Digging in the dirt...

I am looking forward to breakfast tomorrow morning. Not because the menu will be anything noteworthy or fantastic, but because today my kids and I helped prepare the soil in a square-foot garden. We rooted up weeds and grass. We turned the soil over. We added manure. We mixed it in. We leveled it out and then were able to say, "It is ready." We even found some signs of last year's crops (some tomato skins, zucchini vine, and other decaying vegetable matter). We also were able to observe the larvae of some Rhinoceros Beetles, and in case you are wondering, yes, they can pinch even as larvae, and Hannah will attest to it not feeling fantastic.

So, I am looking forward to breakfast in the morning. I am excited to draw from their experience at the farm today, that they might have a fresh appreciation of how much work it is to prepare the soil for a harvest of fruits and vegetables. I hope to discuss with the kids in a more tangible way the parable of the soils which we have been going through in church. I am looking forward to watching the Word of God come alive to the children. I am thankful for the dirt under my nails which will afford me the opportunity to discuss God's truth with my kids.

When the kids go to bed...

Sometimes my kids ask what I do after they go to sleep. Here is what I did tonight:

• Spent an hour on the phone finding good homes for 10 tickets we had to a symphony performance tomorrow
• Responded to emails received yesterday
• Watched my husband work out on the Wii
• Responded to emails received today
• Remembered I never started the washing machine after having Hannah load it
• Cleaned out the bunny cage
• Talked to the Fire-Bellied Toads, and decided their terrarium needed to be cleaned tomorrow. Badly.
• Unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, thus beginning to run the 3rd load of dishes for the day
• Hand-washed the coffee making equipment for both espresso and french press
• Packed all the non-refrigerator items for our picnic lunch tomorrow (oops, forgot plates!)
• Wrote my first blog in nearly six months, and changed the look of the blog just for fun
• Moved the laundry from the washer to the dryer
• Got my Bible and prayer journal together for my quiet time tomorrow morning 
• Went to bed

Double-dog dare you...

The past few weeks have been crazy. The San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo has been in town, and well, to our little family, that is slightly more highly anticipated than the arrival of presents at Christmas. Yep, no kidding. So, we have tromped through stalls, watched cow milking and chick hatching, watched demonstrations on training your horse to go where you want him to, explained that many of the things done in the Rodeo serve a real purpose, except maybe Bull Riding... couldn't really think of a reason for that, other than one cowboy encouraging another cowboy with a good old fashioned, "I double-dog dare you..."

Then, this week, as things settled down and I actually sat down to read the few blogs I keep up with. I checked one that hadn't been updated for a while. I was SHOCKED when I had to click on the "older posts" tab. This friend of mine has done an amazing job of being on top of things in blogging-land in 2011. I was so pleased that she so sweetly shared her life on-line that I even went so far as to thank her for it on her Facebook wall. Well, in return, she posted on my Facebook wall. She said it more sweetly and quite politely, but it was something like "double-dog dare you", and she even said she would read it "IF" I got to posting.

So, that begs the question... what to post... I haven't posted much anything in the last few months. And it is not because I hadn't thought of it. It seems I keep thinking life will "slow down" or "return to normal" and then I will have time to blog. I am realizing more and more, that I need to become ok with the "new normal". So, maybe I will set aside my desire for my blogs to be perfectly formatted and well thought out. Maybe I will not worry so much about grammatical mistakes (such that I feel compelled to read and re-read my posts, making posting take 3 or 4 times longer than it ought to), and just hope that someone out there will point them out to me and I will remember to go correct them. And maybe, just maybe, I will post some crazy amount, like once a week.

We shall see. Double-dog dare... accepted.