Last week we went for a walk down into the woods behind our barn. My *men* are handling me with kid-gloves lately because of my *illness*, so my oldest held my hand all the way, making sure to take me on the easiest travelled path. I love the attention, and I am so proud of how we have raised them, to care for others...their wives will be very blessed indeed.

My husband wanted to show me the spring. It had almost dried up, but he's cleaned it out, and with lots of wet weather it is now flowing. He's so proud of this place, and so thankful. It just makes me happy to listen to him ramble about what he is doing and what he plans to do.

Here's a pic...

Apparently the weather effects me much more than I ever realized, or it is affecting me more now than it used to, because I find myself feeling *full* inside when we have these beautiful DRY spring days. I feel renewed and energized...and hopeful.

Snow is beautiful, but after snow comes mud...at least here on the farm anyway. The snow only lasts a day or two, and then we have a week or more of nasty mud. My mood matches, disgusting, depressed, and ugly.

School is going well, but it seems that each time I make a decision something happens to change it. So goes life though, huh?

We've been making frequent visits to the library lately, reading lots of books about lots of different things. Somehow it all ends up connecting in the end so I am not doing a lot of directing. So funny to be *studying* Egypt, but have children who are reading books on knights, the civil war, spies, and Don Quixote. That's the way it goes though.

My oldest and I made a trip out a few days ago. I love going out with my children alone. The conversation is very different one on one than it is if there are brothers tagging along OR if dad is with us.

We went to the library and browsed their movies, picked up some holds (very much loving our library system and *FREE* interlibrary loans right now), and looked through the books. This library is not the one we usually go to, so it was fun to see what they had, and with it being so small it didn't take us long to browse.

Today we went to the hospital for my abdominal ultrasound. The lady who took my info complimented me on my boys. She said that most children wouldn't stand quietly and wait.  Well, it made me feel good anyway.

After the ultrasound we went by the library, but it was packed. We didn't know that they had storytime during that time, and we couldn't even find a parking place...so we decided to go have lunch. I was realllly hungry because I wasn't allowed to eat after midnight. The boys picked Long John Silver's...yummm...GREASEY deep fried fish!!

Then after lunch we tried the library again. Thankfully there was at least a place to park this time, but the library was full of 1-3yo's. It looked like the party was breaking up, so we decided to wait around. Now, I will say, I have nothing against a bunch of 1-3yo's...but, our libraries are generally empty and quiet, so it was different. Plus, the place that my children generally use was occupied and they were kind of at a loss and stuck to my shirt-tail.

We hit the jackpot though, lots of books on all the things that we are interested in. I had to limit them...we have been going every week so it isn't like they can't pick up more the next time.

Oldest is very into the Civil War right now. He's very intrigued at the inaccuracies of most stories about Abraham Lincoln and the causes of the war. He's writing a *historical fiction* novel about a 14-15yo boy who lied about his age in order to join in the battle. Our house is full of all sorts of books on the subject, some we own, and some we have borrowed from our library. I'm anxious to see where this leads.

And now I am here, wasting time. My tummy is sore from all the mashing that the tech did, and I'm being a big baby. I don't even have a supper plan for today...not even an inkling of what I might fix.

Lander is off tomorrow, and my plan is to go get my hair cut. It's getting so long that the flip won't stay in it...aggravating. I'm not taking a before pic, but maybe I'll post an after one.

The boys want to go with me so they can visit the used book store again. Not sure what Lander's plans are...he's still cutting down trees and plowing up dirt.