Well, then...

It has been a whirl-wind of activity here in the last month and half. SO in an attempt to get all caught up I am going bullet point style....here goes....warning this will be very random...

• Hallelujah!!! Mister passed his nursing license exam and is now a full fledged Registered Nurse.
• We are still in search of Nursing Job. Hopefully good news soon!
  
• With serious amount of prayers, bait and mouse traps, I have managed to eradicate mice from the premises. They are NOT my friends.
• I have officially become the quickest draw in the West...well my part of town, with the insecticide when it comes to in home invasions of ants. This one really chaps my hide...I vacuum and mop everyday, leave no trace of food after each meal, and all my wanted goods are in plastic sealed containers. Grrrrr...stinking ants.
• I am the proud renter of a massive garden that currently is masquerading as the world's most wanted weed patch. I plan on having a garden throw down as soon as I get back...
• from my sisters house!!! I get to go play with my sister in Washington and kiss her new baby boy and my nieces whom I haven't seen in almost four years!
  
• I have lost enough weight to walk into a regular store and by pass all signs that say "Plus-size".
• I am planning on running a 5K in nine weeks. I am a gluten for punishment I have decided. Nix that. I am embarking on new and exciting adventures that will challenge me and reward me beyond measure in my newer body.
  
• My neighbors find my jogging around my acre yard quite comical.
• I have seeds! And fertilizer that I have no idea how to use, but it will be going down in the ground soon.
• I have decided that I am going to pursue becoming a childrens book illustrator and author.
• It has snowed/pelted mini snowballs more this 'spring' than during the winter and I feel like turning on the Christmas music again. Is this a redo, do over, or second helpings of winter?...hello spring are you there?
• Realized once again, how exhausting it is to pack for four small people and then still find time to care about getting my things packed.
• I love how my house smells after making Apple Pie Granola, Triple Chip Oatmeal Cookies, and a fresh rain shower.
  
• now I must get to bed to wake up at O'dark thirty to drive for a whole day! Ta-ta and I will update while with my Sister!
  
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Growing Where Planted

I have a very wise friend that shared some exceptional advice with me about fifteen years ago. After another move (for there had been many moves during my childhood), I wrote this friend in deep distress after finding out I had moved to hell. She lovingly sympathized and encouraged me and said that if I was going to be happy I needed to learn to grow where I was planted. I have thought about that letter often in my turbulent life and did not fully ingrain that lesson till now. Slow learning curve, I know.

My life, I think, will always be a series of shifts and instability. But the one thing I do know that will be ever present, ever following, will be my attitude to look forward to the good things offered and fill my life with sunshine bursts and giggles galore, especially on those dark and stormy days.

Once again the kids and I have moved, this time to a quaint town brimming with farm life, some of the friendliest people alive, and a "yard" that I will lovingly refer to as my mini-farm. The thing is huge, full of gardening and maybe chicken potential. Think riding lawn mower. If my oldest had her pick, it would also harbor a chance for a horse.

I feel like Laura Ingalls defending her house against mice (which will be another horrifying post in it's self), raising and schooling four children, and keeping my sanity with little to no phone signal, intermitent internet usage, and no scheduled programming of the television kind. The simple life has hit me full in the face and I relish in the challange of growing where planted.