What's round on the ends and "hi" in the middle?

Ohio!
Hahaha. I can actually remember that from a Laffy Taffy wrapper in elementary school.
Anyway...my mother-in-law invited me to come down for a visit with the kids for a few days. She also encouraged me to bring along a friend, preferably childless, and so my friend, Mandy, joined us. Mandy is 6 months pregnant with her first baby and has had a heck of a year with work and whatnot.
We had a great time and I thought I would share some of the highlights/pictures from our fun trip.

Tim's parents live on a lake in Ohio. There is a small beach open to the residents of the community and on this beach there is a slide. The wetter you and the slide are, the faster you go. I wasn't sure how Noah would react to this, but he quickly climbed up it, prepared for takeoff, and...

...LOVED it! He went down it so many times. My mother-in-law and I both went down it a couple times as well.

Ellie played on the "sand" (which feels more like gravel) while Mandy supervised to make sure she didn't eat any "sand" or cigarette butts.

Noah steered the pontoon boat home from the beach while Grandma Joycie finished her lunch. You can tell he takes his job very seriously.

Ellie, on the other hand, had admitted defeat to the lifejacket she tried so hard to take off and was almost on her way to la-la-land.

My big project for the weekend was to make a quilt for Mandy's baby. She loves the quilt that my mother-in-law made for Noah when he was born and so I told her that, if she wanted, I would make her one for a gift. Thankfully, we picked up all the fabric before leaving and I brought my sewing maching and things down with us. As a team, we worked on the quilt anytime the kids were asleep. Joyce was the "cutter", I was the "sewer" and Mandy was the "ironer."Since the weather was, actually, the weather was crazy while we were down there, but we still braved the varying elements to work on the screened porch and enjoy what we could of the outside.

On Friday, the kids woke from their naps right as a thunderstorm was coming in. We snuggled up to watch it together on the porch.

The kids liked these little stirrers. They were plastic (yea! not breakable!) and had pink flamingoes on them.

Eleanor loved this little rocking chair. She thought she was the coolest thing. This was moments before the accident. "What accident?" you ask...

Just the one where she was sitting on a bottom step and, while trying to turn herself around to climb down it, lost her balance and hit the wall with her eye. Her first black eye and it looks much worse than what the picture shows. My poor baby...

Noah also was put in charge of steering the lawnmower (after the lawn was mowed and blade was NOT down anymore) with Papa.

Joyce showing Mandy how to press the binding into place. Mandy loves the way it turned out - yea! It was so fun to make and now I have a little more confidence for the next time I make one.

It's Simple, Really...

While the kids and I were visiting my parents last week for a couple days, Tim checked some piddly things off his to-do list. Not that the things weren't important, just that they were quick and easy - the things you like crossing off your to-do list because it makes you look like you're working through it at an incredible pace. Can anyone else relate to that feeling?
One of the things he crossed off was hanging a clothesline for me. It's nothing fancy. Just a plain clothesline from Meijer that cost a couple bucks hung by some hooks from Home Depot that cost more or less the same amount. He strung it from the edge of our deck to a tree a few feet away. It's small but it's something.
Monday is a laundry day here. The hamper is usually overflowing from the weekend and now with summer here there tends to be more clothes changing due to bathing suits and dirty play-outside clothes separated from church clothes.
Today is sunny and there is a nice breeze so I was able to use my clothesline for the first time. The excitement! I hate doing laundry but I love hanging clothes on a line and watching them sway in the breeze. As I was hanging the first load this morning, I thought about how long it has been since I have worn clothes dried in the fresh air.
My mom still uses her clothesline that she has been using since we moved into the house when I was somewhere around the age of two or three. The lines themselves have probably been replaced, but it's basically the same. My make-shift clothesline is not as long, but that's ok - I also don't have ten acres of land.
Clotheslines are simple but they provide memories. They provide hiding places for small children behind bedsheets and towels that stretch to inches above the ground. They provide crisp clothes that at times can be uncomfortable, honestly.
A child can weave in and out of clothes flip-flapping in a warm breeze and be caught up in a dance within the swaying. Little girls love to twirl and what fun to have dance partners that twirl alongside and around her.
I can remember late summer afternoons and early evenings when a storm would suddenly be upon us. Someone would look outside and yell "The clothes!" and everyone would run out together, with one grabbing the basket on the way, and take down the clothes as quickly as possible before the rain drenched them.
I admit I have looked out our back window many times today and smiled at our clothes and towels dancing on the breeze. I don't need the noise of a television. Today I have sunshine, a breeze, clothes on a line, napping children, the sound of boats on surrounding lakes and bayous and a peaceful, content heart.
It's all very simple, really.