Tap, Tap, Tap

Is this thing on?

I apologize for being remiss in my blogging. To say things have been busy--well, that's an understatement. Last weekend I went to North Carolina for a few days and learned spinning on a hand spindle and on a machine. I took some pictures, but they didn't turn out very well. I had a great time with my Aunt and I hope to do it again some day with her. I also want to go again with Chris someday. In the meantime, I can recommend the Campbell Folk School without reservation. Not only will you learn some fun skills, but you'll eat fabulous meals and not have to do the dishes when you're done.

I arrived home again between 3 and 4ish on Monday afternoon. I picked up the dog from the kennel and the kids from the family from church who was watching them. We came home and had dinner and just enjoyed being around each other. Tuesday was a whirl with Max's piano lesson, cleaning up the house for grandma, running errands, and picking up grandma from the airport. Wednesday morning I started a batch of pizza sauce that I worked on, on and off, for the rest of the day between looking at houses with Gaye and going to the inspection on the house that Chris and I had found for her. She had an out in the inspection--could decline to purchase the house at that point--but we didn't need it. The house is both the nicest in its price range and one of the best priced (from the buyer's point of view). By the end of the inspection Gaye knew it was the one she wanted and so we went to meet the mortgage broker.

By this time, we were already running out of hours in the day, so Gaye offered to take us out to dinner. She didn't have to ask twice. We all went to Perkins, and after that, took the twins to their piano lessons. After that we all went home and the kids played until bedtime and I brought the pizza sauce up to a boil and then canned it in the pressure canner just to be safe.

Thursday I got some workwork done and then we ran more errands, hitting the post office, Wegman's, and the storage place. Gaye ran over to the bank and opened an account and then we took Max to Penn State for the last of his experiments. While he was there we hit Office Depot for more paper, Barnes and Noble for the book Max is supposed to read for the summer reading program, and Giant grocery store. After picking up Max we went home and I tried to get more workwork done.

Friday was more quiet, with Gaye working the phones to get three quotes on insurance and me trying to get workwork done--Saturday was much the same. Although I did get over to the garden for about 3 hours in the evening on Friday. Mostly I concluded that I'd best cut my losses and get out of the community gardening business. That three hours barely put a dent in the weeds. I've never worked on a square of land that was so infested with crab grass. My other gardens have never had this kind of a battle going. I can't keep up with the weeds and it doesn't do me any good having one more thing to stress about.

On Saturday I took Gaye over there long enough to harvest all of the onions and some of the peppers, melons, and tomatoes. Next weekend I'll pull up the remaining plants and then resign my plot. If that's even necessary--I'm rather expecting to get my second nasty-gram from them about the weeds and it's possible that at that point they'll say I've lost my plot anyway. Maybe I would be fighting things harder if the tomatoes weren't so sick. (And if I couldn't get the tomatoes and other veggies so easily in bushels locally.) Anyway, you can't win every battle.

Today was church in the morning. I must admit that one of the most touching talks I have ever heard was given in church today and instead of just having a bad case of leaky eyes, I flat-out cried. I need to get some hankerchiefs and just keep them in my scripture bag. (That said, I can't find my scripture bag since last weekend.) At least until things have settled down a bit.

When we came home, we had lunch and then I had a terrific nap that left me feeling a bit disoriented, but better about things.

Well, we're expecting Chris in about 45 minutes, so I'm going to go get a quiche started and then do a bit of knitting. Gaye is counting down the days till her house closes and she can move in. We're enjoying having her around (she remembers everything I forget, it's really very helpful) and will miss her when she's got her own digs, but she's only about a mile and a quarter from our house and I'm thrilled that the boys will grow up able to bike over to one of their grandmothers' houses. Gaye says, "Yep. It's going to be pretty good."