I did it again!

I've gone way too long without a post, but y'all should be used to me by now I suppose. It almost feels like I've been chasing myself around the country. I made two trips to Missouri and back, and one to South Carolina... and when I say "to Missouri" I should say to and all over Missouri since it's never to one location but several that are scattered fairly long distances apart. We logged over 5000 miles in less than 5 weeks... not a personal record but it sure has been a long time since I traveled. It was fun but tiring and kind of expensive considering we usually don't even eat out let alone go somewhere out of state.

I do have new travel tips though.... never ever ever ride through the mountains with an inner ear infection and a driver who is really in a hurry and determined not to be late! Dizziness, met nausea about 10 minutes into that 7 hour drive.... and have you ever tried to read a map in that condition? I'm surprised we didn't end up in Georgia. And after 4 years of not taking any really long trips with the kids I've come to some realizations that just can't be denied. 1)Suddenly there just isn't enough room in the truck for all of us, these kids are HUGE! and 2)Those same "kids" who are suddenly MUCH bigger also have MUCH bigger smells. After sitting in traffic for 2 and a half hours in Nashville I nearly considered trying to make a trade with a young couple in a minivan for their screaming two year old!

Since so much has gone on y'all just have to take the catching up version for now and I'll try (really) to get some pics posted soon... like the ones of the kids riding the cow at the dairy farm, Caleb milking cows, and Troy and his sister and dad playing bluegrass gospel songs at the dinner table. Somehow I never seem to remember that I have a camera until I get home and wish I had taken pictures of all the really good stuff.

Missouri-
Caleb and I went first for nearly two weeks and came back home tired and missing our own beds. Our entire family turned around one week later and went back to Missouri for two weeks. My sweet Hunk O Honey just happened to get a forced week off work (without pay..grrr) so we took a second week of his vacation time and went back home to visit.

We visited my Honey's dad who we hadn't seen in about ten years, went back to our old home town and reminisced and thanked the Lord that HE had seen fit to get us out of there when HE did. We had hoped to go do some extra things like visit the Pony Express museum and the Science center in St. Louis along with Meramec Caverns and the little river towns and old route 66 towns where Troy and I grew up. We also wanted to go see some of the rest of my family but it didn't happen this time. We had a great time visiting with friends and family and hope to get another chance to go visit all of the people and places that we didn't have the time for this trip.

Home-
The garden is already FULL!! I've got 30 cabbage plants, 27 broccoli plants, snow peas, english peas, strawberries (with blooms), spinach and lettuce already producing, basil, potatoes,onions, and pole beans planted. It sounds good but... this .... is.....a.... DISASTER! I want to plant MORE FOOD. The seed catalogs are screaming at me, and with the turn of each page me and Fred run to the window and scan the yard frantically for places to put in gardens. I have corn seed... very special corn seed that I MUST PLANT. and limas, and more beans, and carrots, and there has to be a place for the tomatoes and peppers to live!!!!!!! Maybe we'll cut down some more trees and who needs grass... I don't eat grass and I hate to mow so maybe my entire yard should just be growing FOOD. I'll be okay, really.... I just need more garden!

The kids are trying to get back into the swing of schooling, but it's garden time and that's about all we can think about once the sun rises. Troy says I should just switch on over to our "summer schedule" which means get up early and garden, school during the afternoons and evenings and chores before bed. Sounds great except the whole part where I'M OUT OF GARDEN SPACE.

I'm behind on everything.... again. (except the garden) I need to start Caleb's quilt that he asked me to make for his birthday. Spring cleaning is a definite need around here! Plus Jared has been patiently waiting since last fall for me to get the furniture rearranged so we can bring his piano home from the home of nice couple who gifted it to him in answer to prayer. (that one is not entirely my fault, I'm not allowed to rewire things and it requires that the phone line get moved) How is it that every drawer, closet, cabinet, and storage space somehow between September and March gets stuffed to bursting point with mostly useless JUNK?? My Hunk O Honey likes to accumulate anything he can carry items that he might find a use for in the future and that accounts for a lot of it... but seriously, where does the rest of it come from? I swear that anything we don't use on a regular basis somehow multiplies and then mutates and then the mutated items multiply and so on and so on until every single millimeter of space is consumed with totally useless JUNK. Maybe I should just have a really really HUGE bonfire! I wonder if I can even find the matches?

The kids have been accumulating junk gently used items from our home in hopes of having a yard sale, they are trying to raise money for more chicks and new beekeeping gear since they have outgrown all that we had for them and to make new salves and soaps and stuff to restock their business. Needless to say the kids yard sale collection is trying to take over around here. Every day I nearly kill myself falling carefully step around the various piles, boxes, and bags of items. I'm glad that the kids are so interested in earning money but I'm liable to break something.... at what age do we get more breakable??am I there yet?

Besides the trips to Missouri I have been fighting a horrible ear infection that just isn't even considering leaving me alone. Even while we were gone to Missouri my ears got so bad and I was so sick that for 4 days I just laid on the floor at Troy's dad's holding my ears.... Troy decided that I had to go to the doctor and get MORE antibiotics though. I HATE antibiotics....seriously, but have now had two rounds of injections and four rounds of oral antibiotics in increasingly stronger varieties along with two injections (i really hate those, i suddenly feel like a little kid all over again every time) of steroids to help with the swelling in my ears. The last visit to the doc resulted in words like "tubes" and "tonsilectomy" and "specialist" so for now I'm just dealing with it and praying praying praying praying.

Well, that's all the time I have now. The piles of stuff are scheming and plotting a hostile takeover of the livingroom as I type. The kids are claiming to be finished with their schoolwork but there is a mysterious tone in the end of their sentence that tells me they only mean it if I do. The mess in the kitchen is multiplying while I sit here but somehow it still hasn't produced the new pots and pans that I need no matter how long I wait. The dogs are giving me "the look"... the one that says "is your seat attached to that seat or am I gonna get my biscut?".... so off I go to tend the things in my life that despite my rants and ramblings I truly do love.

Y'all have a good day!