On A Monday

Ok so here's the deal. Straight up. I usually go to bed grouchy.  Maybe not outwardly grouchy but always this subtle undercurrent of being dissatisfied with the day.  Like I didn't do enough, didn't say the right thing, messed that up, didn't clean the oven, whatever. 

But today I was reading in John and found freedom in a very simple thought.  Here goes. 

1.  I am pleasing to God no matter what I did or didn't do today.  I have a right standing because of my relationship with the cross. 

2.  My man is easy to please and doesn't care.

So now I can go to bed without guilt and excuse myself from ever cleaning the oven again.  Well maybe not, but you get the point.

Yesterday we said goodbye to the youth headed for camp including 2 of our own.
The house is so quiet.  And we aren't eating nearly as much food.  For dinner last night we made a big fire to burn some brush and roast hot dogs.  Because you can never burn brush without hot dogs.  That would be a total waste.  Since it wasn't planned we had to go buy supplies which included another package of hot dogs and all the stuff for Smores.  We had 29 hot dogs total and I didn't expect any leftovers.  Turns out we only ate 13 and now we know who eats all the food in this house.

With only 6 kids at home and my man off work, we decided to go on a date.  All day.
And it was a blast!  And nobody at home died.

We went to the movies and saw Despicable Me 2.  And get this.  We were early and had to wait and they had music playing in the background.

Remember that old song Afternoon Delight?  I was mindlessly singing along and HOLD THE PHONE have you ever paid attention to the lyrics of that song??!!  I had no idea and would've probably guessed it to be dessert or something.  And I am still laughing about it!!  On a date in the afternoon!!  Get it? (And if you are reading this and happen to live in my house DO NOT google the lyrics to see what I'm talking about.)

I apologize to any of my reader/s who clicked on my blog thinking you were getting a mature tidbit of wisdom for the day.  But I suppose you know me better than that.  And you have to admit that borders on hilarious.

I just so happened to check the weather before I went to bed and found out it was supposed to rain in the night.  That was bad news since I had a full clothes line and it was dark.  But I took my empty laundry basket out and decided to hurry.  Remember I've told you about the difference between dark and country dark?  Well ya'll it was black.  I took about 2 steps and left the basket on the porch and ran back in to get my man who doesn't ever care if it's dark.  And as we got closer we could make out the white clothes hanging there like a bunch of ghosts.  I have clearly seen too many episodes of Scooby Doo.

Busy Being Blessed

That's how I felt this week.  

So blessed.  And while it's impossible to list all the ways without leaving something out, I will give you some highlights of the goodness.  

1.  Friends from Colorado!!  And I am still in awe that people would drive that many miles, get totally out of routine, and spend all that money just to come see us.  They are sweet sweet friends and I love them so.  

They stayed for the weekend then headed to MO after church Sunday to stay at the Young Life camp with family.  The next day, we drove up and met them there and spent the day at Silver Dollar City together.  

It was so fun showing them the city and our church and our "farm". 

2.  Perfect weather for SDC instead of the rain that was predicted. 

3.  An entire car load of kids crashed out on the way home. 

4.  Susie's beautiful tomatoes and peppers.  Because our's aren't so great.  

5.  But our cucumbers are crazy good.  I've canned too many pickles to count.  Today someone pulled out a quart of refrigerator pickles and 3 kids devoured the whole jar in 10 minutes.  There should be a game show for that.  

6.  The beauty of it all.  The garden is so pretty and I love being out there.  If it didn't produce another thing this year I would still be perfectly happy with just how pretty it looks.  

7.  Loud mouth roosters.  4 of them.  I love their sound.  Especially when I'm at the clothes line. 

8.  Little pumpkins just turning orange. 

9.   Bees that are not swarming and working busily.  Last week I got stung 3 times just feeding them.  And whenever I get stung multiple times (which is every time I get stung), then I lose confidence for a few days and question my sanity.  I had an inspection coming up and was a bit scared to dig in.  But it doesn't last long, and by today I was ready for it.  No stings and it took longer to light the smoker than to inspect hives.  And ya'll.  They are awesome.  One frame was dripping honey.  Dripping!

10.  LB snapped this picture of ZBoy standing on the cedar chest hooking my necklace when we were getting ready for church.   Seriously....blessed beyond measure.  

Snap Shot Of The Week

FINALLY.  She's home.  And she's never allowed to leave again.  

We missed our LaneyBug so much!  It's been a blast listening to her stories and adventures from the beach.  She went with the funnest family ever so they went out of their way to make sure she was having fun.  And she did!  

And this is what our stove top has looked like every day.  Canning, heating lids, and making bee food.  

Lots of pickles.  And lots of bee food.  

But yesterday Renee came over and we figured out the pressure cooker together.  And you won't believe this, but nothing blew up.  And we are still alive.  But what's more is that we cooked 2 chickens in 10 minutes!  I am NOT lying y'all.  That's all it took.  And it was nice and tender just like if you cooked them in the oven for 2 hours.  I am all over this pressure cooking thing.  

Then we hung clothes on the clothes line (and she liked it too).  And we talked more than we have gotten to in about 3 years.  It was time.  

Somewhere my kids got the idea they could cook an egg on the drive way.  They were sure it would work.  

They sat like this for a looong time waiting for the egg to change.  But nothing.  So I suggested we go ahead and finish cooking it in the house.  They decided it was the best egg ever.  

Fresh out of the pool and hugging on Korrie. 

What we do when we are done swimming and hugging on Korrie and Mom says you can't watch a movie.  

Star Wars puzzle. 

~My two oldest sons have been at football practice and are so sore they are walking around like old ladies. 

Christian needed a physical so Honey got him an appt with some doctor named Schmitz in town so we wouldn't have to spend a day in FSM.  We hadn't been there before and showed up a few minutes early for paperwork.  I was sooo close to having him go alone but decided to go ahead and go with him.  I did make him fill out the paperwork though.  

Then we waited.  And made fun of everything in the office. 

My Grandmother and I used to do this when we waited somewhere so I've been good to pass it along to my kids.  

She finally calls his name ...sorta.  She called him Christine.  Which of course gave us something else to laugh about.  But when she asked for my co-pay for out-of-network I knew something wasn't right.  So I asked her to check my insurance again.  And that's when something clicked.

You see, the name on the window was Dr. Hinderliter.  And that didn't look or sound anything like Schmitz.  Huh...
Looks like I would've noticed that before seeing as how we spent a good 10 minutes making fun of that ridiculous name.

Believe it or not,  we were in the wrong place.  

And I'm sure she had a good time making fun of that.  But why didn't she tell me we didn't have an appt and she didn't know why we were there???  Seems like something that could've been mentioned earlier.  Just saying.

We got back in the car to find another office.  And listen, I know this town is small but it was still hard to find especially when the other place has a big sign that says MEDICAL CLINIC.  Oh well. 

And this time my son had 3 long pages to fill out.  Oh the moaning and groaning.  

But the best part was the medical history page where he checked HIV Positive instead of Chicken Pox.  

I'm glad I decided to come along.  

Orphan Socks And Muddy Dogs

Lane has officially been gone forever.  She's barely communicated for the whole week except to say she was homesick.  We, on the other hand, have missed her every minute and been counting down the sleeps until she gets back.  The house is lonely and boring without her.  So we decided that she's never allowed to leave again.  Never getting married, no mission trips, nothing but hanging at home keeping us entertained for the rest of her life.  I'm sure she'll be fine with it.

One. More. Sleep.

~Today was gonna start crazy early.  I had to be in town to drop the dog off at the vet at 7.  Then I had a doctor appt at 8:15.  That meant I had to be up and ready to leave the house by 6:30.  And you know being up and being dressed decently enough not to embarrass the family are 2 different things.  And I had to do both.  By 6:30.  AM.

But when we woke up at the crazy time of dark morning there was no electricity.  I had to fix my hair by candles and a flashlight.  Forget the part about not embarrassing the family because I really had no idea what I looked like.

Meanwhile my boys were up and getting ready for football.  Josh's first day and he's looking everywhere for a sock.  2 boys with football practice means I have to have 4 socks clean four days in a row every week. Not four pairs.  Just four socks.  And I don't know about you but at our house by the end of spring I have no idea what anybody's sock situation is except that its scarce.  And I don't care because it's summer and you're not supposed to wear socks in the summer anyway.  So Josh is looking through drawers and under beds and in the orphan sock basket for another sock that doesn't necessarily need to match but just fit.  And all the while, he's wondering why mom still hasn't bought new socks.

I'm ready to leave and have to get the dog.  But I can't find a leash anywhere which doesn't add to my good humor since I haven't used a leash in months but other members of my family have.  Ahem.
I finally decide on the only leash I can find which is super old, disgustingly dirty, and half chewed up.  I turn to grab the dog when GASP!!  She's a muddy mess!!!  And we need to get into the car! 

Josh comes out to clean her up hopping on his bare foot.  He starts the water hose and sprays her off soaking the one sock that he has.

~I drop the dog off and have a few minutes before my doc appt.  Now I'm not a coffee drinker, but I love juice.  And I decided a trip to Walmart for some white grape juice just might redeem the morning.  Besides I needed to see if my clothes matched in the light of day.  Thank you Walmart for a well-lit and cleanish bathroom.

~My doctor appt turned out fine and we were both in agreement that we need to move forward to a biologic.  So even though I tried to steer clear of injections, I felt like it was the best choice.  sigh......
On to something new.... and I hope it works.

Ramblings Of Recently

This is what my kids are doing today. 

The owner of the pallet company graciously let them set up in front of his business for the small price of 3 cucumbers.  He even opened an extra gate for parking. 

It's been an hour and so far they've made $9. 

~So last night was Ethan's birthday.  We had a family dinner and a game of Minute To Win It in which he snagged the "best feather blower" title.

I told him I'd make chicken enchiladas. 

But then.

You see I was all ready to cook 2 whole chickens in my fancy smancy pressure cooker.  The directions said I could do 3 of them in 15 minutes.  3 whole chickens in 15 minutes flat!!  That is nothing short of amazing.  So I canned, and cleaned, and went to town, and did a thousand other things because I was in no hurry.

3 chickens in 15 minutes right?

But when the time came to commit, I chickened out.  See, the directions also said it could cause "bodily harm and property damage".   I decided that chickens weren't worth killing people and blowing up the house which was sure to happen since my man wasn't home to  do it for me  help.

So it was on to plan B except I didn't have a plan B and I wondered how Ethan would feel about peanut butter sandwiches on store bought bread.

Turns out we cooked the chickens in the oven and whipped up some tacos.  Beef.  Even though beef isn't Ethan's favorite and I feel pretty bad about that.  Except I promised him chicken enchiladas next time as long as he comes early to figure out the pressure cooker with me.

~The A/C got fixed this week!  Did I tell y'all that?

~I think our canning total is about 6 gallons of pickles so far plus the 11 quarts from before.  LB is becoming quite the canner and I would not be able to do nearly as much without her.

~We all miss our LaneyBug.  Only 4 more sleeps!

~My favorite things this week....

*My clothes line.

Y'all.  Clothes lines are where it's at.  Who knew?  I love standing out there pinning them all up and then taking them down.  Nobody else cares about this chore so it's all mine.  In fact, everyone else isn't quite on the clothes line band wagon and they are begging me to stop hanging up their underwear for the neighbors to see.

*My new book.  Happy Happy Happy by Phil Robertson.  And no matter what you think about Duck Dynasty, the 2 Duck Commander books are terrific.

*Improved bee lids.  Because of the dry weather, I'm having to feed my bees again.  This was unexpected and disappointing until I figured out that the reason I hated it so much was because the feeder jars didn't fit right and it was too hard (and disturbing to the bees) to manhandle the whole thing.  So I had my father-in-law fix them for me with his fancy saw and bee feeding is a breeze.  Plus my bees are happy.

*A call from some Colorado peeps planning a trip for next week!!  Yessss!  We haven't seen them in way too long.

~My not-so-favorite things this week....

*A dog that is digging in our garden.
*A broken weed eater and tall grass around my bee hives.
*A terrible RA month.  When I went in for lab, I asked in my sweetest voice if they could possibly move my appt time up to immediately.  Since I frequently buy eggs from him, I also threw in like 20 egg cartons to sweeten the deal.   I figured this would be impossible since he's the kind of doctor that you have to wait months for.  And while it required a meeting with the office manager, they generously moved me up to Monday.  And I could not be more thrilled.  Something needs to change and I would appreciate your prayers if you think about it.   

Barge Tour

I had this on the calendar for a long time.  

A barge tour of the Arkansas River!  

We got to ride on this boat. 

Ready to go! 

The ladies that ran the boat were a lot of fun taking pictures of everyone and getting everybody included.  They told us the history of the river and what all it is used for today. 

I don't know how many miles we went down the river but the tour lasted about 2 hours.  

Once we stopped in the middle, we could climb up top, walk around and take pictures. 

If any of my local friends are looking for something different to do call the nature center and sign up for the next tour.  It's free but you have to reserve your spot.  

Our Texas Trip And Turtle Racing

Texas Fun!! 

a LOT of driving! 

We always enjoy the farm.  Whether it's helping Paw Paw with chores or catching all of Nana's fish.  

We took a ride through the woods and looked at the deer blinds and feeders.  I got to spend some time in their garden and sample my mom's pickle recipes.  This is Laverne and Shirley, my dad's new pigs.  Don't you love them?

LOVE these people! 

So the main event of the trip was turtle races.  

And I have to be honest with ya, it didn't sound like all that much fun to me. 

But we had a turtle so might as well....

I was WRONG. 

Turns out turtle racing is much more fun than it sounds! 

We had 2 tiny cutsie turtles we were entering but found this big one on the side of the road the day before the race.  His name is Phil. 

Nice and big and actually pretty social not hiding in his shell.  Plus he was proving himself to be pretty fast when it came to trying to get away from little boys.   We entered him into the patriotic decorating contest, but even with this tank/gun thing he lost.  

The winner...get this ya'll. 

The winner had 50 American flags around his shell with the pledge of allegiance in the middle. 

So yeah, Phil lost.   

Not only that, when it came to race time, Phil was a total dud. 

He just sat there!   

A big party pooper, not even participating and disgracing the family name. 

Needless to say, he didn't get to race again.  

Then there was Carl and Shelby.  The little bitties. 

Shelby was pretty fast but too indecisive.  Halfway through her race, she changed her mind and decided to take the long route.  After she lost, Mally looked her in the eye and said, "You can't do that! You can't hesitate!!"  

Now Carl. 

Carl was a beast. 

This tiny turtle won 3 races, knocking 12 other turtles out of the finals.

It was so fun hearing the crowd erupt when his tiny legs were scrambling across the finish line. 

Unfortunately Carl lost in the championship. 

But barely. 

I think those little legs were worn out.

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'm home!!  We had a great few days in Texas with my family but it is so nice to be back home to my family who stayed behind.  

And to top it off...it's my BIRTHDAY!

And Ya'll, my family is so sweet to me.
I woke up to a yummy smoothie and lots of hugs and kisses.
And the dining room decorated with piles of presents!  

Mally wanted me to open her's first.  She wrapped it herself and planned far ahead of time what she wanted her daddy to get from her.  Chicken Poop Chapstick....my fave.  Have you tried it yet?

Look at my new pocket knife!  Do you need me to open something for you?  Cause I can. 

I love this picture!  It proves I really am his mother.  

Me and my sweeties.  Do you see that shiny pot?  It's a pressure canner!!  And lots of new canning jars...and a food processor because we broke ours...and notebooks...and 2 new books. 

And the good news is that our A/C should be fixed on Monday and I can put that canner to good use. 

And I'm sooo excited ya'll.  Because I have loads of cucumbers that need my attention and  1/2 gallon canning jars and I've never used that size before.   

I know.  Don't even say it.  

So then my man and kiddos had black belt class today and Jes and I had the neat opportunity to work with Church On The Streets (COTS).

We served up 160 hot dogs, chips, beans, and potato salad and met some new friends. 

Including this cutie pie.  I carried him around, serving with my other hand, and listening to people tell their stories.  Definitely gonna do this again!  And again.  And again. 

Then guess what?  My son drove all this siblings home from TKD all by himself while Honey and I went to lunch.  I've never been so glad to get that phone call saying they were all home.  

Grandma, Grandpa, Meg, and Ethan came for supper.  Burgers (thanks Dad and Mystic!) and fries and chocolate cake.   Golfing, swimming, gardening, and talking each others' ears off.  

And now its quiet.  Meg and Ethan took 3 kids to spend the night.  

The rest of us prayed for Lane who leaves at 5:30am (!) for Florida. 

I'm glad she was still here for my birthday. 

It's was a perfect day.