How true is THAT statement? My health has been...unpleasant for the last several months and while I understand the duty of maintaining my good health I don't always feel as though I have as much control over that duty as I would like. I am not complaining, just making observations.
The strong and clear mind is really the first thing that slips away from me when I'm not feeling well. As I've been gaining more sleep I've also been gaining more energy as well as the clarity and strength of mind that has been sorely lacking in my life. Regaining what has felt lost is helping me to pull together life now and, as best as possible, life in the future. Andrew and I discuss frequently how our plans have to be incredibly flexible because we recognize the mercurial ways of life. At the moment, one of the things on my goal list is to jump back into writing. Writing, for me, has always been cathartic however actually sitting down and making it happen can be quite taxing. BUT...I'm doing it anyway, dammit, because I'm finished with feeling like I let little things like being tired or uncomfortable beat me down. So there, life!
There! That's all out. My thought is to sum up what the family does on the weekend. Let's face it, the week is pretty dull. The guys head off in the morning for work and school and I do the house wife thing at home. The guys come home, we all hang out, then we all go to bed. Normal, family life. The weekends are what I look forward to the most. I try to find something for us to do, either free or super cheap, each weekend. This weekend was the Tulip festival in Mount Vernon.
On a previous outing with the family we had stopped at Cafe Ladro, a little coffee shop that purchases beans from Andrew's place of employment. We, naturally, wanted to try out the coffee. Quite satisfactory, as were the little bakery treats we each chose. On the way out the door there happened to be a local paper open to a story about the Tulip Festival. I had just been reading a book that had mentioned something about this area being particularly good for growing bulb flowers and I figured we maybe needed to check this out.
Sunday morning we woke up early, I made brownies, packed us a picnic and fixed fried egg sandwiches for all of us for breakfast. Once we had our travel mugs and water bottles filled, the dogs leashed and everyone packed down with the days necessities, we were on our way out the door.
This dog loves being in the car.
She also loves hanging out with her boy :)
Driving by fields of daffodils.
I had no idea tulips could look like peonies...
Rosie's turn to snuggle.
Reminders of friends everywhere we go. Maggie Miller :)
We felt like we really didn't get a chance to stretch our legs quite as much as we had hoped while at the festival. At least, I didn't think so. And I wasn't ready to head home just yet. We found a sign for a state park and beach and I said lets go. Thankfully I travel with two guys that are, more often than not, open to exploring new places as well.
Summer plans, anyone? I still haven't rented a cabin at any of the parks I've ever been to but I'd really like to someday.
Of course he wanted to try to find a way to climb up there. Thankfully, he realized there were few strong grips for him to be able to make a safe climb. I love that the men in my family want to climb all over everything they see but the worried mom comes out over some of their choices. This was one of them.
Another reminder of friends we love! Star Trek will ALWAYS and forever make me think of Megan...along with about a million, trillion other things I see or do daily. And the green outback brings to mind our dear friend John Tod. The people we have left behind are never really far from us and are missed deeply by each of us.
Tulips from my husband as a tribute to our weekend plans and a bowl full of candy to commemorate the commercialism and sugary goodness of the holiday...not to mention my pregnant weakness to say yes to my son who felt Easter was incomplete without jelly beans. I had to have the black jelly beans as my holiday tribute to my father who would and could finish off an entire bag on his own. I don't know how old I was when I realized why he loved the bizarre sweet and spicy taste of those little candies but I do remember the shared moments of jelly bean love between me and my father. It's the little things that are so very precious. Like tulips and jelly beans.
So that was Sunday of this past weekend. Saturday was a day of errand running for Andrew and me. Nothing super exciting although our run to goodwill was pretty darn awesome. I love when we leave with four things and spend less on all of them than we would have for any one of them had we bought each item new. I got a new dress for $3! And it looks new and I can mix it up in about 20 different ways which is KEY for me and the clothes I wear. We were also able to find a few of the other things that I keep holding off on buying when we are on a Target or Fred Meyer run. I have a really hard time buying anything new until I've had a chance to look at it second hand first and I must say I am grateful for this frugal tendency. And I have fun going on the hunt for that just right item :) Makes my day...or week. Whatever.
I don't really know what we have planned for this weekend. Saturday Andrew is attending a specialty coffee event where he will be preparing coffee and representing Atlas Coffee Roasters. I know he's super looking forward to it and maybe I'll see if I can get him to write something about it. Aydan and I have been discussing watching horror movies together and eating popcorn. As for Sunday...don't know yet. There are a few places I have on my list to check out and I'm really feeling like I want a hike someplace...I guess we shall see :) Have a great rest of the week and weekend everyone!
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