More pictures

 

Down to the Water with Grandmom

Taking in the scene.

 

Silly fun!

 

Touching the Ocean.

More Pictures

 

Frolicking in the Waves

Looking at the view.

 

Leif found the Moon!  I don't think I got it in he picture, though - it was only a faint sliver.

 

Kaboom!  Firing the canon at the fort.

Weekending

 

 At St. Augustine Beach

Grandmom and Granddad flew in on Saturday morning, and we drove the very long way to get them (it took us longer to drive there than it did for them to fly!) - but that's life when you live no where near an airport!

We spent all day Saturday in St. Augustine, exploring the sites, and made a quck trip to St. Augustine Beach to see the Ocean.

On top of Castillo de San Marcos.  Three generations of handsomeness, eh?

 

Inside the lookout turret atop the castillo.

Looking out over over the view and being a little silly.

On Sunday, Grandmom and Granddad took Leif to the Jacksonville Zoo.  Leif told everyone he met with, "We're going to the zoo!" all excitedly.  And I mean EVERYONE he met with - hotel staff, strangers walking their dog, you name it.  It was rather cute.  Not only did he get to see all of the animals, but the zoo has a train ride around the zoo.  Naturally, Leif rode it three times.

While they were at the zoo, Jason and I went out to a quick lunch, then to Penzey's, then to Whole Foods to fortify our pantry with whole grains, natural sweeteners, and other such lovelies. 

Then we all drove home, fell in to bed, and spent Monday recovering.  We're all a little zombie-ish today, but hopefully tomorrow we'll awake bright-eyed and bushy tailed!

I have more pictures, but honestly, I'm too lazy to post them right now. 

You like the new header? (Reader/Email subscribers, hop on over to the site to check it out!)  On Thursday, I chanced to glance out the window, and there were hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of birds - mainly white pelicans and flocks of cormorants, feeding and flying just beyond our island (and stretching across our entire view).  They moved around, following the fish, eating, flying, eating, flying.  I've never seen anything like it.  My camera didn't really do it justice (didn't have a zoom lens on me), but still, you get the gist of what it must have looked like to see birds as thick as that almost as far as the eye could see!  It was truly spectacular. 

Anyway, off to bed now.  Happy nights.

Weekending

The sunrise on Saturday morning, all a-blur thanks to my ever-wobbly hands. I thought it looks rather like a watercolor painting, though, don't you?

We had a wonderful busy weekend.

Jason was home the whole weekend, which is a rarity among rarities.

We spent the whole weekend working around the house, trying to check things off the giant list I'd created (all due for completion by today, the Ides of March). Most of them were not completed, as I expected they would not from the beginning (I'm not a pessimist - the list was to light a fire beneath us and get us to act!)

We scraped walls, patched them, washed them, and primed them.

We amended the soil of the old garden bed by adding gobs of composted manure. Gobs, I tell you, gobs.

We dug up three new garden beds.
Later in the week, we'll mix in composted manure and peanut mulch and smooth it all out to prepare it for planting.

We'll also be building trellises from bamboo poles to help the tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, luffa, and anything else that likes trellising, grow.

We completed the "Birdhouse Project" which is basically a slew of birdhouses nailed up to the front of our house in a row. Here is a straight on view - I'll post more pictures later that give you a better idea. That's the main garden bed - all that dirt piled up in front of the house. :)

We made two big batches of Granola. Then we ate it for dessert with Greek Yogurt and fresh Strawberries while watching silly movies. Heaven.

We decluttered the yard from all the debris that had collected after several straight days of rainy windy weather. Some of the fallen branches were heavier than Leif, but they're on the burn pile now, ready to burn!

We planted herbs in terracotta pots. I decided to grow herbs in pots this year instead of taking up too much space in the garden. I may still plant doubles in the actual garden where other plants didn't take. The pots, otherwise, would sit empty in the garage, and that seems like such a waste!

Talking on the phone to Grandmom and Granddad. We've moved on from the 80s and have a new phone now - a cordless wonder (ooooooh!) so maybe now we can hold an entire conversation without buzzes, breaking up, or muted tones interrupting the call. What a dreamy thought!

We pruned all the Hibisci and tossed the prunings on to the burn pile (we have at least 6 hibisci, plus we pruned everything that looked as if a pruning might do it good. We'll see whether "good" is actually what happens.)

We made and froze chicken broth. Isn't that exciting?

When I say We, I mean WE scraped the walls down. As Leif always says, "We allllll woorrrrrk TOgether!!!" Notice the artwork - Leif and Willie did that some time ago with painted toys - apparently they leave their color behind when rubbed on the wall. Who knew?

When you're 3'3", you need a little boost to reach those high spots! (Yup, we measured the little guy this weekend, too!)

So, now we're on in to the week, and we're still keeping busy. I have loads more of things to check off my to-do list before Grandmom and Granddad arrive this weekend. Then, after their visit, I have a large NEW to-do list to complete. Will the fun never cease? :)

Hope you had a good weekend and enjoy a lovely week!

You Want a Piece of Me?

Below is a video (does it work, does it work?) of an example of some very bad mothering on my part: Leify eating Doritos while singing his version of Britney Spear's "Piece of Me" - one of my workout songs. He's never actually heard the song, he just hears me singing it while I am listening to my ipod. Her version says, "You want a piece of me?" in an angry tone while Leif's version is a sing-songy, "You want a piece of Leify?" over and over and over. Normally, he sings more clearly, but the excitement of being on video and the cheese Doritos being stuffed in to his mouth make him a little mumbly. Enjoy!

What We've Been Up To

Leif comforts Willie, who had just been dropped off by his Momma, and he was missin' her terribly. I was holding Willie, trying to make him feel better, and Leif said, "Mommy, let me hold him!" Leif is only and inch or so taller than Willie, so that didn't seem so feasible. So, I sat Leif in the chair, set Willie on top, and Leif held and cuddled him, saying, "Don't be sad, Willie, your Momma will be back later" and other comforting things. He patted him on the back, rubbed his head (ooh, fuzzy!) and gave him kisses. After around 90 seconds of this sadness, they both were up and being chased by "Ghosts" around the house and they played happily the rest of the day.
:)

It's been a pretty dull week around here (I LOVE dull weeks!)

Leif and I have been working on projects together, playing trains, reading books, and cleaning (he likes to put the silverware away from the dishwasher, as well as his own dishes) and having a jolly good time.

I scraped down the bedroom walls, finally. Then I'll be needin' to spackle and patch the bare spots before priming and painting. All very scary for me because I've neve done that on my own (or really, much at all) but I'm resolved to start getting more things done myself without relying on Jason, who is crazy busy right now. I'm capable of doing it, so I'm just trying to focus on getting it done. We only have the bedroom, living room, and kitchen to do, and then we're done - finally!

I have a whole list of projects that I'm trying to finish by a certain date (an arbitrary date I picked at random - coincidentally, the Ides of March - cue the Twilight Zone music!) Since that is only 9 days away, I'm pretty certain a number of them won't be accomplished, but I'm pleased that I'm getting so many done, little by little, every day! If I hadn't had a goal, none of it would have gotten done, so I'm happy that most of the projects WILL be done by then. After all - If you aim for nothing, you'll hit it!

We had a day of really high tides this week - I think it was the highest I've ever seen it.

I think it was just the wind blowing it in, so I wasn't worried about it - it still had a long way to go to reach the house!

I took these pictures an hour or so before it peaked - it still came in quite a bit more after this!

The line of little shrubberies (Bring meeee....a shrubbery!) marks the end of the yard.
As you can see, the water came up well past that and engulfed our Burn Pile, the pile of yard debris in the middle there.

This is what was left of Hawk Bath Key - the little island right off of our dock.
A few tops of plants were left out of the water - that's it!

Taken from the dock toward the house.
Where I was standing is where the yard ends, which is where the highest tide normally reaches.

Fun, Fun!

It was actually a very pretty day (I love wind!)

There have been little signs of Spring popping up - we saw our first blossoming tree the other day, and a second one a few days later, near our house! Yay, Spring!

Anyway, I'm off to work on some projects - Happy Weekend!