently, from real or imagined aggravation - it's all the same. I guess I'm not very pleasant to be around, usually. And he puts up with that too.

So I thought about it, and decided it would be a good idea to say,

Thank you honey. I love you and I appreciate everything you are doing.
And I appreciate all of the times that you've bit your tongue when you stopped yourself from saying something that I would get pissy about.
And I'm sorry I've been pissy the last few days, I should know it's stress, not you.
And I appreciate the fact that you don't like going to work anymore, but you are stuck working because I'm being laid off, and besides, I wasn't making enough money to live on anyway.


And I hope you don't have to work TOO late tonight. I plan on making dinner. (Probably leftovers. But still, it's dinner.)

Sparks

 

It started out peacefully, beautifully.
But sometimes when you don't expect it, the atmosphere will just change. Maybe a wind blows some kind of spark around and it catches on something dry.
I don't know why. I still don't really understand.

Summer of Art and Flowers

I'm so tired of being at the mercy of my own mood swings. Yesterday was rainy and cold, and I was sleepy all day. Today is nice and sunny, and I'm full of plans and energy and good humor. This picture wasn't taken yesterday OR today, by the way.

So today, with my energy and good mood, I've got a plan for the summer. I want to consider this the SUMMER OF ART AND FLOWERS... and tea and wine and music and painting and books...

But I'm going to do something different than I usually do when I'm unencumbered by a job. I'm going to have a schedule, and be creative within my schedule. Because I've found from working that I am more energetic with a routine and a schedule that is forced on my from my job, but I sit around and wish I had more time for myself. And I have no deadlines so I can't decide what to do, and so I dither around quite a bit more. And I feel down, because no matter what I do, I'm not sure it's what I SHOULD do. But not this summer.

I'm going to have regularly scheduled tea, and I'm going to have a timetable set up for when I must clean, and when I must NOT clean. I'm going to make my summer of ART AND FLOWERS be all organized, and see if I enjoy it more.

I'm looking forward to it right now, that's for sure!!!

Happy Mama's Day!

It was a very full day today... and tomorrow... and the next day... lots to do, and my feet are killing me! But tomorrow is Mother's Day. Have a good one!

Not the most attractive picture of me. :D

We did have a lovely day yesterday... It was cool and sunny and lovely!