Family Outings #1 & #2

This week we started our Family Outings (Or Staycation as my husband keeps calling it.) Sorry I have no pics this time around!

#1) I actually did not participate in the first one! It was raining and my daughter and husband went to a local indoor play place called Bounce It Out while I stayed home and got to clean the house with no one in my way (or calling my name-Just me and a book on tape-my own little vacation!)

Anyway-Bounce it out has these enormous indoor bouncy things (Like the kind you can rent for a party but 2 stories tall with different rooms or really big slides or obstacle courses. It was $8 to get in (children only, adults are free) and I think my husband got my daughter a $2 slice of cheese pizza and some dried fruit. I think the whole outing was $11. It probably would not seem cheap if you had more than one child but we don't.

This is one of my daughter's very favorite places to go and she'll ask for it any time you give her a choice. It is a very active place and she gets TIRED. (always a good thing.)

#2) Since our own farmers market is closed this week because the town hall is getting ready for the 4th. We picked up my mom today and went to the one in her town. (Keep in mind I count any activity that doesn't involve TV or a trip to Target or Wegmans as a family outing) Ok perhaps that is an exaggeration but really, any time you break out of your normal mold or invite someone along I think it makes it special. No cost at all except for the food but we buy that anyway. And it was different and I think, a little cheaper.

Tonight my girl is sleeping at my parents because my Dad is having hip surgery Monday and she won't be able to stay there for a while. Never underestimate the power of grandma sleep away camp ;-) I employ that one regularly though so I won't use it as part of my list!

The Sun That Would Not Go To Sleep

In High School I met one of my true soul mates. She was a Finnish exchange student named Mari and she quickly named me her "American Sister." She is my "Finnish Sister." She's one of those people with whom I just "connect." I am so luck to have met her.

Since the time that we became friends I've always wanted to be in Finland for June 21st-The longest day of the year. called Midnight Summer- A night that the sun literally does not set. Her family has an island and they spend that night there each year. I should have already experienced this but I have not. Someday, I will spend that night with her!

This year she made my daughter a video about it. Please watch! It's wonderful!

Staying Close To Home!

Oh my, I have not posted since June 7th! What have I been doing exactly? I don't know but I sure have been feeling busy. A little of this and a little of that and before you know it you have a lot of stuff going on!

Anyway, normally at this time of year my school teacher husband is off from work and we plan a trip to see friends/family. Then we plan an end of summer 2 week vacation. Last year we found 2 weeks was a little too long so we are cutting that down to one week and pretty much staying close to home and not doing a road trip anywhere else. It feels a little strange not leaving for another locale right now but it also seems like we have the whole summer stretched out in front of us which is nice.

So, wanting to make the most of the time we have off together, over dinner the other night we came up with at least 20 different places we would like to go around town for family outing days!
We'll start next week! Most are free or low cost and I'll share them as we do them!

Actually I started this week and my mother-in-law and I took my girl strawberry picking! We picked 10 quarts in a relatively short amount of time. They ended up being $2 a quart, which is half of what we are paying at the farmers market this year!

Head on over to my other blog and you can see what I did with them!

More Adventures in Book Selling

A little over a month ago I posted about selling a used book to Sotheby's. It generated a bunch of discussion around the ethics of buying used.

Today this reached a new level when I noticed that the person buying the secondhand book from Amazon was the ACTUAL AUTHOR OF THE BOOK!!!!

To be fair, the book was out of print so she could not have purchased it new online However, I wonder how many authors out there need to buy their book from someone else! (Don't they like get a box of their own books when they are published!)

I thought about writing a little note to the author to tell her I liked the book!

Farmer's Market Update

I just have to post an update on the Farmer's Market last Thursday.

We purchased
-1st Strawberries of the season
-A beautiful bunch of green onions
-A huge bunch of really delicious fresh spinach
-Some gourmet pasta
-Bread from The small world Bakery, who are new sellers at this market this year. It was $4 which is the same as the sprouted grain bread I buy BUT WAY more than the bread I can make.
-AND, EGGS. Free range eggs NOT from the surly woman with high prices and low personality (as well as supply!!!) A competing egg seller! A family with a bunch of young girls who all looked the same and were as tickled as I was that they were making their very first egg sale!!! I told them I would be back if they would be! I'll be seeing them this coming Thursday!

It was so nice to be buying fresh local food!

Farmers Market & Garage Sale

Tonight begins the 1st night of the Farmers Market here in my town. It's a five minute drive from my house and I feel like I've been waiting for this for way too long! Finally, Summer (in my mind) is beginning.

At this point we'll be looking for spring greens & veggies. Also at this time of year many of the places have flowers and vegetables for gardening. I'm mostly done with mine but I do still need a Rosemary plant. There is also a guy that sells local honey and I'm almost out of mine.

We've made a standing date with our favorite neighbors-4pm every Thursday. The market is not huge but supplies everything we need-They even started selling grass fed beef last year. There is one woman who sells organic eggs but she tends to sell out rather quickly and her prices are more than I've seen elsewhere for organic eggs-A competing egg seller would be a really welcome addition!

In other news we are having a garage sale here at my house tomorrow and Saturday. I've asked a few people if they wanted to sell their stuff as well. We've got a lot of stuff and there will be coffee! Stop by and say hi!

A friend of mine is moving and she's bringing a lot of stuff including a front loading washing machine! If you need one give me a shout!

A Good Neighbor Is Like a Warm Cookie!

Especially when they bring you warm cookies!!

This morning my neighbor Susan baked these LUSCIOUS Strawberry Shortcake Cookies from Martha Stewart and had her husband Gray bring them over to us warm.

I truly don't think I've ever been delivered warm cookies before! I've delivered but never been the recipient. It really made my day and made me feel all WARM inside. (Could be because I ate 3 cookies right away!!!)

What a sweet and easy way to make someone feel special!