Little House in the Suburbs

Ever since we've moved into this house and have grown a garden, I've developed a new found sense of awe at how incredibly difficult life used to be. Re-reading the Little House on the Prairie series with the boys this year brings home that fact.

By all regards, we have a successful garden and grow many fruits and vegetables. Could we really live though, on what we grow? I seriously doubt it. In fact, I think that could be my new diet plan.

This quart jar lasted one meal, and that's not even all that we ate!

The grit of the pioneers is absolutely mind boggling to me. The hardships, the hunger, the ingenuity and know how they had is quite remarkable. The thought of living almost entirely off the land is daunting. There's a lot of work involved in growing produce and you have to find ways to keep birds, bugs and other critters away, as well as use and store the food in the best way. Even though that is light years easier now than it was in the Little House days, I'm still fairly certain that living off the land would be quite difficult. Of course, we don't have to do that in this day and age, but it's still something I think about every time I work in the garden or prepare to make jelly from a bowl of grapes that are too sour to eat - and only get one jar!

Gigantic bowl of produce, at least half grapes.

Lone pint jar of delicious sour grape jelly.

I've always been of the mind, however, that every little bit counts. Maybe we can't feed our family entirely from our garden and fruit trees/vines, but we can feed them a little bit, and that's better than nothing.

Rinse & Repeat

So, I'm back on the weight loss train. I hate to even really post about it, because I've been down this road so many times. Same song, different verse, yadda yadda.
I did lose two pounds already though, so it's a start. I feel like I'm at a better place right now then I have been in awhile, and I'm going to be successful this time.
Stay tuned.

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I did end up taking the kids to get their pictures last week and they turned out so cute! I don't have the CD yet, but I assure you I will bombard you with their photos when I do.
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The amount of driving this week is insane. As of Thursday afternoon, after camp drop offs and pick ups, I had put 318 miles on my car since Monday morning. I'm not used to so much running around.
d is in an awesome camp (Camp Invention) where they bring in old, broken stuff and make it into new inventions. I can't wait to see what they make! O is in a camp called Summer Show Offs, which is singing and dancing. (Think Glee.) He has a show tomorrow that I'm excited to go see. It's so cool that they get to have all these opportunities to try things and see what they like!

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Piper is due to get spayed next week and the kids are sad. I explained that she wouldn't be able to have puppies and I think all they heard was "PUPPIES!" and were really let down when I said there would be NO PUPPIES.
She's grown so much! (She'll be 6 months on the 3rd) She weighs less than Penny (who needs to lose a few pounds) but is about the same height. Her coat is very low, almost NO, shedding and it is Heaven. I vacuumed up enough of Penny's hair yesterday alone to form a couple puppies. Penny is teaching her the ropes, and hopefully all of Penny's good habits will rub off on Piper who still manages to cause lots of trouble.

Penny, "No pictures please."

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Looks like this is post number 1200. I guess I should have thought of something earth shattering to write, but my life is mostly of the "go, go, go, collapse in an exhausted heap" variety lately. This week is one of those where I feel like mothering and being a wife is all about everyone else, and it's a thankless, tiring, never-ending, unappreciated position. I wonder if they have summer camp for moms? I'd love someone to drop me off at 9 and not come back until 3:30 after I'd had fun with my peers all day! We should invent Mom's Summer Camp.

Fuuuuuuunnnnk & a narrative of Miss L

I'm in a funk today. I got the kids ready to go to a little program at their preschool called Bible Fun Time, it's every Tuesday for like 2 months, and all the kids can go. This means I have an hour and a half of NO CHILDREN. I get very, very few daytime no-children moments. I look forward to it, is what I'm saying.

Well. The car wouldn't unlock so I thought the battery in the remote was dead. Turns out that, no, it's not. The car itself is dead. The check engine light came on last week and D thought we should "wait and see" how it was (it was driving fine) and take it in later. Ha. Haha.
To say that was a disappointment is an understatement, but the worst part is that it's now over 6 hours later and Miss L is still asking when we're going and cried when I finally - after telling her at least 30 times - yelled, "THE CAR IS BROKEN! WE CAN'T GO ANYWHERE!" What a fine parenting moment, let me tell you.
(Did I mention Miss L follows me around the house talking incessantly? SHE DOES. ALL day.)
Also we have pictures tomorrow that I've been putting off for months and Thursday is the last possible day to get the deal so I'm going to be pretty upset if that doesn't happen.

To top that off, I incurred a fee at the bank for a small but crucial error on my part in moving money to pay some bills online. I never, ever pay penalty fees at the bank! I'm planning to call, and see what can be done, but STILL. Worse, it was a teeny tiny credit card bill on a card we hardly use and now I'm going to get a fee on THAT TOO. Gah!
(Could I be making these mistakes because Miss L is jabbering incessantly in my ear? Constantly!)

Also, the garbage disposal is broken. The sink is all backed up and gross. I baked a dessert to cheer us all up and it didn't make me feel better at all. (Imagine that!)

Seriously, I can't even write. I'm having trouble even completing a sentence because Miss L is right next to me, singing and chattering. (What's the bad guys' name on Phinneas and Ferb? Why is he Dr. Doobersmitz? Where is that breakable cat you never let me play with? Why can't I!? Can I have candy? But it makes me feeeeeeel beeeettttter! I want to have this bell. --now she's ringing the bell in my ear and singing a song-- Mama, the waterslide's out! It's getting blown up. (it's not, it's raining) What if Piper gets on it? Remember that thing that was pink, and has a lid? I'm going to show you. --she brought me a candle-- There's also a blue one. A yellow one. A paper one. It has a moon on it. I'm going to show you more. The pink one should be in the purple one. I'm talking to myself. I said the pink one should be in the purple one. What's this? Why is it in here? Fine, I'll put it in the fridge. But, why can't it go in the fridge?! Where does it go? You said so? I didn't pick it up! I won't put it in my mouth! You still love me! --I asked her what she did-- Nothing! -and she ran out of the room.) That's approximately 3 minutes of Miss L. Now your eyes are as glazed over as mine. You're welcome.

What's not to love?

Every time D proposes camping, I have mixed feelings. I used to love camping before we had kids. We would go to the Blue Ridge Mountains and it was so peaceful. Now it's more like packing a huge car load of stuff for one night where we hardly sleep and everyone is dirty and the hikes consist of a lot of whining that "It's too far!" and "It's too hot!" and "Carry me!" and then we  pack the huge car load of stuff up and go home just to unpack it again and wash everything. Sounds fun right?

Well, D wanted to go camping this weekend. The spring was either too cold or too wet or we were too busy so we haven't gone camping yet this year. So, Saturday morning we loaded up the car with the cooler, sleeping bags, tents, clothes, swim stuff, and other miscellaneous camping stuff. We drove an hour to the lake and we set up camp. This state park is beautiful but it was hit by tornadoes since the last time we were there so the trees in most of the tent-camping areas were gone. It was also a very busy weekend so we were VERY close to tents on both sides of us. It was like a hotel with a lot less privacy and soundproofing and no a/c. (Try shimmying into a one piece swimsuit while laying down on an air mattress in a HOT tent while you're all sweaty from setting up said tent. It was not a pretty sight and it was that moment I swore to never camp in June (or July or August) again.)
Did I mention it was hot? When you have enough hair on your head for at least 3 people, the heat is not your friend. The kids and I were all red faced and soaking wet and D was cool and collected. Must come from growing up in Texas...

Anyway, we did see a cool Birds of Prey show that C & L cried most of the way through because we had to sit in the blazing sun at 1PM. I still managed to get pictures of course.

We also went swimming in the lake. It was a lot cooler than anything else we did, although I have to admit the peacefulness wasn't there as O kept flying out of the water screaming, "SEAWEED!"
The water wasn't so clean. Pretty though, from a distance.

We went fishing, which was comical at times and I caught the biggest fish! Go me! D is holding it because... no. We were doing catch and release, but I bet it would have tasted good.

We also went on a short hike and saw lots and lots of deer. 

I think my favorite part was when we went to McDonald's and got frozen lemonades. At $15, it was also the most expensive part of our weekend which I find pretty amusing. I earned enough drink stickers to get a free coffee on the way home the next morning. (L woke up us, and probably everyone within earshot, at 5:12 AM by yelling, "LOOK! The sun is UP!" ) So, there ya go. We spent less than $30 and the kids had a ball. Since D and the kids like it so much maybe I'll just let them go without me next time. (Especially if it's over 75 degrees.)