Little of this, little of that...

Wrapping up the weekend in photos mostly!

It was back into the 90's again, so not a whole lot of hard work done, mostly quick chores interspersed with fun!

Stuck inside doing laundry, I decided to contract out the potato digging -

We can always look forward to at least one mutant spud!

The kids found a chewed up looking Army guy hiding in with the potatoes...

Not too shabby of a harvest for a plastic piece of culvert and plain straw!

More frozen bell pepper strips -

Dried tomatoes, we use these like crazy in winter on hubby's pizzas and in hummus.

Finally a trip to the blueberry patch...

After that, we were covered in mosquito bites and too hot for work, so what better place to go than the beach?  We rode our bikes just a mile or so Saturday evening to stick our toes in and take in the salt air. 

Betty's bike bag continues to amaze me at the amount of stuff I can cram into it! (besides my stuff, there's 2 pairs of kids shoes and 2 shirts in there!)

Speaking of Betty...

Today was quiet and nice, thanks to hot temps and thunderstorms.  I was able to sneak away to the fabric store all by myself armed with 50% off coupons, an ideal way to spend a rainy day in my book!

This evening everyone is already asleep, except me of course.  Sleep is highly overrated for me, remember LOL?  Perfect time to work on some knitting...

  

Yes, those are 3 different projects... knitter's A.D.D.!

Friday Night Fun

I meant to have some photos of the declining summer garden, but hubby has my camera this morning on his bike ride.  I think this weekend will involve several bike outings with the kids instead of the garden since school starts back up in just a few weeks and with the heat we've been having I feel like the kids didn't get much of a summer vacation.  I hope we can give them at least a little bit of fun in the next couple weeks!

First, here's what I was making...

Red isn't really my thing, and I have nothing to match this bag except.....

....meet Betty!  Although I do have another "real bike", the one that I worry about it being lightweight and that takes oodles of abuse, but Betty is different, she's "a ride"...

So Betty has a bag now for all that random non-essential stuff that a barefoot beach bike needs, you know, like sunblock, sandwiches, cameras, a book, towel.  Notice Betty has a cupholder instead of water bottle cage - yes, Betty is definitely a ride.  Hubby laughs at Betty, I think he's just jealous.  I'm thinking of a sewing a seatcover or basket liner next, and maybe a matching beach quilt - maybe rigging up something big enough for Sprocket to ride in, like a milk crate!  I definitely don't worry about weight on this one, pile the junk on!  Hey mom, Betty is the bike we'll put you on when you get here, you'll love her!

Last night we rode down to the Boardwalk to take in a free concert.  Grant Austin Taylor was performing and I am a huge fan.  Not sure if you know about him but he's a kid who also happens to be an amazing blues guitarist.  I've been watching him since he was about 11 or 12, he's 15 now and will be going places, if he can free himself of the bubble gum sidekick...

We were a bit disappointed that last night's concert included none of his blues stuff, but he was doing a beach city tour with an up and coming young country girl and the event is part of our city's "FamFest" series, which features free family and kid friendly entertainment, so I guess I "get it"... let the Bubble Gum music roll... the tweens sure seem to like it.  To get an accurate representation of this kid's talent the rest of the time, check this out!:

More fun was had prior to the concert...

Loch doing the Limbo

Finn the Hula master!

Here's one of those rickshaw like contraptions in action, later that evening one of them almost took out Finnegan!

What the hey?  Where's the What Not to Wear crew when you need them?  Seriously, LOL?

  

The kids were slackjawed when she walked by LOL, as they were with the surfer dude evangelizing on the boardwalk railing.  I gotta admit, he was awesome LOL, but it was too windy to hear him on my video so I can't share that one!  Have a great Saturday everyone, I'm headed out for another day with Betty and the family - right after I go outside and cry over my squash bed, there's thousands of bugs in it!

getting out...

As of 6:30 am, I was still working on the Loch's shirt, but I did finish!  I'll have a photo once I finish Finn's shirt on Sunday (hopefully).

mastering the buttonhole!

As for the rest of the day, since we only get to have hubby awake and home from about noon Friday until Saturday night,  as soon as the kids came home from school, we headed out to the Wildlife Refuge.  While not my "secret spot" it is my favorite spot, as there is about NOBODY there ever, and the wildlife and unspoiled beaches are amazing.  Here you can walk or ride bike from our side right into NC where the wild horses are.  Nothing but a few birds and a fox spotted today.  The weather was about perfect, a cool 71 degrees with cloudy skies, and the rain held off until just as we were safely back in the car.  I love how close we live to all of this, and that we can be there, hike, see the beach and back home again all between after school & dinner time.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and had to use my iphone camera and it's horrible!  Although I'm proud to say I'm still using a 1st Generation iPhone, LOL!  It's like an antique now, like a favorite old car.

Finn is freaking out over some random mosquito or dragonfly here...if you remember from all our "training sessions" last summer, Finn is not much of an "outdoorsman", that's Loch.  Although he surprised me over Christmas when he snowshoed quite a distance at Mama Pea's house and none of us were holding him at gunpoint to do it.  He actually had a great time and did well, so I had high hopes for him this afternoon, but it was not to be :)

out to the beach...

this is what our area should look like, instead of flat beaches and strips of garish hotels... this is one of only 2 places in the area that are still this way, and that's only because they are protected areas.

I'm just experimenting here, which do you like - the one with sky below or the one without the sky in it just going off to nowhere?  Of course if I had a decent camera...

We had a nice dinner of snow peas, bread sticks (my sourdough loaf didn't rise, so breadsticks they became!), BBQ'd chicken wings, bratwurst and homebrewed Double IPA - for the adults anyway :)  Celebrating what is probably the last "nice" day... temps supposed to be back to the more normal high 80's next week, these cool temps were too good to last, but we sure appreciated them.  That's probably why my peas were so productive this year, usually by the time they flower, the heat is taking them out.

Next up is family reading night tonight, we are on to "Little Town on the Prairie", I love Friday nights!

Carpe Diem!

Hubby is back to working nights, which means he leaves for work 15 mins before the kids get off the bus and he is asleep when they leave for school in the morning, so they literally don't even get to say one word to him until Friday at 3 pm!  That leaves them with daddy from 3 pm Friday until he leaves for work again Sunday.  Needless to say, weekend chores are becoming a thing of the past, and I am going to have to get used to doing it all during the week for their sakes.

When Loch got home on Friday afternoon, it struck me how much he looks like a miniature college kid and pretty soon we will be wishing we spent more time doing quality things with the kids and less time letting them run wild in the yard while we do chores.

Although we are very antsy to move back north someday, we are trying to remember to find the good things about our area and get out and enjoy, for time passes quickly and we won't miss living by the ocean until we don't anymore.

Yesterday, we made our favorite commute - 

to our "secret spot"!  This is probably my favorite place in all of Virginia Beach, it's one of the last unspoiled places here, devoid of hotels and oceanfront strip tackiness.  I personally would rather stay on this walkway and enjoy the maritime forest, they are becoming rare.

Of course the kids always have a different idea...

I've never been a fan of just "sitting on the beach", my kids are so young still that I can't take my eyes off them for a second so it's not like I can read a book or knit.  We compromise and walk the beach, letting the kids play in the (cold) surf while we people watch and pick up trash :)

This made me look forward to crabbing season... we love our Chesapeake Blue Crab here, and the kids love catching them, take a peek here for a past crabbing trip.

Below, this girl was lucky!  It rained Friday night, poured Saturday until just a couple hours before we got to the beach!  Although the winds were gusting and blowing out their tiki torches and making a mess of all the girls' dresses, at least it was sunny for her ceremony! 

* (a bit of blogger personal info - hubby and I were also married on the beach, although it involved a single flower in my hair, no shoes and just 2 close friends and a cooler of champagne & beer - very low key!)

One thing I am very proud of is that we didn't find much trash until we left our "secret spot" not open to tourists and ventured to the "outside world" part of the beach.  Being able to legally "trespass" is another perk we have :)

Then it was game on...

Just another day at the beach.

The day's haul:  items of note today were a jug of motor oil and a syringe... blech!

We ended the day with a regular old skool meal of bbq steaks, baked potatoes, and of course... salad.  We also have 2 nicely conditioned kegs of homebrew ready for consumption - one hoppy Double IPA and the lighter one is a Blonde Ale.

Lots of chores are getting put on the back burner on the weekends now, but it's pretty much just weeding and maintenance, and that never really ends, does it?  I'm doing my best to shelve my Type A personality for awhile and go with the flow, since to be honest this is not really that busy, only lettuces and peas with minimal processing are coming in.  Plenty of time for my obsessive freak flag to fly when the canning starts later!

Hubby has left for work now, so I actually may get a car washed today if the dark skies keep to the east, that's been on my to do list for quite some time, and the kids like to "help", so I may indeed get some stuff done with the rest of the day!

Summer comes to an end for the kids...

Lots of chores to do in the garden, but...

Loch thought he could see daddy from here :(

It's back to school Monday, so the chores can wait!