And Today Brings 40....

Yep, today I'm 40.  Don't know where to go with that. Really I don't.   I don't feel 40, but then, what is 40 supposed to feel like, I've never been it before, so I wouldn't know. Right?  It's just a number, so they say. I can tell you though, this number has been hitting me hard. I don't know why, but it is.  I feel like it is getting old or something. Not that there is anything wrong with growing older, it's better than the alternative.  Maybe it's just that it is the beginning of another era in my life. I think the babies are behind me, which is hard. It's a sign of age I guess. I know that I am much more than a mother and baby making machine... but that has been my life for the last 20 years and I love it.  

Am I past the "as good as it gets" age?  I hope not. In fact I think I'm in better shape now than when I was 30 or even 20, definitely have more muscle, but then I definitely have more wrinkles now. Give and take I guess.

I'm not down on this birthday, it just seems like such a huge birthday and I really can't believe I'm here already.

I had a lovely weekend (which I'll share later), a lovely breakfast out with girl friends, gifts from my family, a wonderful swap package arrived(which I will share later too),and lots of hugs and kisses from my littles and hubby.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  So happy 40th birthday to me :)

And a selfie taken today to remember a milestone age.

Have a lovely day,

Tiff

Prayer

I know a lot is going on in the world right now and sometimes I feel and I realize I live in my own little bubble...a sheltered little world that I create for my family and myself.  It's not a bad thing, but sometimes the jolt of the outside world can be harsh.

I pray for the lives lost and the families left behind from the Navy yard shootings....May God give them peace and strength.

And I don't know if you heard about it, but on Monday there was a training accident at the base my son is stationed at.... too close to my bubble.  A Marine was killed and four were injured.  The young man who was killed was only 21, please say a prayer for his family... I can't even imagine what they are going through.
My son will be 20 next month and I worry about him every day being a Marine.  I know he is smart and strong, but I am his mom and he will always be my baby.
He is being deployed on Monday, so if you could say a prayer for his safety, I would greatly appreciate it.  And please keep all of our military and their families in your prayers, it's not an easy life.

Tiff

We've Become One of Them....And did something for the first time

The busy time of year has officially started and this Fall is ultra busy for us....to the point of it being almost too much.  We value our family time and have never become an over scheduled family...it just wasn't our cup of tea.  However, this year, lots of people wanted to do lots of things that require lots of time.  So for future documentation and to remind myself not to do this again....here is the run down....

15 yr old daughter= musical theater dance class, steel drums, and play

12 yr old son=Football(practice 4 days a week and games on the weekend, steel drums

10 yr old son= Soccer, practice one night and game on Saturday

7 yr old son= Soccer, practice one night and game on Saturday

Daddy= coaching 10 yr old's soccer and working full time

Mommy= coaching 7 yr old's soccer and volunteer commitments

Ok, it doesn't sound like all that much, but for us it is. And when you throw in school, homework, work, dinner, and chores...it makes for a busy week.  Oh, and trying to get workout and run time in there too.

I think we have become "them", that busy sport family, the family that I never understood. It's good and bad. We are all getting healthy and active, which is very good. And we are still spending time together. But I think it is too hectic and I don't like family dinner time at the table to be interrupted. Luckily, most of this will end with winter.

Ok, so here was our weekend.  

Started off Saturday morning with two different soccer practices, me at one, hubby at the other....

 Saturday afternoon, hubby, 15 yr old, and I went for a 4 mile run to town and back(major hills). I was amazed that we did it. Just six months ago I never would have imagined even walking it. I felt so energized about it that I told hubby that on Sunday would should enter the 5k run in town.  To my surprise, he and my daughter were both on board with it :)  they are crazy like me.

And today.... the three of us ran the 9/11 Memorial 5k !!! Our first 5k race... and I did it 10 days shy of my 40th birthday.   Here we are before the race....smiling....

 And here we are after... still smiling !   We did it in better time than any of us could have imagined.... 33m47s for my daughter, 33m52s for me, and 33m53s for hubby(he let me beat him).  We feel great!  We hadn't planned on running our first 5k until the day after Thanksgiving but life is crazy and when things come your way, go for it.  Now we can shoot for 30 minutes or better in November.

After the race we headed straight to my 12yr old's first football game that was over an hour away.  He joined the team late and has only had 3 days of practice and doesn't know the game... but we are so proud of him for giving it his all and pushing through the tough workouts.   That's him in the white pants(we didn't know he needed game day black pants).

Busy but fun and active weekend.  I'm enjoying this new venture in our family's life but I'm also looking forward to winter when things relax a bit.

Have a great week,

Tiff

Front Doors... A Quick Makeover

The weather is nice and I need to take advantage of it while I can. So instead of working on indoor projects(which there are many of) I decided to keep working on the outside and sprucing things up a bit. After all, I will have a long Maine winter to work on the inside.

Today I painted the front doors...  Ever since I lost my lovely white screen door to a windstorm, I have hated that the two front doors don't match.  The one on the right was painted red and I never bothered to paint the door on the left because it was a stained red wood color, and with the screen door over it, you couldn't tell they didn't match.

I decided to go traditional and painted them both black.

 
I really like how they turned out... clean and classic.

Not too many houses in my neighborhood have black doors(actually, I'm not sure if any do, I'll have to look next time we are out running), most are white, some are pumpkin colored, there is a bright yellow one, and I think the closest to black is my next door neighbor but her's is a navy blue I think.  Anyway, I like them and glad that not too many houses have them.

Of course, now I'm afraid to hang anything on this door because I don't want it to get scratched up!

I need to motivate myself to do some yardwork, yuck!

Have a safe long weekend,

Tiff

First Day of School Kids and Bulletin Boards...

It's just me and Mason in the house today, everyone else is either at work or at their first day of school...it's so quiet!  I'm not like a lot of people, I actually don't like the first day of school, I'd rather my kids be at home with me and I think the kids feel the same way...but this year.... I think they really wanted/needed to go back. They all had a lot of together time this summer and a break from each other will be a good thing :)

I went to school on Tuesday to redo the bulletin boards. I wasn't sure what I would do for the first month, in the end I came up with this...

 I took down the old tree and made a new one that will stay up the whole year... but this one is in the corner and goes up to the ceiling.

Here is the board I did in June..

 Redid the birthday board too, took down the big cake and replaced it with tiered cake stands...

  And now for the kiddos...  My 7th grader...

 My 10th grader, who by the way is now down 50 lbs!!! I'm so proud of her. She has been making the lifestyle changes right along with me.

Off to middle school and high school...

 My 2nd grader...

My three youngest(Mason had to be in on the school day pics)...

 And my 5th grader... He loves his bowties and he and the male teachers at school have decided that every Thursday will be "bowtie Thursday".

  They grow up way too fast don't they? :(

Tiff

$7 Outside Light Makeover...

I've been wanting to change my 4 front outside light fixtures since the day we moved in 7 years ago... but they were never that hideous, they  functioned fine, and I never wanted to spend the money on nicer ones.  Until this weekend when we were at Lowes getting a part for the master bedroom toilet that needed fixing... I decided it was time for a quick update. One $7 can of Rustoleum black hammered finish spray paint did all four lights.  

Here's the before...  not even sure what color they are/were(a faded out greenish)...

 Another before....

And after 15 minutes of work(per light), here's the after....(washed the glass too)

 And another after... These are the lights by the garage doors.

Here is the before of the lights by the front door(let's not discuss the cobwebs, I really need to scrub this whole area)...

 Another before....

And the after....

 Better, right?  I'm happy with how they came out and for the price and easiness of the project, I say it was a total success.

I did see some lights at Lowes that I really liked, but they were $80 a piece, which would be $320 to redo all four, so for the $7 I spent, I can live with my lights for awhile longer :)
Oh, and if you are wondering, I didn't take the lights down to do them. I took off the tops, removed the glass and the bulbs, taped off the sides and put butcher paper all around the lights, and then spray painted. It worked like a charm, was easy, and took a lot less time than I thought it would.

It's a busy week ahead, school starts and lots to get done.

Tiff

Back to Reality....

Monday is here and our vacation is officially over with hubby returning to work this morning, not something he was looking forward to(neither was I).  We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and have tons and tons of lovely memories from it. It was the longest hubby has ever taken off from work in the the 20+ years we have been married, but it was a break that was deeply needed for both of us. 

Thank you all for following along on our journey, I enjoyed reading all your comments. Maybe on our next trip I meet another blog friend or two :)

This is the last full week the kids have off before school starts again:( Summer just seems to fly by!  I have so much to do... design and create a back to school bulletin board, finish a wood tree for the school, clean my house, finish up on the laundry from the trip, possibly rearrange the house a bit, and hopefully get my van back soon(with Ford being the one who needs to fix it, long story, but I'm not too happy with them right now).

Anyway,  I wanted to share today something that I did for the first time ever yesterday...  Hubby and I got up early and headed over to Back Cove in Portland.  See that round body of water in the right of the picture?  There is a 3.5 mile trail that goes around it. Hubby and I ran the whole thing!!! Actually, we ran a bit farther 3.7 miles!! And I didn't stop once, I may have slowed down, but I didn't stop and I didn't walk. It was a huge triumph for this former couch potato(I didn't even run as a child!). I could never have done it alone and I thank my dear hubby for being there with me and pushing me along.  And I am down 60 lbs !! Despite indulging a bit on our vacation, I managed to keep my weight loss going, 22 lbs till my goal :)

photo courtesy of www.flightsim.com

Have a great day,

Tiff

Monticello and Home....

Just warning you, this is a picture heavy post, with more than 50 photos, sorry, I didn't know what to cut!

Last you heard, we were going to do Mt. Vernon after Schuyler, but we changed our plans last minute(no surprise, right?!)  We plan on doing a just Virginia trip and will see Mt. Vernon then.

After a morning in Schuyler and visiting all things Waltons, we headed back to Charlottesville to tour Thomas Jefferson's Monticello(little mountain).

 At the base of the mountain is a new museum and discovery center, built just 4 years ago. You buy your tickets here and then are shuttle bused to the top of the hill.

Here is a model of Monticello in the museum... what an awesome dollhouse that would be :)

At the top, the grounds were just beautiful...

The kids...

Hubby and me...

More views...

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the house, not sure why, but followed the rules.  The house was nice, but not grand. Jefferson wasn't about showy things, but about innovation and technology... incorporating the skylights that he saw in Europe into his home along with in the wall beds and dumbwaiters. He hated big entryway staircases so his home's staircase was tucked away in the middle of the house and was tiny and curvy and only 22" wide. It looked like a small back stair in an old farmhouse.

We were allowed to take pictures outside and in the slave and worker areas...

Lots of gorgeous scenic views all around. They were probably even better views in Jefferson's time because most of the trees at the top of the mountain had been cleared to build the house. He regretted that decision though when summer rolled around and there was no shade.  All the trees there now were grown after Jefferson.

All of us...

These flowers were spectacular...

Two wings stretched out on either side of the home. These wings contained all the working quarters for the running of the house. They were partially underground and ran beneath the house, giving the slaves and workers access from the kitchens and laundry to the main house.  Because of Jefferson innovative design, they also created long decks for the house and the roofs were designed to capture water.

96% of the outside of the home is original...

Neat trees...

View of the working quarters...

The smoke house room(kept under lock and key)

The cook's room. Nicer than most with a real bed, brick floors, and a fireplace...

The kitchen...

Other side...

I liked the lines of these shelves...

 The walkways in between...

 Beer storage room. They drank a very weak brew because it was safer than water...

More walkways...

Stables...

 I think this was a second kitchen and prep room...

The grounds...

His weather vane... he recorded the weather daily and was one of his main hobbies...

The weather vane above is connected to this one in the roof of the porch, so that he could easily see the wind direction and record the time...He loved clocks too...

 More views...Can you tell I liked the views!

The gardens...

Mulberry row runs along the gardens.. this is where the majority of the slave quarters used to be, along with the blacksmith shop, woodmaker shop, privy, and other buildings needed to run the home and farm.

More neat trees...

This was my favorite view, the hilltop was just so perfect and looked like a painting...

The walkway leading to the cemetery ...

Thomas Jefferson's grave...

His mother's grave...

People are still being buried in the cemetery, there was a grave that was quite recent as it didn't have a stone yet and the straw was still visible with new grass growing...

 I liked these tombstones...

Back inside the museum, a couple things caught my eye... these are the seed varieties they planted...lots!

And a  sewing kit...

 Thomas Jefferson...

 We stayed at Monticello until it closed and just made it to the car before it started to downpour!  We did get to drive by Michie Tavern but they were already closed.  I love this log cabin on the grounds...

Michie tavern, Virginia's oldest Inn....It's at the base of Monticello....

I wanted to see Ash Lawn-Highland(James Monroe's home) but they were already closed too, plus it was raining. Here is the entry to the property. It's about 2 miles from Monticello.

Oh, and this blue ball with zinc lid was bought at the general store in from of the Hamner home, I forgot to show it to you yesterday.  No recipe in it though :O

We decided to drive straight through to home instead of breaking it up between two days.  We left at 6 in the morning and pulled in our driveway at 7:50 pm that night. It was a long day but we are glad to be home.
Crossing the bridge to Maine...

Maine is pretty, but it doesn't compare to Virginia in beauty...

I'm taking the weekend off. See you all on Monday,

Tiff