All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy

Well, I don't know what Jack's problem was. All work and no play makes me just plain tired. VERY tired.

It's mostly the house project that is causing us trouble. Since Beka is working with Dad all day long, I get to pick up the slack. I'm taking care of almost all of the meals, and doing a lot of garden work. Mom is so busy serving the amazing number of customers we've been getting at our vegetable stand lately that she isn't much help. And to top it all off, our green bean harvest is in full swing, adding canning to our long 'To Do' list. Or make that our 'Try To Do' list. Most of the time we just try, but never really get there.

Right now Dad and Beka are hacking away at the last wall we have to do on our house. Our front door is missing, as is the front step and Timmy and Caleb's bedroom wall. Our nice, open-air house is covered up with tarps at night to keep all the nasty things out. And as for me, I have lots of fun coming up with original and amazing ways to block up holes, rips, and openings at night. My poor cat is kept confined to my room all day long, but as soon as Dad is done working at night, I bandage up the tarps and let her out.

Matthew lending a hand with a new stud wall. Photo by Rachel.

It's 6:28 Saturday night over here, and I can barely keep my eyes open. I've had a long, long, long, long day. Here's my schedule lately (I'm only giving you mine because I'm too busy to find out what everyone else is doing!)

• 6:30: Get up and put beakfast in the oven.
• 7:00: Wake everybody else up for breakfast.
• 7:30: Pick raspberries and beans.
• 10:45: Come up with something for lunch and make it.
• 12:00: Eat lunch.
• 1:00: Laze around on Mom's bed for ten minutes.
• 1:10: Do dishes, sometimes with Timmy and Caleb, sometimes by myself. (Depending on how messy the kitchens are and what kind of help I have, the dishes take anywhere from one to three hours.)
• 3:00: Make breakfast for the next day.
• 3:45: Clean up house, can beans, or do anything else that needs doing.
• 5:00: Make supper, clean up house, put away dishes.
• 6:00: Eat supper. (On very rare occasions, Beka and I get the night off after this, but that hasn't been happening much lately!)
• 6:30: Do supper dishes.
• 7:15: Feed the cows.
• 7:45: Do odd jobs until 8:30.

Boy! I'm getting tired just writing what I've been doing lately! But I'm not the only one working over here (though it feels that way sometimes!). Mom runs around between seventeen different activities, often stopping all of them for a quick trip in to town to buy something for Dad or serve our numerous customers. Matthew leaves in the morning and doesn't come back until after supper, mowing lawns, working at the Vet Clinic, and doing innumerable other things between times. Timmy and Caleb help do dishes, help clean house, help me cook, help Dad and Beka, help serve customers, and mostly help with everything else too. Dad and Beka work all day long, sawing, nailing, cutting, hammering, ripping, and demolishing.

Timmy and Caleb taking a break on top of a load of straw we recently had delivered. Photo by Beka (from our roof).

My brain has stopped cranking out words, so I think I'm going to make this article a little bit shorter then usual. Maybe next week things will have slowed down and I'll have recovered enough to think of something original and interesting to write about. Until then, I'll have to leave you with this.

The Weekly Bible Verse

Luke 6:35: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in retun; and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Bits and Pieces

I mentioned last week that our new vegetable stand blew down in a big storm. I also mentioned that we built another one. And this time it WON'T blow dowm. It's made of straw-bales and tarp. Matthew, Timmy, Caleb, and Dad made it in one afternoon...and got the roof on just before some more rain swept in! Every day now Mom makes a display on her counter of everything we have for sale. A cooler with ice-packs keeps extra's and more heat-sensitive items cold. So far this design has worked very well. There is room in our little straw hut for one person to work very comfortably, and two to work side-by-side. We have gotten tons of comments on how nice it looks, and it hasn't blown away...at least not yet.

Our new straw-bale vegetable stand. Photo by Mom.

A Word About The Weather

I don't really know what to say about the weather. It has varied so much day to day during this week that I can't tell you just what it's been like. It rained a lot, shined a lot, blew a lot, chilled a lot, fogged a lot, scorched a lot, and generally did everything else that weather can do (except hurricane, tornado, and blizzard, that is).

A Word Of Wisdom

When you have a dishwasher that spreads gritty cream-of-wheat stuff all over most of your dishes, you may want to keep using the dishwasher. Just wash the ones that come out dirty. Beka says the psychology just isn't the same when you wash all the dishes by hand.