Emollients, Cypress Knees, and Pretty Pansies

That pretty much sums up our weekend in a nutshell.

I've been doing some deep-cleaning out around the house. The first areas under attack have been the bathroom cabinets. Oh my. I hope my husband doesn't read this because it will only feed into his theory about women and emollients. He likes to crack jokes about this every chance he gets. What can I say?-we gotta have 'em! But after the purge of bottles from under my sink, I'm wondering if I've taken skin moisturizing to a new, and maybe ridiculous, level-like some kind of silky-skin-sickness. I wish this picture below was all there was...sadly, it's only a sample of the vast collection of emollients that keeps our family's skin tip-top.

Now that I think about it, in my defense - there are different lotions for different uses. This could explain why I need so many. That might be a good topic for a later post, but for now, I'll stick to our weekend recap.

David and the boys came over Friday night for pizza and play since Heidi was off galavanting in Houston with Beth Moore and her siestas. {I don't sound jealous do I?}

The kids played and played and capped off their night with Teddy Grahams and Whorton Hears a Who. They look comfy don't they?

The weather was a tad gloomy in our neck of the woods...overcast, humid, misty, hot, humid. Did I mention it was humid? So to cheer myself, I played with my pansies. Aren't they the most happy flowers? Plus, they are the only living color in my yard right now after the Great Freeze of 2010 -so they get points just for being alive.

Also this weekend, I got festive with our Valentine's Decorations. Oh how I love Valentine's Day. Not so much the day itself, and definitely not the hype that comes along with it, but just the happy red hearts and talk of L.O.V.E.

And I L.O.V.E. this heart hanging on my front door. But if it makes it past this 2010 Valentine's season, it'll be lucky. Tristan - in a bad way - wants the arrow that pierces through it. I can't tell you the number of times I have caught him gazing at, trying to figure out a way to get it down, & "get that arrow outta there", all without Momma noticing.

Despite the yucky weather {yes, we knew the forecast was for rain}, we decided to test it and take a boat ride on Istopoga to get out and explore.

Much to our surprise (promise I'm not being sarcastic here), we had to seek shelter from the rain *yes rain* for a spell.

By shelter, I mean a bayou-ish/moss-laden/rickety dock/ topped with a hole-ly & rusted out tin roof, from where I took this shot:

but then the rain let up and I captured some cypress begging to be photographed.

Check out the osprey nest in this tree:

And here's your Where's Waldo test for the day...can you spot the osprey fleeing her nest in this next pic? Hint: look for her tail spots.

It was a good weekend and we got some needed rain.

It was quiet. It was restful. It was blessed.

How was yours?