August plods along

If I had to pick a least favorite month on the calendar, August would be the front runner. July has the 4th, and September heralds the beginning of college football season. The first of my beloved BER months. Poor old August is squeezed in there, the tail end of summer with its hot temps and nothing really fun going for it. As recently as fifteen years ago, I enjoyed August because it meant the girls and I were headed back to school. I was always one of those weirdos that looked forward to our local Walmart setting up the aisles of school supplies. Fresh folders and new markers were my jam. Now I just want the whole back-to-school thing hustled along so fall decor will hit the shelves. Begone, August. 

Today we met with our pool builder to review the contract and sign it so we can get that show on the road. Our slab can't be poured until the pool has been dug and the shell done. After that cures, it will be covered and put into a sort of hibernation through most of the house build to keep it protected. This time next year, we *hope* we're in the downhill slide of the house build so the pool can then be uncovered and completed. 

I took the pic below standing on what will be the door leading out of our screened in back porch, lookin across those stakes marking the pool's four corners towards the water. Right now it's my rather dry red dirt hill. If you look closely in the pic over to the left, you can see where they've started stacking all of the building materials for our boat house. We hope to have the boat house finished by late fall, Lord willing and the creek don't rise (as my granny used to say).

Last weekend our younger daughter C came to spend the weekend with us. After her bar exampalooza on Tuesday and Wednesday, she was looking for some down time. She mentioned pottery painting, so we went over to our local studio where she created a darling mug for her boyfriend. The husband grilled for supper and his parents came over to eat with us while visiting with C. It was a lovely low key weekend with our mentally tired girl who was happy the get the bar exam box ticked.

Speaking of the in-laws, my husband's mother LOVES cream peas, aka southern field peas. We didn't grow up eating them, so cream peas were a revelation to me when I married into the family. They're quite tasty, but often hard to find. So any time I run across fresh ones at the market or a roadside stand, I get some for her. They can be pricey sometimes, so I was pleased to run across the ones I found below for only $6 per bag. That's a steal, y'all.

When I was a kid, roadside produce stands were pretty common throughout East Texas from the coast, west of the Louisiana state line, all the way up to Arkansas. Every summer we'd make the almost six hour drive up to my grandmother's sister Jodie Ruth's house in Texarkana, which took us up all of the pea patch highways. My granny would stop at several places on the way home, buying bushels of peas. She'd park me on the back porch with a big enamel bowl full of black eyed or purple hull peas to shell. I can remember both thumb nails getting stained from the purple hulls. She'd cook up a big pot of them with a leftover ham bone - so yummy - and freeze the rest to eat later. Those truly were some of the good old days... roadtrips to see extended family, your grandparents spending time with you, and simple tasks like pea shelling on the back porch.