The Search for Miss Direction: One Last Southern Sunday

I was looking at the We've Been There map this morning and realized that other than Virginia we have officially covered all the southern states! I can't believe it. I don't know if I'm excited or relieved to see this year winding down and this project coming to a close. While it has been an amazing adventure it has also been a good deal of work. I know the kids have really enjoyed it (and are continuing to harp about next year's project, which I thought I'd settled on but am now up in the air about again given how busy I've seen things become with school under way), but I want to make sure we're doing all of it for the right reasons, in a balanced way and that, of course, they're having fun! Anyway, as we say sayonara to South Carolina today I'm feeling a tad nostalgic about the whole thing even though it's still going on. Don't mind me, typical Kristi craziness when my brain gets going on overtime :-p

Was glad for a Michigan win last night (though I will go on record and say I was NOT happy with the way it went down. An obviously injured Devin Gardner should NOT have been on the field last night) and delighted with a Lions win this afternoon. Am quietly pulling for the Royals (ALCD - right?) to knock off the Orioles though in honesty since my Tigers are out haven't been paying much attention to the baseball scene.

This morning, the wonderful Janoch family joined us for breakfast (yes, totally made the apple cider pancakes again) and then took the time to share their family vacation to Lake Murray, South Carolina with the Dynamic Duo. Tess did an awesome job taking Flat Noah and Flat Mikayla with them boating on the lake, checking out the damn, and even a trip to the Children's Museum in Columbia! Besides all the awesome pictures, maps, pamphlets and other goodies, they also brought each kiddo back their own Lake Murray mug (which they have been using all day of course) and I got a cool kitchen towel with a South Carolina postcard on it. Our thanks from the bottom of our hearts to our wonderful friends from down the street for teaching us something more on the last day of our trek through South Carolina.

The rest of the day has been pretty low key. We made it to Mass (Philippians 4:19 - one of my faves as a second reading today!) and then the lawn got mowed, football got watched, homework got finished and meals got prepped. We've really needed a low key day so glad we were able to take advantage of it.

Speaking of meals being prepped, we had one last South Carolina feast tonight. I mentioned at the beginning of the week that depending where in the state you are, just like it's northern counterpart, South Carolina takes its BBQ pretty seriously. So I made these South Carolina BBQ Pork Burgers in celebration of that tonight. They are topped with a honey mustard sauce that is known throughout the state. With it I made Sweet Potato Pone. Sweet potatoes are of course a southern staple and this seemed like a simple side to go with dinner tonight. I was really surprised that everyone really liked the burgers (the kids ate theirs sans buns) and Mikayla especially REALLY liked the mustard sauce. (I think that girl would eat honey mustard with a spoon if you would let her.) And Grant said "I'm not usually a sweet potato fan but these are really good." Yay for a good last dinner! I also made a Carolina Banana Pudding for dessert. Again - a classic southern dish to round us out for the week.

A quick peek at the calendar has me hopping that this week is going to be a little less stress than last week. Only really big thing is Fun Run on Thursday! Until we get to next weekend which I'm really looking forward to - Kayla and I are going to Disney princesses on ice! But first, South Dakota is on tap! I'm relieved to say I had a MUCH easier time getting on board for South Dakota than I did it's northern neighbor. So check us out tomorrow for more on that! And until then....

South Carolina Fun Fact of the Day: South Carolina has some towns with funny/unusual names like Coward, Due West, Ninetimes, Ninety Six, Southern Shops, South of the Border, and Welcome.