Thursday, posting late...

  I am posting late in the day,  when I woke this morning, I looked around my house and it was a wreck.  I was disgusted with myself as my daughter and a friend and myself worked so hard last Thursday to clean it really well and ship shape and then with the show and my exhaustion, I have just let it slide. I know I needed a few days to recoup, but being a sloven pig is not necessary.  So I took a couple of hours and cleaned the upstairs, ground some wheat and made 4 loaves of bread, caught up the laundry, did the roots of my hair, trimmed my nails, had a long talk with my Sissie and I feel so much better.  The beds are made, kitchen is cleaned, it just looks nice.

     It was really physically hard work emptying that truck yesterday.  We had packed down the weeds and I had a hard time getting them out.  So no yard work yesterday.  But I did get a lot of sewing done.  I will hit the machines after this post.  I only teach until 5:30 tonight so I will work in the yard with hubs later.  It is sunny but very chilly, at least for me.

     I changed my bread recipe.  My girlfriend gave me a 30 lb bucket of rye flour.  She is allergic to it and and I need to use it up.  So I put 2.5 cups of rye flour in my WW bread and it is delicious. Right now I am eating an end slice of warm bread with Amish butter.  Read and weep.  It is a tough life. Crunchy, crusty slice, of goodness.

     Took Hub's to Wal mart last night as we were out of things.  I could not believe the price of fresh fruit, even at Wal-mart where I am really careful what I buy as it goes bad so quickly.  I won't buy meat there and even their meat prices were outrageous.  It is scary, no matter how much I try to cut back things get more and more expensive.

     Out My Window:  Sunny cool, but I will take sunny any day!  My chicken is about to become a mom  we are getting babies this weekend, I can't wait.  I hope she doesn't kill them.

saga cont:

     Sis and I loved camp.  I think most kids experience home sickness, but we did not.  I loved the singing time and the schedule.  We stayed in cabins named after birds.  There were 8 girls to a cabin with a counselor.  The cabins were white pine logs with screens for windows.  It was very cold in the mornings and getting out of bed to get to the John was miserable.  We had short sleeve white blouses and navy shorts, with red bandannas.  Flag raising was so cold.  Sis and I were always very small and thin and cold affected us worse than others.  But I was so happy to wake up to a bugle playing Reveille', my nose would be so cold and you could smell the trees.  We would jump out of our bags and into our clothes to dash to the johnny.  Sis and I would braid each others long hair and we would run to line up for flag before breakfast.

     Meals were served in a large pine hall.  Table after table of girls all arranged according to age.  I remember the food being very good or at least I had no complaints. We had swimming lessons and they were taught by certified life guards.  We learned to swim well at camp.  The water was cold, but you had to brave it to get in, I never wanted to look like a whiner, but I am sure I was.  Awards were given at the end of camp to move up in swimming ranks.  You always wanted to move up, so we practiced very hard during our free swim time. We had archery, wild crafting, hikes.  We sang all the time.  Sis and I loved to sing.  Singing was part of meals (grace) beginning of the day, through out the day while we hiked, and in the evenings. 

     Every evening we met in a log benched amp theater with a stage and watched the older campers put on skits and we sang songs for about an hour.  The sun would be going down and it would get cooler.  The bugler would play a song.  Day is done, Gone the sun, from the lake, from the hills, from the trees, All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.  Taps was so beautiful as it rang out over the lake and we all sat quietly listening.  Then off to bed, where we would giggle and try to stay awake, but soon the bugle would be playing again in the morning.  They kept us busy and tired.

     Sis and I were always together at camp, in the same cabin.  You could request a cabin with friends in your troop.  Every year we requested and every year we were not with our friends.  They were always together and we would be in the next cabin over.  It took me several years to realize that they did not want to be with us and asked that we not be with them. There was always an excuse and I (or we ) believed them.  I think things would have been easier for sis and I if people were just honest so we could change our behavior, but such it life.
 
     That first year home from camp I expected our Mother to come get us and as we were waiting for parents, the Barth's came up and said they were taking us home.  I was surprised and thrilled.  Margaret Barth was a favorite of ours.  She came from a large Catholic family and she was so funny and nice.  Sis and I worshiped her.  We rode home in the back seat of the Barth station wagon.  Mr Barth was a professor at the University, he was taciturn and snobbish.  I loved Mrs. Barth, she was funny and flighty and had way too many boys, who drove her crazy!  She was always nervous and yelling, she reminded me of a chihuahua.  I liked her.  We were excited to see our new brother.  Actually Margaret was excited, they had many of babies in their house and another mouth was not a burden.  Her excitement got me excited.  When we pulled up in front of the house we rushed out and into the front door of the upstairs.  We lived downstairs but mom was up in Grandmas front room.  I remember pausing because here was my mom that I had last seen was  very pregnant.  This mom was skinny as a rail.  Margaret found our brother laying in a blue bundle on grandma's settee'.  He was so tiny, I could have covered him up with a pillow.  Margaret was so excited because she saw him first.  Her parents came into the house to see the baby.  The Barth's had never been in our house.  Mr. Barth was smiling, he was happy we had another boy.

     I remember loving my brother the first time I saw him and we were inseparable for the next 18 years.  He was my own special joy.  Such a good baby, he brought so much happiness into our family and our extended family.  We hadn't had a baby for a few years and babies bring an equality to the world.  But trouble was brewing in our house.  We had been with grandma now almost 2 years and mom and dad were supposed to be getting on their feet.  Of course sis and I did not know this or understand this, the family did and the neighbors certainly did it was one more nail in the coffin.

to be cont:

     Well I need to get going or I will get nothing done today in the shop.

Have a great and productive day!

Kim