My Bags Are Packed...

and I'm SO not ready to go...

Actually..my bags are not even packed.

I have spent the past 2 weeks enjoying my time at home.

Big B and I have enjoyed having coffee on the deck. We watch the hummingbirds. He talks to the deer. You know, really charming things like Come here, venison, I have some bread for you... and he always throws out food..and the deer always come while he sweetly calls them names of meals he enjoys eating.

I have learned to drive fence-posts into the ground. I've finished planting the last of the basil in our organic garden. I am learning to guard things. In particular I have been guarding my zucchini from one lone baby chick..who keeps proudly finding ways through my awesome fence work, AND I've been guarding all of our chickens from one big, scary and beautiful hawk.

My method is simple. I watch the hawk, in awe, from a distance. It really is beautiful. When it enters the sky above our yard, I scream and yell and wave my hands while running. I am secretly hoping  that  it is not a human-eating hawk, because it sure looks like one to me!

I decide to enlist some help. I cannot, after all, spend all my time chasing this hawk. We pull out our fake owl and place him on our fence-post. The owl is our head guard, I only do occasional shift work for him (the owl) now.

When I am not screaming like a banshee in our yard,. I am generally, overcooking or under cooking or burning meals. We are still trying to stick to a Mediteranean (for us meaning primarily Italian..and some Greek) Diet. I am so grateful when the boys help cook. Things go much smoother when we work together and they remind me stuff is in the oven or on the stove.

This morning? I am playing on this blog, listening to Norah Jones, rotating laundry..and dreading the stack of dishes that has (yet again) appeared during the night.  It is slowly dawning on me that I am leaving tomorrow for the Kairos Prison Weekend in Hondo.

I have nothing ready. Still need to make a few dozen cookies, bake a cake, prepare some sort-of veggie pot-luck dish and write a bunch of letters. However..since I have no clean clothes..I will be rotating laundry all day.

 Finally? We were given strict orders from Austen's neurologist to stay on Mediteranean Diet, only with limited pasta...and a strict restriction on microwavable foods, anything with MSG, processed meats, etc.

Meaning? Austen and I need to spend some time today figuring out some simple meals he can cook while I am out of town with our veggies and organic red meats, fish and poultry. I guess if worse comes to worse, he can be a "fruit-a-tarian" while I am out of town.

So, today is the last day before I leave for this extended weekend. I am truly looking forward to it. However, Kairos is the first of three "bag-packing" events in a row.

I return on Sunday. On Monday..Austen and I head to SA. I hope to be with my sister during Levi's delivery on Tuesday. Please continue to keep them both in prayer.

Austen has some cardiology follow-ups. (To rule out things like ugh tumors and strokes. Hopefully, the key word here being rule out) So we plan to spend most of the week staying with my parents and hanging around the medical center.

Then? Barring no medical catastrophes (knocking on wood here), we head to Michigan for the Odyssey of the Mind Competition. Approximately 10 days of travel and competition viewing with this fun and motley crew of homeschooled teens and their moms. I am really looking forward to this.

I will return home..about two or three times during the next few weeks, to cook more food, do more laundry, tell Big B  things like hello, I love you..and see ya' later!  Because Big B?? He will continue to stay here and work and work and work. Big B does this so that the rest of us?

We can pack our bags.