Thoughts

Hmmm....

My vow to post more often has not been kept!

All I have done on my blog to make it "new and improved" is change my header pic.

Wooo. I blow myself away with my efficiency and my diligence!

Anyway....

I tell ya, it's been a very interesting 6 months.  Heck, who'm I kidding?

It's been a very interesting almost-2-years!!

Living in the same house with my folks.  Taking care of tremendously neglected acreage.  Learning new things.  Becoming "country".  Missing my city.  Tension.  Deep heartache.  Joy.  The end of chapters, the beginning of new ones.  The death of dreams.  The falling off of shackles.  Seeing with new eyes.  Growing.  Changing.  Maturing.  Disillusionment.  Freedom.  We have tasted all of these things and more, the past couple of years.

I never thought I'd be a Country Girl.  I never thought I had it in me, after living in mostly big cities all of my life.  It IS very pretty out here........it just took (and takes) some doing! When you live on acreage and have a Husband With a Vision for Said Acreage, nobody ever gets to cool their jets for very long!

We love living closer to our Very Good Friends that we met over two years ago when we started going to a church around here.  We no longer go to that church but we have remained good friends with a couple of the families.  The oldest girl in our favorite family is our girls' piano teacher and she has started a Bible Study on Thursdays for girls.  We love it.  I myself never expected to get anything out of a Bible Study for Girls!!!! But let me tell you, earlier this week, after Moments of Intense Fellowship with Dave, I was telling the girls that I wasn't going to go anymore! Ha.  Do you say things like that when you get convicted??? Ha.

Pennie is going to be 6 MONTHS OLD on Saturday.  We sit back and marvel at how fast that time passed......and it's always, even against my will, tinged with if only's........She is our precious pearl.  She just has something in her that literally draws people to her.  Seriously, every where we go, people stop and stare and exclaim and try to touch her and talk to her! It's amazing to me.  It's startling.  It's interesting, as I've never before had a child draw people to her like that.  I'm looking forward to finding out what it IS that is the magnet......

So, I'm now the Mother of Two Teens, with a Second Teen on the radar pretty soon, like in December! It just sounds sooooo strange when I say I have teenagers.  I praise God for my teenagers.  They are blossoming (even my son is) into Godly young adults.  This Bible study we are going to has really brought out all the good in my 4 older girls.  But my teens are surprising me! Oy.  Sigh.  Yikes! Does that mean I'm OLD now???

I just realized the other day that my Fortieth Birthday AND my Twentieth Anniversary fall in the same year, just a few months shy of each other.  Wow.  Big Stuff!! How will I feel about turning 40?  I can tell you, I felt literally super old as this past birthday approached and limped by!!

I made the Mistake of walking into a Gymboree store the other day.  Heavens to Mergatroid!! A small little fact that none of you may know about me is that I am literally, for Real, a Gymbofreak!! I mean it.  My babies, especially my girls, start out life almost exclusively in Gymboree.  I just adore their attention to details.  I love the new lines.  I love the rich colors and the creativity behind the lines and the pieces.  I have found tons of my Gymbo on eBay.  I keep a sharp eye out at resale shops for Gymboree too, although, due to the timelessness of the lines and the durability of the clothes, I hardly find it secondhand.  So, now all I can think about is the darling stuff I saw!!! And with 6 girls who can fit into their sizes........

I'm dearly, dearly hoping, almost praying, for my tomatoes to get ripe! We have four large half wine cask barrels of tomatoes planted out front.  Tomatoes have always been one of my favorite foods, even when I was small.  Pico de Gallo.  Grilled tomatoes.  Tomato sandwiches.  Tomato salad.  And my Kellie shares that love with me! So, the two of us go out front and literally stare at all of the green tomatoes, willing them red!! Hmmm.....the weather just needs to warm up another 10 degrees, and stay that way for a few weeks.......

Okay, I need to wrap up this Road to Nowhere now.  It's one day before payday, and that means rummaging around for things to eat.  It means being resourceful.  It means it's tough to fill up our bellies!! In our household, we grocery shop every two weeks.  It's a large, all day trip and I traditionally take one or two of the kids with me, usually a younger one and an older one.  It gives me Special Time with the two that I pick to go with me, and they feel like Royalty.  Tomorrow I'll be taking Hannah and Sofia (who hardly ever gets to come) and we will be going up North instead of down to our Hometown. For many years, I have shopped at Fred Meyer almost exclusively, and our hometown Grocery Outlet the past couple of years.  I am not one to love running around to store after store after store just to get a seemingly good deal, because after all, factoring in the money spent on wasted gas, running from store to store really isn't a savings. I have loved Freddy's because I love one-stop shopping, and they have all of the natural and organic things we love. And I know pretty much everybody there by name, and they know us.  They've watched my kids grow!  We are going to start buying in bulk and trying to get away from small grocery stores.  A lot of the people with Large Families, who I consider to be wise, say that shopping at warehouse stores like Costco is the way to go.  So, we are going to try it!

I think I feel the craving for a Coffee Drink coming on.......