Thanks Grandpa

I realized after posting the bit on our camping trip that I owe a big thanks to my Grandpa. Every year since I was eight he and my Grandma Cathy brought us (my cousins, my sister and me) to upstate New York. There we learned all sorts of useful things from how to rid a house of hundreds of bats to hiking in the pouring rain without getting wet. I know how to fish, chop down a tree, make a bird house, set up a tent, blaze and mark a trail, and even build a dock from a row boat all becuase of my time upstate. So thank you Grandpa. And thank you Grandma Cathy for taking good care of us there.

Camping!

We finally went camping, just Alan and me. Although we purchased a tent and other supplies last summer, we always got rained out or something else came up.

This week we made the reservations and decided that rain or shine this would be our weekend to brave the wild. Well, not wild exactly. We pitched our tent at Blue Lick State Park, about an hour north; it turned out to be more of a state-funded RV park, but our little site was wooded enough to make us feel like we were roughing it for real.

I started a fire for each meal using only matches and wood we found around us (no lighter fluid Grandpa!) We cooked hot dogs, corn, beans, eggs and toast for breakfast. Next time I think I'll plan ahead a bit more and get some good camping recipes online, though our fare suited us just fine.

We hiked around for a while but I get winded pretty easily going up hills these days. Finally, I got to go swimming; I hadn't taken a swim since our honeymoon, damn landlocked state! And we played a round of miniature golf, or putt putt as Alan says.

I think it may have been for the best that we waited a year to go-- getting the fire started and setting up our site took a certain amount of cooperation and patience with one another we didn't necessarily have last year. I would go camping again any time. Hopefully we will make it out to Red River Gorge or Cumberland Gap with some of our buddies some time this season. By far, this weekend was some of the best fun I've had with Alan in our short married life.

"But it never took long
We found a penthouse in the woods
Tell me that I am wrong
Tell me that I should just forget
All the serious questions
seem to eat my time away"
-Scud Mountain Boys

A Restorative Weekend

I've been thinking a lot about simple pleasures. This usually happens when Alan and I run down on funds! Last week we were both so tired, me being pregnant and Alan working his crazy factory hours. So we tried to take it easy. And we played Trivial Pursuit, took naps, sat in silence, went to town for groceries, cleaned the house, read and sewed, and had some long conversations about theology. All very simple things that restored us back to ourselves.

So please, next time you are out of steam, let the simple pleasures restore you.

"I'm working so I won't have to try so hard
Tables, they turn sometimes"
- The Strokes

Happily Ever Crafter

I'm lovin the crafting! I haven't had so much uninterrupted free time in a while. And since I probably won't again for the next 18 years or so I've been knitting and sewing and crocheting like crazy. You can check out my recently finished project (yes Mom and Dad, I finish them now!) the pig in the pants.



And nearly finished, our baby's floor quilt and mock cable cashmere blanket.

I'm also working on a blanket for my nephew due in August and will embark on a skirt or two with Hannah, my friend and sewing guru. Always a stuffy yankee deep down inside, I know what idle hands are!

Continental Claustrophobia

We're plodding along here. Alan is working crazy hours at a factory making sun roofs and I'm enjoying a little time off from work. Lots of time to finish projects. When I finally post pictures on my blog I'll have to show you all my latest knitted things.

Being as landlocked as we are is starting to wear me down. I was thumbing through a Larry Woiwoode book about the Dakotas I read a few years ago trying to find a certain part. I kept coming across bits about dirt and sky and fields and endless mountians and plains... ahhh!

I have a lot of water in me according to Chinese astrology.... my sign is Aquarius, the water-bearer, for pete's sake! My sister sent me some sand and shells from her last trip to the beach and I have lots of memories of the shore; what choice do I have but to let them carry me over into a time when the ocean will be nearby?

"One is not born a woman, but becomes one." - Simone de Beauvoir