This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Despite the rainy May Nor'easter all day Saturday, we still managed to spend nearly all weekend up at Home Away From Home, which is exactly what I needed this year, before heading home to spend the rest of Mother's Day with my mother.  #thankful #mothersdayweekend #spring #may #camperlife #rvlife #trailerlife #spoonielife #simplepleasuresgreatestjoy #myperfectlyimperfectview #thisperfectlyimperfectlife 

This place! This place has my heart. Hook, line and sinker.  It's ironic - we live on the coast, minutes away from the bayshore and shore, and my heart belongs to these mountains.* Yes, New Jersey has mountains!  When we are up here, in this area, in these mountains, I am home . Or maybe it's more accurate to say that my soul is home? I don't know how else to explain how I feel when we are up here.  Sadness knocks at my heart when it is time to leave, and once back on the coast, I am overwhelmed by heartbreaking homesickness ! That homesickness is downright awful if we've been up here for more than a few days.   I struggled through snow past my knees and even up to my waist in spots to get from our camper to the dock, my favorite morning spot when we're up, but I was too exhausted given all the trekking through snow yesterday (plus a night at the Worst Motel Ever - more on that another time) and this morning just to get to the camper (because ap...

A red Amaryllis in the window as the sun sinks behind the trees. There is always something to be thankful for, no matter how 'small' it seems. What does your Sunday look like today?

Autumn is well under way at our Northwestern NJ home as you can see here. We awoke this morning to a crisp 37*! Such a beautiful day. Well, let's see... Autumn arrived on a Monday and I threw my back out on Wednesday. And that triggered the worst sciatic nerve flareup I've ever had and the worst pain I've experienced in a decade. This past Wednesday, a week to the day this all started, I went to my Rheumologist and was treated to two shots, one in my spine and the other in my upper right... Glute. Heh, hem. He increased the anti inflammatory and nerve meds I'm already on for at least the next two weeks. In two days I go for a MRI to see exactly what's what because it's not getting significantly better. On a pain scale of 1 to 10, I started at 1,000 and I've been hovering at 990-995 since the day after this all started.  I have to alternate between lying down and taking short walks because sitting only aggravates the nerve something awful. Of cou...

Sidewalk garden in town. Much sunshine & glare coming up the hill in the morning! The porch wraps around three sides of this home up the street from us! 'Julia Child' floribunda rose in my garden.

I love when I'm able to 'play tourist' right here at home! There's nothing better than getting better acquainted with an area you know and love so well. Funny thing is, at the end of our journey this morning, we realized we had been to this specific area of the Hook before, but several years ago and well before the hurricanes of 2011 & 2012, so we didn't recognize it until we were about finished with our walk. But, Hubbs and I didn't mind - we both love this place and from this section of the beach we could see an area we're pretty certain we definitely haven't explored before, so there are more adventures to be had!

This morning we headed out as the rain ended and before t-storms arrived to help with the annual tradition of placing Flags on Veterans graves at one of the local cemeteries in our area.  This is usually done two weeks before Memorial Day weekend. In the event we are rained out, we still have an extra weekend to place the Flags in time for the holiday. This is Hubbs showing the Scouts what markings to look for, how to place the Flag and stop for a moment after each one: There are nearly 3,000 Veterans graves in this particular cemetery that we do, although not every grave is marked noting a Veteran is buried there and some headstones are so old, dating back to the French & Indian war (pre-Revolutionary), that you can no longer read the engraving on them. We try to do our best to see that no Veteran is forgotten. Unfortunately, it can happen by accident, even when we have a great turnout of volunteers like this year, so we leave extra Flags at the cemet...