New experiences, zoo style

When I flipped the calendar to August I suddenly started to feel an urgency to start doing. Summer will be over before we know it.  I hadn't even taken the kids to do anything fun yet.
I thought a trip to the zoo would be fun for both kids, but Lilly didn't want to go. Sean did, so I asked if he wanted to invite his friend Kyle to go along.
We picked up Kyle and did the Point Defiance Zoo for a little while. I got the yearly pass so we are planning to spend some afternoons there when school starts. Sean and Kyle attend different schools, though, so I'm going to try to fit in another zoo trip before summer ends.
The zoo can be quite expensive. Once you get inside there are still a lot of things that cost. We've never done those extras, so I splurged this time and let the boys experience some new things.
Here are some highlights.

I think it was $2, but they enjoyed the
hurricane simulator in the aquarium building.

We've never ridden the camels, so I paid the $5 per kid for
this fun experience.

Luckily we were treated to a free show
by the ever-elusive octopus. This was only
the second time we've seen him or her. 

A voice inside

My schedule has changed. I am no longer a slave to deadlines and no longer at the beck and call of a staff of people. I am now free to schedule my days as I see fit, and I can actually spend some time doing things that need doing around the house. I can weed the garden, wash the car, even read a book, all without that nagging feeling that there are at least 5-10 emails that have arrived, sitting there waiting on me to check them.

It feels great. I am free. I have a very different job now that requires a different skill set. I am still adjusting, but I love it. I am on a break from most of my volunteer responsibilities this summer, so I have a lot more time to be home.

But because I have more free time my inner voice is very hard on me, and it's getting louder. It tends to compare me to some ideal, perfect person, and I never measure up. I do my best to ignore it.

The other day I looked around the living room and saw that the laundry I put in the chair to fold was still there because I got distracted by a phone call. The pile of things to take to charity was still in the same place I piled it, and the bill I set out to pay was still waiting to be paid. That voice asked, "What did you do all day? You've been here, and you don't have that demanding job anymore, so why can't you get all of this done?"

And for a moment I started to think, "Yeah. Why can't I get all of this done? This house should look like a showroom. What is wrong with me?"

But when I went through the list of things I did do, I realized I got a lot done. Before 10 a.m. I had two loads of laundry finished, breakfast made, the dishwasher emptied and reloaded. By 11 I was stripping the beds and putting on clean sheets. With that accomplished, I was on my way to scrubbing the downstairs bathroom. By noon that bathroom was scrubbed and the floor mopped. I made lunch, then went out to weed the garden and water the flowers. I did more laundry, and by 3 p.m. was on the road to return some items to the library. While I was out I stopped off at the paint store to turn in the application for credit for the business. I went to the church to set up the materials for Sunday school, and then stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and when I got home I made dinner.

That seems to quiet the voice for at least the rest of the day. But it always comes back. And now it's nagging me to get off the computer.

Life is Good

This was the view from our table on the deck. 

Last weekend we took the kids to lunch at Famous Dave's, then to see the latest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," movie, and then to their other parents for the weekend.

We visited Chuck's dad and stepmom on Friday night, who just moved to the area, and then we went out to eat at Olive Garden. Our waitress had just taken our order and brought us our glasses of wine and our salad when the power went out.
We waited a while, and our waitress came back to give us the bad news. Those entrees we ordered weren't coming. Our dinner was salad, a breadstick, glass of wine, and a dessert to share. Good news was that little bit of food was free.

Saturday was really warm, so I suggested we eat at a restaurant with outdoor seating. I was thinking it would make up for the lack of dinner the night before, and I love eating outside when it's warm.

There is a restaurant in Port Orchard called The Lighthouse. They have outdoor seating, and it's right on the water.
We got there pretty late because we were running around, preparing for some concrete to be poured here in a couple of areas on the property. The sun had almost set completely by the time we were seated, but the view was incredible. I forgot my camera, so I got this shot with my phone. We literally could have jumped off the deck into the water. Our dinner was delicious. I had the lobster bisque and tortellini and Chuck had a steak.
We are so lucky to live here.
I have a beautiful home, wonderful kids, a great man, wonderful family, and so many other things that I am so thankful for each day. Being surrounded by beauty is one.

Bugs, a favorite around here

Summer is fading fast, and it seems like we haven't really done much. A study of the calendar revealed that I am going to be knee-deep in my regular volunteer activities within a week or so, and that means we have to pack in as much summer fun as we can-- pronto.
I needed to run a couple of errands the other day, but I also wanted to make sure we had fun on that outing. Sean has loved bugs and anything else that moves since he was old enough to realize they were around.  So off we went to the Bug Museum in Bremerton. It's a nice place with a lot of things to see, and it's FREE!
The museum is not very large, but there are a lot of things to see inside. Lots of bugs pinned to boards and labeled, some live insects and such, and even a few reptiles in the back.
Lilly was still with her mom, so it was just me and Sean this time around. We saw lots of great stuff, including a tiny praying mantis. Most of the living things were things we've seen before at the Bug Zoo in Monroe, Wash., but it was still fun. Now that we know it is so close we will probably visit more often.

We loved the larger-than-life insects around
the museum. Most of them were outside, but
this caterpillar was a great place to rest
for a minute. 

Sean liked this big spider named Boris.

For the love of color

I started using some foliage from unlikely plants
this year. 

I've been playing around with bouquets of flowers that grow around the house, and last week I decided to think outside the box. I gathered a lot of different greens from the plants we have growing around the property. I don't know their names, I just like the varying hues of green they produce, and the textures.

These are a few of the bouquets I liked best.

We grow a variety of  strawberries that produce really large leaves, and large berries. I used the strawberry leaves to add a little surprise to the arrangement. Oh, and BTW, those leaves last forever in a vase. I also used some Heuchera leaves in a couple of the bouquets and found that they also stick around for a while before they begin to wilt. I like the variety of color in the leaves.

The dahlias and zinnias are in bloom now.  I love this little vase. It's handmade pottery, and I got
it at our community fair for $5. 

I clipped this hydrangea a little early. It was white when I cut it, but after it was in the vase
for a few days the inside where the petals meet began to turn a beautiful blue. 

Wine Among the Vines

It was an evening of good wine, beautiful weather, lovely plants and flowers, art, a silent auction and some great finger foods. We also listened to live violinists. We had a great time at  Sunnycrest Nursery last week during the Wine Among the Vines fundraiser for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.

Our table.

A great escape

I am moody. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read books, and sometimes in the mood to not read and just be entertained by television or something other than books. I love reading, and I read something every day, but sometimes books are just too demanding. I have time to read a newspaper, but when my life is so busy, to commit to a book takes some doing. I always have a pile of books by the bed, though, and there have been times when I've had three books going. I love escaping into a book for a while. It feels like I've traveled to some distant land, or even back in time. Books are a great escape for me.

Right now I'm in a reading mood, which means I'll probably blaze through a bunch of books within a few months.

I just updated my list on this blog because I finished "State of Wonder" quite some time ago. It was a great book, BTW. It had me thinking for at least a week after I finished it, and that is the sign of a good book for me. In fact, I thought of it yesterday.

In the book there is a group of women in the Amazon who continue to have children into later years, and a scientist is there studying this, and some other things. I thought of it out of the blue yesterday because I realized how difficult it would be for us to have children into our 60s and 70s and beyond. Our bones can become brittle. Carrying a baby would be such a strain on our bodies, not to mention a delivery. (It was a great book.)

Before I had even finished that book I was aware that I would want to be reading another one right away. I love the library, but I am terrible at getting books read before they are due. Plus I just always forget when they're due and I'm not good at keeping that little slip of paper that tells me when they're due. I've never in all these years come up with a good system for keeping track of library books.

So instead I went to the thrift store. I knew those books would be older ones, but like I said, I get in moods and out of moods. There are a million books out there that were popular within the past few years that I never got to read because I didn't have time, number one, and secondly, I wasn't in the mood.

I got a bag full of books for about $6. Yes. $6. Amazing. I'm reading a little paperback book right now called "To the Wedding," by John Berger. The writing style is totally different from any other books I've read. I usually read it late at night, and maybe that is why it has been a little confusing to me. It feels like it jumps from one voice to another and I have to take a moment to figure out who is speaking.

I've read so many good books. There are a few that I want to re-read they were so good.
Some of my favorites that come to mind, and these are just a few:

The Dao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
The Devil in the White City--soooo good. by Erik Larson
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler Ross
There are so many more. What are your favorite books? Do you have a reading list this summer?