It’s been a crazy month. Between baby coming and goat kids coming and then nursing one that ended up dying (you can read that story here), it was high time for a road trip and time away. My days at home were literally like this: feed the fam, feed the baby, put the baby down, go help a goat give birth, come back in and take care of whatever child needs help…repeat…repeat…repeat. I’m exhausted.
But we’re home now and we can get back to doing chores like raking up whatever needs raking…
…and having some playtime afterwards. Work and play, work and play. Some days it feels more like work, but we’re finding some joy in it all.
I’ve been enjoying drawing some in my art journal. Please don’t think “what? where did she get time to do that?!” I will tell you. It was midnight. And I drew from a photograph I took. I know what I’m doing at home is very (very) important, but that night I knew I needed to do something creative for my sanity before I went to bed. I could live here:
Eh. The artwork’s not so bad. Ten years from now I’ll laugh at it but right now I’m satisfied with what little I can do.
On our road trip, we drove through the mountains to spend some time with friends at the river. Oh, I wish I could stay there for a week. The river is just so amazing, so beautiful, so loud, so demanding in respect. And the white noise helped to clear out the other noise out of my head. All of that snow feeds the rivers.
Afterwards, we drove to the other side of the state. It was gorgeous; just miles and miles and miles of farmland and the most amazing clouds I’ve ever seen. I think I just kept repeating myself, “Look at those clouds!”
Of course, along the way we had to stop in various locations for photo op’s and to record for my husband’s podcast. He bribed us with ice cream. We gratefully took him up on it!
Here is my daughter (and baby…see the wee head?) at the Farm Chicks show. There were thousands of people there. Thousands. I couldn’t keep up. I was completely overwhelmed, honestly, what with the 250-something vendors. I gave up trying to find stuff on my list and just hoped to see everything. Which I did. But I hardly spent any money at all to take anything home. Which is a little disappointing after driving six-plus hours just to get there.
Why didn’t I buy much? Because everything was outrageously overpriced! But with the feeding frenzy there was (with those thousands of people), I can see why they priced their goods as they did: people bought them. Even though the show was amazing (gorgeous displays, in fact), I can’t ever see going back. But I’m glad I did it, once. From now on, I’m sticking to individual stores and shops instead of shows. This little picture was $45 (and no, I didn’t buy it!).
We were able to stop by and visit with a chiropractor friend who lives (his own words), in the middle of nowhere. He has an office in his van and goes around to the different communities to help people with chiropractic care. It was a really cool set up inside! And his family was very gracious and fed us some delicious lunch.
And of course my husband got a much needed adjustment!
The way home was just as beautiful, what with these amazing cliffs along the way (Noah’s flood, anyone?). I sort of shuddered to imagine the chaos of water and judgement that formed these great big landscapes.
It was kind of a bummer to see all of that amazing wheat growing, knowing it was genetically modified and dwarfed and probably covered in pesticides. Of course we saw lots of areas where topsoil had eroded too. But the cliffs were amazing! I took this shot out of the window, racing by.
We played a license frame game along the way, marking different states we saw on various cars. If anyone saw a European plate, they were declared the winner supreme. Well….meet Mr. Winner Supreme. It was very cool that a free airshow was on right across the street from the antique show.
And yes, we did have to stop to adjust the dinosaur. The man was apparently hopeless, but the dinosaur….there was hope for him apparently.
Eating in restaurants was a challenge with seven children. We ate mostly in parks with food takeouts but we did get to eat in this very, very family friendly place. Check out all of the dollar bills all over the walls and ceilings!
We had plenty of time to play. This was our favorite park!
And Ruby loved the carousal! As long as it was moving, that is. Once it stopped, tears and gnashing of teeth! Glad I got one good picture though!
And yes, I had to find the best bakeries in the city. And eat cupcakes. (And yes, that’s me growing my gray hair out again…do you really want me to continue to share that saga with you all?)
Home we are now and home is best, best, best! SO glad to be HOME. SO glad that the goat animals are settled and we’re unpacked and getting some rest. Despite all of the wonderful landscapes and whatnot *out there*…I think the view from the inside of my house is still pretty good.
Hope you’re well!
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