A Few More Things

Here are a few more things that have been keeping me busy this summer:

• My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage in June. My sisters and I hosted a beautiful gathering for them. We spent lots of time planning, shopping, decorating, preparing food and enjoying their special day. The Hubs made a delicious five-tier cake for the day.

• Early in the summer, after Daughter S's graduation and just before Mother's Day, I treated my mom, my daughters and myself to a spa party. Two of my sisters and one of my nieces came along too. It was kind of a Mother's Day treat for all of us. We had so much fun! If you're looking for a place to get a pedicure or massage, you should check out The Spa of Buckingham.

• My sister and I have been trading off teaching the pre-school Sunday School class at our church. That's almost a full-time job right there!

• With the rest of my family, we hosted a farm tour and dinner for a group of young men staying at a state park in the area. These young men stayed for three weeks and worked at Holliday Lake State Park. They also enjoyed some of the recreational activities Central Virginia has to offer. They also got a look at some of the culture of our area, with the farm tour and other local attractions.

So I guess I've been even more busy that I thought I was.

Not Your Typical Back-To-School List

This is the first year we haven't sent anyone "back to school" since we put Son J on the green dot bus to preschool when he was barely four years old. That was a long time ago.  He's all grown up now and spends his time in the city, cooking up amazing treats like Danish pastries as big as my head. Daughter S graduated from college in May and has taken Little D and moved off to a different city to make the big bucks. Daughter P and her family are closer to home, but still no schooling for them either. And The Hubs and I are way passed that stage of life!

The Hubs and I at False Cape State Park

Anyway, it's got me thinking about all those years of sending the kids back to school. Back to school means the end of summer. Usually during the first couple weeks of school, kids are given the task of telling what they did over the summer. So here's a list of things that have been going on around Lanky Ridge this summer.

• We've been enjoying our empty nest. It's been very quiet at times, but we're adjusting. We've enjoyed a visit from some great friends from Maine. We played tourist with them around the area. We took a quick trip to the beach, just the two of us. Our first trip to False Cape State Park was very nice and relaxing. We got a travel trailer and we've been spending lots of our time getting it "travel ready" and we have a fall trip planned. It will be road-ready by then.
• For the first time in a few years, there's been a big garden at Lanky Ridge. With my busy work schedule in the summer, it hasn't been easy. We've gotten a lot canned. It works something like this: The Hubs has things picked, washed, shelled, and ready to go when I get home from work. Then we spend the evening canning and processing whatever is harvested that day. Processed jars are left on the counter over-night and cleaned, labeled and put away the next evening. We've done LOTS of green beans, some black-eyed peas, plenty of tomato sauce (both seasoned and plain), and relish. We've also frozen shredded zucchini and dried some herbs. We have more in the garden. Soon we'll can more green beans, dig up Yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes, and harvest pumpkins and more zucchini. There's a real satisfaction to knowing we have the food in our pantry and freezer. My go-to website for canning information? The National Center for Home Food Preservation here. And yes, my Extension Agent directed me to that website.
• The Hubs has been spending a little time helping out people we know with computer issues. He's a whiz at that and word has gotten around. People often call him for help and he's always willing to help. They can be ornery things (computers not husbands).

• We've both spent some time hanging out in the big cities. Whether staying with Little D when he's not feeling well enough to go to daycare so Daughter S can work at her new job, or running up to help Son J with a car break-down. Daughter S and I took Little D to see the dinosaur exhibit at a museum too.
  
• Hanging out with my cousins is not something we often get to do, there are 29 of us and we live all over the world. So when our cousin came for a visit from Germany, we had to plan something special. A few of us went for a bike ride across High Bridge Trail State Park. If you live anywhere near Central Virginia and you haven't been there, you should make it a priority to go. It was so awesome. And it's always fun to hang out and reminisce about our grandparents and growing up visiting them on their farm.
• With our newly-empty nest comes a couple empty bedrooms. So I moved my sewing room from a tiny space into a recently-vacated bedroom. The best part? My sewing room now has a window. Natural light is great for creativity, trust me! In going through my stash of fabric, I found a box of tiny squares that my grandmother had cut out and begun sewing together for a quilt. I knew it was there, but I hadn't thought about it in a long time. I've been working on finishing the quilt. It has many different fabrics and the pieces are very small.  It will be a true scrap quilt, which was her specialty. I'm thrilled to be finishing it for her. 

So that's my "what I did during summer vacation" list. What did you do this summer?