End of August

August is almost a wrap. My middle son goes back to college this weekend. BOOO. Love seeing them happy and flying but I miss having a house full of kids. Looking forward to being up in Massachusetts for a bit to help him move into his new place. We love it up there but I always wish we could spend more time. Over the years, the visits become more of drop off, turn around and go home. I miss the early years of college when you stay and hang for a while. BUT, we have animals and a younger kid to get home to. 

Anywho....here are some photos of the past few days.

Made some sourdough bread for my college bound kid and delicious meal from the Carmine's restaurant cookbook. The meal is "Country Style Rigatoni". A mix of sausage, garlic, white beans, broccoli, chicken stock, onions, lots of parmesan cheese, prosciutto, and rigatoni. Delicious and easy. 

A smiling, sunbathing alpaca :)

I didn't get a garden planted this year as I said in an earlier post. However, one sunflower seed from last year survived and grew into the tallest sunflower I have ever seen! Maybe it was able to grow so tall and strong because it didn't compete with root space? Not sure but it is spectacular!

Buddy boy loves a car ride

Monday knitting and coffee always reenergizes me for the week ahead.

Dad mows for hours and hours and hours on the weekends. 

While in Cooperstown, NY I discovered ciders, especially a Hibiscus Ginger Cider. I'm kicking myself for not buying some for home. I really wanted to find some around here and our local store carries the Champlain Orchards Cider. My best work buddy goes to this place every summer during her trip to Lake George. They take a ferry over to Vermont and visit. So I tried their version and it was delicious!

I had their Hibiscus Cider but they have many other flavors to try.

OH....and the result of the Erin French burger was a 10!!!!!!!!

Pork burger with grilled peaches, blue cheese and bacon on top a homemade poppy seed roll bun. YUP. Insane. Easy, Delicious. The recipe is in her Lost Kitchen Cookbook. Obsessed!

Hope you have a good last week of August!

 

Slow Down

 I know this is a different opinion than most but I don't enjoy summer like I used to. As a kid it was wonderful. As an adult, not so much. There is a pressure to have a magical season, do all the things, make memories. People constantly asking, "how's your summer going?" No one ever asks, "how's your winter going?" Working full-time, teaching at night, managing family life, sports schedules and balancing all the stuff is hard. I didn't even get a garden planted this summer. Not one seed went in the ground. At the end of the day, I'm wiped. But the sun shines until late and I always feel like we should be doing more. But I'm tired! And I just want to make a nice dinner, sit on the couch and knit while watching something on tv. Maybe that's why I love fall and winter so much. Yes, the farm opens up end of September and our weekends look much different and are very busy. So it's not like life slows down when fall gets here but it's different. The temperatures are cooler (makes me soooo happy), the wardrobe is jeans and light sweaters (yay), the colors are pretty and it feels good.

When I don't feel like myself, it helps to slow down, take a whole day on a weekend and do less. Easier said than done.  I'm a terrible housekeeper. We all know it. I want a clean house but there's always a pile, a mess, laundry, so much to do and no desire to do it!!! I live with all boys!!!! It's always messy. I don't like spending time on a weekend cleaning when I could be knitting or reading. But it has to be done....it's just so hard for me to get motivated to do it.

So when my son needed to borrow my car to go to Massachusetts for the weekend and we were down a car, it forced me to slow down. While flipping through the Magnolia Network I discovered Erin French. I had no idea what I was missing in my life! I watched her show, Getting Lost with Erin French. I was immediately inspired to cook, light a candle, clean the house, and put some fresh flowers in vases. I also ran over to the library and grabbed her cookbook, The Lost Kitchen. I'm officially obsessed! I have been watching her shows on repeat. I can't believe I didn't know about her. Now I want to go to her restaurant. You have to apply for a reservation through a lottery system by sending in a postcard. I told Rick to be ready to drive 7 hours for dinner if I get called! He just nodded...he knows not to question me when it comes to good food. I am going to make her Pork Burgers with Peaches, Blue Cheese and Bacon for dinner tonight. I have a feeling it's going to be amazing. I'll let you know...

I went down to my mom's gourd garden for the first time this summer to let Buddy run while I had some wine and read a new book. The gourdes are growing great and it's a magical little spot.

I made some time to knit on my Tecumseh Sweater. I have a feeling it's going to be huge on me. I really need to stop knitting things so big. I'm using really pretty wool from my friend MaryEllen. Only problem with knitting for hours and hours is it dried out my hands so much. I should have added lotion sooner. 

My sisters and some of the kids went to the beach on Saturday. It was picture prefect. I casted on a fun project for a friend. She has a 2 year old daughter and is having her second at the end of October. I got some crazy color yarn that I thought she would love. It reminds me of highlighters and she works in a school so I thought she would love it. I made a simple hat with a fun faux fur pompom for big sister and a simple little bonnet for baby sister. The colors are totally out of my comfort zone but perfect for her!

Another bonus of slowing down are very happy pets. Buddy is the happiest when he's curled up next to me while I knit and Sox is content to nap the day away. 

This will be the last week my middle son is home from college. Move-in is next weekend for Junior year. Time flies....wish it would slow down (just a bit).

Cooperstown, NY

We just returned from a picture perfect week in Cooperstown, NY. Our youngest son and his team played at The Dreams Park tournament. They were 1 of 104 teams of 12 year olds. These boys had the time of their lives and we loved it too. Thought I would show some pictures from the trip. If you are a baseball fan, I highly recommend a trip to the town. It's baseball fan heaven! We stayed in a small hotel on Lake Ostego. I spent every morning drinking coffee and knitting. The days were spent exploring the area, watching baseball, eating, eating, eating, drinks, fun with the other baseball families and enjoying time together.

I'll take you along....

This was the view from our hotel.

Cooperstown Distillery (knitting my sock everywhere I went)

Our oldest son flew home from Georgia to watch his littlest brother play. It was wonderful having him with us!!!!!!

Our hotel was one block from town. This is the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Seriously...does it get better than being a 12 year old boy with his buddies? My guy is #4.

Best meal we had the whole trip and I loved this old truck.

My guy had 3 home runs! So proud of him.

More hotel views of the lake.

You can see the barracks at Dreams Park in the distance. This is where the teams stayed with their coaches all week. They had a blast. And the coaches lived to tell us about it! lol

Had some downtime one afternoon and enjoyed reading  Funny Story by Emily Henry.

Another view of the lake and Council Rock around the corner from our hotel.

I took a stroll around town while the boys went to the Hall of Fame. I love upstate NY towns.

I wandered into the library and art gallery...

The diving loon was my favorite.

Back to the fields for more games...

We had some time in the middle of the day between games. We drove to Brewery Ommengang. It was a beautiful place! The drinks were delicious. I found a dry cider I enjoyed. The food was blah. But we had fun.

I stumbled upon a really cool gallery in town. It was the "oldest building in Cooperstown". The theme of the show was glass.

This dive bar was Cooleys and we went every night. Hung with the locals and had a great time!

I started the first sock on our drive to Cooperstown and finished the second one on our drive home.

I'll never forget this trip and I'm so thankful all of our boys had the chance to play in this magical place.

One of the team dads sent this after the last game:

"Heads high, boys! A great run. Savor the week. You got to play the greatest game in the shadow of mountains and on the shoulders of legends! Be thankful! Truly thankful!"

I agree xoxox