Being filled up

Amazing how life can take over – YOUR LIFE!!! 

I love to make time to update my blog – kind of my running journal.  One I do not have to find to update.  But every so often, it seems life just takes over so much of my real time I have very little cyber-space time to do much of anything!  I have not been looking at blogs, not been updating mine, and who the heck knows what is going on in Facebook-World?  I sure do not these days!

I am happy if I can reply to those few urgent emails that come in, and otherwise, we are living.  Planting, building, tiling, cleaning, teaching, cooking (lots of this), reading, praying, and lots more living. 

But here I am  - a few moments.  I still need to run and sand my bathroom walls – I am DREADING this – but it needs to be done to move further on my bathroom.  Instead, here I am.

Yesterday was fun – I made another, much more successful, batch of tamales – really 2 batches.  I made almost 3 dozen pork and then almost 4 dozen Green Corn (our favorite).  I am looking forward to sharing them with some homeschool friends on Thursday night!

“herding cats”

“herding cats” ~ a phrase that before kids I had never heard.  In fact, after the first, no one mentioned it to me.  Honestly, I think it may have been after my 3rd came along, that I heard this phrase and it made sense.  I may have beard it before, but never really understood.

Now, it defines my life many days.

Shoveling during a snow storm has the same meaning.

Sweeping the floor under the table you eat at – I wish that I could just wait until we were done eating there.  Not for just one meal, but in general.  I mean really, if I clean it, more food is going to fall there – do I really need to clean it? 

It feels like no matter what area I am trying to get control of, every other area spins out of control.

I am still trying to manage the clutter in my “clutter-free” kitchen – yes, there is still some clutter that appears (habits die hard) – but making this my priority helps to keep me focus in that area.  A clean kitchen really makes me smile these days.  Cannot say too much about the rest of my house.  The rest feels like I am in a blizzard, but still shoveling.

Busy mid-week Weekend

That is how it seems here.  We are ending our 3-day weekend.  Robert worked Monday and Tuesday then had the last 3 days off.  We love this crazy schedule (most of the time). 

But, whew!  I think he is ready to go to work and get a rest, and I think I am ready for him to go to work to get a break too!

He cut down the top of our pear tree one day:

Then, he hung the rest of the drywall in preparation of putting up tile:

Then, we spent some time putting down mulch in our flower beds, did not get to all of them, but wow!  What a difference!!

 

We made sure to take some breaks.  We sat out by the chickens, let them run around, brought some popsicles and our current favorite read-aloud!

 

While we sat and read, we had a visitor come over several times – and finally she wanted to get friendly!  We love sweet Freedom – our only buff who has a name!

We all spent some time in the garden.  We planted a row of potatoes.  We also planted seeds for Kale, Mustard, Radishes, and Carrots.  The kids are helping so much to clean out the rows and take trips to the compost pile with roots and stuff, but I am not sure how much more work they want to put into the garden!  I cannot blame them, I am glad we are almost done getting stuff in – I am ready for a break too!

Today, Robert put in Berry Lane – 5 blue berry bushes,  3 blackberry bushes. 

Today we put up tile, finally!!  I love it – cannot wait for this bathroom to get done!!  I loved tiling it too!!  SO much easier than I thought!

 

Not sure when I will get to finish it – the next parts require some cutting and Robert will not be here to do that, so maybe Monday.

Finally, this afternoon I dug up about 200 Day Lilies – in order to rid a flower bed being taken over by brambles.  So tomorrow, I need to find them new homes – and then we need to clean out this bed!  It is a mess!!

{brambles to be cleared soon}

{a few of our lilies – need a new home too!}

{here are a few transplanted – I hope they do well!}

Lots of stuff done!  Lots still to do – but we are definitely almost done with our spring garden!  Cannot wait to see what the harvest looks like!!

 

Oh yeah, we did add 2 more turkeys to the mix too!  No pics yet, but they are cuties and seem to be integrating well with the 2 we already had.  I think we are about to stop add animals too!  But, it sure is fun!!

Now, it is off to the real weekend – and I think we are going to relax!! 

Spring has Sprung!

Or so it seems here in my little corner of Texas.  The sun has been shining for more than a week.  The flowers are blooming, others coming up promising blooms soon.

 

But, there is always a but!  But, the calendar tells me it is not spring yet, in fact only March 1st.  We all know in Texas it can nearly snow on Easter – many a year we have foregone our cute Easter clothes in place of warm winter ones for that Sunday service. 

So, what to do?  Do we press on?  Or do we hold back?

(the conundrum of life if you will, wouldn’t you say?)