The Yellow Fields

Memorial Day weekend was a whirlwind, it really was.
Sometimes there is just so much going on that you feel like you can't really relax and enjoy it at all.
Between a graduation party in Iowa on Friday, way too way too many hours in the car, Kindergarten graduation, awards ceremony
at school, 13 friends over for an end-of-the-year party, our annual family Memorial Day camp-out at The Farm.... and the list goes on.

I don't do good with being that busy, I really don't.
When there is too much going on, it really stresses me out.
Truly.

Sunday afternoon while down at the cabin, Wyatt and I jumped in the car to go see one of these yellow fields close up.
On the way to the cabin we probably passed twenty-five of these fields.
So pretty, so much YELLOW.
This right here is breathing space, this is exactly what that phrase means to me.
Yellow. Space. Beautiful. Calm. Breathe. Serenity.

Here is something I have come to learn about myself--
When things are so crazy and cluttered(in my mind) and busy I have a hard time finding the calm.
I can't just  "go there"  like some people can, the stress and mind-clutter turns into stress, which sometimes turns into anxiety.
This is something I am always working on, always trying to figure out.

Breathing space, quiet time, alone time away from it all is so NECESSARY for me.
Necessary.
I don't just like it, or enjoy it... I need it.  It's so good for me.
It's funny how something like yellow fields can do this for me, it's pretty cheap therapy really.
I'll take it.

All of the pictures above were taken with my Nikon but I have to share a couple of my favorite Instagrams of the yellow fields, too....
My boy in the field holding a daisy he picked for me?
I love it.
These two photos were taken with my Iphone and edited with the Picfx app using the PFX Film filter, PFX5.
I love that app... and that filter, there is so much you can do with it.

So there was my little happy place this weekend, the yellow fields.
Oh and by the way, I think that is Goldenrod in the fields, unless I totally made that up.
How is your Holiday weekend? What did you do?
I guess the weekend isn't really over yet, we still have Monday...and I don't plan to do a whole lot at all.
ONE more day of school and we are officially on Summer Vacation, folks....

::::::::::::::::::::::

Happy Monday!

Memorial Day

 I am sitting here on the couch eating an apple with peanut butter (yum)

 and editing some of my pictures from Memorial Day weekend.

These pictures make me happy and looking through them makes me realize once again just

 how lucky I am to have such a big, close extended family. 

I'm sure when my grandma and grandpa were young and having (so many!) kids they never realized 

just how far the roots of their family would stretch. It is truly amazing to me.

I think my pictures probably tell the story better than I can; we had a great weekend.

In case you didn't read here yesterday, we have been going down to my aunt & uncle's 

cabin (aka: The Farm) since around 1980. Every single year since I can remember. 

It is a weekend we look forward to every year.

*{You can see more Farm posts here and here}

Someone said they counted sixteen kids there this year.
 Sixteen cousins and second-cousins (and maybe even third cousins?) although the
 second-cousin thing doesn't matter to me, a cousin is a cousin.
I love that my kids get to spend time like this with their cousins like I did when I was their age.
My wish for them is that they have the bond and strong relationship like I do with my cousins and
 my extended family. I think that is truly one of the greatest gifts we can give our children.

A weekend of spending nearly all day and much of the night outside, pretty much disconnected 

from the "real world" besides our phones and weather radios.

The kids played in the playhouse, in the sand box and on the tire swing. 

They played catch and frisbee and went on rides on the four-wheeler. 

They hiked through the woods and went fishing.

The adults talked and pushed kids on the tire swing, held babies and ate lots of good food.

Maybe a little too much good food. Okay, way too much.

Like these homemade cinnamon rolls Sunday morning.

My little family slept in our tent this year instead of sleeping at my parent's cabin, which is in walking distance from The Farm. There is nothing like sleeping out in a tent, feeling the fresh air, listening to the bugs and outdoor sounds and seeing the stars right from where you are sleeping.

Well, except for sleeping in your own bed the next night maybe.
I could not count the number of nights we tent-camped when I was little, we camped all over
the country in a blue and yellow Coleman tent.

My favorite part of the weekend?

When we all walked out to the field with our flashlights in the pitch dark to watch the

 lightning bug show. Hundreds and hundreds of lightning bugs. 

It was very cool.

***

Thanks for hanging in there with me for all of those pictures.

Kinda ridiculous, right? I actually think I might have enough to still do another post.

Just looking back over these pictures has me convinced I have a tick somewhere on my body.
And it's driving me a little bit crazy.

The Biggest Weekend Of The Year::

For as long as I can remember we have spent every single Memorial Day weekend at my aunt & uncle's Farm. I remember missing one several years ago because I was sick and probably another in there somewhere but for the last 30 or so years, that's where we've been. It really is the biggest weekend of the year in my mom's family.

On any given Memorial Day weekend at the Farm you will find up to 60 or more people. Aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and even relatives that drive from Alabama just for this weekend.
There is a chicken fry on Saturday night, golf outing on Sunday morning along with a big send-off breakfast for the golfers before their big day. The rest is just a whole lot of hanging out.
 There is a tire swing that has swung countless children, an old cabin filled with pictures and memories,  lawn chairs, tents, kids, a fire outside every night and enough food to feed everyone there for at least a month. Seriously.

Some of the best memories and funniest stories come from this weekend, they either happened there or you heard about them there.
 Family holidays and traditions are very important in my family and this one ranks right up there with Christmas.

Homemade blackberry cobbler, a few of the tents, sitting on the porch at night,  cousins riding in the back of a pick-up truck hoping to catch a glimpse of the Goodyear Blimp....

An Election poster for one of my aunts in the running for "Farm Queen" and

one of  the coolest discoveries of the weekend; a box turtle. 

The Farm has been in my uncle's family for probably close to 100 years and when his great-grandfather

 first started going down there they were travelling in a horse and buggy. Can you imagine?

My uncle passed away four years ago and although we could not imagine going down there and having this Memorial Day celebration without him, one also can't imagine it not going on without him either.

I know that it would mean so much to him that we are all still spending this Holiday together and by celebrating this weekend as a family and making memories for our children to talk about some day is just the perfect way to honor his memory....and really, that's what it's all about.

{Wishing You}

A relaxing, restful day doing whatever makes you happy.  Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend!

And as I was reminded this weekend while talking to someone whose brother just returned home from   Iraq after serving several tours there and was just reunited with his wife and young children after several years away; a big thank you to those that have served or are currently serving our country and to their families.