“Parents, it’s 10:00. Do you know where your children are?”

Most people in my generation will remember hearing this on TV at 10:00 in the evenings. The voice was a deep and authoritative one and always made me feel glad I was at home when I heard it! Of course, that was a couple of decades ago - well before cell phones, which most parents probably use now to keep tabs on their kids. At any rate, this came back to me last night when, at 10:00, I looked around while I was whipping up a batch of Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies. (Strange time of day to be baking? Not if you grew up a Griffin.  In fact, my dad still does this.  :-D) I saw such a variety of things going on at that late hour and it made me smile. Now, understand this was a Friday night. On any other night of the week, all Worley kids would be tucked sweetly in their beds by 9:00 pm, freshly showered/bathed and sleeping peacefully or reading.  Mmmm-hmmm. That’s how it goes every night.

But last night at 10:00, things were different.

This one was shopping online for her 4-H scrapbook project. (Yay for Joann.com sales!)

These 2 were finishing up a Wii game:

These 3 were chatting and giggling in a bedroom:

This one was practicing her State Fair competition pieces:

Weren’t any of the kids in bed yet??? Well, thanks to Daddy, this one had just been laid down. But was he asleep yet? Don’t think so.

In fact, there were severe storms forecast to hit around 2:30 am, so most of the girls decided to camp out in the “quiet” bedroom – quiet because it faces the east, rather than most storms, which come in from the west. So, the “quiet” bedroom had a bunch of chatting girls in it even past midnight!

So, 10:00 on a Friday night was hopping for the Worley kids. Consequently, nearly twelve hours later, most wouldn’t let me near them with a camera, because they’re all still in their pajamas!  :-D

Jane Austen Festival

Last weekend, the girls and I took off around 8:15 am and drove down to Louisville for our first ever Jane Austen Festival! A friend told us about it just 3 weeks prior. The weather was perfect; we finally had a slight break in the scorching summer – low 80s for temperatures and a cool breeze. Others we talked to at the festival said it was the coolest festival since they started having them 5 years ago.

The setting was Locus Grove, a historic home in Louisville that was built in 1790.

We did a self-guided tour of the house, although there were docents throughout who answered questions.  While in the house, we met a lady who was demonstrating how to make bobbin lace.  It was fascinating to watch her work and learn about how lace is made. 

After touring the house, we stopped in the Visitors’ Center to see a friend who is a milliner and makes Regency-era hats to sell at historical festivals like this.  Her hats were amazing – each one is unique - and she had sold all 15 of them by noon on the first day of the festival!  Aren’t they beautiful? 

I had planned to stop somewhere for lunch in Louisville, but we didn’t pass any restaurants from the exit ramp to the festival, and by then we were so excited to get there that we didn’t want to stop.  I remembered there was a sandwich shop at the festival (the “Earl of Sandwich Shoppe” ;-) so we went there and got a scone, some gingerbread and a couple of chicken salad sandwiches to share while we watched a workshop called “Dressing Mr. Darcy”, which demonstrated all the layers of clothing a gentleman would wear. 

After that was the much-anticipated Regency style show, which did not disappoint. 

 

After this was a side-saddle demonstration.  The speaker discussed the origins of side-saddle riding and the development of the saddle itself.  We just loved watching her on the horse in her beautiful riding outfit!

 

After that, we watched another favorite, the Pistol Duel re-enactment.  These men were informative and very funny.  We learned that a man could demand a duel if he was called a “cheat”, a “coward” or a “blackguard”, which meant rascal.  So, the main speaker explained that the night before, while they were playing cards, he accused another man of being a cheat.  When that man didn’t hit him, he called him a coward, so he was challenged to the duel.  :-D 

 

One of things that was interesting to me was how many men were at the festival.  I figured the women would outnumber the men, which they did, but there were lots more men there than I thought.  And of those men, many of them – the majority – were in costume, too.  Very surprising!  Of course, this costume didn’t count:

Seeing all the visitors and festival hosts in their Regency costumes was so interesting. We saw a wide variety of costumes, from simple to very elaborate. 

 

On the way out, we passed these young men, who were the same men who had performed the pistol duel re-enactment.  When we asked a lady if she could take our picture with them, her response was “Capital!”  :-)

We couldn’t leave without grabbing a couple of souvenirs: a lovely sugar bowl

…. a-a-a-n-n-n-d-d-d …

A bit much?  Nah – I didn’t think so either.  :-)

Productive Saturdays

Ok, Trent isn’t exactly being productive here, but he just looks way too adorable!  Anyway, on to the productive part of this post.  Saturday found the Worleys all busy at various projects around the house.  It seems like we don’t have a lot of free Saturdays, especially as the weather turns warmer, so we were trying to get some much-needed work done. 
We started out in the mud room.  It was filled to the brim with lots of shoes, coats, hats, boots, etc.  When it gets to that point, it is almost to try to clean it up, because it gets messy again in a matter of minutes.  Also, the rugs were pretty dirty from tromping in there with muddy boots/shoes.  Last Monday when Mom and Dad were here for Grant’s birthday, we actually walked through there on our way outside for a walk.  I was completely embarrassed and apologized for its messy state, but Mom simply said “It looks like people live here.”  (Thanks, Mom!) 
So, we started by moving all winter things down to the basement, then got rid of shoes that were completely worn out.  Then we wiped down the shelves and cubbies and ran the shop vac over rugs and floor.  I wish I had taken a “before” picture (I think) but it looks quite lovely now. 

We went from the mud room to the laundry room…ay yi yi…Those rooms become such dumping grounds for stuff.  I basically did a lot of throwing away and donating and went from this:

to this:

OK.  That before picture wasn’t a true before.  I had already started hauling things out of the closet before I took that picture, but I think you get the idea.  While I was working on cleaning off the shelves, I came across a project that Courtney and Sarah enjoyed working on.  Sarah had gotten a mosaic stepping stone kit from the Ramseys for her birthday and they worked on that together.

We just checked on the final masterpiece and realized it has dried.  We have some final steps to take before it’s ready for a picture. 
Rachel and Erica worked on making a storage bin for the laundry.  We found the steps here to make a storage bin out of diaper box.  It was their first attempt, and we didn’t have all the necessary materials, but I think it turned out very nicely.  It is great to have some of my loose items on the shelf stored in a box that looks nice!  You can see the results in the after shot of the closet.  It’s the box with the yellow fabric around rim of the box on the right.  Here are a few pictures of the girls working on it in the early stages:



While all this productive work was going on, Grant entertained himself in creative ways …

So, we’ve gone for a very productive Saturday to a more laid-back Sunday.  I have played around a little bit with Dazzle, some new software that converts our old analog VHS tapes to digital format.  We’re also wanting to import all of our VHS-C and Hi-8 tapes.  Eventually, I want to have everything on the computer.  A couple of years ago, Dad gave us all of their VHS tapes to convert, but we didn’t have the right tools for the job.  Now, I finally feel like I can move forward with that project.  I’m just a little short on that one last magical ingredient … time!!