Carroll Book Festival

I love book festivals!  The celebration of authors, of reading, of books!  They are a magical place to be!  The Carroll Book Festival was held in September.  This was the first year for the Carroll Book Festival, and it was a ginormous success.

We arrived early, roamed around, visited with many vendors, bought more things than I honestly needed, and attended several author talks.  The food trucks were fantastic, and a bonus (in my book) there were many bathrooms with running water.  

Held at the Carroll Farm Museum, the venue had more than enough space to spread out in order to accomodate all of the people and vendors.  The staff working the event was beyond helpful in pointing out how to find all of the things and directing people to the author events. 

Here are a handful of my favorite pictures from the day:

 Belle at the children's meet and greet.

Some of the vendors, right by the front as the gates opened. 
As you can tell, it was a beautiful day!

Look at that powerhouse team of children's authors and illustrators!
Kenny Curtis, Greeking Out - books and podcast (in the hat)
Rachel Rene Russel and Nikki Russel, Dork Diaries (both in pink)
Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr (her back is to the camera she has a yellow bag) 
The Real McCoys, The Cookie Chronicles, and SO MUCH MORE.

The "It Takes Two" discussion with the authors mentioned above.
Note, Kenny's daughter, Jillian Hughes, who co-authors the Greeking Out series is seated to his left.

I'm already looking forward to next year's festival!

How about you?  Have you been to a book festival near you?  Give us all the information!  We'd love to know more about it!

Voting Plan

Do you have a plan to vote in the upcoming election?  Are you prepared?  

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Are you registered to vote?  

I checked my status on Vote 411.  This website is run by the League of Women Voters.

2) Do you know your election dates? Both for Early Voting and Election Day?  

Do you know the hours that the polls are open?  If you have a mail in ballot and are planning on dropping your ballot in a box, do you know the location of the nearest box?  Do you know the dates that the box will be available?

3) Do you know your polling location?  

In Maryland, you vote in your assigned voting district.  Early Voting locations are different than Election Day locations.

4) Do you know who you will be voting for?  You can find out information about your candidates from the League of Women Voters, on their Vote 411 website.  

Maryland sends a sample copy of the ballot in the mail before the election. I research each of the candidates in advance of voting day, and I take the sample ballot in with me, marked with who will be receiving my vote.  I am familiar with any ammendments up for a vote, and I have researched what each initiative will mean for me and my family should it pass. 

Election Day is fast approaching.  Take the time now to do your research on your local candidates.  Nobody should be making last minute decisions at the ballot box.  Start working on your plan now.

Basket Weaving

 My wild and crazy day this month was a basket weaving class at the arts center!  I thought I would enjoy the class.  But good heavens, I did not know just how much I was going to enjoy that class!  It was taught by a local basket weaver who used to be an Art Teacher at one of the high schools.  Now that she has retired, she is persuing her passion - basket weaving - and sharing that passion with others.

We were making melon baskets.  I signed up for the class not knowing what a melon basket is.  It turns out it is not a basket designed to hold melons!  It is so named because the shape of the basket is reminiscent of a melon!

The instructor provided a handle with the starting ribs attached to the basket handle.  She then talked us through how to start weaving, how to add more ribs, and how to change colors.

The handle with the first ribs attached.
Beginning the basket was a little tricky.
You need to be very careful here.

My basket, at the first real stopping point.
Notice that I've added more ribs!
Wow, everything was so wet!

Once I fell into the rhythm of weaving, time slipped away from me and I entered a very meditative zone. I know I spent hours weaving, but it honestly felt like no time at all had passed!  I honestly think I I could take up basket weaving as a hobby!

Look!  It's my finished basket!  I can't wait for the next class!

2026 Goals - October Update

October!  Pumpkin everything!  Apple everything!  Hot Apple Cider!  Hay Rides!

What are you looking forward to this summer?

1) Lose 25 pounds.  Gain 10% muscle mass.

I changed this goal over the summer.  I am concentrating more on gaining muscle and worrying less about the stress of losing weight.  For right now, that goal is gaining 7 pounds of muscle by the end of the year.  

As of this writing, I have gained 2 pounds of muscle.  That 2 pounds took way longer to earn than I thought it would.  I'd like to think I will gain 5 more pounds of muscle by the end of the year, but at this point, any amount of increased muscle mass is a win!

2) Visit 1 new to me state.

Hawaii

We thought about visiting a new to us state this fall, but we are going to take a staycation.  Everything is so expensive.  Once we worked out the cost of hotels, airfare, car rental, etc, it was difficult to justify the expense for just 5 days.

3)  3 repairs/improvements to the house.

Project #1: Add surge protectors to the heat pumps and the house.  It's not a sexy fix, but it will definitely keep the heat pumps around for a longer period of time!  We've noticed an increase in the number of power surges we've had lately. The newer HVAC systems are very sensitive to power surges and they can damage the equipment. Honestly, who wants to spend to replace an HVAC system?  They are not cheap. I want them to last as long as possible.

Project #2: We are getting the basement waterproofed.  We've had leaks in the basement for a while now.  We currently have standing water in one corner. The contractor who remodeled the main floor was supposed to fix that, but ended up not doing it.  So now, another not so sexy fix.  But, it's important to the overall health of the house! 

Project #3: New storm doors for the front and basement doors.  Finally! An aesthetic repair!

4) 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

It's been a while since I've done this.  You get 40 bags or boxes of stuff out of your house over the 40 days of Lent.  I did NOT get 40 boxes out over the course of Lent.  I got rid of 6 boxes.

I'm beginning to realize that I did this a little backwards.  My goal is to empty out the storage unit - and I'm making excellent progress on this particular project.  Once I get everything out of the storage unit and really begin purging things, then I will get the 40 boxes (and then some) out of the house!

Boxes out of the house during March: 6

Boxes out of the house during April: 4

Boxes out of the house during May: 2

Boxes out of the house during June: 6

Boxes out of the house during July and August: 21

Boxes out of the house during September: 34

Total to date: 55

5) Organize old correspondence/letters

I found a treasure trove of old letters and notes from high school.  I have them in a box to sort through next month.  The bigger question is - what gets kept and what gets thrown out?  Do I really want to save any evidence of high school me?  Most likely, NO.

On the other hand... I was given a box of old papers from a historical organization that I volunteer with to organize.  I was in my happy place, organizing that mess!  Many of the documents were of historical value, and there were a lot of photographs.  The photographs have been placed into acid free albums and labeled to the best of my ability.  The documents were sorted and organized into binders in acid free pages.  The next step - for someone else - is to digitize those documents so that back up copies exist somewhere.

Update on this: the letters are somewhat sorted.  I thought I would put them in binders and shove them away somewhere.  Some of them have been organized and put into binders.  This is a much bigger task than I originally anticipated.  I'm not certain I'm going to get this finished this year.  This might be a 2027 project.

6) Big backyard garden project.

I want to put in some sort of shelter for the local pollinators.  I've been searching through the garden catalogs for just the right thing.  I saw something when we were in England a couple of years ago that really tickled my fancy!  I have thoughts.  I just need to make some things happen!

I found the first part of my thoughts on this while in Old Ellicott City last month.  Once the weather cools down a little bit, we're going to look at finding a way to install this in the backyard.

7) Finish the cross stitch project I've been working on for 3+ years.

This is finished! Well over 3 years after I started, the project is finally finished!  I need to block this out and get it professionally framed later this year.  

From the end of February.

End of March

Finished!

8) Transfer Dad's slides to digital.

See my post here about transferring the slides!

9) Put those images into an album.

See my post here about the album.

10) Fill my America 250 Passport with lots of stamps!

No stamps this month. I've got a plan to get some more stamps next month!

11) Clear out the storage unit.

Done and done.  4 years after we started clearing out the house to get "a little" work done, we moved most of our possessions out to a storage unit.  And now, almost 2 years after the work was finished and we moved back into our house, we finally got all of the detritus out of the storage unit. Much of what was left went directly to the dump.  Rodents had been all over what was left, and there was mouse excrement everywhere.  It's all gone now. 

Being perfectly honest - there is still some stuff laying around on the carport.  Okay, a lot of stuff.  And no porch pirates have bothered to relieve us of our miscellaneous junk.  

As of October, this pile is mostly gone.  I have a handful of stuff that I want to make go away by the end of the year. The middle child will be home this month, and I've got plans for him to help me get rid of the last of the things.

12)  Do one totally irresponsible and fun thing each month! 

I took one of my Fridays off and went down to have lunch with my oldest son.  We enjoyed tacos al fresco. After I left his house, I ventured over to a Spice Store, where I picked up some desperately needed spices.  I stopped in at a park on the way home and moseyed around the flower garden before heading home.

13) Go see Falling Water. (Frank Lloyd Wright) 

This is a Bucket List item. Time is ticking down on getting this done in 2026...

14) Visit 12 new to me bakeries.

I'm falling behind on this.  I need to put in a concerted effort to rectify this sad situation!

        1) Eli Mochi Donut

        2) The Reister's Daughter

        3) Leonard's Bakery (Honolulu)

        4) Tour les Jours

        5) Paris Baguette

        6) The Bake Shop - Williamsburg, VA

        7) Raleigh Tavern Bakery - Williamsburg, VA- not new to me - it's a lifelong favorite!

The Money Pit, Part the Next

 It's been about 2 years since the last major house issue, so you know it's gotta be time for the next thing.  I can see you now, sitting there and wondering "what broke down now?" It's not that something broke.  It's that something failed.

To catch you up - we bought this house from my in-laws.  The house itself is 57 years old. They owned it for the first 35 years. Cool, right?  Well it would be if they had ever once, in the 35 years they lived in that house engaged in any form of home maintenance whatsoever.  I assumed that they had.  I mean, I grew up with parents who were constantly upgrading and fixing issues around the house. They never let issues fester in a home that they owned.  I assumed that everyone else did the same.  But, you know what they say about assumptions.  The last 22 years have been filled with misadventures as we have triaged problems and then attempted to fix long standing issues that have mushroomed into more because they weren't dealt with when they first appeared.

The latest problem is water in the basement.  A lot of water in the basement.  It's coming up under the floor in the basement, around the seams in the wall, and under the basement door.  We don't have a sump pump.  My in-laws left us with the parts for a sump pump, in a box.  I remember unpacking that box.  The parts were from something that my FIL dismantled in the 60's.  It had clearly been used before.

So.... water in the basement.  It's been a problem over the past 20 years.  Some  years are better than others, but this has been a very wet year.  It is no longer something we can ignore.  So, we are going to have someone come in and waterproof the basement.  

Step one is moving everything in the basement at least 5 feet away from the walls. Over the past month, I have been moving everything away from the walls.  This has necessitated me going through boxes, sifting through stuff I haven't sifted through before, and getting rid of the stuff we no longer need.  

As of this weekend, step one is now completed.  The permit has been approved and we have scheduled step two.

I really, really hope that this is the last of the legacy problems with the house. 

Gods of Jade and Shadow

 Gods of Jade and Shadow, written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.    

I didn't know what to expect when I pulled this book off the shelf.  The cover was so very intriguing. When I read the back cover, I was even more intrigued "A young woman and a Mayan death god embark on a life-changing journey in this one of a kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican Folklore."   I'm a die-hard fantasy lover, and this book checked all of my personal "This is going to be a great read" boxes, I checked it out.

I was not disappointed.  I enjoyed every minute of this book, and heaved a deep sigh at the ending.  While one adventure ended, the end left us with another adventure beginning.

My thoughts on the book:

The beginning of the book felt a little bit like a Cinderella story - beautiful main character - Casiopea - who has been taken in by her grandfather and is forced to do menial labor for the grandfather and her cousin, Martin. 

But the story took an unexpected turn when Casiopia opened the locked wooden box kept at the foot of her grandfather's bed. She found the bones of what turned out to be a Mayan death god who reassembled himself.  Cassiopea was then held in service to the death god, as he had to find the missing parts of himself that were scattered when he was dissassembled by his brother and placed into the wooden box.

I know, it's a wild twist, isn't it?

Set in Mexico in the 1920's, this story follows Casiopea on her adventure across Mexico to help reassemble the death god, Hun Kame.  Along the way, she meets ghosts, spirits, necromancers, and various other members of the underworld.

But what role does her cousin Martin have to play in this saga?  What is the allure of mortality? Given the choice between true love and despair, what will Casiopea choose?  

Author Website: https://silviamoreno-garcia.com/

The 6888th Postal Battalion

You may have heard of the 6888 Postal Batallion.  During WW2, this troop of all Black Women was sent to Europe and assigned the monumental task of sorting a backlog of mail that was intended for front line troops and for the folks back home. In that era, with no cell phone technology, and no internet, snail mail was the only way that people could determine the status of their loved ones.

The women who were sent to straighten out the mess worked around the clock, sorting mail.  They managed to clear out a backlog of 6 months of mail - 17 million individual pieces of mail - by working around the clock, 7 days a week. The job was completed in 3 months.  After cleaning up this backlog in Buckingham, England, they were sent on to Rouen and Paris, France where they cleared up even more backlogged mail.

When the war was over, the women quietly disappeared back into their lives.  While friendships remained, their work was largely forgotten by not only the people who sent them there, but also by the people who direcly beneffited from their work. Their own families did not know what they did in the war.

This past summer, I visited the 6888 Memorial at Leavenworth Army Base.  I wanted to pay my respects to these remarakable women who made such a difference in the lives of so many with basically no recognition until they were honored with Congressional Gold Medal in 2022. The actual medal presentation took place on April 29, 2025. (That's 80 years after the fact.)  

If you want to find out more about the 6888 Postal Battalion, I have included several links at the bottom of this post.

In the meantime, a handful of pictures from the 6888 Memorial:

The front of the Monument.
On the back is the list of every woman who served in the 6888.

A little closer up view of the words on the right.

And of the words on the left.

The actual Congressional Gold Medal.
I got to see it in person (and even hold it) when I met the daughter
of Indiana Hunt Martin (6888 Member) earlier this year.
What an absolute honor to have met her and heard the stories
that her mother had shared with her.

Resources:

Truman Library Institute: https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/6888th-battalion/

The National Archives: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2022/02/08/no-mail-low-morale-the-6888th-central-postal-battalion/

The National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/6888th.htm

The VA News: https://news.va.gov/102004/six-triple-eight-women-to-receive-congressional-gold-medal/

Arlington National Cemetery: https://education.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Search/Post/11048

Book: No Better Time, by Shelia Williams

Movie: The 6888, a Netflix Original.

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King

Have you read this book yet? 

The Phoenix Pencil Company is a magical realism novel, written by Allison King. I don't know if I can adequately capture the absolute magic of this book, but I am going to try.  If you haven't read it yet, it is worth your time.  The themes of love, memories, and family ties existing across generations and time run throughout the book.  I found myself deeply attached to the characters and the story.  

The premise of the book is unique. I'm trying hard not to give away too much of the book, but I feel that the magical pencils are key to the story and what makes this tale so unique. In this world, magical pencils exist.  Pencils that can be reforged to bring back the memories they contain.  But - this is an important clause - not everyone can reforge the pencils.  Only those gifted with this power are able to reforge the memories. Not every pencil is capable of reforging memories, either.  Only those forged by the Phoenix Pencil Company.

There are several characters in the story.  Monica Tsai is a computer coder who is working on a program that connects strangers online.  These aren't just any strangers - they are related to each other.  Her grandmother, who currently lives in San Francisco, grew up in China and survived two wars before coming to the United States. Her grandmother, Yun, has been searching for her cousin Meng since she left China.

The computer program connects Monica with a young woman in China who is connected with her long lost Aunt.  The young woman sends Monica a Phoenix Pencil, which leads Monica deep into the past, where she discovers the secret magical power that her family possesses. 

I loved how the story gently moved back and forth in time - between Monica and her grandmother.  The author does not flinch when telling of life in China during the wars.  The pencils - and the role that the pencils played in the grand scheme of the war... I know the story is fiction, and yet I could see it also being very true.  Part of me wants to believe that this particular type of magic exists in our world, hidden away somewhere, deeply guarded and protected.

Does Monica's Grandmother Yun ever connect with her sister?  Can everyone come to peace with their past and make terms with what has happened to them?  What happens to Monica as she deals with the realities of aging grandparents?  You'll have to read the book to find out! 

Author Website: https://www.allisonjking.com/phoenix-pencil-company

Remembering Sept. 11

25 Years Ago Today.

Do you remember where you were?  I do.  I was discussing this with a young friend who had not yet been born earlier this week.

I vividly remember the day.  The sky was that beautiful blue that only happens in the fall.  It felt like you could see a million miles that day.  It is my favorite sky color in the fall.

At the time, I was working from home.  I was on the computer, when the screen changed and looked like it was melting. Think crayons running down a screen, with the black moving from the top down.  To this day, it remains the strangest thing I have ever seen in my life.

Just a week or so before, we'd had a train crash in one of the tunnels in Baltimore that impacted the telecommunications on the East Coast, and I remembered thinking that "Folks in New York at the Trade Center commented on how weirdly their computers were acting in the wake of that."  Keep in mind, the news stations had not yet picked up the news story that the Trade Centers had been hit.  

Since it looked like my computer would be down for a while, I shut it off completely and headed to the gym.  I was there, at the Y, watching the horror unfold.  We watched the fires burn.  We watched the horror continue to unfold.  We heard that the Pentagon had been hit, and we all looked at each other with an "oh sh--" look on our faces. I remember driving home, wondering how such a beautiful day held such absolute horror.

My Mom was living in Virginia at the time.  Her house was 18 miles from the Pentagon.  She felt the impact when the plane hit the Pentagon.  She said that the house "jumped".

The days that followed were so filled with sorrow.  We knew people who were lost that day.  The world was forever changed.

In place of pictures of the horror of 9/11, I am posting pictures that we took a few years ago in New York City around the 9/11 Memorial. 

Flee North by Scott Shane

Flee North, written by Scott Shane completely changed my world view and challenged some long held beliefs and assumptions. This book is a Non-Fiction History, written by a newspaper writer who has written for both the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times.

In this book, set in Baltimore and Washington DC, we learn the true story of some of the people behind the Underground Railroad in the Mid-Atlantic.  

Thomas Smallwood was born into slavery in Prince George's County Maryland in 1801.  In the 1830's, he educated himself and bought his freedom.  He moved to the Navy Yard area of Washington DC and opened a shoe repair shop. By night, he spirited entire households out of slavery and moved them north towards Canada. In his spare time, he wrote dispatches to an Abolitionist newspaper in Albany, New York, taunting the enslavers and police - using the real names of the enslavers and those who he helped escape.  Most notably, Thomas Smallwood penned the phrase "Underground Railroad" to describe how abolitionists were helping enslaved people to escape.

Scott Shane is a gifted author who captures the story of the men and women involved in this previously unknown story of one of the most significant players in the Underground Railroad in the Mid-Atlantic. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.  

Scott Shane website: https://www.scottshane.org/

New York Times article about the Underground Rail Road: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/man-who-named-underground-railroad.html?unlocked_article_code=aT-JOE56I-XYNjVAR34FNCbfozz964z9f5SdOR2J6LIUlXAZPuA7ZoR4A0ZzSb_IrTe3-LF2XA4uMbAsVvOabWA1WxHF8xSEcWodmId7LsOt2uHXnv6WsrN6Gn8SlEHUAP-l5y-9DiGje4bPD44mNBQFbVvAPg6OdnTCinhq77l1O5Z2o_jNxIZw1pIbzhtRVclYjo5N8mShG4sm0C96NzcsIEXm0Lolvs1VaddsQa-TnqNAt9hGxC4YPDZ8DXx-HfGPaw4FzZoSYcsMEzgwgu3lK3BUpq5PyjivZocoxxd3BMcxf7pKwEslEGJLyWFkzSUx_CEYkYitTzd819kyPjor12q8h_5gX4P95Q&smid=url-share

Random Pictures

 Some random bits and bobs from this summer!

I hosted many library programs this summer.  It's summertime at the library.  For one program, I froze a lot of plastic toys in ice, and then the kids had to get the toys out of the ice.  In the picture below, you are looking at yellow building blocks encased in ice!  This was part of a larger Dog Man program.  This particular activity was entitled "Save the Town"! (If you've read Dog Man, you know.)

Bubblepalooza!

We found this old movie projector at a museum.  

It's a Kodak, and at one time, it was in a small movie theater.

Modern projectors are so large, this one kind of blew my mind.

Obligatory July 4 fireworks photo!

The welcome to the World Cup Games at the Kansas City airport.

I Ran Away for a Day

Okay, not so much ran away as "abdicated adult responsibilities for a day".  It was around my birthday.  My Mom passed away 2 years ago - 2 days before my birthday. So, I went out to visit the cemetery on the day after my birthday.  The cemetery is out in the mountains of Frederick County.  It's a lovely, beautiful spot.  I took a lunch with me, sat beside her tombstone and caught her up on all of the things that have been going on with me and the kids since the last time I was out there.

It was a gorgeous day!  When I was finished, I drove home the long way.  I stopped by a couple of orchards and picked up Apple Cider Donuts, and the absolute BEST peaches I've had since this time last year! 

When you drive home through the mountains of Maryland, you know you're going to have a great time!

Birthday cupcake!

View towards the mountains from the cemetery.

I stopped by the covered bridges on the way home.

2026 Goals - September Update

How is it already September?  How did this happen?  

BTW, Happy Birthday to my sister!

1) Lose 25 pounds.  Gain 10% muscle mass.

I changed this goal last month.  I am concentrating more on gaining muscle and worrying less about the stress of losing weight.  For right now, that goal is gaining 7 pounds of muscle by the end of the year.  

2) Visit 1 new to me state.

Hawaii

We thought about visiting a new to us state this fall, but we are going to take a staycation.  Prices are up everywhere.  Once we worked out the cost of hotels, airfare, car rental, etc, it was difficult to justify the expense for just 5 days.

3)  3 repairs/improvements to the house.

Project #1: Add surge protectors to the heat pumps and the house.  It's not a sexy fix, but it will definitely keep the heat pumps around for a longer period of time!  We've noticed an increase in the number of power surges we've had lately. The newer HVAC systems are very sensitive to power surges and they can damage the equipment. Honestly, who wants to spend to replace an HVAC system?  They are not cheap. I want them to last as long as possible.

Project #2: We are getting the basement waterproofed.  We've had leaks in the basement for a while now.  We currently have standing water in one corner. The contractor who remodeled the main floor was supposed to fix that, but ended up not doing it.  So now, another not so sexy fix.  But, it's important to the overall health of the house! 

4) 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

It's been a while since I've done this.  You get 40 bags or boxes of stuff out of your house over the 40 days of Lent.  I did NOT get 40 boxes out over the course of Lent.  I got rid of 6 boxes.

I'm beginning to realize that I did this a little backwards.  My goal is to empty out the storage unit - and I'm making excellent progress on this particular project.  Once I get everything out of the storage unit and really begin purging things, then I will get the 40 boxes (and then some) out of the house!

Boxes out of the house during March: 6

Boxes out of the house during April: 4

Boxes out of the house during May: 2

Boxes out of the house during June: 6

Boxes out of the house during July and August: 21

Total to date: 39

Just 1 more box to go.  One of those is a box of shredding, waiting for shred day at our local library this fall.  Seriously, I've got a LOT more stuff that will leave this house over the next few months.  I think I'm going to keep tracking this number through the end of the year.  It reminds me that I am accomplishing things!  (Even when it doesn't feel like I'm doing anything!)

5) Organize old correspondence/letters

I found a treasure trove of old letters and notes from high school.  I have them in a box to sort through next month.  The bigger question is - what gets kept and what gets thrown out?  Do I really want to save any evidence of high school me?  Most likely, NO.

On the other hand... I was given a box of old papers from a historical organization that I volunteer with to organize.  I was in my happy place, organizing that mess!  Many of the documents were of historical value, and there were a lot of photographs.  The photographs have been placed into acid free albums and labeled to the best of my ability.  The documents were sorted and organized into binders in acid free pages.  The next step - for someone else - is to digitize those documents so that back up copies exist somewhere.

Update on this: the letters are somewhat sorted.  I thought I would put them in binders and shove them away somewhere.  Some of them have been organized and put into binders.  This is a much bigger task than I originally anticipated.  I'm not certain I'm going to get this finished this year.  This might be a 2027 project.

6) Big backyard garden project.

I want to put in some sort of shelter for the local pollinators.  I've been searching through the garden catalogs for just the right thing.  I saw something when we were in England a couple of years ago that really tickled my fancy!  I have thoughts.  I just need to make some things happen!

I found the first part of my thoughts on this while in Old Ellicott City last month.  Once the weather cools down a little bit, we're going to look at finding a way to install this in the backyard.

7) Finish the cross stitch project I've been working on for 3+ years.

This is finished! Well over 3 years after I started, the project is finally finished!  I need to block this out and get it professionally framed later this year.  

From the end of February.

End of March

Finished!

8) Transfer Dad's slides to digital.

See my post here about transferring the slides!

9) Put those images into an album.

See my post here about the album.

10) Fill my America 250 Passport with lots of stamps!

Gettysburg - the Battlefields and the National Cemetery.

We went and heard the Lincoln Brigade play taps as the sun went down one Friday night.  No, I didn't take any pictures.  The moment felt sacred, and I wanted to be present.

11) Clear out the storage unit.

Done and done.  4 years after we started clearing out the house to get "a little" work done, we moved most of our possessions out to a storage unit.  And now, almost 2 years after the work was finished and we moved back into our house, we finally got all of the detritus out of the storage unit. Much of what was left went directly to the dump.  Rodents had been all over what was left, and there was mouse excrement everywhere.  It's all gone now. 

Being perfectly honest - there is still some stuff laying around on the carport.  Okay, a lot of stuff.  And no porch pirates have bothered to relieve us of our miscellaneous junk.

12)  Do one totally irresponsible and fun thing each month! 

I took a basket weaving class!  Oh my goodness, that was so much fun!  

13) Go see Falling Water. (Frank Lloyd Wright) 

This is a Bucket List item. 

14) Visit 12 new to me bakeries.

I think I'm falling behind on this.  I need to put in a concerted effort to rectify this sad situation!

        1) Eli Mochi Donut

        2) The Reister's Daughter

        3) Leonard's Bakery (Honolulu)

        4) Tour les Jours

        5) Paris Baguette

        6) The Bake Shop - Williamsburg, VA

        7) Raleigh Tavern Bakery - Williamsburg, VA- not new to me - it's a lifelong favorite!

What I Did This Summer

Do you remember writing these essays back in the day?  I do!  While I have a lot of content in here about random things that tickle my fancy, I don't think I've honestly tackled what has been going on in the Real World. 

We went traveling at the beginning of summer.  We went to Colonial Williamsburg.  We visited Yorktown and Jamestown. I love visiting those historic sites and understanding how we came to be where we are now.  We went to Kansas for the 4th of July.  Not only did we get to see the fireworks, we were there in time for several World Cup matches.  We did not attend the matches, but we did enjoy a watch party, and we had so much fun meeting people from all over the world.  The breakfast area in the hotel lobby was a very fun place to be!

One of our children has gotten engaged! They have chosen a venue!  I got to go to the tasting with the caterer, and soon I get to tag along for the dress shopping.  I did not have a wedding planner back when I got married, I did all the work myself and forgot many things until the very last minute.  These kids have the benefit of having a dedicated wedding planner who is helping them out with all of the details big and small.  I enjoyed planning my own wedding, but my gosh, a wedding planner makes such a difference.

Bulgogi-Mushroom Bowl from the tasting.

We emptied out the storage unit - onto our carport.  Most everything has been sifted and sorted.  I now have several very large empty plastic bins that I need to deal with.  I'm honestly not done yet.  Now that we are about to deal with the water in the basement, we are going to have to clear out the basement.  OK - at least pull everything 5' away from the wall. So... I might be packing up stuff.  AGAIN.  I still have stuff down there that I have put off sorting through the first time.  Before all is said and done, we really will have significantly downsized.

We've been to see a play: Mean Girls.  Which, in some ways, reminded me more of being a mom of young children in the hyper competitive world of children's soccer than my high school. Don't get me wrong, my high school definitely had those cliques, but this band geek was completely out of the loop of that drama.  

We've been to a couple of free outdoor concerts this summer.  My favorite summer activity is taking a picnic dinner out to some outdoor venue and listening to free music!

Picnic with Banana  Pudding!

I've worked a lot. Too much.  I'm trying to work harder on work-life balance.  It hit me this summer that I don't have that.  I really need to improve that!

I've worked out a lot. The front desk staff at the gym knows me by name now.

Oh, and I've had a couple of incidents where I've been sick this summer.  Once with Heat Exhaustion (that wasn't fun) and once with food poisoning. (also not fun)  I have to say, both times, the cat has decided that she is my mother in those instances.  She comes over, runs her paws through my hair and grooms me just like a mama cat would with a kitten.  It's both very sweet and very disconcerting!  

How was your summer?

 

Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop

 Located in Colonial Williamsburg, behind the Raleigh Tavern is the bake shop.  Loaded with all of the carby goodness your heart desires while roaming through Williamsburg, there is one perennial family favorite.  I discovered this on a trip to Colonial Williamsburg back in the 1970's.  It's a Ginger Cake.  Fresh out of the oven, hot and delicious, these things are the best. Everytime that we have been back to Colonial Williamsburg since that initial trip, I have made it a point to stop and get a couple of these delicacies.  Don't let the name fool you.  They are less than a cake, and more than a cookie.  They're very dense and hearty and so good!

Somewhere along the way, I started adding Root Beer from the tavern.  They have other food at this little Bake Shop. I looked at it.  But to me - this taste is the taste of Colonial Williamsburg.  

Honestly, there's a part of me that loves to think that our founding fathers nibbled on cookies just like these!

Colonial Williamsburg

We spent a long weekend in Colonial Williamsburg in June.  We happened to be in Williamsburg the same weekend that the tall ships were in Norfolk.  While we did not make it down to Norfolk for the Tall Ships, we did discover that it happens to be the perfect weekend to visit Colonial Williamsburg.  People flocked to Norfolk, and we had the historic area to ourselves.  We were able to spend a lot of time with the Historic Interpreters - we had a great conversation with Patrick Henry - no waiting for any of the buildings, tours... it was a great experience!  

Have you been to the Museums at Colonial Williamsburg?  For the first time ever, we roamed through the museums and stopped at the Museum Cafe for lunch. 5/5, would recommend that experience!  The food is fantastic, and the staff is lovely.

A handful of pictures from our trip:

The Witching Hour!  We were sitting at a patio, just outside of the Historic District.

The Capitol.  The tour guides were great!

The Governor's Palace.

It rained a bit while we were there!  Loved the rainy adventure!

The absolutely awesome lunch we had at the Museum Cafe!

The Bake Shop. Williamsburg Virginia

In my continuing quest to sample the baked goods of multiple bakeries in the Mid-Atlantic Region, we ventured to the Bake Shop in Williamsburg while we were there in June.  Located close the campus of the College of William and Mary, and just outside of the Historic Area, this wonderful bakery is a staple of Williamsburg.  

The Bake Shop has sourdough bread... it is to die for.  They make their sourdough fresh each day.  It goes on sale early and when they are out for the day, they are out.  Personally speaking, I think it is worth the effort to get up early and get over there by 9 am when they put their bread out for sale. It goes fast, because it is absolutely amazing!

In addition to the sourdough, we "forced" ourselves to try a croissant breakfast sandwich and sticky buns.  They were beyond words GREAT!  Alas, we were so busy enjoying the town, eating our breakfast in the Historic Area and people watching that I did not take any pictures of the food.  

So instead of food pictures, I give you the link to their website. The website has mouthwatering pictures of their food! 

If you are ever in Williamsburg and want to step out of the Historic Area for some most excellent baked goods, this is the place to go!

The Bake Shop - website

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

image: worldcat.org

This wonderfully sweet story follows Kiela, a librarian for the Imperial Library.  Kiela flees the imperial city with many boxes of books and a sentient spider plant when rebels take over, kill the emporer and torch the library.  She flees by boat to her home island of Caltrey and moves into her parents long abandoned home.  

Caltrey is suffering at the hands of the empire.  No sorcerers have been to the island in years, and the island is suffering.  Water isn't flowing, the merhorses aren't reproducing, crops aren't producing, and the magical storms are destroying the island.

Armed with her illegal books, Kiela sets out on a wild plan to help her save Caltrey by opening a Jam Shop.  And maybe selling a few illegal "cottage remedies" on the side to help revive Caltrey.

Kiela's attempts to make new friends and integrate herself into island life take an unexpected turn when an Imperial Inspector shows up, searching for the unregistered sorcerer who is making such an impact on the island.

I loved this sweet story!  If you enjoy cozy fantasy, this is a great choice.  I especially loved that there was no violence.  No sex (there was a kiss).. and the problem solving of the women who find ways to get things done without relying on a member of the opposite sex to save them was heartwarming.  I always appreciate strong female leads who are able to keep their femininity!  Thank you Sarah Beth Durst!  There are other books in the series.  Once I catch up on some other books sitting on my desk, I will be reading the rest of them!

My Wayward Laptop, part the last

 The continuing trials and tribulations of my laptop.

My laptop came home.  I thought that we were all set to go!  I turned it on - and for the first week, it worked. Seven days later, it died for the last time.  I ordered a new laptop.  Upgraded model and memory.  You know there's a chip shortage, right?  That's the biggest reason why I wanted to fix the old laptop, if possible.  

Anyway, many weeks later, and I finally have a new laptop.  It works very well.  Ultra fast processing speed!  And it's so light and airy!  It doesn't have all of the stickers that my last laptop had on it, but over time, I'll find them!  I think the sticker I will miss most said "Easily distracted by cats and books."  A friend gave that to me a couple of  years ago when she got promoted.  I think of her every time I look at it.  

So, I am looking at the queue of posts that I had started on before the laptop died the last time.  They need some work - but I will start scheduling those this week.  Believe me, I have a lot to say!

I hope your summer has been going well!

2026 Goals - July Update

4th of July!  Fireworks!  Picnics!  Parades!  

What are you doing to celebrate the 4th of July?  We will traveled to spend the weekend with middle child. It was a great weekend!

1) Lose 25 pounds.  Gain 10% muscle mass.

I changed this goal last month.  I am concentrating more on gaining muscle and worrying less about the stress of losing weight.  For right now, that goal is gaining 7 pounds of muscle by the end of the year.  This month, I gained 0.5 pounds of muscle.

2) Visit 1 new to me state.

Hawaii

I'd love to visit another new to me state this fall!

We have a destination in mind!  We need to make some reservations soon.

3)  3 repairs/improvements to the house.

Project #1: Add surge protectors to the heat pumps and the house.  It's not a sexy fix, but it will definitely keep the heat pumps around for a longer period of time!  We've noticed an increase in the number of power surges we've had lately. The newer HVAC systems are very sensitive to power surges and they can damage the equipment. Honestly, who wants to spend to replace an HVAC system?  They are not cheap. I want them to last as long as possible.

4) 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

It's been a while since I've done this.  You get 40 bags or boxes of stuff out of your house over the 40 days of Lent.  I did NOT get 40 boxes out over the course of Lent.  I got rid of 6 boxes.

I'm beginning to realize that I did this a little backwards.  My goal is to empty out the storage unit - and I'm making excellent progress on this particular project.  Once I get everything out of the storage unit and really begin purging things, then I will get the 40 boxes (and then some) out of the house!

Boxes out of the house during March: 6

Boxes out of the house during April: 4

Boxes out of the house during May: 2

Boxes out of the house during June: 6

Total to date: 18 boxes

5) Organize old correspondence/letters

I found a treasure trove of old letters and notes from high school.  I have them in a box to sort through next month.  The bigger question is - what gets kept and what gets thrown out?  Do I really want to save any evidence of high school me?  Most likely, NO.

On the other hand... I was given a box of old papers from a historical organization that I volunteer with to organize.  I was in my happy place, organizing that mess!  Many of the documents were of historical value, and there were a lot of photographs.  The photographs have been placed into acid free albums and labeled to the best of my ability.  The documents were sorted and organized into binders in acid free pages.  The next step - for someone else - is to digitize those documents so that back up copies exist somewhere.

Update on this: the letters are somewhat sorted.  I thought I would put them in binders and shove them away somewhere.  Some of them have been organized and put into binders.  This is a much bigger task than I originally anticipated.

6) Big backyard garden project.

I want to put in some sort of shelter for the local pollinators.  I've been searching through the garden catalogs for just the right thing.  I saw something when we were in England a couple of years ago that really tickled my fancy!  I have thoughts.  I just need to make some things happen!

I found the first part of my thoughts on this while in Old Ellicott City last month.  Once the weather cools down a little bit, we're going to look at finding a way to install this in the backyard.

7) Finish the cross stitch project I've been working on for 3+ years.

This is finished! Well over 3 years after I started, the project is finally finished!  I need to block this out and get it professionally framed later this year.  I finally got around to blocking this project, and I dropped it off at the framing store.  Finally done!

From the end of February.

End of March

Finished!

8) Transfer Dad's slides to digital.

See my post here about transferring the slides!

9) Put those images into an album.

See my post here about the album.

10) Fill my America 250 Passport with lots of stamps!

New Additions this past month:

Colonial Williamsburg

Historic Jamestowne

Historic Yorktowne

11) Clear out the storage unit.

Done and done.  4 years after we started clearing out the house to get "a little" work done, we moved most of our possessions out to a storage unit.  And now, almost 2 years after the work was finished and we moved back into our house, we finally got all of the detritus out of the storage unit. Much of what was left went directly to the dump.  Rodents had been all over what was left, and there was mouse excrement everywhere.  It's all gone now. 

Being perfectly honest - there is still some stuff laying around on the carport.  Okay, a lot of stuff.  And no porch pirates have bothered to relieve us of our miscellaneous junk.

12)  Do one totally irresponsible and fun thing each month! 

I took a day off of work and played!  I went to a Zentangle class.  I spent the morning at the gym, and went out for dinner.

13) Go see Falling Water. (Frank Lloyd Wright) 

This is a Bucket List item. 

14) Visit 12 new to me bakeries.

        1) Eli Mochi Donut

        2) The Reister's Daughter

        3) Leonard's Bakery (Honolulu)

        4) Tour les Jours

        5) Paris Baguette

        6) The Bake Shop - Williamsburg, VA