Five Spring Date Ideas

Good Thursday morning!

I have just a few more Huntsville pics in the Gallery. (I misjudged.) Scotty and Roxie pics tomorrow, I promise.

RANDOMNESS - When Roxie graduates high school in a few years, I have a plan. I want to sit down with Mikie and my monthly Southern Living magazine and pick a little place featured that particular month to visit one day/weekend.

I know. I know. It seems daunting. But as I've said over and over and over, if it works out, GREAT! If we have a busy month and we cannot do it, IT'S OKAY! We'll try again the next month.

Flipping through the pages of this month's issue, there were several choices.

Long Weekend Trips

Day One - Travel to Savannah, Georgia
Day Two - Drive from Savannah to Beaufort
Day Three - Drive from Beaufort to Folly Beach
Day Four - Drive to Sweet Home Alabama

Day One - Travel to Macon, Georgia
Day Two - Drive from Macon to Milledgeville
Day Three - Drive from Milledgeville to Athens
Day Four - Drive to Sweet Home Alabama

Weekend Trips

Up, Up & Away Hot Air Balloon Festival - Tupelo, Mississippi

Symphony of Gardens Home and Garden Tour - Natchez, Mississippi

Franklin Main Street Festival - Franklin, Tennessee

Day Trips

Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment, Huntsville

Alabama Art Kitchen, Tuscaloosa

If you're familiar with Southern Living, you know they also list restaurants and other points of interest to visit along your travels.

Since I have so many older copies of Southern Living, I think I may use those issues to plan a couple of Day Trips to take with Mikie each year until Roxie graduates.

These are some of the things I've learned over the past six or seven years:

1. Once your first child enters high school, hold on. You are now entering the Warp Speed stage of life.

2. Once your baby enters high school, hold on tighter. There is no way to describe how fast life is going now. NO WAY!

3. In a few years, Mikie and I will be a couple again. We'll still be parents. We'll still want to be spending tons of time with The Faulkner Five... or Six... or Seven. (You know what I mean.) Mike and I will probably have more and more nights with just the two of us.

4. I want to spend that time wisely.

5. I want to spend that time intentionally.

6. I want to spend that time with my best friend of 28 years.

7. I want to be proactive. I want the transition from having a houseful of kids 24/7 to a family of adults living here and there to be easier than I imagine it to be.

Am I looking forward to this next season of my life?

That's a hard question to answer. I'm NOT looking forward to this fast approaching season of life when I will no longer be a 24/7 hands-on mother. However, I AM looking forward to the time of life when Mikie and I can spend more and more time as a couple.

I would be foolish to think it was not on the horizon. I would be lying if I said it wasn't going to happen.

As the uber-wise Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

I don't want to miss anything!

ANNOUNCEMENT! ANNOUNCEMENT! ANNOUNCEMENT! - I'm going to post this little blurb today and tomorrow (first posted yesterday). I won't mention it again until mid-August when we start talking about the 1,000th Post Contest.

I went through my imaginary Busy Basket in December. (I always go through my Busy Basket in December AND June.)

At this season of life, my Busy Basket contains the following (in no particular order):

Sunday/Wednesday church attendance
Sunday School Director for Middle School/High School
Attending a weekly Bible Study
Stay-at-home mom in the midst of transitioning to an empty nester
Exercising two to five times per week
Dating Mikie two to four times per month
Mother of a college junior (soon-to-be senior)
Mother of a high school senior (soon-to-be graduate)
Mother of a high school freshman (soon-to-be sophomore)
Completing the year-long monthly Paula Deen Recipe Challenge
Blogging (A Simple Life and 50 is Nifty... And Other Urban Myths)

Nothing about the above is particularly overwhelming by itself on any given day, but I feel the need to move in a different direction during the next few years of transition in my life.

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging these past three and a half years, in September, A Simple Life will change drastically. It will either be totally "gone," or become a once-a-week blog. I haven't decided which, but I'll let you know as soon as I know.

My picture-of-the-day blog, 50 is Nifty, will be finished the day before my 51st birthday in August. I will not be starting another picture blog.

I will be having the 1,000th Post Contest in September. One thousand seems like a good stopping point to me. And it will be close to the four-year mark (October 16) of when I started blogging.

I know I'm telling you several months before the last post, but it will give me a goal to work toward, and putting it in writing makes it "final" in my mind.

And if you've known me two minutes, you know how I love goals... and putting things in writing!

Until the first of September, things will proceed as they always have on A Simple Life. Pictures, traditions, easy recipes, randomness and fun dates will continued to be shared until the 1,000 blog post.

So hang around until Fall. We've got a lot to talk about this Spring and Summer.

Blog Linkage

1. Go to The Dating Divas under My Blog List and scroll down to the post entitled "Birthday Floats" dated March 26. Good ideas for making a birthday special at home.

2. Go to eighteen25 under My Blog List and scroll down to the post entitled "Half Dozen Cupcakes" dated March 28. I love this idea of gifting friends for no other reason than it is SPRING! How fun to give and receive this little gift.

3. As always, visit Six Sisters' Stuff under My Blog List. Get ready to read several mouth-watering recipes!

Five Spring Date Ideas

1. Plant a flower garden. If you have more than one child, plan on one-on-one time with each child by letting them pick out what they would like to plant (from a list of area-appropriate plants). Spend 30 minutes to an hour with each child planting their own special "row" in the garden.

2. Make a simple bird feeder. You can buy these kits at Wal-Mart or other hobby stores. After you build the bird feeder, paint or decorate with stickers. Fill with appropriate bird food for your area and find the perfect place to hang it. (If you have more than one child, you'll need more than one bird feeder. Spend the time one-on-one. You can spread this date over two or three days depending on how many children you have.)

3. Make a collage of all the things you'd like to do together this season. Get a pile of old magazines ready with scissors, glue and poster board. Sit down with each child (one-on-one) and let them fill a piece of poster board with pictures of all the things they would like to do this Spring. Over the next few weeks, make sure some of the activities actually "happen."

4. Plant a butterfly garden. Just Google "butterfly garden" and you'll have all the information you'll need to plant a small (or large) garden made just for butterflies.

5. Visit the library at story hour. This is a fun and CHEAP date. If you visit your local library regularly, call a different library within 20 to 30 minutes from your home to get a list of their activities. All libraries are so different. (I used to take the kids to the Hoover Public Library for puppet shows when they were small. They loved it!)

Have a terribly nice Thursday. I'll be back in the morning with Weekend Happenings. Hopefully, I will know what Weekend Happenings will be taking place around here by then.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda