Same Old Stuff

Today has been a "stinky mood " day for me. I'm not sure why. It probably has to do with the fact that Jerry and I spent most of the day out and about yesterday and it was so good just to get out. First we went to the farmer's market in St. Mary's County. It was raining off and on but that didn't matter. Jerry had to get some ceramic tips for his sandblaster at a tool place there. Watching and listening to the people was so interesting. What a myriad of people there were! There were Amish buggies and Amish people, yuppie-looking people (who I must admit I laughed at when I saw the prissy-acting women trying to navigate mud puddles and sodden dirt tracks in their high heels!), and the average joes just out for the day (like us!). Really, who wears high heels to a farmer's market?! And in the rain, no less!? Jerry got his ceramic tips and I got - drumroll please - a 50-pound bag of red potatoes! YES! Betcha can't guess what our vegetable du jour will be for the next, oh, six weeks or so! I paid $3.99 for a 5-pound bag at the grocery store the last time I bought them. This 50-pound bag was $15.00. Even a math midget like myself can do the math on that one and figure out it was a good deal. Well, provided you like potatoes!

Anyhoo, then we went to Sam's Club. We went last week to stock up again (it had been a month since we had been) but we went on a Friday night and they were out of lots of stuff, so we didn't get everything we needed. When we went yesterday we still didn't get the huge bag of mozzarella cheese because they were still out of that, so we won't be having pizza night until I get more. One thing I did get was - drumroll again please - a 50-pound bag of popcorn! Have you ever!? We did the math on that one too, and we couldn't beat it. For me it's a low calorie, fiber-laden snack when I have the munchies, and for the rest of the family it's a snack that they love and eat a lot of. Also, after having seen an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown made his own microwave popcorn in a brown bag, we were inspired. We actually tried it last night and it does work. Compared to the prices of the prepackaged stuff, at $12.00 for the 50-pound bag of Act II popcorn plus brown bags to pop it in, it still doesn't even come close. A plus in making your own in the bags is that you can flavor it however you want. I like chili powder on mine sometimes.

Then as we were driving home Jerry decided to just ride for a while. We took back roads around here that we hadn't been on in a long time. It was just Jerry and I; the boys didn't want to go. We gave them the option of going with us or staying home and cleaning the house for me and they actually chose the latter! Yeah, I was shocked too. As we were finally heading home, Andy called Jerry and asked where we were. We had no idea that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. We knew that the wind had really started blowing, but were unaware that there were storms in the area. Anyway we assured him we were not far away and would be home shortly. We never did get any storms here, just an awful lot of wind. I walked outside and watched the trees swaying and the clouds rushing by in the sky. It reminded me of when the hurricane was nearing a couple of years ago and we went outside to watch the sky and the trees. Yes, not the smartest thing to do in an approaching hurricane, but fascinating nonetheless! The best part was that when we got home the house actually was clean. The boys had done a good job.

Okay, so now getting to my stinky mood. I guess it was just so nice being out and seeing things yesterday that somehow today just felt like more of the same. Let me state right here that I love my family and my home and my life, but sometimes I just feel restless; like I just want to go - somewhere - anywhere! As I was doing my weekly bread baking, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, for some reason reality just seemed to smack me hard today. Maybe I'm just tired. Or maybe I just want land and freedom and no neighbors and grass and mountains and....and....and....... This must be how Laura felt in one of the books in the Little House on the Prairie series of books. I love reading through that set. In one of the books she just gets fed up with the sameness of every day, and she just startles everybody by slamming her schoolbook closed and announcing that she wants to go west again.

Okay, I'm over my tantrum now. Writing is truly therapeutic. Now I believe I'll get a good night's sleep so I can start tomorrow's routine with a good outlook.

But I still want to go west.