One good reason why kids shouldn't be movers….

While packing they end up finding a game they haven't played in forever and stop to play it...right then and there.

I'm pretty sure I should have gone with the professionals.  Moving boxes tomorrow and furniture in a just a few days.

We are going home, people.

Let's talk about something else….

How about tomatoes.

I am overrun with tomatoes at this moment.  Anybody else have this issue?  Looking back at the amount of plants that went into the ground, I might have gone a wee bit overboard.  And now, I'm paying the piper.

Just about everyday I am picking about two 5 gallon buckets full of tomatoes.  I'm canning as fast as I can, but I'm not keeping up as I should be.  If it weren't for the fact that my kids didn't get the memo that we are moving this weekend and next…which translates to the fact that I've got to still pick them up from practices, camps and oh, apparently they need to be fed….I might get a bit more done.

But….I…..am….not.  Ugh.

I picked a beautiful new tomato this year to grow called "Gold Medal".  It is a whopper of a tomato.  They are bigger than my hand.  We're talking huge.  They are beautiful yellow with streaks of red and taste a little sweeter than normal.  My husband isn't quite sure what he thinks about them.  They are harder to pick (because of being yellow) and he says he doesn't quite know when they are ripe.

We also grew an Italian heirloom tomato that it's taste is to die for.  It cans up real nicely and come this winter we will love all the sauces and soups it will make.  Some other tomatoes we grew were Martino's roma, cherry roma and I believe I threw in some Brandywine ones as well.

For now, being knee-deep in tomatoes is crazy.  I haven't had to water them once since we've had a wonderful supply of rain.  And they are prolific.  I'm just not sure how many more meals I can create with tomatoes.  My husband says it's time to start giving some away.  But all the contractors on the farm are on to me and run away when I come toting the 5 gallon buckets.

That's fine.  Come winter everybody will be singing a different tune.  They'll be wishin' they had that tomato.  That beautiful tasty big ol' honkin' tomato.

Having perspective….it's just stuff

Well….been trying to have a little bit of perspective.  And remember that stuff is well, just stuff.  Not what's really important.

True conversation.

Us:  Yes, Detective so and so, when do we get the rest of our stuff back?

Detective:  Well, there was a problem.  When the officer pulled the man who robbed you over he only took a few things off his trailer, took a picture of the stuff in the trailer and of the man and then let him go?

Us:  (Dumbfounded)  Let him go?  With our stuff?

Detective:  Yes.  We apologize.  He should have confiscated everything on the truck but instead they only took what looked like a construction robbery.  Not all your items.

Us:  (Still dumbfounded)  So when you asked us to describe our items you were just looking at the photo that was taken?  You didn't even have all our stuff in your possession?

Detective:  Correct.  But we do have in our possession your 3 saws.

Us:  (Utterly dumbfounded)


Stuff.  It's just stuff.

We met this man the night we were robbed.  He approached us on the farm.  Long story short, he asked us some weird questions and then went on his merry way.

Big picture.

Things could have gone really bad.  He is a very bad individual and God protected us that night.  The odds that an officer would have pulled over that same man that same night we were robbed are incredibly tiny.  But it happened.  Because of that, we were able to identify him and now hopefully (if they can catch him again) put him away for a long time.

Frustrating?  You bet it is….

But it's just stuff.  What's really important sits around my dinner table every night.  Argues about the last two scooters.  And looks like angels sleeping in their beds at night.

I am thankful.  For protection.  My family.

I don't need all the stuff.

The scooter….

These past 72 hours have beaten me down.  Emotionally and physically.  They have been awful.

I am not a cryer but I have lost it a few times with everything that has been going on.  I told my husband, I have reached the limit on what I can take.

Done.

But let me tell you a little story as to what has happened.

We have a scooter.  Nothing fancy.  Just a silver and black scooter.  But it has been the issue of more arguments than you can imagine.  No one likes to ride it.  It has a flat part on one wheel and when you ride it quickly it goes like this……thump, thump, thump, thump, thump (but a thousand times faster).  We have three scooters in all but the "loser" of any argument has to end up riding the bumpy scooter, because of course we don't have enough to go around.

On Saturday the kids were riding this scooter at the farm.  Quite comically to hear the vibrating voices racing down the new driveway, if you ask me.  Anyway.  Because the kids didn't want to take the "bad scooter" back to the rental we left it in the storage garage.

On Saturday night it was one of many, many, many things stolen from us.  That scooter.  That 3 dollar garage sale scooter.  Gone.  No one blinked an eye about it.  The kids could really have cared less.

On Sunday night a man was pulled over with a trailer full of items.  That scooter.  That gosh awful scooter stood out amongst the tools and other items and made the police take notice.  For some reason, that scooter screamed out to them.  Take me back to my family!!!!!

And so, because of one item looking out of place (and given the fact that we reported what this man looked like and all the other stuff he took) we have been told that they believe they have the right man and that this is our stuff.  How much of it is there?  We don't know.

But when they saw the scooter they knew it was ours.  Well of course they did.  I guess it will be with us forever and ever amen.

Mamma bear….

Today we drove out to the farm to see one of our garages open and our brand spankin' new tools stolen.  It was NOT a banner day for us.

There is nothing like that feeling.  That sick to your gut feeling you know someone sneaky and knifing, someone cowardly….someone who is not in their right mind has rifled through your stuff.

It unnerves you something fierce.

But that does not last for long.  And then you just get down right M. A. D.  I mean scream out loud at the sky kind of mad.  It's just not right, people.  Not right.

And then, you get smart.

To the man who decided to be a coward and take what was not his to begin with…watch out.  I know what you look like.  I can pick you out of a crowd.  I will, and I repeat will, protect my family.

You have unleashed this mamma bear.

23 years and counting...

Spent the day with my favorite date in the whole wide world today.  Actually he's been my only date for longer than these past 23 years.

We were putting on our front porch deck all day today in the scorching heat.  Sweaty and hot, he still makes me laugh and catches me when I fall.  Okay, that's not technically correct.  I fell through the deck boards in front of him and he just looked at me and about laughed.

I. Did. Not. Laugh.

Ahem.  Any-hoo.  I am crazy about this man.  Ya wanna know why?  Because at the end of the day I remember why I married him 23 years ago today.  Why I agreed to say yes for ever and ever amen.  Why I got so lucky to have my best friend and greatest cheerleader….even though he knows I am highly accident-prone and a bonehead and failing as a farmer right now.  He loves me.  For me.

And that's why 23 years seems like a blink of an eye.  I can't wait to see what else is in store for us.  Bandaids and all.

I love ya, babe.

So very, very true….