home sweet home

Well, we made it home from our 6 day get-away to visit my mom and dad in Mississippi. Stephen Grande joined us on Sunday night and we all drove back across the state lines to our little homestead yesterday afternoon (with a new boat in tow, more on that in a minute). It is always bittersweet leaving family. Going home is necessary, but leaving and distance can be a real burden sometimes. I would love nothing more than to live in the same town with both sets of in-laws. Call me crazy, but it is so. Maybe I have a subconscious desire to have that many free babysitters around. Okay, I confess...it is a conscious desire. But I'd like to think that part of the reason is I just like everybody and wish to be around them.

This morning I'm in unpacking mode. I face a truck load of worsh', but the bigger task at hand is sorting through all the STUFF we brought back from what my sister and our husbands have nicknamed the Motherland (my parent's house, much like Great Britain and the colonies). They always load us up with a bunch of goods (things they want to rid themselves of, old furniture and the like).

Here's just a sampling of what we brought back this trip:

• a new kitchen table (their old one, new to us)
• an old coffee table book with pages I want to tear out and frame
• an Easter basket
• a flannel bathrobe that I'm pretty sure belonged to my grandparents (my dad offered it to me and for unknown reasons I couldn't turn the hideous thing down)
• a stack of manila folders from a filing cabinet my dad cleaned out at his office, all labeled with different diseases...prostate cancer, polycythemia, hemolytic anemia. Guess I'll need to invest in some labels to cover up all the medical terms.
  
• a boat (given to us, YES, given to us by some family friends who desperately wanted to get rid of it, but wanted to put it in the hands of a caring owner who happens to be my husband).

Why we do this to ourselves (take on more STUFF) is beyond me?!

Anyway, has been a long (up since 5:17), quiet, and restful morning. We are grateful to be home. I'm on my 3rd cup of coffee and the worshin' machine is running hard. I love mornings like these. And I'm not going anywhere today but on a nice long walk (weather permitting).

More to come!

One more thing...thanks for all of your input on the bedskirt! I made it and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Next, I'll be asking y'all to help me pick out paint colors.