Into the Ocean (Let the rain come down)

What do you do on a rainy day? Well, you could fold the giant pile of laundry that magically appeared on the sofa while you were gone Sunday, clean the stove, or the closets, you could longingly stare out the back door @ your toys. No...no. None of those seemed right. After some reading on Hindu holidays, and some train play, we decided we would go to Aunt Jessie's and clean up her house since she has been so busy studying. The plan-clean up, have something yummy cooking in the crockpot, leave before either Aunt Jessie or Aunt Julie arrived home. My sister arrived home before the time she usually arrives home and caught us in the act. So, we threw a couple pieces of chicken on the stove and stayed for dinner. After dinner the drizzle called for a barefoot walk. We took the pups for a walk and played a bit @ the playground. Apparently, Jess scored a 98 on one of the final tests! We also spent Friday evening with Jess & Jules. Check out the pictures of the boys in chocolate! Yes, "in" chocolate.

We hungout with Papaw and Pam and Bill yesterday afternoon for a bit. Niki, Luke, & Ezra played in Bill's shop while Mady drove the farm truck. I haven't posted much lately. Sometimes I just grow tired of posting our lives on here. I never stop taking pictures and I store them online in a photo book as well as on a portable storage disk just in case. I would rather record our lives with pictures. Seems to me no one person's description, or story, about a picture can say as much as the picture itself. I suppose I should also consider that our blog will also end up being a portfolio so I probably need to take more pictures of things we actually make and in the process of making them. We cook often and the kids help with that too. I just never stop to take pictures. It seems kinda unnatural to me I guess. I prefer taking pictures outside anyway. I feel inspired by nature. I have tons of photos of flowers. I don't even know what some of them are named but, they are beautiful, so they have a spot in the photo book too.

All this cool weather makes me want to get outside. I tried looking up the weather for Linden @ the cabin, it is raining out there too. Once the rain stops, the temperature is suppose to rise up to 95 again. We checked the Farmer's Almanac and discovered the weather should cool down around mid September. We have some commitments around that time though. We may only get to stay @ the cabin for a short time. Who knows. I love it @ the cabin. Life is simpler. It feels more authentic. Nothing feels like work there,it's just life. There are no expectations, or schedules, just living. Whatever we (or I) am missing here @ home isn't missing when we are in Linden @ the cabin. I can't wait to go back. I haven't stopped thinking about it all summer.

To my lil' sis

My lil' sis (aka: Aunt Jessie, aka: Jessie Poo-Poo Head!) had her physical for the police academy entrance process this morning. Of course she passed with flying colors and has moved on to the next stage of the process. There will be a psychological review and credit check and if all goes well, no doubt it will, she will begin the academy in March. Yeah!
Jess was describing how the day progressed to me and when she got to the end of the story, I was amazed @ how many people she said actually showed up to the physical unprepared. By unprepared I mean, people obviously did not "test" themselves and assumed they would pass the physical requirements without any practice.

I know I ramble often, but see if you can follow me here. Sometimes when I am reading others writings, I am conscience about how lackluster some of my posts are and possibly, how riddled with errors my writing is. Like I said in the beginning, this is kind of a diary for my family. I am not concerned with how impressed or unimpressed anyone is with my writing. After all I didn't attend high school, so I am far from being any kind of a writing expert. I mean, in order to be an expert doesn't one need to practice, or @ least posses a passion? So, if one has a passion to become an expert police officer, one must practice? Why would these police officer applicants show up to the physical unprepared, unpracticed, without passion? I certainly do not want police officers watching over me without passion, even if security is only an illusion. We grant police officers powers beyond the realm of regular citizens and with that comes an immense responsibility and I hope anyone even contemplating applying for a position with such responsibilities would take every detail seriously.

This led me to another thought, must one be an expert if one has a passion? I think if one truly has a passion, one would inevitably become an expert. We cannot all be experts from the beginning stages of all our endeavours. Should we all become experts @ one thing or another? I would hope as living, breathing humans we are all passionate about something and therefore by default be experts in our passions.

I have no passion for grammar, but I adore my family. I hope that by providing my view of our daily lives in this blog, our family will appreciate it later and perhaps learn from it. Maybe my kids will read this and say, "My mom's grammar is atrocious!" and be inspired to learn to write more effectively than I. While I am practicing my grammar skills and learning more about our language and reading more to improve my lacking vocabulary, I hope my family will continue to hear my voice in their heads as they read these mundane words to themselves and smile.

No doubt my sisters' passion has already inspired others in our family and will lead her on a journey she will not regret taking the first step of. Congratulations Jess.