Good-morning, kittens & dawgs! May is disappearing on me. After last month’s A2Z challenge I thought I’d roll back into my normal blogging groove, but that’s not been the case. BoTB tied up my 1st and 3rd Fridays posts and I jump didn’t show up at all last week. I’m still trying to find my happy spot with blogging. After all I did say, I was rethinking how I wanted to do things in Blogosphere. What? You didn’t see that memo! Well…now you know.

Although summer is officially not here yet, I always equate the start of the season with Memorial Day and with it fast approaching I can’t help to think of yesteryear spent around the fire-pit at my in-laws.

Photo snapped by DH with our first digital camera, Canon S410 in 2004. Who’s in the picture? LtoR DD#2, me, DD#1, & DS.

DH’s boyhood home sits on top of a mountain in southern WV. We loved escaping city life for the weekend with the children to visit the parents. In the warm months it was an excellent time to sit outdoors around the warm glow of a campfire roasting marshmallows to eat straight off the stick or sandwiched between two graham crackers and a square of Hershey’s chocolate (see How to make S’mores).

Star gazing, firefly catching, and freeze tag were wonderful pastimes, but the best of all fun was listening to Papaw (DH’s dad) tell stories of from his past or to hear DH’s spooky encounters of a panther screaming in the dark outside his bedroom window or the time he felt a large animal (more than likely a panther) presence lurking in the shadows walking from his car to the house.

All of these are wonderful, sweet reflections, but I can’t help to smile thinking how much I loved the burnt wood smell on my skin and the sense it left that “life is good”. I miss those day and want it back!

What’s your favorite thing to do around a campfire? Do you get to enjoy this simple life’s pleasure?

Please, let me urge you, if you don’t want to join the linky and you want others to visit you then please leave your URL in comments somewhere. Some profiles don’t always make it easy to find a way back to a person’s blog. Thanks!

Today, I celebrate the small things in my life, like…

getting our new garage door installed
that we are finally cleaning out the garage
replacing my old charcoal grill with a new one
getting to grill this weekend for the first time in more than a year
and, finally the sense that life is coming together in general

What are you celebrating?

Let’s celebrate making new friends together and we can begin by joining Friendship Friday and Follow Who? Social-Weekend blog hops. Thanks for visiting. Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for a little boogie session with Saturday Songsuasion/Sillies!

^{For more day specific blog hops, click here.}