Spring? Break?

I have to apologize for the lack of fun going on here. It's Spring Break week and, unfortunately, the only excitement going on here is, well, the kids have a week out of school while Mom and Dad have to work. Boo!

The weather has been overcast and cool......which has been our recurrent weather theme for the last several months. I'm certain we all have a big fat case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), also known as the "Winter Blues". *sigh*

There seems to be a slight greening of the grass and our neighbor's tulip tree has bloomed, so we know warmer weather must be on the way. It just has to be, for crying out loud!

There's rumor of sunshine at 70's tomorrow....whatever. And how about that forecast for rain and cooler temperatures on Sunday. Oh joy.




To lighten up the mood around here, tomorrow I am going to have a Flashback Friday post celebrating March Madness!! Y'all come back now, ya' here.

The Great Outdoors

I am not much of a camping type girl.  I’m a city girl and my family did not camp when I was growing up.  My idea of “roughing it” would be a stay at the Holiday Inn with the pool closed and the cable out.  And the thought of getting close to nature, especially after dark, does not sound very appealing to me.  Not.At.All.

I have a vague memory of my youth group camping out during a trip to Disney World, but the only thing I remember is waking up one morning soaking wet because it had rained and the tent had “sweated” due to the high humidity.  And why where we camping at Disney World?!

My only other memory of “roughing it” also involved my youth group and a choir tour to a place called “Camp of the Woods” somewhere in Canada.  It was a two week trip which we sang our way from Alabama to Canada.  One trip highlight, ahem, was our bus breaking down in the middle of nowhere and mosquitoes the size of helicopters trying to carry a few of us away. 

At the camp, we slept in bunk houses complete with OUTDOOR plumbing, that’s right, an OUTHOUSE.  Ummm, contrary to popular belief we don’t really have those in the South.  And I’m a gal who all my life has gotten up in the middle of the night for at least one potty break.  Just keeping it real, folks.

I kid you not, I purposely dehydrated myself after seeing a BLACK BEAR in the woods on the way to breakfast one morning.  I was not going to be a middle of the night Scooby snack for any beast lurking in the darkness of night.

So, fast forward a few decades to a little camping invite by friends last week.  After finding out there would be indoor facilities and electrical access, it didn’t take me long to think about it and answer absolutely not “no thanks, we have prior engagements early Saturday morning.”  Which was the truth!  I promise.

And the fact that we can’t get to our tent in a storage room helped my cause. But we did make plans to join our camping friends for dinner at the camp site on Friday night. 

A last minute change in plans landed us at one of our friend’s backyard for a 5 family cookout.  Ahhhhh, my kind of “campy” get together.  A nicely wooded backyard complete with a fire pit and immediate access to indoor plumbing and running water.  The weather was perfect, the food was great and the company enjoyable.   And I didn’t have to sleep in a tent!!

Maybe next time, camping friends…..perhaps after the little slithering things have gone to rest for the winter. 

 

 

 

Goodness Abounds

After sharing with you our backyard tragedy last week, I wanted to reassure my six readers that we do have a lot of good going on in the GRITS backyard. We do. Really.

Over the last few days I have been taking photos of the abounding goodness in nature that occurs within the confines of our backyard. So all comments about the squirrel killing fields will soon be dispelled. I hope.

And perhaps people will stop calling me “baby squirrel killer”. Maybe I’ll get a new name. Something like “Nature’s Nurturer”. Yea, I like the sound of that.

Colossians 1:16-17

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.