I'm Still Here

OK, so Saturday was not a good day. I am over it. I have been slightly overwhelmed this past week with keeping up with blogging and working and life outside. I am trying to find that all-important "balance," as well as taking back at least one of the computers in the house and reclaiming it again as my own. I am looking forward to a night or two this week, in which I can hog the laptop and finally get though all 200 unread posts in my reader. I have been reading quite a few blogs, here and there, but I haven't had enough time to comment.

I need to make peace with the fact that I have a busy personality. And when I am not busy, I create more things to do. Because, every sane person who has every minute planned for weeks at a time, decides that because of the cost of tomatoes, that this is the year to take up planting and growing her own tomatoes. All it takes is shoveling up a patch of, well entrenched, grass and working the soil for hours. And then researching organic tomato growing techniques and the best type of tomatoes for the area and then deciding, while at the nursery, to plant green peppers as well. This decision, of course, means that the planting area that took hours of shoveling to create, is now too small and more shoveling and hoeing is necessary. I do have to say, that it is fun watching those plants grow. Hopefully there will actually be a crop this year and our wave after wave of thunderstorms don't drown my hard work.

I did get all my laundry put away last night, before I went to bed. That was such a relief. I also sorted through and re-organized Jack Jack's toys, putting different toys in the living room and moving some to the basement and some to his room. It was like he had all new toys, everywhere he went.

I did drive Violet to camp yesterday and she was so excited to be there. I took Dash on the drive with me. And now, he is begging to go next summer. We are not sure that he would come home from camp with any of his belongings. But, maybe it would be a good lesson in responsibility for him. But, first he has this summer, and a week at day camp this week, to look forward to.

We did decided to forgo flying to California this year and we charted all the expenses involved in our yearly trek and decided that even with the cost of gas, driving would save us almost $1000 over flying. So, now we are planning our route and figuring out the best way to cart our three kids and all our stuff from Indiana to Los Angeles, and arrive without having to strap one of our kids to the roof. This is actually a relief to have this decision made. I was so tired of obsessing over the price of plane tickets. We have been checking every day for the last three months. It will be nice to be able to enjoy our time in California and not feel like having a heart attack every time one of our kids asks for some sort of souvenir. But, now we will be gone almost the entire month of July. It should be an adventure.

I will have to make sure my father-in-law checks on my tomatoes...Maybe, in my spare time I should set up a tomato cam so that I can check on the progress of my plants while I am across the country. Yes! Another project! I am off to research web cam installation...