Later Better Than Never

I do love to blog. But. Sometimes I feel like I'm running in circles, trying my best to keep up with the whirlwind going on, I know you know what I'm talking about. How often do I see a blog titled, "where has time gone?" or some such theme. You know when some of your favorite blogs haven't had a post in awhile, that they don't even need to explain. It's life.
AND it's spring. If there is a chance I can be outside, that's where I'll be. With kids, it keeps the house clean, right? You get them done with what they have to do, then you say, "Outside!" That's what I love about life in the country. With the exception that there aren't a bunch of neighborhood kids to play with, well, ok, we do have a house down the street with 13 kids, some still young, and my kids' friends. But, I think it is good for a kid to go out, build a fort, or a rocket, or wade in that big old puddle that happens from the run-off over in the field every year. Same things I used to do. We would have a minor flood in our pasture, just a foot or two deep. We'd build a raft, get some sticks for poles, and take a ride about 20 feet to the other side. All that work for such a short ride, but oh what fun! Occasionally we would slip off, and our boots would fill up with water. How exciting! I also remember distinctly (OK, this was mean) taking sticks and poking at water snakes to make them hiss. We pretended they were poisonous, and hopefully they really weren't!
Anyway, that's what spring is for, for a kid. For me, I still like dirt. I like to get dirty. I love to play in my playhouse greenhouse. I love going out there to see what has come up or how much something has grown. I'm not hugely knowledgeable on greenhouse growing, but the point is I'm learning, and I'm having fun. And hopefully, I'm sharing the harvest if there is one. Actually, my daughter bought most of the seed this year. Mostly because she bought so much, it was like, well, a waste for me to buy the exact same things. How many zuchinni plants does a person need? So, the deal was, I'll grown them. We planted a LOT of seeds last weekend. Her chamomile came up very quickly. My cucumbers have GOT to be transplanted to bigger pots today. I've got a lot of flowers in there, and my tomatoes are doing pretty well, if I only knew what kind they were. A friend gave me some heirloom tomatoe seed, when I asked her what kind, she said they were a mix. So, later I will have to identify them. I know some were a chocolate tomatoe? I love chocolate, but I'm hoping I have more than just chocolate black tomatoes in my crop of 50 plants. Somehow, I like red tomatoes.
My daughter is almost 15. We homeschool. You'd think we just stay home ALL the time. Well, at 15, that's just no so. She is very active in the youth group. I've not always been real excited about youth groups, but this is a nice bunch of kids, they definitely aren't doing the boyfriend/girlfriend thing; they are like a big family. I like that. But I do my share of running her back and forth to a LOT of activities. So, lately, that has been taking up a lot of time for me. After Easter, we told her it has to slow down. They had their program last night. Today I'm making about 16 loaves of cardamom bread for our church and my mom's, then celebrating Christ's Resurrection tomorrow. The more this old world turns, the more thankful I am for God's promises to us, for His work done on the cross for us, and His power over death and hell. I get depressed if I read the news. People are making choices that, in our free country, we have lost our voice. They don't care what the people want. I don't want to bury my head in the sand and ignore the state of our country, but it does me no good to become fearful of choices our government is making. I just keep reminding myself, that the truth will prevail. EVERY knee will one day bow to the Lord, though it may come as a surprise to some. So, I can and need to live my life in a position of trust.
I've also been taking some cake decorating classes. This has been a LOT of fun! If you ever have a chance to take a class, give it a try. I met some more new friends, learned lots of fun stuff. That's my cake for this week, by the way. The one thing I don't like, is the decorator icing we are supposed to use in class. My teacher let me use another icing, and with some work, I think I could get the hang of it. It has a much better flavor. I like a pretty cake, but it's maybe even more important to me that it tastes good. I really don't like a lot of cakes you have at birthdays and weddings. So, my goal is to learn to make a beautiful cake that tastes even better than it looks. I'm trying now to decide if I am going to take the next class, because it may be cutting into some sunshine. Winter weather was great for class, but when the sun comes out, it's extremely hard for me to go, thinking, "The weatherman said one day of sunshine, and here I am sitting in a classroom!" I try to console myself with the thought that some people have to go to jobs every day, they don't have a choice. So you see my dilemma! But it's only one day a week for 4 weeks, and then it will be May and gardens will really be going. Hmmm, I've got a few days to procrastinate decide.
I've had a lot of fun selling on Etsy this winter. I did a lot better with sales that I imagined I would. The last couple weeks were slower, but that's fine, it's really more of a fun/hobby/garage-sale enabling thing for me anyway, and I haven't found any dream sales yet this year. BUT that season is also starting. Better get that yard work done so I can spend a few hours a week doing that favorite hobby!
My daughter and I are planning a sale soon. I'll let you know when I have the details. I know we want to do it along the Hwy 30, which is a major beach route for city dwellers, so it would catch that traffic. We were planning it near Mother's Day, but there are some other awesome sales going on then, and we don't want to miss them, either. Our town has a big car show and lots of things going on near the 4th of July. In fact, for such a small town, you'd be surprised at how many people come to our parade and fireworks display. If you think country fair, I think you'd get and idea of the feeling of it. Not that we have stables and farm animals, but it's our town's favorite time of year to have a reunion. People we've grown up with, who've left for the cities or other places, even come back. Everywhere you go you see people you haven't seen in years. That's our 4th of July. We're thinking the weekend of the car show, though, b/c people are more all over our small town, instead of congregating in just the park like sardines. Anyway, I'll let you know more when we get it figured out. In the meantime, be sure to make it to The Vintage Gathering, in Battleground, WA. Their sale is the Saturday before Mother's Day, and you will just love it! They have some of the nicest vendors and tons of great finds with great prices!