We spent a wonderful (but very hot and humid) weekend at Tuckahoe State Park with our boys and friends. Michael, Quinn and I stayed in one of the park’s little one room camper cabins (because we’re just too old and fat to rough it! *smile*) but the twins slept with their troop in tents…as did the rest of the parents, that is until Saturday night when a fantastic thunderstorm rolled through the area and sent most scurrying to the relative safety and dryness of their vehicles.

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Trying to catch up on some blogs, I ran across this posting at Emma Sage’s…read it all.

I am not angry anymore, I am humbled.

At how God used my son, the least of these in the worlds eyes, to
teach me a most valuable lesson that all the beautiful, smart, rich,
degreed, important, initialed people in this world, could not ever
have taught me.

He taught me that all I have to do to define worth, is to look in the
special rear-view mirror of my car - and see what is worthy in God’s
eyes. To see what’s beautiful, rich, and intelligent in God’s eyes.
My son’s worth is that he is simply a child of God. Not enabled, not
disabled. Just a child. An individual. My worth is further defined
by knowing that in loving and respecting that individual that God
thought important enough to create, I am doing what is most important
in God’s eyes as well.

Caring for him.
~
And that is something I will never let society take away from me again.

Ever.
~
Yes my son, if caring for you is all I ever get to do, it is worth
it; and I’m honored to do it.

Please forgive me for the times I ever felt otherwise.

Written by Michelle M. Guppy
For all the Brandon’s of the world and those who care for them …….

Letter to Society - h/t Emma Sage

Nature journal…

Victorian…

Click on each image to open PNG…print on good quality cardstock.

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Summer Sun
~Robert Louis Stevenson~

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy’s inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.

to think, to move. As a matter of fact I don’t think I moved from the sofa at all yesterday afternoon. It was 102ºF in Baltimore yesterday. That’s sweltering hot! Our AC unit did not stop running all day long, struggling to maintain 76ºF in the house.

We spent Tuesday with my friend Dawn and her son, Andrew, talking, eating, swimming at my parents’ house, going out for ice creams and a long ride through Miller’s Island in the evening to look at all the new (expensive) houses. Miller’s Island is actually a peninsula and Hurricane Isabel just about wiped them out but everyone is rebuilding up, three, four stories high up. Some houses even had their AC units up on platforms. We all had a great time. It’s hard to get Dawn to come over because she’s just so busy with her family, boy scouts, cub scouts, our homeschool co-op…I hope we can coax them over again very soon. *smile*

I served pizza, homemade almond/rum pound cake and also made a tomato pie with some very ripe tomatoes from Momma’s garden using Paula Deen’s recipe from FoodTV.com, though I did embellish it a bit. It was delicious and I’ll definitely be making it again.

Tomato Pie

4 tomatoes, peeled and sliced
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 (9-inch) prebaked deep dish pie shell
1 cup grated mozzarella
1 cup grated cheddar
1 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Place the tomatoes in a colander in the sink in 1 layer. Sprinkle with salt and allow to drain for 10 minutes.

Layer the tomato slices, basil, and onion in pie shell. Season with salt and pepper. Combine the grated cheeses and mayonnaise together. Spread mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

To serve, cut into slices and serve warm.

***I didn’t have any green onions so instead I used vidalia onions, sliced and about 4 cloves of garlic, minced which I softened in a frying pan sprayed with Pam. As soon as the onion/garlic mixture was soft I de-glazed the pan with about 2 TB of white balsamic vinegar***

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On a more serious note, my husband has been having irregular heartbeats and went to see a cardiologist who immediately scheduled him for a stress test. All came back okay though but it did give me a bit of a scare. Though we kidded about new husbands and how I was going to spend all that insurance money, I truly couldn’t imagine life without him. He’s not only the love of my life, he’s also my best friend and besides I’m just getting too old to break another husband in!!! Just teasing! I love ya, sweetie! *smile*

Summer is almost over and I realize that I haven’t made as many homemade ice creams and snow cones that I had planned to do. We have an old electric ice cream maker, sufficient, but I would love to have this one if I had the counter space (and money). We also have a little manual snow cone maker that we dug out of the depths of the kitchen cabinets at the beginning of summer. The best ice creams call for a custard (egg yolk) base but I’ve had success with simple recipes too.

We use bought syrups from Target and I found a neat website with recipes to embellish them with evaporated milk.  HawaiianShavedIce.com’s Recipes

Here’s a recipe for Simple Snow Cones

Ingredients

• 1 envelope of unsweetened kool-aid (any flavor)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of cold water
• 2 qts of finely crushed/shaved ice

Put the kool-aid into a small bowl. Add the water and stir until mixed and sugar is dissolved. Serve over the crushed/shaved ice.

For ice cream, I’ve found that Ice-CreamRecipes.com seems to have everything.

For Popsicles…Recipe Chic has some tasty-sounding and looking recipes.

Stay cool!

We actually spent yesterday at the library.  Small children (mine included) were running all around the children’s area…somehow the library just doesn’t seem as quiet as it used to.  *smile*

I found another good read, Charming the Birds from the Trees.  I loved the Jane Austen quote she posted on the 1st…

Summer

“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. ”

How appropriate!

~~~.~~~

More Victorian journal pages.  Click to download the full-sized PNG.  I’ve used Renoir’s “Jeunes Filles au Piano” and Sophie Anderson’s “Take the Fair Face of Woman.” Print on light beige/off-white cardstock.

  

Temps today at 100 and 90’s are predicted for the rest of the week. Found some interesting links on it…

Space.com’s NightSky Friday: Dog Days and the Star Behind the Phrase

Wikipedia’s Dog Days of Summer

Ask an Astronomer - What are the”dog days of summer?”

Dog Days of Summer Quiz

Online Crossword Puzzle “Dog Days of Summer”

About.com’s Dog Days of Summer Crafts

NPR’s Welcoming the Dog Days of Summer…the edible kind

Some photos from Bayberry Cove, the lovely house we stayed at last week.

Cade, Connor and Quinn, when we arrived.

Playing in the pool.

Granddad and his grandsons in the morning.

Daddy, Momma and Chase at the 50th party.

Quinn playing on the deck.

A bad case of bed head - Connor and Cade.

Cade and Connor kayaking.

The house from the pier. Daddy is by the boats.

Cade, Quinn and Connor in the hot tub.

Sleeping boys.

Sean reading Harry Potter in the hammock.

Cade, Daddy, Wanda, Col and Chase enjoying crabs.

Cade and Connor eating steamed crabs.

to my little stinker! Quinn turned 7 on Saturday but since the family was in-transit, returning home from vacation, we decided to hold his party yesterday. Though the sky held the promise of thunderstorms all day, we had a pizza/pool party at my parents’ house. Quinn received a lot of nice toys, DVD’s, educational things and clothes.

Make a wish and give it wings
Dreams of bright and beautiful things
Dance through all the fun filled hours
Don’t forget to smell the flowers
Share some love and birthday cake
All life’s joys are yours to take
And when the evening comes to view
Thank your lucky stars you’re you

Happy Birthday!

We’re home safe and sound. We had such a wonderful week on the Eastern shore. Momma and Daddy’s party was wonderful. It was wonderful seeing old family friends and relatives. It was wonderful spending time with my parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews. Everything was just…wonderful! Really. *smile*

Over forty years ago, my Daddy took this photo of my sister, Colleen, and me in front of a little stone house off of Richardson Road and Hudson Road (MD 343) in Cambridge, Maryland. My Daddy told me that it had been built by two spinster sisters. We wondered what had possessed them to build the house and my sister, Honey, suggested that maybe they had built it so they could always find the road to their house. *smile* The front supports have been replaced and the glass in the windows are gone but it’s been meticulously maintained throughout the years. A real Eastern Shore treasure.

and just in time!  I just finished printing out the last of the pages this morning and spent some time at Michaels this afternoon picking out a scrapbook album for it.  I purchased an 8 1/2″ x 11″, side loading sleeved one from the Martha Stewart line, however, I’m really not too pleased with the quality!  I bought two (because you never know and I didn’t want to be up the creek if something was wrong) and I’m so glad that I did because the first one I opened had a manufacturing boo-boo with the pages and the second one had a problem with the little posts in it…the screw stripped out so I had to actually use parts from both to complete one book.  It does look pretty though and I showed it to Sean’s girlfriend, Samone, this evening and she agreed.  *smile*  Our goal was to actually give my parents a finished memory book on Sunday but Col, Honey and I reconsidered and decided that we wanted to include in it the photos and written best wishes from everyone at the party too.  I’m not too sure though that we can afford to have it printed as it’s 74 pages and still counting.  *smile*

Now I need to start packing for our vacation to the Eastern shore.  Saturday, the boys and I will be sharing a nice little home on the Eastern shore with my parents, and sisters and their families.  Michael, Sean and my nephew, Cole, will only be able to be there on Sunday for my parents’ big 50th wedding anniversary party due to work and school.  There will be fishing, crabbing, swimming, boating, lazing about and of course cleaning up.  Evenings will be spent, I’m sure, eating steamed crabs, fresh tomatoes and corn, and playing cards.  I know they will be filled with the sound of our laughter.

Please Lord, bless my parents, my husband and my boys, my sisters and their families and our family and friends that will travel down to the shore to celebrate with us.

Summer brings us nice hot sun
For swimming, fishing, and lots of fun;
For finding seashells in the sand;
For sunbathing to get a tan;
To do all these things and so much more
at our little home sweet home
on the Eastern Shore!

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I was at my parents’ house yesterday evening and the cicadas have already begun their end of summer song.

Hey, our homeschool co-op, the Southeastern Baltimore Homeschool Co-op, won FIRST place for decorated vehicle in the Dundalk Parade!!!!! Way to go!! I didn’t have time to join in the planning nor decorating (because of working on Momma’s and Daddy’s Anniversary book) but was there to cheer them on in the parade.

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Momma and Daddy came over for dinner yesterday and though there was no room at the table as it is still full of old photo albums for everyone to sit down to enjoy dinner together we still had a wonderful time.  Quinn was quite the host and entertained us with his songs and little dances.  He loves watching the old Mighty Mouse and Mighty Hercules cartoons on youtube and knows most of the words to the theme songs.  *smile*  I served my old standby of pork bbq, rolls, and coleslaw with freshly baked peach and blueberry cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert.  Momma told me several times how delicious everything was…made my day!

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Colleen is supposed to drop by today for a visit to help finish up our parents’ 50th wedding anniversary…I’m really running out of time as by this time next week I will be packing for our family vacation (the party is on Sunday the 22nd) to the shore so we really need to get it done by this weekend.  Say a prayer, please, that it gets finished in time…

And since you’re praying…say another one that plans for Sean and Samone to take the twins and Quinn out to movie and dinner this evening don’t fall through.  Michael and I very rarely get any time together these days and we sort of bribed Sean and Samone to take the boys tonight for a couple of hours so we could have some alone time.  *smile*

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I took some more photos of the boys swimming yesterday and I’ll post them as soon as I remember to bring my camera upstairs with me to download them.

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SUMMER IS…

~Connor’s Mom~

warm sunny days
cool starry nights
flowers and birds
and mosquito bites
a babbling brook
through a dark green wood
watermelon and sweet corn
they taste so good
celebrating our freedom
with fireworks, so loud
at a fair or a festival
getting lost in the crowd
dog days and thunder storms
picnics and hikes
outdoor plays and concerts
and riding our bikes
leaving windows open
getting tan in the sun
time to sip lemonade
and have some fun

a beautiful photojournal, Fragments from Floyd, Virginia.

I’ve finished up 7 themes (containing 2 to 4 pages each) for Momma’s and Daddy’s book. This has really become quite an emotional endeavor for me. I sit here at my computer in the early hours of the morning, late afternoon, or evening, working, drinking endless glasses of iced tea, trying to put order to the photos, write words that convey heartfelt sentiments…crying. How quickly the time has gone by. Below are the pages on Eastern Shore, where we spent nearly twenty years of family vacations. All of the journaling on the pages are our memories.

Memories

~Allison Chambers Coxsey~

Tattered ’round the edges,
And faded now with time;
Memories that linger still,
Are what they left behind.
Like a precious package,
Kept in a secret room,
Each memory a treasure,
A family heirloom.

On rare and quiet occasions
The package opens wide;
revealing then the memories,
That nestle there inside.
Faces etched in memories
Like photos from the past;
each snapshot printed in the heart,
Are memories that last.

Worn and ragged photographs,
So faded now with time;
Yet the lasting love deep in your heart,
Is what they left behind.