The Word of the Day is: Verdant. (And the other Word of the Day is, apparently: Rambling)

It poured rain yesterday. Buckets. Barrels! It rained a lot. So this is what greeted me when I woke up this morning and peered through my bathroom window to the back yard:

Of course the photo just doesn't do it justice. It is so bright green--dare I say spring green?--and the dogwood blossoms are so pretty and the reddish-orange of the tree bark... Well, it is a symphony for the eyes of this little lady. :)

Another beautiful thing this morning is the... shhh, listen... it's quiet. The only sounds are the fridge humming and my fingers typing. Take it in for just a moment and breathe deeply. After two days of Jason's cousin Aaron and his wife Daniella in the house, the quiet is a beautiful thing. Daniella is a beautiful thing, too, whom I adore and cherish and who is a fantastic addition to this family... but quiet she is not. :) At one point during the storm yesterday Daniella was upstairs and Aaron said, "Oh, here comes Daniella down the stairs," but it was not Daniella coming down the stairs. It was thunder. And the best part is that he was not even joking. :) In case you think I'm being mean, Daniella herself said that having her in the house is good practice for having kids. :)

After A & D left this morning Jason came back to bed and said, "I think a nap sounds nice, Angella's taking one too," [Ang is his sister who is also visiting] and I jumped out of bed and said, "I think a cappuccino while checking my e-mail by myself sounds nice." So here I am. Ahh, so nice and quiet. And in case you're wondering, nope, I'm not an introvert at all. :P

Okay, now that I have thouroughly enjoyed this quiet moment, let's review the weekend, huh? :)

We went to a couple of wineries on Saturday when the weather was decent. We tried a few things that we liked and a whole bunch that we didn't. My favorite discovery, however, was that the wineries save all their corks for crafty nuts like me who come in and say, "Hey, what're you doing with all those corks?" So I scored a big bag and an offer to stop back by and pick more up any time. Woot! Can't wait to make something with them.

We also saw some great things while we were driving around in the Northern Virginia countryside, like this old house:

And this lovely lady:
And here is a photo of all of us:

After the wine-tasting and driving around we came home and made dinner. I wish I would have taken photos (maybe Daniella did?) because it was great. It was a complete group effort with all the women in the kitchen, Jason on the grill, and Aaron (and Jason) cleaning up afterwards. A bunch of people were fed in my house and I did not have to do all the work and I got to enjoy myself. Sweeeeeet.

Then A & D gave us a wonderful housewarming/hosting gift:

And it helped to kick-start a really deep and enlightening (and lengthy) late-night discussion. It was really great, and I think that all of us learned more about one another. And that is a beautiful thing.

Sunday was rainy, as I mentioned a few hours ago when I began this post. :) So we all hung around and hung out and made a huge breakfast (again a total group effort, I love this group!) and hung out some more and ate some more and hung around some more. Daniella and Ang and I taught each other how to make French Toast. Daniella had said she wanted it the day before when we were at the grocery store, so I bought the supplies and then laughed out loud the next morning when she said she didn't really know how to make it. Totally Daniella, I love it. But I knew that you should add a lot of milk to the eggs, and Ang knew which spices to add, and Daniella knew how to cook it (in butter), so we collectively managed this:

Of course it was a hundred times better than it looks--I am no Pioneer Woman when it comes to food photos (or a lot of other things, I'll admit). But you'll just have to trust me when I say it was gooooooood.

Then Daniella came up with the idea to make a get well card for Papa, the patriarch of Jason's family, who is in the hospital after having his hip replaced. He is a trooper and is doing really well, but who doesn't like a card? No one, I tell you!

I started to slip into "there are a zillion options and I have a zillion supplies we could use and where do we start?" mode, but I managed to pull out when we decided to use the photo of all of us at the winery. Then Daniella asked if she could stick on things like glitter and sequins and ribbon, and I decided that Daniella + glitter = glitter on every surface and in every nook and cranny of my house. So, no. Let's just keep it simple, shall we? After being all Inspired I felt completely capable of just letting go and making something that wasn't "perfect" but was made. So obvious but something I just finally learned. And that is awesome.

So I printed the photo and slapped it on a card and stamped "get well" on the outside and "NOW" on the inside because the card is from us grandkids and we are bossy. :) We all signed it in pretty sparkly gel pens, and then I handed the card and some Target glitter glue pens over to Daniella. This is what she came up with:

I really like how she did the A's in Papa on the front. And the best part is that the card is already in the mail. Woop-woop!

Jason took the day off to hang out with his sister, but it's still raining and Ang feels like laying around reading her book, which is just A-O-Kay with me. I need to get caught up on a hundred little things and may run to Macy's for the Clinique special. May even work on some of my Inspired stuff. Ooooh, I love days with so many possibilities. Let's go!