The Property Lovers

Dear reader,

How was your week? What are you up to this weekend? We have successfully made it through the first week of school and, so far, the kids are loving it. Especially Anna, who literally shrieked with excitement the other night, “I have homework! Yay!” I hope she always has that enthusiasm for homework.

While the kids have been exhausted every night at bedtime since starting school, I have to say, I have been, too. As I am writing this, I am sipping on coffee and hoping it kicks in in time to make dinner. Matt and Beau and their friend Hayli are coming over tonight to hang out for a while, which sounds like the perfect Friday night in my book. And tomorrow might just be the most perfect Saturday morning, because I am planing on sleeping in tomorrow, even if it’s just for a few more minutes.

I think we’ve earned that right this week, don’t you?

I don’t know if it’s because I have fall on the brain or what, but I have been in a baking mood lately. Last week, I made these yummy cinnamon and banana crescent rolls from this recipe I found on Outoftheboxbaking.com and they were so good that I wanted to share with you.

We had two super ripe bananas that were so ripe, in fact, that I put them in the fridge before we left for the beach so they wouldn’t get more rotten. They were just fine by the time I baked with them, though, so it all worked out. I luckily had all the other ingredients (don’t you love when that happens?) and didn’t have to purchase anything extra, so it made the entire recipe even easier.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons salted butter

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 package crescent rolls* 2 over ripe bananas

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (not pictured)

flour for dusting

Directions:

Mash up your bananas in a small bowl. Set aside.

Place the butter in a medium sized skilled and bring it to a simmer.

Add the brown sugar and simmer for a couple of minutes until incorporated.

Add the bananas to the mixture on the stove. Mix well.

Add the toasted walnuts. Stir well. Remove from heat.

Open your crescent rolls. Place on a floured surface (waxed paper is perfect) and add a tiny bit of dusting flour on top.

Using a rolling pin, thin down the crescent rolls, enlarging your rectangle slightly. (Don't roll too thin, just enough to enlarge it about an inch on every side.)

Now it's time to take your filling and add it to the crescent roll. Spread evenly.

It's time to roll! This is when your waxed paper comes in handy. Use it as a guide to roll the mixture up.

Cut in half. Then cut each half in half. And then cut those pieces in half. You'll end up with 8 cinnamon rolls total.

Grease a muffin tin. Carefully wedge the cinnamons rolls into the individual muffin cups.

You might want to lift each one with a fork.

Place muffin tin in a preheated oven and bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven and place on a wire cooling rack.

Put the powdered sugar, milk, and cinnamon into a small bowl and stir until smooth.

Remove the cinnamon rolls from the pan and drizzle cinnamon glaze over the top.

This past weekend was mostly spent out in Ocoee, TN, which you know is where our farm is, and it was one of the best couple of days in recent memory.

Our friends Nick and Luka are in town and they’re staying at Matt & Beau’s place, so we drove out there to meet up with everyone before heading to the trail. Have you ever been hiking on this scenic trail before? It was so much fun and only mildly challenging, even the most novice hiker could do it.

Our kids had a blast and didn’t complain once (okay, they started complaining about the last 20 minutes on the way back, but I call that a win).

Matt assigned each of our kids a little task to be in charge of along the way, with Anna being the “medic” and, ironically, she ended up being the only one who actually needed to use the health kit Matt brought (her heels kept rubbing on her water shoes and we put some band-aids on the back to help).

It was a hot and humid day, but we found relief in all the shade from the trees along the trail. Still, I sweated so much and it felt so good.

There were so many little creeks to cross along the way. The kids were in heaven. They were free to get as wet as they wanted.

Waiting for us at the end of the trail was this incredible waterfall. It felt like we had all entered a new world on a different planet. No one else was there the entire time, so we had the whole place to ourselves to swim and jump and splash around. Paradise.

The boys were totally fearless, taking turns jumping off the rocks into the water below. I did not partake in that particular activity. Instead, I went to go pee and slipped on some rocks and bruised my shoulder. That’s my luck!

After swimming for a few hours, we made our way back through the trail to head home. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon with our babies and best friends. Fresh air, exploration, exercise, and so many good memories made. A huge thank you to Matt for organizing this incredible afternoon, one that our kids (and us!) won’t soon forget.

As if unintentionally matching with PJ wasn’t enough, last night, I found out, after the fact, that Anna and I were both wearing horizontal navy stripes! If we’re being honest, I could match at least one member of our family every single day and be completely happy with it. She wore it better, anyway.

Ever since we’ve been back from the beach, both PJ and I can’t shake how undeniably ready for fall we are.

The temps here in Tennessee are in the 90’s daily, but that hasn’t stopped us from lighting a fall candle and turning the air down just a little bit lower to create the allusion of colder weather. I am so ready to switch out my wardrobe for pants instead of shorts, sweaters instead of shirts, and leather boots instead of Birkenstocks.

I made a chicken tortilla soup for dinner last week and it was so warm and comforting and for a short minute it was 55 degrees outside, cool enough to keep the windows and doors open with some smooth jazz going on the radio. I dream about fall year round, and it’s only gotten worse the last couple of weeks.

This weekend when we were hanging out with our friends, we talked about all the fall activities we can’t wait to do: Go to an apple orchard, carve pumpkins on the pavilion at the farm, bake, take walks downtown and hear the crunch of the leaves beneath our feet. Pure bliss.

Dear reader, how was your week?

We spent the last week before school starts back up between home and the farm, and that’s pretty much it. So much has happened at Holiday House this week that we were too excited not to come check on it every day. The siding is finished and the painter began caulking yesterday. I am hoping all this rain we’re having doesn’t delay him too much, because I would love to see that little cottage all white and bright by next weekend.

Meanwhile, our friends Nick and Luka are here for a few days and staying with Matt and Beau! Today we’re all (including the kids) going on a hike planned by Matt and then having dinner at Matt and Beau’s tonight, and then tomorrow we’re going down the river. The last time we were all together was our Colorado trip back in December, so it’s been a minute. I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone and laughing until I cry.

Is there anything better than spending a weekend with friends?

Life. It really is all about the little things, isn’t it? Like friends who text asking if they can come over and make you dinner and when you text back asking what you can bring, they reply with “Nothing, you just relax.”

Come to think of it, that’s not really all so little, is it? I’ve said it before, but the act of making food for someone is so special and thoughtful. It’s so beautiful and personal and is the ultimate show of love to me. And for someone who cooks every day for four other people in the house, having someone else cook for us means the world.

All of this to say, Matt and Beau came over last night and Beau made us all a delicious meal. Halfway during it, our friend Julia popped in and ended up eating with us, which was a nice little surprise.

While he was cooking, I stayed in the kitchen with Beau and we caught up on each other’s day, while Matt was out back with the kids in the yard doing cartwheels and PJ was sanding a few wooden trim pieces. We sipped wine and ate some peppers Beau grew as an appetizer. Food. Wine. Family. Friends.

Here is something you probably haven’t done or thought about in years, or at least I haven't: A sleepover.

We had one Friday night with our children’s aunt, Cherish, and Matt and Beau came over for a bit as well. We ordered pizza and Matt surprised us all with ingredients to make Sundaes!

We all piled into the living room to watch The Parent Trap for a bit, before PJ and I migrated to our front room for some adult conversation with Matt and Beau while Cherish played with the kids. It felt like the perfect combo of friends and family time, all in one place.

The kids were so overjoyed to have their aunt not only tuck them in, but have them there when they woke up. They all ran down the hall into the guest bedroom first thing and jumped in her bed. I could hear them all laughing from downstairs and I couldn’t help but think to myself, why don’t we do this more often? I made pancakes for breakfast. Yum.

I’m not sure if it’s because it’s 95 degrees outside and I would rather be anywhere else than in this scorching heat, or because I just watched Book Club: The Next Chapter, which is set in Rome, but I woke up today daydreaming about our time in Italy a few months back.

Have you seen Book Club: The Next Chapter? It’s cute, but not as good as the first one, in my opinion. What was fun about the movie, though, was seeing all the places they went that we went to that we explored, too!

Though our time in Rome was brief, it was so much fun roaming around the streets and seeing all of the iconic ancient ruins we have only seen in movies and read about in books. We were both surprised by just how crowded every street and statue and fountain was, and it kind of bummed us out that we were literally shoulder to shoulder with thousands of people (it felt kind of claustrophobic!), but overall it was so dreamy.

Sharing some more photos from our day below:

It’s been a few days since we’ve been back from the beach and staying in our little Beach Shack for the first time ever. We bought this cottage last May and it looked completely different when we were handed over the keys. The walls were dark, the carpet was gross, and the bathroom was…interesting.

After working on it for a year, we would say the house is about 95% complete. We had so much fun staying there and experiencing life by the beach for two weeks, and I wanted to share with you what the cottage looks like as of today, because it’s so cute and it’s come so far. We haven’t purchased any new furniture yet for this house, everything you see in it we already had and we hauled down to the beach from our storage building. I love that because it helps us clear out our overcrowded building and saves us some money while furnishing the cottage!

These photos were taken literally as we were walking out the door to drive back home to Tennessee, so they’re not staged or even remotely professional, but I kind of like that about them. It’s very much where we’re at right now in life, and I am more than okay with that.

Dining nook/back entry

This little room is our main entrance. We have a front door in the living room, but at the risk of carrying wet sand throughout the entire house every time we enter it, we use this little light filled back entrance to get in and out of the house. It’s also the only dining area in the house, so though it’s teeny tiny, it’s so cozy and bright, and one of our favorite rooms in the house. It was previously an addition of some kind that had a sinking floor, so PJ ripped it off and had it rebuilt and voila!

Kitchen

When we got to the shack a few weeks ago, the kitchen hadn’t been painted yet. It is the only room the painter couldn’t get to in time for us to stay here, so over the course of a few days, PJ began sanding, caulking, priming and painting the kitchen.

We went back and forth on if we should keep the ceiling the original wood (we’ve painted all the ceilings white in the rest of the house, as you’ll see) to give the kitchen a little warmth, and so far we’re liking it. The mix of the dark green cabinets, white walls, and wood ceiling give me Ralph Lauren vibes and I’m here for it.

This is the room that is the least complete. We still need all the appliances and open shelving on the sink and stove wall. PJ installed the cabinet hardware he found for a steal of a deal at a random Habitat for Humanity in Georgia last year, and the bronze really pops against the hunter green. The counters are honed Carrera marble.

We survived the week on a Keurig, a mini fridge, and a microwave. Can’t wait to have actual appliances and be able to cook in this kitchen!!

Our bedroom

The bedrooms in the cottage are tiny, barely enough room for a queen sized bed and two night stands, but I kind of love it that way. With white, wooden walls and ceilings surrounded you, you kind of feel like you’re sleeping on an old ship in the 1940’s. It’s very cozy and, though the bed itself wasn’t comfortable, it was a very comfy room to sleep in.

We have plans for new lamps and to add some curtains, a rug, some art, and a very narrow dresser on the wall across from the bed, and maybe new nightstands, but other than that, this room is basically finished. There’s a full bath to the right of the bed but it isn’t finished just yet.

The living room

Ahhh the cozy and bright living room! The biggest room in the house is the one we do pretty much everything in. It’s also the room that’s undergone one of the biggest transformations. The window by the lamp didn’t exist before PJ framed it and had one installed, and the front door didn't, either. You used to enter the house through an enclosed sunporch with a side door, and there was a huge casement opening that lead into the living room. Now, it’s more traditional and has a much better flow overall. We love this little living room and it comfortably fit all five of us.

The couch and rug were Facebook Marketplace finds, as were the chair and the coffee table. The nesting tables are from TJ Max years ago, and the lamp came with the house. We had a little schoolhouse light where the ceiling fan is, but after being there a week, we realized a fan would be better for this room to help circulate air in the 100 degree weather, so PJ took down the overhead light and installed this fan we got at Lowe’s.

The curtain rods and blinds are from Home Depot and the curtains are drop cloth.

Kids’ bath

The biggest bathroom in the house, and right now, the only one that is completed (ours still needs tile on the shower walls). For such a small cottage, this is such a good sized bathroom and fits all of us perfectly. We brought this vanity down from a local store in Chattanooga and had marble tile that looks like little water droplets installed on the floor, and went with a wavy white porcelain tile (that reminds us of ocean waves) on the shower wall.

The bathroom used to be two little choppy rooms with the strangest layout, but we expanded and built on and had the contractors add new wood to the walls and ceiling to make it all match, and then just painted it all white.

In the space across from the toilet is where a stackable washer and dryer will be, so this room is pulling double duty as a bathroom and a laundry room.

The morning sun is pouring through the windows in our office as I sit here and sip my coffee in silence. It’s not yet hot out, but it’s scheduled to be soon. And with that, and a few other reasons, we are ready for the seasons to change.

This last month has been rocky in the McKay house. First PJ’s car accident last month, and then just a few days ago, his thumb accident (you can hear what happened in last night’s Vino & Vent), and we’re left feeling shaken and uneasy. It’s one of life’s worst feelings to see someone you love go through pain. Sometimes I hate this world for how it hurts PJ. I know that’s an immature and petty statement, but it’s how I feel right now. The feelings and trauma are still fresh and I am angry and sad and ready to not see my man filled with so much pain and uncertainty. I am ready for us all to move on to the next season of life.

That feeling started at the beach before the thumb accident actually. We bought a fall-ish candle at the store when we first got there and lit it right away. The entire cottage smelled like leaves and caramel and syrup, just sweet enough to make you wish autumn was right around the corner. I have that candle lit right now, too.

So it’s a combination of that candle (isn’t it funny how powerful scents are and how they can instantly transport you to another time and place?) and how hot it’s been outside that has us longing for cooler temperatures. We’ve done the pool. We’ve done the beach. We’ve done the 95 degree weather for months now. Every year around this time, after the sun and the heat and the long days where it doesn’t get dark until 9pm, I begin to crave fall. I am so ready for more delicious candles and to see warm pops of orange, brown, and yellow on the trees.

At the same time, a change of season also means the passing of time. I know we’re supposed to experience every moment and emotion, even the hard ones in order to have a whole life, but I am ready to fast forward just a little so all these awful moments of the last month are behind us. Of course there were many happy memories made, too, like boating on the river with family and friends, hosting the 4th of July at our farm, and watching the kids go wild at the beach, but right now all the pain is a little too fresh. A little too real.

I am very much looking forward to school starting next month and walking all three of our children there in the mornings and big cozy sweaters and warm flannels and Halloween and relaxing jazz music going on in the background at all times of the day and baking and soups and yeah. Do you long for all of that, too?

After being gone for 11 days, we’re finally back home. It’s funny, walking into our house it felt huge. Going from small rooms in a 720 sq ft Beach Shack to our modest-size house, suddenly the rooms felt so much larger than I remembered and I found myself feeling overwhelmingly grateful for our 99 year old Craftsman.

The laundry is going. Dishes are being washed. Clothes are being folded and put away. Sheets are changed. The sounds and feelings of home brought me an insurmountable amount of joy today. I can’t tell you how good to feels to be back in our own home, our safe haven, our cozy comfy place. This latest trip to the beach was incredible, and we both agreed maybe the best we’ve ever taken.

We went to the beach every day and had fun fixing up the Beach Shack. We ate cheap food and we ate expensive food. All five of us fit inside that two bedroom, two bathroom little shack and it was so fun to kind of “rough it” for almost two weeks with only one shower, no appliances and the people I love most in the world.

Part of the reason being home feels so good is because of PJ’s thumb accident. I’m not ready to talk about it in depth, but it was awful and I hate to say it, but the last day we were there, the day before we left to go home, kind of tainted the whole trip for me. Yes it was fun and so many great memories were made, but his accident might have left permanent damage, and that scares me. We will know more next week, and I am hoping for the best, but right now, I’m scared. We both are.

But all I can say is that tonight, we’re all in the family room watching a movie about magic and I am sipping on a glass of wine while PJ cuddles with the kids and Josie the pig on the couch. Life is okay today. And that’s all we can hope for, isn’t it?

Whenever we make our way down to the beach, I always try to bring a book with me. As I’ve gotten older I have found I crave sitting in a chair on the beach, listening to our kids playing and the waves crashing, and getting lost in a good book.

I tend to only read a few pages at a time before wanting to get in the water to cool off, but there’s something about being at the beach, away from our ordinary every life, while reading a book that also transports you away from your ordinary, every day life that is just so fun and relaxing.

The book I brought with me this time is called “The Dinner List” by Rebecca Serle. It’s about Sabrina, a woman who suddenly finds herself eating with the five people on her “dinner list”. You know, that list, the one we’ve all made where you could choose to have dinner with five people, dead or alive, just for a night.

Set against the charming and romantic backdrop of New York City, t’s a fascinating tale of regret, love, and the choices we make and the impact they have on not just ourselves, but our loved ones. Sabrina is eating with the likes of her best friend, her ex-boyfriend, her old professor, her father, and…Audrey Hepburn. It’s neat to read the dialogue between Audrey and the other characters and imagine how she might talk and handle certain situations. She’s presented by the author as poised and wise, and the whole time I am reading I imagine myself being in her presence and sharing a meal with her, too.

The book’s official description says:

“When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.”

It’s a very fun, cozy, digestible novel that is easy to dive into and I just got to the part of the book where a twist is revealed and now I am dying to finish it. If you’ve read it, don’t spoil the ending for me!!!

The number of forcibly displaced people is at an all time high in 2023, with figures exceeding 110 million humans who have been forced to flee their home from persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations.

USA for UNHCR shared some updated information over on their blog, and I wanted to share it with you today. The numbers are hard to fathom and I feel a pain in my chest taking them in. Contributing factors like food scarcity, inflation and the climate crisis are fueling the displacement concerns to record high numbers.

According to USA for UNHCR:

By May of 2023, more than 110 million people were forcibly displaced 

More than half of all refugees and people in need of international protection came from just three countries

Most forcibly displaced people are hosted in neighboring or low- and middle-income countries

Children remain disproportionately impacted by forced displacement around the world

The highest number of new asylum applications ever recorded were registered in 2022

They go into detail on every number point listed above, along with infographics to explain each one. Please, if you have time today, click here to view their blog and educate yourself and others on the great need to help those who are struggling to survive a situation they aren’t responsible for.

This information is difficult to take in, so I want to leave you with some good news. USA for UNHCR states that:

We are finally staying at the Beach Shack this week for the first time ever and so far, we’re having the best time. Part of the charm of this little cottage is that everything here is smaller than it is back home, which we’re actually starting to love. However, because the rooms are so tiny, the bed we’re sleeping in is also smaller. At home we have a king, and here we have a queen, and after sleeping in the queen for a week, honestly…

…it’s fine. Not great, maybe not even good, but fine. On the plus side, we’re sleeping so much closer together than we would in our king, which has it's pros and cons, but mostly it’s good. On the negative side, I feel like I can’t move around as freely in the middle of the night in a smaller bed, and I unfortunately move around a lot. I woke PJ up twice last night from shifting and scooting and adjusting and I felt terrible.

In our king sized bed back home, we have all the space in the world if we want or need it, and after switching to a king six years ago, it’ll be hard to go back full-time should we ever have to.

Happy Friday evening!!

What are you up to this weekend? We’re still at the beach and had the most beautiful, relaxing day playing, lounging, and relaxing in the sand. The kids splashed and swam in the water with new friends (they have never met a stranger), and towards the end of the evening, PJ joined them.

I have no problem staying in a chair with a book in my hand the entire day, but he can’t sit still, and every day before long, he’s in the water with the kids. He made his famous drip sand castle that his mammaw taught him how to make when he was little.

Watching him make these has fascinated me for over a decade. He gets so much enjoyment out of doing it, I feel it’s almost therapeutic for him. Hands in the sand and water, building and making something out of nothing.

Tonight’s was a smaller one, but stunning nonetheless. The kids loved looking at it, and they had even more fun knocking it all down before we left.

We still don’t have appliances in the kitchen here at the Beach Shack, so we’re living off ramen noodles and Spaghetti-O’s for the time being. It’s not ideal, but it’s good for now. The kitchen appliances we can do without, but we’re very much in the market for a washer and dryer and a TV. We looked at all of them yesterday and haven’t made a decision just yet on what we’re going to go with, though I hope we make it fast because we’re quickly running out of clothes.

As we begin our fifth day at the beach, we have found a rhythm in this little beach shack. It’s about 1/4 of the size of our house back home, but we’re coming to realize that it suits our family just fine for the time being.

Not that it isn’t tight, because it’s only 720 sq ft and there are five of us living here, but it doesn’t feel unbearable. It feels like we’re living with everything we need to, even if we’re storing our cold items in a mini fridge and don’t have a stove or dishwasher yet, and we’re having to wear the same clothes a few days in a row because we don’t have a washer and dryer.

But here’s what I know to be true: it feels goo to pair down right now. We have toilets. We have a shower. We have bedrooms and mattresses. We have a roof over our heads and, when we need them, food and water for our bellies.

We’re set.

In a world that stresses having more of everything, and that excess is where your worth and value come from, I can’t help but think that bigger is not always better. In fact, it might be the opposite. Sometimes, all that matters is who you’re sharing your time and space with.