Life at a "Swell's" pace

Hello.

Hope you and yours had a wonderful eclipse Monday and enjoyed either totality or partial. We here in Oregon got one heck of a show! Honestly, I've told many people already, it doesn't matter what words I use to describe it, it will never be enough. Seeing total eclipse in person was amazing! I am so glad The Bean, The Mr., and I got to experience something so great and for some people, a once in a lifetime experience. We have always been stargazers and this just adds to our bucket list of things we want to experience. For the rest of the week we were all on eclipse high and had a great week. Although, nothing else seemed to compare to the eclipse, we did have a pretty groovy week. So here are the things that made it great!

1. Prayer flags

With so much hate and hurt happening all over the world lately, we hung our prayer flags outside again. I had taken them down and this time decided to put them out and leave them out. These flags wave in the wind and send prayers where needed from the script written on the flags. Hopefully, if only one prayer, it will help, or heal someone out there that needs it.

You can get yourself some prayer flags here.

2. Golf practice

The Mr. invited The Bean and I to go play golf with him and a coworker. The Bean has been working on his swing and lineup coordination lately and I needed to work on my driving. We had a great time and The Mr. was able to get some practice in before his annual company golf tournament.

3. Solar eclipse

We enjoyed the solar eclipse here in the Willamette Valley, along with many others that were along the path of Totality. We couldn't have asked for a better show and the fun we had in our own backyard will go down in the books! Check out our experience here.

4. Mightnest's Mightyfix

Mightnest this month was a bit on the "need" side instead of the "want." We actually did need new cloth dinner napkins and some probiotics to flush out some of bad bacteria in our guts lately. Of course, those two things were an addon, but the actually item for this month's shipment was the Full Circle dish brush. Definitely can always use a dish brush, so this was a nice addition. As for the dinner napkins, when I ordered them I didn't realize they were from a company based in Albany, Oregon. Oh, Little Rabbit is a husband and wife team that make home goods and apparel in small batches. The dinner napkins are handmade, and eco-friendly-with 100% cotton, so that is a plus. We love them already and used them with dinner last night. The print on them fits in nicely with our dinning table too.

5. New carpet

We got new voc-free carpet for our area in the back of the house we like to refer to as, "the tv room," "den," etc. This new carpet has low vocs and feels great under bare feet. It's just what this space needed and The Mr. has already taken a nap on it and can vouch it's a win!

Have a great weekend!

We were in a prime location for the total solar eclipse and boy, did we get a show. I will be honest, and I've said it before, there are really now descriptive words to explain what we saw. It was really the neatest thing to witness live and those that had only partial view, or crescent view, it is not even close to what we had with total eclipse. We are going to be on an eclipse high for the rest of the week and there isn't a whole lot that can compare to our eclipse experience here in Oregon. The Mr. and I have already started making plans to be in Arkansas for 2024's total eclipse. Of course, we will be in our 60s, but hey, it's never too early to make travel plans, right? Here's a recap of our Monday-Totality Eclipse experience.

We first grab us some "Eclipse cookies" from the new bakery in our town called Rodriguez Bakery.

The Mr. and I started getting Emergency alert messages on our phones about the eclipse. Which, was kind of funny to us because of what some of the messages said. The first one that we got was warning of fire danger and at the rate of the way the Sisters, Oregon, fire is going, it was to be expected with this public warning. The second one, talked of climbers getting a better view of the eclipse and could get lost, slip, or get hurt otherwise and warned of falling rocks. The last one though, was sort of comical to us. It warned of looking at the sun directly and to wear protective eye wear. The only reason we found this one silly was because of the warnings that have been literally being blared on the radio, television, and even other people talking for the last month. But I guess overall, it's not a bad idea to "remind" people again.

We got our protective glasses on and started seeing first contact of the moon with the sun. PITA is always game for a little fun.

The Mr. took some binoculars and got a great view of the crescent through the lenses. We had to turn them around backwards to view the sun. It was a great chance for The Bean, especially to get a good view of the eclipse at the crescent shape. This was before totality happened, so we played around a lot with the different ways to view it. Our pinhole box didn't pick up the view as well as the binoculars did.

I was in full on amazement when totality hit and the temperature where we were in the Valley went from about 72 degrees down to 49 degrees. It got dark quick, but our solar lights kept it from going completely dark on us. It was really the neatest things I've ever seen in the sky, and we are a stargazing family! I was able to get a quick snap with my Nikon camera before it completely went away. This is probably the best photo of the night through all of our camera we were using.

This is the view that my cell phone was able to capture, it wasn't clear, but it sure did get a good shot of the moon over the sun.

After totality and after we all came down from our eclipse high, I was able to snag this picture with my cell phone through the solar eclipse glasses.

We really did have a great view here in the Willamette Valley, but in Arkansas they were able to see a crescent shape for a few minutes and my brother, Will, and sister-in-law, Kayla shared their experience of the Eclipse with us. The Mr. told them to be sure to wear their foil hats like us and this was the picture they sent back to us...

They even put one on baby Henry! Ha! We loved it!

Their crescent shape was pretty clear through the cereal box viewer my brother made.

It was a great experience and I am so glad The Bean was able to see it and enjoy it with us, and we were able to share all of our pictures with my family in Arkansas. The next total solar eclipse is supposed to happen in 2024 with Arkansas being in the line of Totality. We have already been making plans to be there for that one too!