Family Reunion 2015

We had the blessing of attending a family reunion this past weekend.  It was a reunion of my paternal grandfather's family...Smith. There are no siblings of my grandfather still leaving so those who came are their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and cousins. This reunion was a weekend of a year in the making.  It was at Pickwick State Park Landing in TN.  We had family come from as far west as Washington as far north from New York and many states in between.  I had met many from previous reunions but was too young to appreciate the relation.  I've 'met' many of them on Facebook but really enjoyed seeing them in person.  One of the pics below are those who attended sans a few who had to leave.  The other pics are of my family and my boys...hubby couldn't make this trip.  I am looking forward to the next one in 2 years! 

Me (left) and my sister (right)

My parents and their daughters

My parents and their blessings

My blessings (10) and me

Smith Clan

You're Gonna Miss This...Even the Messes

"You're gonna miss this.
You're gonna want this back.
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.
These are some good times.
So take a good look around...
You may not know it now.
But you're gonna miss this."

I'm over trying to get white pants to look brand new for every game.  My little player plays hard so his pants are going to look it.  I view the stains like some sort of  'battle scars'. 

All Star Tournament

Tournament weekends are hot, long and can be hard.  Ending the weekend as the tournament champs sure makes it worth it.  CB had a great weekend of baseball both as pitcher and 1st base. 

All Star

Last weekend started our All Star season.

"Momma, will you write my Bible verse on my cap for me?"

What most do not know, this verse has so much meaning to him that involves baseball. This is his verse...he picked it out himself for this cap. I hope to tell you the story one day. I've tried in the recent past but haven't been able to put my thoughts into words. I believe it's because God is still writing the story. So until then...

To be continued

Recent Reads

To know me is to know that I love to read. I love to escape in a page turning book and I love to read to learn.  If a book takes me through a gamut of emotions, it's going to get 5 stars from me.  Each book below got 5 stars from me but The Book Thief had the most impact. 

I finished The Book Thief about 12:30 one morning but didn't actually fall asleep till around 1:30. Why? Because I spent that 1 hour crying. Y'all, I have never cried so hard from a book. Crying from a book is typical of me...but only a handful have made me cry this hard. Now, it could be that I've been a little more emotional this past week and it was so late in the night. But the reality of this book just leaves mankind in tears and sadness. The historical value of this book is not even yet a 100 years ago. That perspective blows my mind. This book gives you a glimpse of Germany during WW II with death as the narrator. If what I read is just a glimpse, I don't think I could handle the whole picture.

I highly recommend the book even though there is a movie.  The book brings so much more raw emotion that a movie just can't capture. 

The other book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (I know, odd name) gives a glimpse from England's side of the War, specifically from the English Chanel Islands.  Their story is not one you hear much about yet, their suffering was very real.

A Fresh Bed

One of our most recent projects here at our home was to overhaul our front flower bed.  If you recall a previous blog post about the wasp, you will understand why our bed needed an overhaul.  It had become an over grown, wasp hoarding jungle.  So it was either overhauling it or putting up a sign "Welcome to the Jungle"...the latter would just be a mere attempt to justify the mess it had become. 

It took us using my dad's truck to pull up the juniper, Indian Hawthorn, boxwoods and lorpetlum.  We had to attach a chain from the truck to the bush and pull it out.  Any other way would have most likely resulted in broken bones, including our backs. 

After ridding the bed of all bushes...we now have a cleaner bed with dwarf gardenias, drift roses, fireworks and cotton candy grasses, variegated monkey grass and Shasta daisies.  We left my knockout roses that were Mother's Day gifts for the past years. 

I even tackled a Pinterest project you will see.  I spray painted flowerpots and then painted our address on them.  The wooden wagon they sit on, is a treasure I found several years ago on the side of road as someone's trash.

I have since enjoyed sitting and rocking on my front porch.  A simple pleasure I couldn't enjoy due to the invasion of wasps and the overwhelming view of jungle.



Before "Welcome to the Jungle"

Before "Wasp Haven"

After

after

After

Be Back Directly

I know, it's been awhile.  Lack of time and a computer makes it hard to blog on a continual basis.  While time never seems to be enough, I finally have a new computer. 

But even now, as I have a few minutes and a running computer, I'm soon off to help campaign for a local running for Senator.  And while I'm doing that, hubby and one son is off to baseball practice. 

Until then, I'll be back directly to update our family adventures.