What a Wonderful Life!

Two days ago Nick chopped some wood for me. He came in pretty excited about this load. He told me all this was from one stump that just fell apart as he split. We need more logs like this, and let me tell you...it burns hot. I am sitting by the fire writing this blog and my legs are melting. Probably the laptop, too.

Yes, I have a laptop. A friend gave my husband an old laptop which he promptly brought home to his wife just for this purpose. I told you he was the most wonderful man in the world.

Last night I cut up tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce to go with some leftover steak that I sauteed with onions for hoagies. The side was oven-roasted tomatoes, potatoes, shallots and carrots.

Here's dinner! There was also a photo of the fruit...bananas, kiwi, oranges and pineapple in a ginger and honey sauce, but it didn't load (and it is way to late for me to worry about it now). Oh, and the bread was spread with a nice dill sauce. The meal was complete with a glass of Merlot and turned out to be a great meal. (Yes, we feed the children. Yes, sometimes we eat together, sometimes we don't. Nick had a ham, cheese, lettuce, mayo hoagie. Elijah had ham, cheese, cucumbers, shredded carrot and ranch dressing hoagie. Olivia had just ham and bread. Lucas....hmmm, he probably just ate cereal. I really don't remember, but that is usually what he eats!)

This morning was a cold one. It was -29 going by Gold Hill on my way to driving Elijah to school. That in itself was a great reason to come home and sit by the hot fire which, of course, made me sleepy so I went back to bed until 10:30am. I am about the luckiest woman in the world. I feel like a lazy bum and I have a husband who encourages me to go back to bed and get lots of sleep. No, you can't have him.

When I awoke this was the beautiful sight I saw heading down to the kitchen. I moved quickly, though. It was -17 at our house.

Later I went up to do some more planting. Dear Hubby brought me home some potting soil the other night. Gee, do you think they could fill the bag up? It was $11-something. I'll have to buy $200 worth of soil and probably still won't have enough. On my sidebar you can see the dates and what I have planted. I sure wish I could find my book from last year. Then again, maybe if I looked for it I would.

I brought Roscoe in today. Such a long, sad story about his guy. I once had a son I loved dearly and who loved me back. Five years we were a great team and I loved being his mom. He loved to hunt so I wanted to do something for him that would make him happy. I got him this AKC Lab for Christmas. He was far more than I could afford, but I did some web page work for the owner for half the amount, the other half cash. My son accepted the dog grateful. Fast-forward a bit, the kid that worshipped his dad and treated me wonderfully decided I was evil and ran away from me, his dad and five brothers and sisters. I can't tell you why he did it right now, but he did. It was devastating to us all. It's now been 13 months of suffering, crying, pain, rejoicing, healing. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that we began to accept his course of action. We know the love we gave. We know the truth. We know how happy he was. Whatever lies are told now really don't mean a damn thing. It was after this moment of healing that I remembered poor Roscoe. Once his owner had abandoned him and his family, I also rejected him. It was just too painful to deal with. Roscoe has been fed and exercised, but he hasn't been loved as he should have been. So after a year, he is the biggest-hearted dog starving for attention. He would truly love you to death if he got loose. So today begins a long healing process for us all. Roscoe minds Homer and loves me (and Nick who hates dogs..how odd??). We are moving past the child and moving towards the dog caught in unfortunate circumstances. He is about to get "trained up" and loved to death. (Incidentally, he is 1.5 years old. If I can't train him I will spend a considerable amount of money to have him trained for me. I have made the decision that all the sad stuff that happened in our home isn't his fault, and he will help us get over it).

So, to come inside he has to be chained....with a very thick chain. He is strong! I brushed and vacuumed and brushed and vacuumed him all day long.

Can't you tell how much he loves me? Doesn't he look like he wants to kiss me? Roscoe deserved to be loved on for the last year, but our hearts didn't have the power to do so. All we wanted to do was love our lost son that we had spent so many wonderful times with. We are pretty sure he's never going to give up what he's gotten to be part of our family so we have to move on. Time to kiss that face back!

He is the World's Messiest Eater. I had to mop when he was done. Bless his big heart!

Mr. Rusty and the girls are also starving for attention. We just finished up a month of being in heat where no one gets a lot of lovin'. Tomorrow, all four are getting baths and a ton of snuggling. They can't wait and neither can I.

Tonight, we had marinated steak (red wine, Dijon, Worcestershire, olive oil, ketchup...crap...and some spices that are slipping my memory), baked potato, green beans, salad (with tomato, cucumber, onion, carrot, bacon) and raspberry yogurt and Granny Smith apple pieces. Entirely too much food! I have to find a happy medium somewhere! The little ones had ham hoagies backed with a bowl of cereal. They must be growing. Nick...geez, I'm not sure what Nick ate. Elijah went to three basketball games and ate there.


Some days...like the days I have a snotty nose and sore throat right after bragging about how we never get sick....some days...when I am missing my daughter Emily who has been on vacation with her dad for two weeks so badly it makes me hurt....some days when the child who has nine classes in a new Catholic school and is failing three of them comes home and works hard on his homework for the first time in a month...some days when I can sit at the computer while father and son watch a really bad movie without me and it is okay...some days when it is -20 at my house and I can't get warm...those days are the days I am glad to be me.

If every day was easy, pain free and happy...wouldn't it get boring?