May on the lake

When the CPA daughter dropped in for Mother's Day Sat-Sun on her way to Dallas for work, we had the chance to do a spot of fishing from our dock. The initial spinner she used wasn't attractive to our local fishes. So the husband zipped over to our nearest convenience store to pick up a container of Canadian crawlers. Sure enough, that did the trick and she reeled in a little sunfish and catfish.

Then I had to stroll down memory lane, scratching around to find old pics I had taken on a trip to Minnesota when these two also did a bit of fishing. It was the summer before she started kindergarten. Such sweet memories, y'all.

We took the boat out for a spin, and our daughter decided little man Finn should join us. He was really nervous at first, very unsure of it all. But he settled down and seemed to enjoy checking things out along the shoreline as we cruised around the bay.

I know the pic below is so zoomed in that it's super blurry. But I didn't want to try and creep closer to momma duck and her babies for fear of scaring them away. We've seen them paddling around this stretch of our neighborhood the past few days, and they're so stinking cute.

Mother's Day weekend 2026

What I wouldn't give to have my own dear mother with us to celebrate today. On a weekly basis I find myself thinking about how much she would have enjoyed living in this lake community with us, because she became a real social butterfly in her later years. I think what pulls at my heart strings the most is that she didn't live longer to enjoy our girls as adults. The graduations and wedding she has missed since she went home to heaven over four years ago. Another wedding and some great grand babies to spoil. But all of the little mundane stuff, too. So much life I thought she'd be here to enjoy, but it wasn't meant to be. 

Mother's Day 2020, with all four grandkids

But I DID enjoy my Mother's Day rather than succumbing to the maudlin thoughts. We got to see our older daughter, the CPA, en route to a work commitment in Dallas tomorrow. Plus we had the husband's mother as well as my sister for brunch at the club after church. This earthly life is short, and time is precious, y'all. Focus on family, and place your trust in our most gracious and loving Lord. 

Wishy washy spring weather

Spring weather in these parts is always interesting. The heat is starting to settle in, but we always have these last gasp cool fronts making their way through the area. So that means we're often in the watch zone for severe thunderstorms, hail, straight line winds and tornados.  

Several nights ago we had some serious straight line winds blow through the neighborhood. The next morning I walked down to the dock to check on the outdoor furniture, and ran across this scramble above. I purposely chose our polywood dining set because it's heavier than a lot of other options I considered. However, I knew it would be best to hedge my bets by using a steel cable run through the chairs to secure them with a padlock to a dock beam. And now I've got photographic proof it was a wise precaution.

The rest of the weekend we enjoyed more beautiful "San Diego weather", as my husband calls it. My sister and I did take the time to zip over to the world's largest flea market in Canton, in search of a vintage bait bucket. With two old bait buckets saved from our river house, I thought it would be fun to have a grouping of three painted with fish by a local artist to serve as decor on the boathouse. Or maybe in the kid's bunk room bath (think garbage pails) at the new lake house we'll be building. 

Sunday was another glorious day spent out on the back porch, where we spied one of our local sailboats out for a spin. With our air temps warming, along with the water temps, we're starting to see parents hauling around kids on towables. And the jet ski folks are definitely out in full force again. 

We're goin' hoppin'

Last Saturday night we had a hoppin' and poppin' good time at the American Bandstand-themed party up at the clubhouse. We were seated with a neighbor couple that's really fun, plus some of my mahjong friends. It was touted as a musical tour through the 50s, 60s and 70s. I'm dating myself here, remembering Dick Clark hosting American Bandstand back in the day.

We got a kick out of the pack of candy cigarettes as part of our table decor, and had no clue anybody still made them. I feel like the DJ played more tunes from the 50s and 60s versus 70s. So I was happy when he cranked up Earth, Wind & Fire's "Boogie Wonderland". Dressing for a decade was encouraged, so I went with the 60s since that's when I was born. All in all, it was a great party with fabulous music, and one of our last theme parties as the social season winds down, with folks gearing up to travel for the summer. To quote Dick Clark, "For now, I'm Carrie Louise... so long!"

Real estate rodeo

Heavens to Betsy, y'all, my head is spinning from wrangling real estate the past couple weeks. We FINALLY got our hill country house on the market. I'm praying a large or multigenerational family needing lots of space and breathing room will come along and fall in love with it. Our hope is that it will sell by the time school starts again in August so we can close the door on that chapter of our lives.

https://vimeo.com/1184125956?fl=pl&fe=sh

*click on the link directly above to see the video of our hill country house*

Meanwhile, here at the lake, we (meaning me) decided that our current house on a little lot with big water views just wouldn't work for us long term. And when I say long term, I mean I can't picture us leaving our sweet little community anytime soon. Though the husband and I agree we could definitely see ourselves buying a second home to be near them if our grown daughters move out-of-state. Which remains to be seen. And I digress, as usual.

In considering other lake house options, we've run across a few waterfront properties that would be a better fit for our needs. But I've just felt so welcomed and at home here in our 'hood that I want to continue putting down roots. Honing my mahjong skills. Leading the Monday morning women's Bible study at our community church. Serving as the women's club vice president. When I say I'm getting involved, you can see I'm serious about it.

Since we want to stay here in our golf community, that meant looking at options which would give us more space for a custom build. And ideally a blank slate to create exactly what we want. We discovered a canal lot, as well as a tear down that has golf course and water views. After us hemming and hawing a bit, unsure about committing to a new build, the canal lot was taken off the market by the owner. That left the tear down, which was in a sticky situation, having a reverse mortgage on it with the elderly widowed owner now residing in a nursing home. 

We were afraid we might have to cool our heels months on end if the bank foreclosed on the tear down. But in a quick turn of events earlier this week, the bank opted for a short sale and allowed us plus a couple other potential buyers to make "best and final" offers. We thought we might be destined for a long wait to see how it would all shake out, whether we'd get to purchase it or not. If it was a no, then we'd trust the Good Lord to lead us to an even better property for us in His perfect timing. 

Lo and behold, we got the call from our realtor a couple days later that the tear down was ours. I've already contacted our designer/decorator back in the hill country to let her know I'll be needing her help soon. This will be her 8th house with me, and I'm happy to have her on board. I contemplated using a local person, but just feel more comfortable sticking with someone who understands my aesthetic and I can trust to steer me in the right direction. I've learned a lot from her since we started working together over twenty years ago, and so I feel like this build process from the design end will run very smoothly. Buckle up, because you'll soon be tuning in to approximately 18-24 months of custom home building posts here on the blog.

An April assortment

We've continued to stay busy this spring, checking things off our to-do list. Last weekend we loaded up our small enclosed trailer with one of our hill country dining tables and six chairs to take to the law school daughter in Dallas. She moved out of her apartment into a townhome with a dedicated dining space, and so we were happy to provide a lovely set for her to use since it was just hanging out in storage. I had gone a couple days before that to oversee the actual move. With her new place ranging over three floors, I was huffing and puffing hauling stuff up down two flights of stairs that seemed rather steep to me. Or maybe that's just my knees and back talking! I was happy to lend a hand since she is near the end of her *LAST* semester, busy working on capstone papers plus prepping for final exams.

While we were gone to Dallas, a late spring cool front passed through the area. In addition to rain, it dropped a couple inches of pea sized hail near the lake house. When we got home and went to put the trailer back at the husband's workshop, I initially thought the white stuff I saw was the guts of some bean bags that had busted apart and been scattered by the wind. But nope... it was just the remnants of the hail storm. 

Last week I sat down and wrapped 180 sets of forks and knives in a napkin and tied them with a yellow ribbon. I'm on the activities committee at our church, and so I volunteered to take care of it in advance of the pancake breakfast we had in-between the traditional and contemporary services on Sunday. After a rainy, hail-ish Saturday, we appreciated a nice cool morning for golf cart church and flapjacks with all the fixin's. 

Finally, I couldn't resist adding a sweet picture of the law student and her med school boyfriend taken earlier this month. They were in Austin attending a wedding, and so it was nice to get a pic of them looking so pretty and handsome for the occasion. It's hard to believe our girl is graduating from law school on May 15, wrapping up her education. As I say on the regular these days - my how time flies!

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

The husband finally got us set up with fishing gear earlier this spring. Sometimes after supper, we'll mosey down to the water and see if anything is biting. I've taken to calling the husband our resident fish whisperer because he's pretty good at reeling them in. This week he landed several little catfish and perch. They weren't large enough to keep, so he tossed them back. Which little man Finn finds quite intriguing, the whole process of catch and release.

We had lunch at one of our favorite local seafood restaurants several days ago. The husband indulged in a big bait of crawfish since they're in season. As you can see below, the mudbugs were quite large. And the husband verified they were quite tasty, too.