Face another week, that is. And that makes me sound whiny and like I don’t like my job. I do but I also have had 2 weekends in a row of stuff and I never get true relaxing time.

Friday was fine at work then I left for home, where my parents had already arrived. Once everyone else got home (and minus Isaac who had to work) we went to one of our favorite Mexican places. It was pretty good! We came home and just hung out. My parents have historically also gotten into our arcade bowling game so we did some of that until all us old people needed to sit!

Saturday began with a slight debacle; my dad hit a pot hole on their way to the hotel the night before and in the morning, had a flat tire. I grabbed my mom from the hotel while he waited for a tow truck. Luckily all the locations – my house, their hotel, and a Discount Tire – are all pretty close. We went to the store for burger fixings and my dad left the car to get taken care of. We made burgers, beans, and cole slaw, and also had fries and potato salad. Sounds like a lot but not everyone likes every thing! That afternoon was a mix; we watched some soccer and then Ash went to a coworker’s going away party, and I really didn’t want to. So I stayed home with my parents and the kids and we watched football and chatted. It was nice, actually. I fell asleep kind of early once they’d gone back to the hotel because I’d had enough noise and action. Below, us eating as a family for once! (I couldn’t get one where everyone looked normal)

Sunday morning, my dad woke up with what ended up being a terrible migraine, so instead of pressing on South to see my aunt, they went back home. Perhaps it was for the best; my mom felt like the universe was telling her not to go anyway, with the tire and my dad and apparently, on their way here, they got 30 minutes down the road before realizing they forgot some important stuff. Once they headed out I got lunch stuff and began on laundry. It was oddly sunny out but rumbly like a storm was coming. I went to leave and saw this:

We had about an hour’s worth of sun showers!

My big accomplishment of the weekend was finally harvesting my beautyberry bush, enough to get 3 pounds. I’d been meaning to make wine out of them for a while and I finally did! My parents brought some from theirs too, which I wouldn’t have needed. Mine is already overloaded. I didn’t barely make a dent. Though, according to folks in the Florida Foragers Facebook group, this bush is essential for birds getting ready for fall and winter so they can have them! Anywho, I rinsed my berries, then put them in a brew bag with one cinnamon stick, three star anise, the juice of one lemon, then simmered that a while in about half a gallon of water. I removed the bag and put it directly into my fermenter bucket (which is actually a little too big for only a one gallon batch but it’s what I have). I then added six cups of sugar and one strong cup of tea, to give the yeast more to eat. The must took forever to cool down to pitching temp but I finally did get the yeast in there. I checked it today and it does indeed seem to be fermenting. We shall see how it turns out; 10 days in primary then I’ll rack to a one gallon carboy for secondary fermentation.

Doesn’t look like much but a bag in liquid but I am liking that color!

This week… well, we don’t have much going on – thank God! Dakota has a meet on Wednesday and we have zero plans for the weekend. Ash and I plan to do our favorite thing: drink beer and watch movies! We are coming up on spooky season so even though we have watched a lot of horror movies over the last year or so, we have more to check off the list.

I am feeling that late September stretch – like we have so much going on and no break in sight. I think I’ll try to make a point to get up in storage and bring down Fall/Halloween stuff. That’ll probably bring me some joy. It will probably also compel me to get the pool cleaned one last time and covered, even though it’s still warm and warm out – enough to swim. But we never feel like it in September!