This is from our road trip; the scenery was beautiful!

Life’s been so full lately that I am hardly missing my online world! My computer time has been almost nonexistant, and my blogs unread and unfollowed. Other than tweeting with my friends and answering a few emails a day, it’s been pretty quiet (for me!). Add to that our typical schedule-less household for the summer and I have suppers prepared at 8:00 and children not going to bed until 10:00!

Showings on the house continue with very positive feedback, but even that traffic seems to be slowing a bit. I am not concerned; I know the Lord has gone ahead and is preparing for our next home so I will content myself to practice patience rather than run ahead of Him. Not that I don’t want to start packing, like today! There’s been a lot of talk in our family of “what if…..” so who knows where we’ll end up or what we’ll do. Well….GOD knows (smile).

We found a lovely new home for our two milk goats and supplies, and with the money I bought a discounted spinning wheel. Oh, it’s so relaxing to spin! I just love the feel of the wool through my fingers and to see it twist into yarn is so amazing. Sometimes I listen to my iPod, either to audio Bible or to Wretched Radio. I can see from the photo I need to work on my posture!

One thing that is helping my posture is running. I’m two months into training for a 5K in September, and although I am still slow (it takes me 3o minutes to run 2 miles…is that slow?), I am toning up and feeling good. A couple friends are doing this with me, and that makes it easier. Friends are good to have, are they not?

In the meantime, I took the entire herd of milking goats from a friend of mine who needed a break from their care as her 3 year-old son is undergoing cancer treatment. It is a big help to me as well, as I am learning to milk her goat and getting milk for our own family now. I love learning ways to provide wholesome food for my own family, right from my own yard. It’s very empowering to see all that wonderful frothy fresh milk every morning!

Speaking of the yard (or garden), we’re about finished picking peas, and have been eating salad and strawberries for a bit now. I don’t have a *lot* of any one crop, but I am looking forward to drying and powdering all the garlic I pulled! And I am very hopeful that I’ll have a good amount of honey to pull this early fall as the hive is going strong. I dream of having large amounts of produce to can, dry, freeze…someday, maybe. Tonight I traded three dozen eggs with a friend who brought me a large bag of produce from her garden. It’s so nice to help one another.

I have a gentleman coming soon to help me set up my loom, and I have designs to create cotton dishtowels with the instruction of an experienced lady. I cannot wait! I think working on a loom would be a wonderful thing for Ruby to do when she is ready, and it could possibly be a source of income for her as well.

I am reading a lot! Books on spinning, on yarn, on living out Christian principles and on theology. Books on various health topics, homeschooling and magazines of all sorts. I wonder if I’ll actually finish any of them this summer, as I pick from here and there instead of just finishing one. I just got snail mail from a dear friend in California, and need to write her back. And I’m picking at projects here and there, trying to finish them up before our next adventure.

Visitors are plentiful and often; it is a joy to share our home with others. It’s so neat to actually have visitors that take us up on the annual Christmas letter “if you’re ever this way…”

In between all of that, I am hoping to finish knitting my first pair of socks under the watchful eye of my friend. We have a field trip planned to a basket-supply store in the city with the basket-making momma of a friend; I am envisioning sitting on the porch and weaving a basket or two in the early fall. Maybe I’ll get around to watercoloring a picture and maybe I’ll actually sew that dress I wanted to do. A friend of mine comes over once a week to help me learn to read sewing patterns and to do things correctly on the machine. Like I said, it’s a little of this and a little of that. It sounds like a lot, but it’s really nothing heavy. And have you noticed how many other people are involved in these projects?! There are so many people around that know how to do stuff. Most folks are thrilled to pass on their skills and knowledge!

I need to finish painting the rails on our porch(es) before summer goes away. And at some point I’m going to have to reorganize my homeschool and schedule for the fall as well. All this to say…I think living real life is so much better than living in a computer world. I’d encourage you to go outside and grow and cut some flowers, sign up for that cake decorating class you’ve been wanting to do, and spend a few hours in the kitchen making sticky jam with your toddlers. Summer is short; fill it with real life!

Blessings,