Sunday Scribblings: Simple Pleasures

Today's Sunday Scribblings prompt is simple. You can find other posts here.

What immediately came to mind when I saw the prompt was simple pleasures. I look forward to week-ends when my family is able to visit. Friday I hit the jackpot! Silver Valley Girl and two of my nieces ( yes Princess....we miss you and your dad) drove up from Kellogg and brought my mom with them. Saturday Raymond Pert arrived after spending a few days in Kellogg. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Memorial Day week-end.

All of our lives have been very busy lately. I have struggled with a terrible cold bug. My niece Z2 was also feeling under the weather when she arrived and was worn out from a full week at middle school. Raymond Pert was able to take a deserved break from student papers and teaching at LCC , Mom had been watering, planting, cooking, and organizing to get ready to come, and Silver Valley Girl just tries to keep her head above water with the the business of raising three daughters, working, writing, performing, and fund raising. I decided we needed a retreat week-end. I purposely didn't do my usual event planning making sure we had excursions, activities, and a schedule to follow. Instead I have sat back and enjoyed the simple pleasures of having many of the people I love at my home for three days. Kiki Aru did a good great job of reminding me not to forget the plan "Spoons" and JEJ was a grand garden tour guide and kept peace with the dogs, cats, and family members! The picture above is a simple pleasure. The rhubarb that had gone to seed in the evening sun just before everyone arrived. Other simple pleasures were:having our first peonies opening up to greet our visitors, serving locally roasted coffee in the morning (This is Meyer Falls Blend sold at a local organic market of the same name),and a geranium in full bloom after a winter in the greenhouse.
I love that my nieces are low maintenance and can create a makeshift bed just by rearranging furniture!


Another simple pleasure in the morning was having Silver Valley Girl make breakfast. She used her Pampered Chef (a little plug for the product) apple peeler, slicer, corer to do potatoes.
She has created this incredible potato recipe that I insisted she make while visiting. You can get the recipe here. It was one of the best breakfast potato dishes I have ever tasted. Everyone couldn't get enough of the breakfast of eggs, those Special Potatoes, lemon muffins, and melon. Actually, this may be considered more than a simple pleasure... perhaps a very complex pleasure! Here are some other simple pleasures the day created. Annie taking a rest with Z2.An evening that began with a traditional game of " Spoons" . Next we moved to a rousing game of Yahtzee which always includes chanting "Scratch My Yahtzee". Our dad used to shout that then immediately scratch him armpit. It was fun to teach my nieces the tradition. The evening was rounded out with Rice Krispie Treats and a hilarious game of Scattergories which pitted siblings, mom/grandma and nieces in a fun competition. It is a simple pleasure for me to play board games with the group. It always builds fond memories.

After all our incredble food Silver Valley Girl and I took a quiet walk at twilight to shed a few calories!

I had to end this with the picture above of the blooming Thanksgiving/Christmas/Valentine cactus. Now I guess we can call it the Memorial Day cactus... or perhaps the holiday cactus. Such a simple pleasure gathering around the table with family sharing good food, enjoying games, and gazing at this beautiful plant. I can't wait to see what Sunday will bring.