roaring run

I haven't had time to take a breath lately. Every time I turn around the dishes are piled high and there are bags of wet towels that have been sitting for too long. It hit me this week that we don't have much time before school starts, so we had lots of lake days and ice cream.  We went on a grand hike with friends at Roaring Run. John was the oldest kid along, and he kept trying to sneak into the fast moving water. My friend Anne took some pictures of the kids. It was a gorgeous hot day, and the kids picked wineberries and put their feet in the icy cold creek. Ruby stripped down to her underwear and got in a pool until her head hurt from the cold.

west virginia

We just spent a week in Pocohontas County, West Virginia in a log and stone CCC cabin at Watoga State Park.  It is so off the beaten path that there is no cell service and no internet. The woods were full of blooming rhododendron, and we hiked a cranberry bog, and a gorgeous series of waterfalls. This is Ella at the Cranberry Glade.

sweet appalachia

John and I joked that we must be doing something right when we realized we were seeing incredible live music two nights in a row last weekend. On Friday we heard Anna and Elizabeth, Town Mountain,  New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters, and Asheville poet and storyteller Minton Sparks.  Minton has been described as the love child of Flannery O'Connor and Hank Williams, and she was mesmerizing.

On Sunday we drove over to the next county and saw Chatham County Line in a big white tent next to cow field. It had just thunderstormed and was cool and misty. The power was out so the band ditched the stage in favor of the middle of the tent. There might have been fifty people there. And a few cows.  It was gorgeous.

We didn't have to drive on any interstates, and the only money we spent was on ice cream cones and beer.

I love summer.

rooster

happy camper

Each kids got to chose one camp this summer, and Ruby's started yesterday. She is riding horses and learning 'Franch".

seven

a very exciting day in my class

tree swallow

13 rocks

Ren and Joe got her a fabulous electric guitar recently, and she finally let me take a few pictures of her. She has a wildly good voice, and is deep into her second year of guitar lessons. {Before that, she took five years of violin lessons.}

may

every day I write the book

It is definitely spring when Authors' Tea starts at our school, and having three children means a whole lot of nights listening to stories written by all the classmates.  Ruby and John had theirs this week and Ella's is on May 6. Ruby's story was about a fairy named Ding and her adventures with a dragon. John's story was Minecraft based, but he promises that next year his story will be completely "out of game."

#doubleexposurelove

sunday coffee

sometimes the best toys are not toys

A friend needed a place to keep her piano for a few years. I think this is the perfect spot. Not everyone has a piano in the kitchen, but for me the kitchen is really the "family room" and heart of the house. As of today, my heart is beating a bit louder.

springing

This appeared in two days.

green days

This was my one time out of the house today when I wasn't attached to a dog leash.  A few months ago I bought the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I read it, but then I didn't have time to actually complete the process. Today I dove in. Little John's room now smells like mint, and all of his clothes are organized.  We purged relentlessly, and he loved it. He feels like his room is much more grown up, and he even found the cord to his keyboard. Ella gave him a lot of books that he wants to read, and we moved his furniture. He can still see mountains from his bed.

We rented our house out for the University's graduation on May 15, so I have until then to get the house more organized and pared down.

planting flowers

I planted some bleeding hearts today in the front border under our bedroom window. These in the picture are from our old house, but I hadn't gotten around to planting any here yet. Someone told me that Lake Smith had a huge border of bleeding hearts out front when this was her house. We still have her lilacs, peonies, and poppies, and the grape hyacinths are blooming in the grass. When we moved in the yard had been scraped and seeded with grass, but in the spring the flowers appeared and we could see the shapes of the old borders.

The top picture is Lake, her father, and her daughter Norma. They are standing in the front yard here, and our lane would be along the far fence line. That driveway in the picture used to go along the side of the house with the addition. Norma died in 2007 at the age of 81.

a new twist

weekending

The kids had a good time in Richmond, but by afternoon Ruby said, " Get me out of the city." She did like Perly's french toast topped with roasted apples.

chickenfeather

Yesterday she said, "Mama, I've learned something about myself. I'm a little bit boy." I like this, but to her being a little bit boy means that she likes dinosaurs, dirt, and playing with boys who don't go for a lot of drama.