Wednesday

 I really should have colored my hair! My hair line around my face is pretty white! I suppose it can still be colored tonight! 

We leave for the 4th weekend soon! I can not wait for a long weekend at the lake. Even with temps in the 90's it will be perfect for being in the water. 

It's going to be just me and Zoey for a day and one night before everyone else comes up to the lake. I'll get all the tents set up and everything else, air mattress, screen porch etc.. To have all ready for everyone else once they come up on Friday afternoon. Should be a nice long 4th of July weekend. 

Received some photos of relatives from France on Steve's side. His uncle Pierre. He isn't doing well and hasn't been for the last 10 years or so. 

Our Brainerd cabin mini vacation now is moved to August. We were planning on going to our friends from Texas cabin for a long weekend. Work schedules changed for them, so it is now delayed till August. We will just make other vacation plans for next week. 

Just need to check the weather for a North Shore vacation. It's been chilly up there in the mid 60's and camping is not fun when your outside 24-7 in chilly weather. I like it to be at least 70 during the day and no rain!! 

Other news, Logan signed up for college classes this week. I'm purchasing him his laptop tomorrow for school. We just need to book the hotel for the weekend in Milwaukee the end of August when he goes off to College. He is working a lot at Punch Pizza and saving all his pay checks. Its a huge turn around from when he would spend the entire pay check on eating out. I suppose after Covid that really changed his outlook. He will have college expenses so its good that he saved up. I'm guessing he will be able to work during his school breaks when he is back in town. So this will help him earn some money when out of school. 

Not sure what's going on with me lately. I'm just very unmotivated. I just feel zero joy in doing anything in the afternoon. I need to snap out of it and force myself to do something. I'm just in a pattern and I'm not liking it. I do enjoy our trips and being outdoors. So I need to do more of that. Plan trips for just myself to various dog parks, the local park etc. 

Lanesboro/ Preston with Hipcamping!

Our weekend down south, camping and biking!  

Preston by the river where we started our bike ride

Sunset at night

Hip camp path along the property. 

We had a really nice Hip camping at a hobby farm. They had 3 horses and chickens with lot of farm land all around our camping spot. 

We set up our tents and went for a walk on the property down a path. 

Had many beers at some breweries in Fountain and Lanesboro

Biked 20 miles round trip from Preston to Lanesboro along the root river

View from our tent

Stopped while biking to check out the tank in town

Rode through sandstone cliffs and over many river bridges

Lanesboro waterfall from the other side on the bike trail. 

We passed a bunch of cows along the bike trail 

Weekend Priorities!

 So we are off to Hipcamp today! I have my priorities in place of must do's. Pie, bike, camp and beer. What more? Sun shine? Maybe, rain possible. 

I keep looking at sheds. Thinking this might be a great way to have a storage area and make it a temp living area until we build a cabin at the lake. Looks cute enough! Plus, probably in our price range of $3,000. Would make a cute addition at the lake by the shore. 

Or maybe this type of small shed house? I'd take both at the lake. Okay Steve, time to build something up there! 

8 Sweaty Miles

 Steve and I biked a quick 8 mile loop this morning in high humidity! I'm super sweaty but feel great for getting in a heart pumping workout! It really wakes me up with my day starting off great! 

I need to get back to my diet! It's time to focus on weight loss with exercise once again after a two week semi vacation counting calories!

Yesterday afternoon we took Zoey to her first ever dog off leash park. We took a walk on the many paths through the woods and she did great! She stuck with us the whole time and would come back as soon as we whistled for her. We were both super surprised at how good she did. We were expecting her to run off. This park is completely fenced in and we had to pay $6 per visit or it's $46 for annual pass. I am definitely considering the yearly pass as it was a nice way for her to run around with other dogs. There are a few other free dog parks we will have to check out! 

Already Mid Week, Can we just be more positive!

 It's already Wednesday and I haven't made much of my week. I did manage to mow the front and back yard yesterday with trimming the long grass edges. Glad to have all those mini growing trees in our back yard GONE! Once again it looks like a nice yard! I was saving the mowing for when it wasn't 90*F, so it was a good thing I had two days in a row of 60-70's. Today we are back in the heat 90's! 

I always try to start off my day positive. Quiet morning with the kids asleep, yoga and planning my day, some internet time and blogging with a few emails. Some days, Steve is all wound up and starts his day complaining about what ever he can find, which is a lot! As a child my parents would a lot of times start yelling the minute they woke up. I felt sooo angry just hearing the anger. I could wait to get out of the house to start fresh. It really bothers me when I hear any loud talking, yelling or complaining in the morning. It's a trickle down effect and starts to make me feel anxious, and mad at the person causing me to not have a happy start to my day. I try talking to him about the way it makes me feel, no one should have to start off their day angry. It's learned, unfortunately from his mother always finding something to complain about. Doesn't matter how many hoops you jump through to anticipate what is going to set them off, they will FIND something to bitch about. It's a vicious cycle and I try to make him see what he is doing and to switch the subject. I'm not always successful and it can make things worse. What to do? 

For Logan's graduation we are buying him a laptop. Well come to find out, Architecture requires an expensive laptop! We are looking at $2800 about $1800 more than I wanted to spend! Yikes! We might get some financial aid from the college if I fill out a form. Guess they do give extra to this degree program knowing its more of a cost. Fingers crossed we get at least a little aid?? 

I finally booked our Hip camp for the weekend. Its a new camping place on a farm. We will bring the bikes and skip tubing this year. The kids plan to go with, so they will tube down the river while we find something else to do. 

While in Brainerd last weekend, I found some cute stickers. I cost saved on the items and just took a photo of the ones I liked. 

We spent far too much eating out last weekend. So it's meal planning and trying to use up what we have in the freezer. Last night we used up a box of 1/2 opened pasta noodles, and some frozen grilled veggies in the freezer with a jar of pesto. Made for a good meatless meal! I do need to start taking inventory of what we have on hand and what to make for dinners. 

Since we are camping this weekend. I want to plan out a few meals to cook and not eat out! Tonight we will have pizza's since we have lots of fresh motzerilla, pesto and veggies with basil. Just one more dinner to plan this week. 

I have a camping equipment problem!

 I do have a camping equipment buying problem, in that I can't stop! I purchased yet another pop up large tent to use this summer. The popup tent I had purchased in the spring with the extra door covering awning and the back room for bag storage just was not wide enough. They made the tent 3 feet short to allow for that back area. That tent is a nope! We still have the tent and the kids can you that one or guests in the future that want to camp with us but don't have a tent. I wanted a smiler tent to our orig pop-up. This one is the same size, but has room darkeninig fabric and sky lights to view the stars at night. This will be perfect for beach camping at the lake as it will block out the solar lights and the early morning sun. It could potentially be too hot during the day hours, but no one goes into the tents during the hottest part of the day! Can't wait to try this new tent over the 4th of July! 

I also had to purchase more lights to hang up in the tents, another indoor/ outdoor  7 x 10 ft light weight tent rug, it feels super nice on the feet in the tent and prevents having to walk on the cold, crinkly tent flooring. What else did I purchase for camping? Another $3 dollar collapsible hamper for recycling cans and water bottles. We have one for garbage but I wanted another to recycle items.  We use to just have a garbage bag hang from a tree branch. This controls the garbage situation much better. Plus it take up a very small amount of space to bring along. 

The camping bag shower with spray nozzle worked great to rinse off. I did purchase a new 6 gallon water jug with pour spout to make it easier to refill the shower bag. I do need to place this bag in the sun to warm up during the day, then hang on a branch to use at night or in the morning to wash hair. 

The only other thing I'd like is a reclining chair or a foot rest for my folding chair. I use two chairs to prop up my feet to relax most of the time. It would just be nice to find a chair with the foot rest as an option. I might need to search for that kind of chair!

I've been looking at a few places to Hipcamp this weekend. Not sure Steve is up for camping as he had some disappointing news yesterday afternoon. I would really like to do a getaway for the weekend, bike and tube but now we are in limbo. Fingers crossed Steve snaps out of it and wants to have some fun over the weekend. 

If we are staying home, I have home projects I'd like to try doing. I am thinking of switching the lights from the front rooms around. Hang the new light in the sitting room and the chandler in the office after I spray paint it mat black! 

No working for me today. I'm just mowing the grass, biking and making a few calls plus running some errands to get some more camping stuff. lol. The camping stuff I need is simple, just some key rings to make it easier to open the tent zippers on the doors. 

Happy Father's Day!!

While shopping in Nisswa at the lake, found this card and took a photo to send it to Steve.  

For Father's Day, I forgot to take photos other then down town Hasting's Car show. 

Weekend photos from our mini trip to Gull Lake, our neighbor friends cabin