No work weekend

This was Colin’s bachelor party weekend. Cameron was the official party bus designated driver.  I know they have had a good time, and I am so glad they sent me some photos. 

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 I did get a kick out of Cameron texting Saturday  morning saying “driving around Colin and his friends until 3 am and then having to get up to be at my corporate challenge tug-of-war tournament sucks—- do you think it would help if I wear eye black?  

Pretty sure eye black doesn’t fix lack of sleep, but if it does, I sure hope someone informs me!  

To perk up Cameron, I sent him a photo of his finished end table. He was pretty excited (or was it me who was so wxcitwd that  I decided to purchase him a lamp for the table as a house warming gift for his new apartment—— who knew there were so many hilarious lamp choices?).  More on that front later. 

I do still have to poly it,  but that is a minor detail.  I made my own chalk paint for this project. I love how it turned out!  And yes, I did plop this project right in the living room and watched tv while I painted. And stayed cool!  I’ll have to poly it outside, but this way was nicer than sitting outside in the hot weather! On to the next project- a bedside table for Harper. 

 

This weekend, we had nothing going on.  I didn’t  have to work. The kids seemed to not have plans and my calendar was empty.  Unheard of.  

I explained to Jim that I had about 200 things I wanted to do, and that I was only going to work on the things I felt like doing.  And the rest of the time, I wanted to relax.  Jim seemed to think it was a good idea. But then, I saw that it is blackberry season at the U-pick place.  BlackBerry U-pick doesn’t last very long, and I had promised the girls we would go. So a plan was hatched.  Evelyn has a summer bucket list (which I find hilarious) and one of the things on it was going to a splash pad.  Baldwin has one of those!  Madison was watching her friend’s boys, so as silly as it sounds, we took a 6 year old, a 4 year old and 2 not quite 2 year olds to pick blackberries, to 2 playgrounds and a splash pad!  We had 4 adult(ish) people to help - nothing could go wrong! 

And I was correct.  Impressed even.  We explained to the kids that we only pick the dark purple berries.  No red. No pink and definitely no green!   They did outstanding.  Sure, Camden and Wrenley ate a lot, but they had several in their buckets.  And when I got home and dumped them out to freeze, I only had one berry that wasn’t ripe.  One!  

Madison got a couple buckets worth to take home - I told her I would buy the berries, but she had to take Wrenley’s bucket because she was taking a bite out of each berry!  

I do wonder if Camden had a belly ache later in the day, as the kid probably ate 3 pounds of blackberries.  He had them running down his chin, all over his neck and hands and I’m pretty sure his shirt will be needing a moderate amount of stain stick!  

Also, maybe a shameless plug, but I love south Baldwin farms.  They are easy to deal with, have a great little store with already picked stuff for the less adventurous, and are super friendly and helpful.  And everything is easily accessible, well mowed and they have done everything in their power to make the picking easy and plentiful.  Definitely a place I will continue to go to! 

The splash pad in Baldwin is not very big.  Evelyn did not really care for it, mostly I think because I told them just to run in their clothes and they would dry while we ate lunch.  She told me she was taking splash pads off of her bucket list forever. (She is a bit dramatic like her aunt Mallory!). 

It was a fun excursion, but I created myself more work!   Currently I have berries on trays freezing so I can bag them up for later.  I have berries juicing out and being strained so I can make blackberry syrup.  I have berries set aside to a few other things with.  And when I went inside the store to pay for the blackberries, I realized they had peaches - already picked.  So I bought a peck.  I’m planning to just freeze them for later but it will be another job for me.  A worthwhile job, that I will be happy I did when I am happily eating sliced peaches, peach smoothies and maybe even peach pie this winter. No idle hands here!   

Today, Jim got up at the butt crack of dawn to go fishing with Andrew and their friend Bob.  They went bass fishing. Jim was excited because he had the big catch of the day.  He went fishing with Bob last week, and came home telling me he has plans to go back out with Bob this week as well.  I’m glad he is enjoying his time off.  Equally glad he has people to go fishing with him while I do other things!   ;)

Before he goes out again, I think he needs a haircut - he might fly away if I don’t get that mess tamed down!   

I was happy to see some much needed rain.  Maybe the farmers who are cutting wheat, or who have hay currently down don’t agree with me, but my garden needed a good soaking.  Who knew all I had to do to get it to rain was to light the grill?   I grilled kabobs for Sunday lunch in the rain!  Evie and Wrenley swam for a while with aunt Mallory, despite the pool being a tad bit on the green side (going to get the chemicals to fix that tomorrow) and despite it being a little chilly.   Girls are crazy about the water!  Jim is now taking a nap, the girls are off in their lairs, and I am happily puttering around with my projects.  It is a perfect ending to a low key weekend.