back to reality

After weeks of super hard work and long long hours, I am feeling mostly recovered from the grueling but so very rewarding work of coordinating the
6th annual Southeast Women's Herbal Conference.

We had our largest year yet, with over 800 women from all over the region coming together for a weekend of workshops, activities, great food, and connection.
That is a whole lot of women to house, feed, and keep busy.
But it was a great success and the positive feedback is pouring in.

Although there is still a lot of follow up work to be done, my 12-16 hour work days are finished ~ so family time, home cooked meals, home schooling mornings, time spent with friends, and long nights of sleep are back in effect ~ hooray!

I'll post some conference pictures soon, but for now, here are some shots of the family happenings from the past few weeks....

Edisto Island

The Carmona family has returned to the mountains after an amazing week long stay at Edisto Island, SC. We rented a lovely little house a short walk from the beach and spend 7 days playing in the sand and the waves, eating seafood, riding bikes, hunting for seashells, and loving the company of the great friends who joined us. The house was very lively ~ with 7 kids ranging from 10 months to 13 years, and 6 adults. We had a blast !

welcome, Pepe' le Prius

hooray !
our trusty Subaru, Bobbie Jean, was donated to the Salvation Army today, and the newest member of our family, a 2007 Prius named Pepe', came home.

saying goodbye to the subaru marked the end of an era ~ we bought her in Utah right after we got married.

we test drove the Prius on our 10th anniversary, and now, two weeks later, she is ours !

hooray for a super efficient car!

basil

the deer got the beets and and bunnies got the green beans
but the basil, oh the basil, we get the basil

so much basil that every time I gather the ingredients to make pesto, I run out of nuts or oil or garlic long before I make it to the bottom of the basket of harvested basil.

these days, it's all about pesto, chevre, and tomatoes from the vine

self portraits

two girls, one camara
two totally awesome self portraits on a rainy saturday

Playing in the river is fun!

Catching up

What a crazy month July was! We spent the first half on vacation in Utah and the second half remodeling the upstairs. The upstairs is done (phew) or, at least, done enough. The kids are all moved into their new rooms after a whirlwind 10 days of construction which displaced 2 of the 3 kids into a tent in the dining room. It was totally worth it (but totally crazy!) and it really feels nice upstairs. I have neglected all tasks other than the basics ~ so I have not even thought about sorting through the pictures of the construction project ~

Here is just a little more fun from our Utah trip. One of the neatest parts for me was watching the kids explore and enjoy the neighborhood I grew up in. This was especially true for the Avenues library. They loved scooting over to look at books and thought it was so neat that we didn't need to drive there !