Quick Takes #213: Maine Livin

1. Incredibly blessed this year to manage two beach weeks. In addition to managing to get time to go to the Outer Banks with my family we were also able to get up to Maine to spend some time with Charlie's side.
2. Traveling with a newly trained toddler means extra potty stops and traffic was worse than usual but the kids managed to keep the grumps to the minimum and the welcome was wonderfully warm.
3. Water fun! As always the community pool at G-ma's was a hit and the boogie boards we bought earlier this summer were put to good use. Both Lisbeth and Liam have made great strides this summer and having a blast!
4. Food as usual played a central role with Dr Daddy and his mom and sister having a lot of fun in the kitchen and all of us enjoying the amazing meals that resulted. We also went to our favorite ice cream place a few times and tried out a new one.  Local seafood one night and making s'mores another were two other highlights!
5. One evening we drove to near by Kennebunk and visited St Ann Episcopal a lovely stone church dating from 1887 and it's beautiful outdoor chapel; an amazing place to watch a sunset. 
6. Most importantly time with family.  The kids with their cousins and all of us together in the evenings watching the Olympics.
7. Photo Dump!!

 Please head over to Kelly's for more 7QTs

P

Why Lie?

As most of you know my youngest sister is a financial auditor by day and author by night! And her latest novel Why Lie? is being released on September 12,2016 and here..... is the Cover Reveal!!!

Outer Banks 2016: the recap

   Outer Banks 2016 is in the books and a great time was had by all!

The trip there is just as long as I remember and we opted to make it a bit longer by stopping along the way for a vigil Mass. Aside TheCatholicDirectory.com is an amazing site which tells what churches are close to your location and their Mass times. Another highlight of the trip was getting pizza for dinner; not the best car food but Dr Daddy and Elisabeth did a great job tearing the box into mini plates. So while we arrived in the dark we were so happy to be there and so was the rest of our family.

   The rest of the week consisted of swimming in the pool; the two biggest on their own and Caitie doing amazing in her vest. During a couple of night swims Elisabeth was introduced to Marco Polo and held her own with her big cousins.  We were a 5-10 minute walk from the beach and so visited everyday sometimes a couple times a day.  Most mornings I enjoyed a walk with my mom and a sister and often late afternoon found us there for a quick swim before dinner.  The waves were best mid-day and so twice we braved primetime sun and let the kids get some practice boogie boarding.  Both times we saw dolphins in the distance and one time my middle sister's father-in-law taught the kids to net fish with decent results.  He and my sister Kim also saw to the renting of bikes which also added to the outside fun of the week.

Many hands indeed made light what with the adults all taking a turn with cooking dinner and enough grown-ups and bigger cousins available that I was even able to sneak out to a wine tasting one afternoon.

Amazing food ~ wonderful wine and best of all a lot of time to play and be together with each other and some extended family.

We came ~ we saw ~ we swam!!

Open Book: August 2016

Unexpectedly both my reads this month focused on widows and the lives they build for themselves after the deaths of their husbands.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold is the latest installment of the Vorkosigan Saga. Set three years after the death of Aral Vorkosigan this book focuses on Vicereine Cordelia and her plans for the future and retirement.  In one sense it was a great read as Cordelia really feels to me the voice the author feels most comfortable writing in and this was a clearly a book she wrote for fans as it references a lot of events in earlier books with little to no explanation.  I did miss the swashbuckling of Miles and Ivan but am so glad I got to catch-up a bit with Cordelia and again enjoy her Betan wisdom.


Angelina's Bachelors by Brian O'Reilly tells the story of a young woman finding her footings and figuring out how to make ends meet after the sudden death of her husband. With a great blend of happy accidents and her advocating for herself Angelina finds an amazing circle of support and wonderful new life.

After a lovely first half the book sort-of drifts to its end.  Set in South Philadelphia I enjoyed all the references and look forward to trying out some of the recipes included.

Please head over to Carolyn's for more Open Book.