The Property

We arrived safely home at 9:10 PM Sunday night. The route was easy, but I was WAY tired! Once we were in Iowa I woke up and the time went quickly. Note to self: Next time you decide to take the Camry to save on gas, limit the load to 3 kids instead of 4. They were about to kill each other the whole way home. I in turn wished teleportation was available!

After a short family time Sunday night, Don and Homer had roasted hot dogs for the kids so I didn't have to stop and get food plus try to deal with the limited space for eating, we hit the hay! No tornado warnings! Yeah!



Monday morning found our alarm going off at it's usual ungodly hour, 5:45. I had to get Don and Homer out the door by 6:50. Don met my Dad to get Homer his ride to Jr. Boys camp. I can't believe my baby is going into 4th grade! He is having a good time so far. I am glad my sister, 3 brothers, and my dad are all up there! Here he is ready to roll! He said he missed me VERY much while I was gone, but he declined my offer to stay home from camp:-)

Once I had Don and Homer out the door, I had to wake the other 4. We needed to leave by 8, so they needed to get breakfast and I had some MORE packing to do! We got out of the house almost on time and made it to my folks church where they are having VBS this week. My dear mother is keeping the kids until Thursday!

So, what does one do with 3 DAYS all to ones self? I have no idea! I keep asking myself! Monday I stopped by my brother's new house and helped my sister in law, Jessica, paint their master bed room. After that I took a walk with my Mom, Marlene, and Jon. I left town in time to pick up Don at work. We had a stop to make, then we went out for supper. We crashed HARD when we got home! The pace of our life and all we have to do wears us out quite a bit! It was super nice to just chill out together with No Interruptions!!!

Yesterday, I stayed in bed until noon and watched a couple of movies. I was so torn! I had tons to do cleaning wise, but I can do that while the kids are here. Sleeping in is not so easily attained! For some crazy reason, I agreed to pick strawberries for a friend while she was on an Alaskan cruise. I pick them and clean them and I get to keep half. It seemed like a do able deal..... Honestly, the patch doesn't look that big, but there are no rows and the leaves do a great job of hiding the berries. I spent 3 1/2 hours yesterday picking and cleaning those buggers! And I don't even have my half cleaned! I think part of the problem is the berries are quite mushy and thus not real tasty. It lessons the motivation to pick them when they aren't worth the trouble! I'm going to have to get some Shure Jell and make jam! I want to make a yummy strawberry pie, but I spend so much time getting the berries I have no time to do anything with them! (2nd note to self: I hate gardening, thus I have no garden, don't offer to help garden unless your the last available sole on the planet!)

Last night Don and I went to our property and did some work in the basement. It was kinda mucky and I got quite dirty, but I was thankful I was getting that dirty in an unfinished basement. I know some whose basement is that muddy from the flooding and theirs is finished!

This morning I did get up at a decent time and cleaned my kitchen and part of the dining room, paid bills and balanced the check book (depressing). Today Don took 1/2 day off. We walked hand in hand thru a couple of home improvement stores checking prices and picking out retaining blocks for our egress window. We had the shock of our lives when the color I picked was the same color Don was thinking, PLUS I didn't pick out the priciest blocks available!!! Our agreeing with out "discussion" plus the moderate pricing was our miracle for the day! We are now home, getting ready to head back out to the house.

I honestly hadn't planned on getting this wordy! The below picture is of some daisies the "strawberry friend" gave me last spring. I love the fact that they grew even taller than our weeds with NO tending! We did have to water them a bit after we planted them last spring, but that has been it! Don has been careful to shield them from the onslaught of large vehicles and lumber deliveries. Last spring after we planted them I called the property "Daisy Lane". Don wasn't real thrilled with that so we are back to calling it "The Property".