Paddling from Bellefonte

Since the weather has been a little cooler, Daniel and I decided to take our canoe out on Sunday. We started the day eating breakfast on our back porch and listening to the church bells down the road chime out the song "When Peace Like a River." It was a perfect way to start our day.

After lunch we loaded up our canoe, gear and Sophie and headed over to Bellefonte. There was a time when Sophie was terrified of the water. But she got used to it. And then she didn't like her life jacket. But she got used to that too. And she wasn't fond of sitting in the canoe. But she got used to that as well. In fact, when I climbed in the canoe, she waded out in the water and tried to climb in by herself – I guess she didn't want to get left behind.

We paddled about 1.5 miles through a marshy inlet to get to the Tennessee River. It is amazing what a difference there is between a big flowing river and a little tributary. There was plenty of wildlife to see – mostly huge cranes and storks and the occasional fish flopping on the surface of the water. I thought Sophie was going to launch herself into the water on several occasions, but I think her fear of deep water kept her in check.

When we finally reached the river, Daniel decided to jump in. Then we coaxed Sophie to get in with him {i.e. we tossed her overboard} – we are all about exposing her to things she doesn't like so that she can get used to them. For the most part this works great. As long as she could float with Daniel, she was fine. However she was shaking a bit so we put her back in the boat.

When Daniel went to get back in the canoe – I mentioned multiple times how he better not flip us. Being 7 months pregnant I am in no shape to pull myself back into a canoe out on open water. He started out by pulling himself up on the left side of the boat while I shifted my weight to the right as a counter balance. We were doing good until I realized he had somehow slid all the way across the back of the canoe and we were in danger of flipping over to the right! I shifted my weight to the left and he fell back into the water {we were precariously close to flipping and I was NOT HAPPY}. Anyways, his second try was better.

We paddled a total of about 3.5 miles. It was a perfect afternoon to be out on the water.

Our route.

S'mores with the Moores

Golden Graham S'mores Bars – recipe adapted from Macaroni and Cheesecake

A year ago we were still living in a camper at Raccoon Mountain and we invited our good friends, the Reynolds, to come visit us to indulge in "S'mores with the Moores." Both of our families were about to embark on some big changes – the Reynold's were expecting baby #3 any day and we were about to close on our house in Alabama.

Almost a year later, we finally found a weekend where the Reynolds could come down for a quick visit to see our new house. We {meaning Daniel} indulged in taking the two older kids on four wheeler rides and we finished the evening by grilling steaks.

Andrew waiting for his turn to ride our ATV with Daniel.

The best compliment ever is to have a little kid tell you how much they loved their dinner – Sadie {who just turned five} surprised everyone by eating 1.5 ears of corn as opposed to the half an ear we originally gave her. This might have had something to do with the fact that I let her role her corn in the butter dish – sorry Courtney if I started a bad habit – that's how we do it around here :)

For dessert I surprised them with Golden Graham S'mores Bars. Funny that the kids remembered coming to make s'mores with us last year {or at least trying to since last year we had some serious problems with the wood for our campfire not wanting to burn}.

 Sadie taking a turn.

We might have to continue the yearly tradition of having the Reynolds over to make s'mores in the fall.

I think the kids had fun on the four wheeler {I know Daniel did}. Initially they couldn't agree on who should go first... one wanted to wait to prolong her excitement, the other wanted to wait because he was a bit nervous. Daniel told them to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide. Sadie "lost" and had to go first. In the end, they both seemed to enjoy it.

 Andrew taking a turn.

Quick funny story: Right before we decided to take the four wheeler out, the golden retriever "puppy" from down the street decided to grace us with a visit. He is 60+ pounds and very playful. Unfortunately he has no concept of how big he is. Right away he knocked Sadie off of her feet and he was jumping on everyone. Normally Sophie chases this dog off {she does not like him AT ALL} but Sophie was off wandering around the woods. She did eventually come back and get into a snarling fight with him, but the golden always thinks that she is just playing. In the end, Daniel picked up this dog and put it on the back of the four wheeler and drove him back to his house down the street. It was pretty funny – too bad I didn't have the camera handy.

52 Books: Book 38

When I was a teenager I read several Erma Bombeck books that my mom had checked out of the library. They were hysterical. Even as a teenager, the honesty and humor of everyday life was not lost on me. 

My most recent book to read was A Marriage Made in Heaven: Or Too Tired for an Affair and was full of gems on getting married, wading through the waters of being a wife and a mother, joining the workforce, becoming super mom, and growing old with your mate.

Excerpts from the book:

What Bill and I looked like and how we lived didn't seem to matter anymore. The impact was driven home one afternoon when I realized there was nothing of either of us left in the house any more. Our hobbies and interests had been regulated to cardboard boxes and stored in the attic. Our favorite books had been replaced by doctors Spock and Seuss. We didn't have toys of our own... they had been replaced by head-bumping mobiles and shin-cracking rocking horses. Even our wedding picture had been replaced by a framed naked baby.

All the wages from both our paychecks went into one account and we shared. All the daily experiences of our individual jobs were exchanged over dinner and we shared. All the child raising and crud detail – the baton twirling classes, the orthodontist appointments, car pools, shopping and errands – were mine alone.

When married couples say "We never argue," it's an incomplete sentence. "We never argue in public/in front of the children/during sex," maybe. But there is something wrong with two people who agree to never disagree.

Women generally hang on to their illusions about romance. They want desperately to believe it's a phase men go through and that one day they will appear at the door with violets out of season, a bottle of wine, and two airline tickets to Paris... That will happen on the day two squirrels sit down at our picnic table feeder and order a corn-on-the-cob daiquiri.

There are no marriage manuals. It's just as well. If there were, no one would get married. It would be like reading a book on how babies are born. They both sound worse than they are. There are no guarantees that marriage will work when you get it home. There are no exchanges or credits or returns. No life-time batteries. It's a high-risk profession.

52 Books: Books 37

I have been reading some pregnancy/parenting books lately. It seems fitting since we are expecting soon. Mostly I have been disappointed. In regards to pregnancy, mine has been an easy one and most of the symptoms that the books suggest I should experience, I have not experienced. I have some great recommendations for parenting books, but haven't felt the need to start them yet since I still have about 9 weeks to go. 

Anyways, I just finished reading And Baby Makes Three by John Gottman and Julie Schwartz Gottman. To be quite honest, this read like a marital counseling book targeted at couples who had not been married very long. Daniel and I have almost a decade of marriage under our belts and the issues discussed in the book are essentially non issues for us. So maybe a good read for a young couple or a newly married couple, but not for us. I need to find a book that addresses people who have chosen to wait a significant amount of time before they decided to have children.

Labor Day Weekend

On Friday our long-time friends, the Wheeler's, came down to our place to spend part of the weekend with us. We were really excited because we haven't seen them in over 5 years. Gwynn and Chuck were our first "couple" friends to make after we were newly married and in Cookeville. We are so thankful that we have been able to keep in touch with them and now that we live a little closer, we are hoping to see them more often.

Much has changed since we left Cookeville 7 years ago... they have three kids now and we have a dog and a baby on the way. 

Originally we had planned to go camping but due to the fact that it has been HOT and I am pregnant and finding a place to camp on Labor Day was proving difficult, we decided to invite them to our place to have some fun.

Friday night they arrived late and put the kids straight to bed. In the meanwhile, we adults stayed up way past our bedtime {1:30-ish} visiting.

The next morning, after breakfast, we loaded the kids and canoe up and went to Goosepond for some paddling on the Tennessee River. Daniel and Chuck took all three kids out for a short spin. Then Abi {age two} came back to shore to hang out with Gwynn and I while we visited. The older kids and guys took a longer spin. 

Finally when they came back, Abi decided she wanted to go again. Zoe {age 6?} stayed on shore to swim while Eli {age 7?} went for another ride. The guys made it out past the dock when all of a sudden the canoe flipped over! Gwynn and I were watching and ran out on the dock to collect kids so that Daniel and Chuck could bring the canoe in. Amazingly neither kid panicked and the life jackets kept them afloat. 

The rest of the day, we hung out, grilled burgers and enjoyed each others company.

Sunday we slept in and visited some more, followed by a quick devo, then Daniel and Chuck took the kids out one at a time on our four wheeler. I think the kids {and Chuck} were in heaven :) After riding around the yard, we decided to go into town to grab lunch and then to the Scottsboro Splash Pad for the kids to play.

On the way to Scottsboro it started raining but the kids still wanted to go to the Splash Pad, so we figured it didn't matter since they would be getting wet anyways. The adults hung out in the pavilion while the kids played.

We had a fun, very kid friendly weekend. It is good for us to see that our future can definitely be one of us introducing kids to activities that we love.

52 Books: Books 36

Back in 2009 I read Julie and Julia {book 55 for that year} and was sorely disappointed. A book about blogging and cooking should have been perfect for me. Instead I read my way through a book about a woman whose mission in life {beside cooking her way through Julia Child's recipes} was to whine and complain about everything. I was not a fan. At all.

So two years later, I finally picked up My Life in France, the memoir of Julia Child. While Julie and Julia definitely have some things in common, Julia Child is much more of a grown up in how she deals with her problems. She embraces challenges and NEVER WHINES. I don't know if Julia Child ever read Julie Powell's book, but I think she would be appalled by how much of a whiner Julie is.

That being said, I enjoyed reading My Life in France and may have to incorporate some French recipes into my weekly menu.

Excerpts from the book:

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because you order a beer and they don't bring you oysters." – Paul Child

Upon reflection, I decided that I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, "scientific" thought. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.

...the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know...

I don't believe in twisting yourself in knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make... usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile... then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile – and learn from her own mistakes.

This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook – try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!

Red Velvet Ant

{via}

Have you ever seen one of these 2-inch ants before? I never had until a month ago when I noticed on one our driveway. It ran away before I had a chance to show it to Daniel. And then last weekend we found one on our back porch while eating breakfast. I steered Sophie away from it {she can be too curious for her own good sometimes} while Daniel killed it {or attempted to}.

Once the ant was immobile, Daniel looked it up on the internet and we discovered that it was called a Red Velvet Ant. Also commonly known as a Cow Killer because it inflicts a sting that is so painful that it would in theory kill a cow {they don't really kill cows}. Thankfully they are not supposed to be hostile and will run away from people. 

It turned out that the ant was not quite dead and was making attempts to come back to life while Daniel researched it – it's a tough little sucker. The good news is that these Red Velvet Ants {actually a part of the wasp family} prey on Yellow Jackets – which we have a lot of. So I will keep a respectful distance the next time I see one and be thankful that it will hunt down the Yellow Jacket nests and destroy them.