My house is not perfect, but that's just fine.

You know, my house is not perfect, (who's is???) but there are some really nice parts of it.   Half the time it's a disaster, but we still have friends over.  If I waited for my house to be perfect before we had anyone over, our friends would still be waiting 8 years later.  When they come over and use the pool with us in the summer, they would need to pee outside because I wouldn't be able to let them in.  They could use a tree.  We actually do have plenty of those…but we're not like that.  You're welcome.  

 Sure there is dust and our rugs could use another go with the vacuum right now, but some rooms have really good natural light!  And I really love my fireplace mantel we had done a few years ago.  Yes, our bathrooms are still original 1950s brown and pink tile (really???), but they're clean (usually) and only 2 of the 4 sides of our house have new cedar siding and you can't use our front door steps because they're breaking, use the side porch!  It's way nicer and more inviting anyway.  Plus our dog is always ready to attack our guests from that door.  In a nice way. Ahem.

My house will never be important enough to be in a magazine, and I'm OK with that.  It is important enough to have my friends and family in it though, and that makes it way better in my opinion.

Yes, that is a piece of green sea glass there…

See? Pink tiles.  I wasn't lying.  Great light though...

So, if you are one of those (and you know who you are!!!!) that doesn't think your house will measure up, just stop.  Have your friends over anyway!  They are your friends.  What are they gonna do?  Bite you?  They don't care what your house looks like.  They just want to be WITH YOU.

***If you do have a magazine worthy house, that is AWESOME, and I really want to see it, but I'm not talking to you.  I'm talking to the regular peeps who might be a little shy about their digs.  So, when can I come over?

Winter Recess

Wednesday morning of winter recess we drove up to North Conway, NH.  My sister in law rented a condo and invited us to stay with them.  The kids had a blast and I think it was one of our best family vacations to date.  Maybe it's because of the age that they're at that just makes things easier.

Thursday we all went skiing at Black Mountain.  Well, the 8 of them went while I stayed in the lodge surrounded by my books--heaven!!!!

My kids, my nieces and nephew all absolutely LOVE skiing, and my 2 are already looking forward to next year because they will be getting poles.  Up to now they have been skiing without them and they can't wait to get their hands on some.

The Friday was sleeting so skiing was out of the question.  Instead, my brother in law suggested hiking at Diana's Bath.  I was skeptical because I have never hiked in snow before, but we packed up, the kids wore their snow pants, and we hiked.

We were not disappointed.  A beautiful sight awaited us,  

Friday night we drove home--it took 5 hours--Boston traffic--I don't want to talk about it! But Peter & the kids drove back up to NH, this time to Pat's Peak in Henniker, to snow tube with the Boy Scouts on Saturday. I had to work, so I missed that fun.