Hello old friend

Do you ever have a tender spot in your mouth, that you know hurts, but you kind of push at it with your tongue, to see if it still hurts just as much as it did last time?

If so, you perfectly understand why I drive by our old house sometimes when we go to NY.

The exquisite sharpness of the pang of pain has not dwindled much, if at all. 

To be sure, she had her issues.  She needed new siding, and only one of the three bathrooms had been updated. The kitchen was spruced up, but was still mostly original. 

And stink bugs.  Oh my.  Every morning there would be a new clan of stink bugs that had moved into the family room

But still.

She had five acres and a beautiful driveway, and five bedrooms and a basement.

And memories.  She had so many memories.  Parties and playdates.  New babies brought home.  Christmases and Easters and all the days in between.

The new owners have done a lot of outdoor work, and it looks like they are working on the shutters now. 

Slower Saturday–

Marie and Tab had a chance to do a women’s self-defense class this morning.

While my backyard view is much, much different than it was in NY, I am trying to focus on what is nice about it.

And I made cookies.  I never make cookies.  They were very good.

Record breaking snow–SC style!

We could hear the precipitation starting late last night and woke this morning to real, actual, honest-to-goodness SNOW.  You know  -  that white stuff I’d been told over and over again “never happens” in our area.  Sure, we’d get a dusting once or twice a year, I’d been told.  “But it doesn’t stick,” I was warned. 

And then we set a record.

Four inches that brought the city to a halt.

At least we had lots to do to keep ourselves busy!  We hung this cupboard in the little storage room…

and I started the wall paper in the powder room…

and I put the last touches on our new little table…

and we finished this photo project.

I doubt we will have another snow day for a few years. 

Oh–that the whole New Year would be this fun!

What a thrill to start 2022 with so much fellowship!

Mid-day, Stewart got a text from Dustyn that he and his fiancé Abby would be driving through Greenville.  We were tickled that they could join us for dinner.  Meanwhile, we had been looking forward to the Magins joining us for NYDay for weeks. 

Weather nice enough to eat outdoors is for SURE delightful in January!

These two in particular really warmed my mommy-heart.  They’ve always gotten along so sweetly.

Warm and Wonderful Wednesday? (Katriel would say so.)

The cold snap from last week is gone, and 3/4 of the big “kids” tossed the football a little while.

Wednesdays are on the busy side, so it was nice they got out for a while.

After AWANA and youth group, John and I took Johanna and Tabitha home and took Katriel on a clandestine trip to Walmart.  She didn’t know what was up. 

Even as we got to the bicycle aisle, she was just enjoying looking at them and talking about them.  It was clear she had not figured out what was going on.  I gently said, “Katriel, we brought you here so you could get a new bike.”

She developed a happy, yet shy, smile as she absorbed that.  She was clearly touched and immediately suggested any one would be fine.  We identified that the one she had recently been standing closest to was, in fact, one she liked a lot, and she was careful about trying it out to make sure we were all sure about it.

John and I began to discuss the helmet situation at home.  Here she perked right up.  She was able to describe all the helmets we had, and I knew that the one she’d been wearing most often was from when Nigel was about 8.

So she picked out a helmet to.  She knew exactly what she was looking for. 

Not too many Butlers have gotten brand new bike.  Truth be told, we’ve barely been bike riders up until now.

**The next day – she named the bike… Monica.  ♥

s’mores in SC

Here we are enjoying a little backyard fire time.

Definitely NOT thinking about the fact that there are creatures in this backyard that never lived in our old backyard.

I’m sure there were NO snakes anywhere near me and certainly not a single spider was at all close by.

Have I mentioned how much I miss my old yard?

It’s a mess out there

but he is making the most of the layout. 

Love my boy.

Hope I learn to love my back yard.

Ok – here is something cool.  Our back yard backs up to a cow pasture.  The cows and calves can often be seen in the trees behind our fence.  We get a good glimpse of them from some of the upstairs bedrooms.  Way cool, right?

Tiny New Friends

We have squatters.  The delight Katriel to no end.  She hasn’t caught one yet.

These were taken a week apart in different parts of the yard. 

Not going to lie – I called Nigel down to look at the first guy to make sure it wasn’t an alligator. 

A new insanity…

We were prepping the house for the realtor and the photographer to come tomorrow to take pictures for when we list the house.

We noticed a LOT of dandelions had popped up overnight.

Yes – she has scissors and a basket.

I’ve now done everything.

I hate winter

and I missed my dentist appointment.

It’s 62F in Greenville, SC today, by the way.

Just keep staining, just keep staining.

Having a large deck that we never use is so much fun to maintain. 

Keep on keeping on…

We heard late last night that WDW would be closing Splash Mountain and turning it into a new attraction.  This ride is special to Marie, so she drew a commemorative picture.

Then some of my own princesses dragged branches up to the road.  Daddy has been trimming trees.  More. Yard. Work.

Yard guy

A three day weekend found Daddy ramping up the yard work.  We normally do the minimum, but we are dialing it up this year (because there is nothing else to do).

This COVID nonsense now has us spending so much time at home that we are spending so much money and time on home improvement.

That said, he’s opted to plant less than usual this year.  But he did clean the garden up a lot.  I’m working to take nice photos of the yard this year.

More summer–More swimming

Some of the nicest summer weather we’ve had in years.  How wonderful that we haven’t been limited to one super hot week last July and then it’s jeans weather again!