A year has gone by.  Many things have transpired in my life and in my family's lives.  My Dad, who will be 87 this year, bought his first house.  My mom passed away 12 years ago and they never owned their own home.  He and my sister are sharing this new space.  One of my granddaughters is now driving a car and working part time.  (Where did the time go?  How did she grow up so fast?)  This is the first summer that I have not had ALL of the grandkids full time.  Two of them (brothers) stayed home by themselves.  One grandson was gone for a couple of weeks to his other grandparent's house in another state.  My granddaughter spent her time between working and going to different youth activities and conferences for church.  This year, she went to her normal Bible camp about 2 1/2 hours away, she went to Missouri for a youth function and to Oklahoma for a youth conference.  She has had a busy summer!  Hubby, who will be 65 in a few months, is back on the road working out of state (he's a plumber), working on a new school.  According to him, this job could take 1-2 years as it is more than just one school.  He comes home on the weekends.  So, during the week, it's one grandson and I rattling around in the house by ourselves. 

Our pool was not used as much as it has been in the past since the grandkids are growing up and they are not here like they used to be.  I still put in a garden but we had so much rain at the beginning of the season that a lot of my seeds and plants died out due to flooding.  Still, I did manage to can several pints of beans, shred a bunch of zucchini for the dehydrator, and canned several heads of cabbage.  Tomatoes are just starting to ripen.  The garden is PACKED FULL of really aggressive weeds this year.  It has been impossible to get rid of them.  They remind me of sin in our lives - how if we don't root them out early when they are small, they get a stronghold and are virtually indestructible.  They take over everything and choke off that which is good and destroys it.  They start out tiny and insignificant but very quickly, you realize you let it go too long and then you have a fight on your hands!   Now, I have to figure out how to get rid of them once the garden is finished for the season.  Like sin, if you get them early, you don't have to backtrack and try to fix all the problems.

As for myself, I still LONG to live in the mountains on a homestead, live off the grid, and be self-sufficient.  It's never going to happen, but it's still my dream.  It's been a weird season of life for me as well.  Grandkids are growing up and not needing me every day - which makes me sad.  Yet there is a part of me longing to do things for me for a change.  I would like to get back to my quilting and reading.  I'd like to have close friends and do things with them, but physically, there are barriers.  I long for peace and quiet - a restful solitude - but when I am alone, I kind of hate it because I don't have the chaos of the grandkids.  I know.  I'm weird.  At the same time, the world, in such terrible chaos, causes me to not want to plan too far ahead, if at all.  It makes me realize the importance of family and eternal things instead of the temporary.  Once, I would have wanted all the material things this world could offer, but I no longer care.  Perhaps God is helping me to let go - to hold on to things lightly because He has a far better plan.