Busy Days!

Wow - it's been a while since I last wrote. Nothing major has happened, but the day-to-day stuff has been a lot of fun. We didn't do anything over the Memorial Day weekend except stay home and relax. Well, I relaxed a little too much. I stayed up late at night and then slept in late in the mornings instead of working like I should have, so I found myself behind on Monday night. I stayed up until 1 in the morning and then got back up at 4 to finish. I won't let that happen again!

On Monday Andy planted a garden. We had decided that we weren't going to plant anything this year because we didn't want to dig up the yard before selling the house, but since we weren't ready to list it yet anyway and I was just itching to plant something, Jerry finally said we could. Andy and I had to dig the spot by hand with hoes and rakes. We have a rototiller but we can't use it on the side of the house because there are phone and cable wires buried not too deeply there. It was the same spot I had used last year for my garden, so the soil wasn't too hard to dig. I must not be used to physical labor - I have three blisters on my hand from hoeing! I guess that means I definitely need to be outside doing more.

Today I went to the movies with Andy's class (and all of the fifth graders from school). It was really nice. The theater opened just for us and each child got their choice of popcorn or candy, and a drink. We saw Madagascar. It is a very funny movie, and we enjoyed it a lot. There were about 125 fifth graders and they were all very well behaved and glued to the movie screen for the most part. Tomorrow we will be going on the field trip that was rescheduled from last week when it rained (the trip Andy thought he was missing because he was sick!) Andy's teacher asked me today if I could go with them because one of the other parents couldn't make it. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, though, so we'll see if we actually get to go. On Friday it is the school's field day with games and picnics all day. This is going to be a very busy week.

I have been enjoying the strawberries. I am able to pick a handful each morning, and a couple of days I have gone back out in the evening and picked a few more. I have frozen some, but mostly I eat what I pick! We have to pick them just a little early, otherwise if we wait until they are perfectly ripe, the birds will have beat us to them. We gathered plums today. They are like the strawberries - I need to get to them before the birds and squirrels. We gathered several from the ground and then Jerry climbed up in the tree and shook the branches. We had to run for cover! Getting beaned on the head with a plum hurts! We had let our handicapped cat outside with us but when it started raining plums, he ran faster than I have ever seen a 2.5-legged cat run! I hope to make a deep-dish plum pie. I made one the year before last that was delicious. Last year for some reason we didn't get any plums at all. It was strange. This year we are inundated with them.

I'm glad I planted my mint plants on the bank of the ravine in the back yard. This year new plants came up all over the place! They are truly taking over the bank. I knew mint would spread, but wow!

Well, I guess I should be getting to work now. I have a busy week ahead and definitely do not want to do what I did last week! I thought of a bible verse as I was typing at 4 in the morning because I had slept shamefully late the previous three days -

How long is the lazy man going to lie around? When is he ever going to get up? "I'll just take a short nap," he says, "I'll fold my hands and rest a while." But while he sleeps, poverty will attack him like an armed robber. - Proverbs 6:9-11