Dirt: Friday

Seems that I should change my blog to 5 things on Friday...

Literally never seem to have time to blog for me. My work blogs are always going through my head and I have not even been able to get them done like I should. I am working on a new thing in my life...TIME BLOCKING.

A new concept? No! Just a new form of a list, which I love. Sunday, I am going to make two time block weeks. One for work and one for my personal time. Working out, blogging and friends are my top priority.  I need more of all three in my personal life.

On that note, it is the end of school which means all parents all over the country are scheduled to their eyeballs in watching their precious children  perform, compete and just create. The end of year marathon I like to call it. My family has been to a musical, May Day,  a concert, a lacrosse game and tonight, a Spring Chorale Concert. Fancy way of saying " your kid sings, come  hear her.".  Luckily, both of my girls are in the fancy concert tonight. The rare Two For One!

I love that my kids are so involved. We are lucky to have happy, healthy outgoing kids. However the end of year marathon is not for the faint of heart, or the slow eater as we have to gulp our food down to get our kids to the next event.


Have a great weekend! 

Whatever: Friday, funnies and wine

I am working on my reading list for the year.

Also, I have my second shipment from Stitchfix.com to try on and share with you.

However, it is Friday and I  have spent the last few minutes laughing my ass off reading dogshaming.com and someEcards.com. 

Laughter is the best medicine. And so is wine. 

It is 4:47 and I have already had my first glass of the weekend.
Are you with me?

 

Cooking: Seriously good salad

Kale is a mainstay of the Swann diet.

I love that I can buy it and it stays fresh for days.

We all love that it is  not "spicy" or " harsh" or any other word that has described food at our dinner table. Also, it is incredibly good  for you.

I plan on planting a winter garden with kale this year.

Dirt: Friday, Summer and Gratitude

How did another week go by? 

Is it really less than 30 days (25) until the girls go back to school?

I had lunch today with three of my best girls and we talked about how with swimming, summer begins the day after City Meet. Meaning, for us, summer started July 15th.

Crazy. 

 

 

This sight is the signal for "Summer's here"!

But, I fully intend to maximize the rest of my summer.

I plan on taking my girls to the pool, going to a drive-in movie, eating tomatoes (hopefully they are in) and living a little less harried.

I have slipped on my blogging and especially my Gratituesday posts. The thoughts are always going through my mind, just not making it onto paper (so to speak).

I am eternally grateful for several things that are really  not things.

God's love, which He reminds me in interesting ways is always there (Hello, Aunt Margaret), Summer and the health and physical ability of my children and husband. 

We run because we can. We swim because we can.

Summer is the time to revel in being strong and healthy.

 

As I start the weekend full of fun and catching up (chores) on the home front, I can't help but lift up a prayer of thanksgiving for these things.

 

 

Instafriday: Finally!

Linking up with Jeanette...

Finally downloaded all the photos off my cameras! 

Here are two of my favorites from The Avett Brothers when we took these cute girls with us.

We were that close...and he was that cute.

Two weeks ago, we went to this. 

We all had so much fun, but when we saw this, the Mecca for my Ellie, the Mac the Cheese Truck, we were very excited.

She was smitten.
We have all been singing all the songs from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros after their fabulous show. Here is one of my favorite photos of Alex Ebert, lead singer.

Summer has been fun and we are taking advantage of all the local fun to be had. 

Sunday, our girls competed in a pie eating contest at The Chattanooga Market. Delaney was a return participant, determined to win.

 She did! 

We stopped mid week to celebrate Steve's birthday.

American Gothic has nothing on Silly Swanns.

 Chattanooga is a summer swim city and we take full advantage. Ellie has fun with her buddies and Delaney does it to stay in shape for fall and winter swimming.

Lots of swim practice and meets the first month of summer for all of us. 

The heat and time is worth it though.

We are undefeated! 

A little more local flavor. 

Happy First Official Week of Summer!

InstaFriday: Cool as we wanna be

 Instagram makes my life look so much cooler than it is! 

Have been hanging out with my mom doing what she loves to do, scour estate sales.

I scored these fancy glasses. Passed up the 8 track tapes, but dang it was tempting.

My newest obsession

 Summer means two things, swim team and good eating.

Salads get a lot more exciting at Casa Swann in the summer.

Swim meets twice a week go so much faster if you have a job to do. 

I like to be a judge. Love getting front row of all the swimmers, from hilarious 8 and unders "diving" off the blocks to the seriously fast seniors flying across the pool. 

My girls are middle of the pack summer swimmers, but love it.

salmon cakes and kitchen sink salad

 Did a crazy thing this week and convinced my reluctant hair dresser to darken my hair.

Right now, it is temporarily darker than it will end up. Which is kind of fun. It's shocking when people see me and I love seeing them try to figure it out.

 My husband is an 80's old wave guy and we went to hear the Psychedelic Furs at our local music festival. They were great, but about 102 years old which was really weird. Pretty in Pink? You bet.

 My girls are finally easing into summer. We have been up every morning and out the door by 7:45, but they come back and relax and goof off. Friends are over watching movies, I have been the chauffeur to the pool and library, and today we are heading off to hear music in Atlanta. 

Perfect, fly by the seat of your pants summer. 

Maybe we are cool.

Check out the really cool Jeannette.

Instgrafriday

A week in photos at Casa Swann...linking up with...

click to check out some awesomeness

 Friday was Decades Day at school. We rocked the 1980's AD and the 40's BC. 

Only my child would think of a toga for decades day. Actually, mine and one of her besties.

 

Good Friday

Happy Easter from the Swann Family

May the miracle  of 

 The Resurrection fill your heart with Christ's Peace

Whatever: Decorations are done, man!

I went and got my hair done on Wednesday. 

FAVORITE thing in the world to me. 

Love it like most people like getting their nails done.

I digress. While I sat in the chair, I chatted up my most fabulous hairdresser and her co-worker about the lack of insanity this Christmas. They work on the busy road that leads to the mall and both remarked on how very light the traffic is this year.

Christmas seems to be slowly, slowly trickling in, rather than punching it's way into town.

I personally love that. As someone who is finally into the Christmas spirit, and who is really enjoying the slow pace of it all, I am relived that apparently everyone else is as well. I feel that the spirit of Christmas is peace, love and fellowship.

That being said, my house is decorated for real  now. 

We have lots of things that didn't make it out into the house, but we have just enough of things that did. My girls get an ornament every year and those all made their yearly appearance. 

I love looking at them every year and for them to see how they have changed by how their tastes have evolved. (Two years ago, my oldest picked this ornament.) 

I also had several  from college that have managed to linger over the years. I lived in a house that had a mantle when I was 22 and bought ornaments to decorate it. This is the only one from that lot that survived. Prophetic, I believe. 

My husband is huge Florida Gators fan. With the exception of one year, I have bought him a gator ornament every year that we have been together. That means after this Christmas, we will have 16 of these suckers on the tree.

My two playgroups that I belonged to merged into a dinner group that met for almost 10 years. We started having ornament exchanges about 3 years into it.

 I also have participated in one with moms from my daughter's kindergarten class since she was in kindergarten. She now is in 8th grade and I am lucky enough to be meeting them next week. There also are a fair amount of the cute ornaments that Delaney and Ellie have made over the years in school, beginning when my oldest two and in a mother's day out program.

We have two trees now to hold all the ornaments. My lovely vintage white tree holds  our glass ornaments. I love the tackiness of Christmas and the traditions that go along with the holidays. 

My sweet Aunt made jars of my grandmother's ornaments for my sisters and me after my grandparents passed away. Now, I get to have a little their home with me at Christmas. 

I love this part of the holidays. The traditions and the fun of reliving the past and planning for the future, whatever it may bring.

I  hope that is what folks are doing right now as they are slowly getting ready for Christmas.