Catching Up On A Monday

Things have been pretty busy around here, so I'm trying to catch up on some things today.  I am trying to get caught up with reading journals, so if you don't hear from me on at least one entry in your journal, send me a reminder.  Seriously!

Thomas' truck is back up and running.  It turns out that it was something called the fuel-pump timer.  I didn't even know a fuel pump had a timer.  Our mechanic really had to do some digging and diagnosing to find that problem.  It runs really well, now, so that timer must have been off for a while.  It had never run badly, exactly, it just runs so much better now.  It's an Isuzu Trooper, and has quite a few miles on it, but it has always been a good truck.  It's a four-wheel drive with a lot of power, which is perfect for Thomas, being the hunter and fisherman that he is.  Now we drop my car off tonight, and hopefully Donnie'll get my problem fixed tomorrow. 

Andrew has been doing some yard-work and helping with odd jobs for friends of ours.  They are the ones who had us over on Derby Day for a nice get-together.  I really love this couple.  They are in their late 40s and have only been married for a little over a year.  Kim is very much like one of my sisters, and she treats my kids as if she were their aunt.  They are both professionals, and he works some very long hours.  So since she has several home projects for the summer, she asked Andrew if he'd be interested in working for her.  It has been really good for him.  (Of course, extra pocket money is always a good thing in his opinion!)  We have not let him get a job yet, but he probably will during this school year.  I really didn't want him working last year, because with all the "social" obligations of my very outgoing son, I just knew his grades would suffer.  This is good, though, because it's honest, hard work, and she pays him well.  She also feeds him, and he loves her and Steve.

Anyway, he was over there working for her on Friday, then on Saturday she had a little get-together for some of the young people in our congregation, so Andrew was there all afternoon and evening.  Then on Sunday, she and Steve had some visitors they were taking out to dinner, and they included Andrew in the invitation as well, since two of the girls were friends of his.  Then he went to play his weekly dodge-ball game.  I let him rest up today, but tomorrow I'm putting him to work on our yard.

Eler Beth has been busy this weekend, too.  She and I did some shopping on Saturday, and we got a lot of plants for the front garden.  We also went a bit overboard on herbs, and I still don't have all of them planted.  Kim gave her some little tea-light lanterns that she had admired one time; Steve has some very specific ideas of what he wants inside and outside of their house, and he didn't like them.  So Kim gave them to Eler Beth.  We took the birds to have their wings clipped on Saturday, also; I think I'm going to do it from now on, though.  She has been playing nightly games of freeze-tag and catching fireflies with a lot of the neighbor kids.  I let her off easy today, as well, but tomorrow will be another story!

Thomas had a great day yesterday.  It was his first day off since Memorial Day.  The kids took him to Bass Pro Shop, and he asked me to fix some baked rabbit for dinner, so I did.  We hadn't had rabbit in a while; a friend of ours raises them to sell, and they are very good, although I prefer wild ones.  My mother has a way of baking them that is so delicious, and Thomas loves it, so I enjoyed doing that for him yesterday.  (I remember my Mom making rabbit hash with leftovers when I was young; I've never made it, but I find myself craving that today.)

I have given myself some time off today, too.  I've been messing around on the computer and going through some papers that needed filing.  It has been overcast most of the day, but we got a few sprinkles of rain.  Right now the sun is shining again.  I watered plants and flowers yesterday, thinking that would bring on the rain, but I guess I didn't water them enough!  We do need some rain, but our days have been so nice, it's hard to complain too much.  So far we haven't had to ration water.

Well, that's about it, I guess.  Maybe I'll come back later and wow you with some impressive disquisition (ooh, new word!)!

But I wouldn't hold my breath, if I was you!  Later!