back home to the mountains...of laundry!

....back from our nice little get-away to reality......our kids are back from their camping trip with: laundry to do. I washed two loads of towels last night, they put some of their clothes in, but this morning there are piles of bedding...and one child wet the bed, so. The good thing is, it is raining. So I don't have to hang everything out. If it was nice out, I would feel too guilty to use the dryer, and of course it is more work to hang everything out. I sometimes drape things over the kitchen chairs on rainy days, because the washer works faster than the dryer, and just to keep up...I will hang a comforter over the chairs when it is mostly dry...makes it look especially nice in here, but hey, it works.

Like my father used to tell my mother, "If I wanted to live in a furniture showroom, I would move in down to Goldbergs." I always wondered if they would really let him live there.

Anyway. I went on a walk last evening with Miss Rosie...partly because I got on the scale when I got home, rrr, and partly because I missed the little brat. Across the road Rosie stopped to sniff around, and there in the tall grass was a little bird! Just hiding! As I tried to take a picture with my phone, Miss Swanson Kitty came sauntering over to see what was going on. She saw the bird, and WHOOSH! A huge fluttering and that bird scampered across the road while all the big mama robins screeched and swooped at Miss Swanson Kitty. Kitty was hot on little birdie's trail, so I started throwing stones in the other direction to distract her so the birdie could get away. I think it worked. Rosie was pulling with all her might by this time....

On down the road we went. Through the woods, and up the Evil Hill...and what was that? A baby white skunk! Pure white, except for it's face, which was adorable and black. This stupid baby skunk was not afraid of me, or of Rosie. It came right out into the road to look at us, and I was hurrying as fast as I could so we wouldn't get sprayed. We continued on down the road, turned around and headed back...and Baby Skunk was still playing in the tall grass on the side of the road! Dang! Rosie was totally psyched to see it, she really wanted to go bark at it, but I kept her leash short, and talked to her the whole way by that skunk, telling her NO, NO, Stay with me.....phew. We got by again. That skunk didn't know enough to be afraid of us, hope it isn't rabid.

Aaron went for a run a bit later, and said he almost stepped right on a baby skunk!

So I am two pounds heavier than I was last week on Monday. blah. But you know what? I almost don't care. Yes, it is hard work to get it back off. But it was nice to take a little break, and perhaps this will trick my metabolism a bit and get things moving quicker. I found that I really don't feel so well when I eat the carbs anyway. It COULD have MAYBE been the wine...ha.

Last night we picked lots and lots of spinach and lettuce and radishes from our garden. We made two huge salads, baked marinated chicken breast, and had watermelon. The camping kids came in just in time for dinner, and it was fun to hear their stories...they hit Free Donut Day at Krispy Kreme in Pennsylvania, and the guy gave them a whole dozen, plus some samples of fresh-made donut holes. (and yes, I wish I had gone with them!). Sonja almost fell into the fire, she tipped over in her chair and missed the fire by a few inches, so they celebrated that Sonja was not a Burn Victim. They got sunburnt, and brought home sandy seashells. They survived a horrible storm Friday night, but had nice weather the rest of the weekend.

My boys are amazing. Joseph 21, Aaron 20, and Samuel 16 watched the princesses for the weekend. The house was clean when we got home. Aaron had cleaned out the refrigerator, and restocked it with groceries from Wegmans. The girls were clean and happy, and had gone to Panera Bread, a first for them. Aaron said that Camille wanted to snuggle with him a few times, so he let her. Aww, what is the child going to do in kindergarten? Anyway, they survived and thrived without us.

Here's something that stinks...Emily is a nurse. She put in for her vacation, and all the weeks she wanted were already taken by nurses with more seniority. So...she has this week off. High temperatures in the sixties, and rain every day. Her vacation. Isn't that sad? I would like to find someone to watch Miss Camille, and take Emily to Watkins Glen...I liked it so much, I want to go back. I think it would be torture to have Camille go up and down all those steps. And I could barely carry myself, so don't even suggest it....

I wish school would just end already. They have to go until the third week of this month. It is so hard to send them to bed when it is light out.

And now...time to change over the laundry.