Good Morning!
I hope you all had a good spring holiday. This Easter was the kid's turn to celebrate with the in-laws so Joey and I made plans of our own.
We drove to Asheville (in the mountains) to go to a brunch buffet at the Grove Park Inn ... This wasn't your ordinary buffet, by any means! There were omelets, a breakfast casserole, bacon, sausage, ham, steak, salmon, several kinds of eggs, all sorts of pastries, waffles, pancakes ... then fruits, sliced and some marinated vegetables, vegetable casseroles, cheeses, baked brie and strawberries, sliced tomatoes with herbed mozzarella cheese, smoked salmon, smoked turkey, crab salad, shrimp salad, potato salad, pasta salad, artichoke salad ... roast beef, prime rib, several fish served several ways, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, potatoes, baby carrots, green bean casserole, some sort of stuffing dish, grilled squash and baked eggplant, sweet potato hash ... chocolate mousse, key lime pie, raspberry torte, carrot cake, chocolate torte, apple cheesecake, a tray of chocolate pastries, cream puffs, eclairs, toffee bars, cookies, an ice cream bar for the children (with everything including sprinkles!), strawberries and whipped cream, banana yogurt something (kids seemed to really like that one) ... rolls and breads ... too much good food!
My strategy was to have just a teaspoon of what looked the best ... Joey LOVES seafood so his strategy was to skip the stuff he could get somewhere else and enjoy the gourmet seafood and vegetables ... Neither of us ate too much dessert because the whole meal felt like a dessert!
I noticed one man near us filled up a plate at every section! There were two rooms of tables so he had a plate of breakfast, a plate of salads, a plate of meat, a plate of vegetables and a plate of desserts! He was eating when we sat down and still eating when we left ... I bet that hurt later!
I had a chance to watch other people. There were two children playing hide and seek under the buffet tables ... I wondered where their parents were? In fact, I noticed several children unattended and allowed to roam around the restaurant, jumping on chairs and running from place to place ... Gosh, my parents would have insisted that I behave like a lady in my Easter best or my father would have taken me to the car and spanked me ... Perhaps these parents didn't want to bother the valet to get the car? My children didn't have many opportunities on a single mom's budget to go to really fancy restaurants, but when they did, they were on their BEST behavior ... OR ELSE! Even my son with ADHD knew to mind his Ps and Qs ... OR ELSE!
It got me to thinking about my own children and their parenting styles ... My oldest daughter and her husband are both teachers. I sometimes think they are TOO STRICT but their children are well-mannered and they do not have to be told something twice to obey. They are both outgoing and LOUD, but they will be quiet if you remind them where they are likes quiet! LOL!!! My second daughter is a friend to her son ... They have adult sounding conversations. He is a good natured boy. He likes almost anything. My third daughter isn't married and doesn't have any children, which is good because she is still a kid herself! My son (the one with ADHD) never knew a boundary he would not cross so he and his wife are raising their daughter with NO BOUNDARIES at all. She writes all over the walls, screams and stomps for attention, breaks and throws things and makes a huge mess wherever she goes with no consequences! If she "expresses herself" at my house, I will "express myself" by disciplining her. When she screams and stomps at my house, I stop what I am doing and say, "No Ma'am" and take her by the hand and make her sit in the time-out chair near me. She doesn't scream and stomp at my house anymore, but if she does, I still have the time out chair and I am not afraid to use it again. When she makes a mess at my house or my daughter's house, my oldest daughter and I take a special interest in showing her how to clean up after herself.
I guess every family has their own characteristics and their own characters and holidays bring out the best and worst in all of them.
I also watched the parade of Easter dresses passing by ... I like all the flowers and ribbons that are in today's dresses. Some of the smiles take me back to the 50s and 60s ... It's fun to see styles come back again ...
I saw funny pairings ... several couplesthat could have won the unlikeliest couple award ... and others that looked like they were made for one another. I smiled when I thought of what other people see when they see Joey and me ...
They see a couple that smile and laugh a lot. They saw me put cream and sugar in our coffees while he was at one of the buffets. They saw him bring an extra roll ... one for him and one for me ... I don't usually eat bread but he knows how much I like good baked rolls and this one had a little cinnamon (my favorite) ... He said, "I knew you'd like this one." and he was right, but best of all, they saw two people who both feel lucky to be with the other ...
Brunch was over way too fast ... but we had other plans. We sat in rockers at the front of the Grove Park Inn while we waited for them to bring the car. We hardly ever use valet parking but the parking lots were full and neither of us wanted to walk very far in our dress shoes! It was a beautiful day ... blue sky and spring flowers blooming everywhere.
My strategy was to have just a teaspoon of what looked the best ... Joey LOVES seafood so his strategy was to skip the stuff he could get somewhere else and enjoy the gourmet seafood and vegetables ... Neither of us ate too much dessert because the whole meal felt like a dessert!
I noticed one man near us filled up a plate at every section! There were two rooms of tables so he had a plate of breakfast, a plate of salads, a plate of meat, a plate of vegetables and a plate of desserts! He was eating when we sat down and still eating when we left ... I bet that hurt later!
I had a chance to watch other people. There were two children playing hide and seek under the buffet tables ... I wondered where their parents were? In fact, I noticed several children unattended and allowed to roam around the restaurant, jumping on chairs and running from place to place ... Gosh, my parents would have insisted that I behave like a lady in my Easter best or my father would have taken me to the car and spanked me ... Perhaps these parents didn't want to bother the valet to get the car? My children didn't have many opportunities on a single mom's budget to go to really fancy restaurants, but when they did, they were on their BEST behavior ... OR ELSE! Even my son with ADHD knew to mind his Ps and Qs ... OR ELSE!
It got me to thinking about my own children and their parenting styles ... My oldest daughter and her husband are both teachers. I sometimes think they are TOO STRICT but their children are well-mannered and they do not have to be told something twice to obey. They are both outgoing and LOUD, but they will be quiet if you remind them where they are likes quiet! LOL!!! My second daughter is a friend to her son ... They have adult sounding conversations. He is a good natured boy. He likes almost anything. My third daughter isn't married and doesn't have any children, which is good because she is still a kid herself! My son (the one with ADHD) never knew a boundary he would not cross so he and his wife are raising their daughter with NO BOUNDARIES at all. She writes all over the walls, screams and stomps for attention, breaks and throws things and makes a huge mess wherever she goes with no consequences! If she "expresses herself" at my house, I will "express myself" by disciplining her. When she screams and stomps at my house, I stop what I am doing and say, "No Ma'am" and take her by the hand and make her sit in the time-out chair near me. She doesn't scream and stomp at my house anymore, but if she does, I still have the time out chair and I am not afraid to use it again. When she makes a mess at my house or my daughter's house, my oldest daughter and I take a special interest in showing her how to clean up after herself.
I guess every family has their own characteristics and their own characters and holidays bring out the best and worst in all of them.
I also watched the parade of Easter dresses passing by ... I like all the flowers and ribbons that are in today's dresses. Some of the smiles take me back to the 50s and 60s ... It's fun to see styles come back again ...
I saw funny pairings ... several couplesthat could have won the unlikeliest couple award ... and others that looked like they were made for one another. I smiled when I thought of what other people see when they see Joey and me ...
They see a couple that smile and laugh a lot. They saw me put cream and sugar in our coffees while he was at one of the buffets. They saw him bring an extra roll ... one for him and one for me ... I don't usually eat bread but he knows how much I like good baked rolls and this one had a little cinnamon (my favorite) ... He said, "I knew you'd like this one." and he was right, but best of all, they saw two people who both feel lucky to be with the other ...
Brunch was over way too fast ... but we had other plans. We sat in rockers at the front of the Grove Park Inn while we waited for them to bring the car. We hardly ever use valet parking but the parking lots were full and neither of us wanted to walk very far in our dress shoes! It was a beautiful day ... blue sky and spring flowers blooming everywhere.
We left there and drove to the Biltmore House. They were having an Easter Egg Hunt on the grounds so most of the children were playing on the front yard, getting their little faces painted and playing games before the big Easter Hunt.
The Biltmore House is a huge mansion with 250 rooms (they even count closets as a room though) that include 45 bathrooms! It was cool in the house with open windows and fans blowing everywhere. We were treated to the pipe organ playing in the grand dining room (neither of us had ever heard that before)! We took the tour at a slower pace and saw things neither of us had noticed before.
The Latin saying that said, "God bring us peace in our days" ... the carvings, especially one just like a chair I had purchased last fall at an auction. Joey spotted the first carving and then, we began to notice the same carving in different places in the house ... like our own private scavenger hunt ... Joey and I played Biltmore Trivia with each other, asking each other questions that we didn't think the other would know ... We weren't keeping track but Joey said, "how do you know that?" a lot more times than I did ... lol ...
The Biltmore House is a huge mansion with 250 rooms (they even count closets as a room though) that include 45 bathrooms! It was cool in the house with open windows and fans blowing everywhere. We were treated to the pipe organ playing in the grand dining room (neither of us had ever heard that before)! We took the tour at a slower pace and saw things neither of us had noticed before.
The Latin saying that said, "God bring us peace in our days" ... the carvings, especially one just like a chair I had purchased last fall at an auction. Joey spotted the first carving and then, we began to notice the same carving in different places in the house ... like our own private scavenger hunt ... Joey and I played Biltmore Trivia with each other, asking each other questions that we didn't think the other would know ... We weren't keeping track but Joey said, "how do you know that?" a lot more times than I did ... lol ...
We left the house and took a small break for some COOL orange sherbet and ICE COLD bottled water. It was starting to get warm and we were still dressed up ... I stopped in the rest room and got rid of my panty hose and Joey took off his tie a little later ... Isn't it funny how the little things can make such a big difference?
We walked through the grounds, taking lots of pictures of the flowers ... I teased Joey about wanting our yard to look like that ... He teased me about picking a big bouquet of tulips for me to have as a souvenir ...
The wooded pathways had that just rained in the Carolinas clean, earthy smell ... DELICIOUS ... but the best smell of all was a LILAC BUSH in full bloom! I didn't know they even grew this far South ... Well, now I know and I WILL try to add that to the landscape at home ... I also got the idea of how pretty weeping willows would be along the river ... with azaleas on the hill between the house and the river ...
We stopped by the winery, tasted a few wines, purchased our favorite and had a small glass of wine at the end of the tour while listening to a few sets of jazz in a patio area ...
The day was filling with long shadows, getting close to sunset. I love that time of day. The light is perfect. The temperature was perfect. The company was perfect. Life is good ...
We walked through the grounds, taking lots of pictures of the flowers ... I teased Joey about wanting our yard to look like that ... He teased me about picking a big bouquet of tulips for me to have as a souvenir ...
The wooded pathways had that just rained in the Carolinas clean, earthy smell ... DELICIOUS ... but the best smell of all was a LILAC BUSH in full bloom! I didn't know they even grew this far South ... Well, now I know and I WILL try to add that to the landscape at home ... I also got the idea of how pretty weeping willows would be along the river ... with azaleas on the hill between the house and the river ...
We stopped by the winery, tasted a few wines, purchased our favorite and had a small glass of wine at the end of the tour while listening to a few sets of jazz in a patio area ...
The day was filling with long shadows, getting close to sunset. I love that time of day. The light is perfect. The temperature was perfect. The company was perfect. Life is good ...
As I was writing this, I made a cup of tea and walked out on the back porch. It had rained last night. There was a slight fog coming from the river. The sun was trying to peak out. The birds were singing and the woods were full of that woodsy smell I was describing to you! I wish you could be here to share a cup of tea and smell that smell ... It's WONDERFUL!
Love and Light from HEALING Creek,
Taylor
Taylor
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