Hello!

Well hello there from sunny St. Charles! The kiddos and I are home at long last from our beach vacation in Michigan. I can honestly say that these last ten days have been some of the most relaxing days I've had in YEARS. Here's a quick run down of what we did:

We saw "pirate" ships (replicas of the Pinta and Santa Maria ships), we watched sailboats, we took long walks, went to the beach, worked in the garden, and ate what we picked from the garden. I learned how to use a riding lawn mower (be afraid, be very afraid) as well as learning my dad's "famous" pickled beet recipe-right down to the burning myself on the lids as I got ready to seal them up-whoops. I read seven books, I went yard saling with my mom, we took an emergency trip to the dentist for Bitsy (whoops-she's fine but it was a bit of a pain to have to do) we stayed up late watching crappy tv, I learned a LOT about my mom's family by not only asking questions BUT by listening to the answers. I played with my niece and nephews, I visited with friends, I looked at old photo albums and I enjoyed not having a well working cell phone and limited internet access.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid growing up on the beach was pick up beach glass; my prize piece was a piece of lavender glass (though I'm not sure where it is now) and this week while at my parents, I searched through rocks and weeds and grass for beach glass...and found some. My prize piece this week was a cobalt blue piece that was so soft and worn, I couldn't stop rubbing it. I think there's a lesson somewhere in the beach glass; if I'd have to guess I'd say that the lesson is that we all have sharp edges and sometimes just have to go with the flow to smooth them off and become something beautiful...or maybe there's no lesson at all and I'm having a post vacation hangover; either way, we're home and we're gearing up for our last week of summer vacation before school starts...I'll post a few pics in the next day or so of the kiddos on the beach :)