Farmcastle Monday

Another weekend come and gone, a beautiful one.  Weather was gorgeous as I watched the Snape involved with finals and then prepare for summer school.  The end of the school year for the Snapelings is fast approaching and with it the glorious freedom summer provides for us all.

The garden this morning smelled so good from the sun drying the dew on fresh green leaves.  Although we tried to plant things that would be ripened at different intervals, it seems the plants  decided differently as they all seem to be ripening simultaneously. Canning will be en masse this year, but that's okay.  Getting it over with at once won't be such a bad thing once it's all done!

The Farmcastle (which is the general us as well as the property) is settled as the beast of it is thriving at full capacity.  Art and experience is the life blood, the peace of the country gives us the heartbeat to gauge ourselves by. We all need the separation of our lives from town, school, and the public at large. It centers us all.  A lot of patience has been required on my part as all in this household are coming, going, and in between.  I find assurance in the steadiness every day.  Routine can be boring, but it does help with drama that consistently needs resolving. Life hasn't easy to navigate, but taking it a day at a time seems to be the key.  That an a consistent mind vacation from reading awesome novels.

I find it strange to watch my children grow into an age that I, myself, remember being at only yesterday.   My Beast Child's has just turned seventeen.  The Oldest Child will be eighteen in a mere two months.  These are times they themselves will remember forever as being only a moment away. I reminisced on this earlier as  I walked around the house picking up paint brushes, sketch pads, books and socks, thinking of the end of the school year fast approaching. I hear the washing machine spinning their socks and towels right now and it is whirring around as quickly as 2015.  I hope these days will be full of cherished times.

In the meantime, besides the endless amounts of dishes and other household chores, I've been organizing thoughts of writing.  I really have to. There's been the ideas of a story that's been fermenting for the past decade, a story inspired by my children and     so intense that it's burned bridges in the past with those who had believed in the prospects of my finishing....ages ago.  It's nearly time to begin the serious sit down.  I write better when the kids are around, so I'm predicting this summer will be a good time to start.  I've been painting with the Troubadour Child through a quiet weekend which reminds me how being absorbed in creation is to fill the soul.  Especially with one's family.  With the children coming home in a few weeks, it's time to act seriously about organizing a story outline properly and starting a purposeful first draft.  Putting it off seems silly anymore and I'm too embarrassed to even think about it. Bad form, really.

 So, porkchops are thawing in the kitchen, the vacuum is ready to be plugged in, dishes are waiting to be done, and loads of wash need to be cycled through.  It'll be a busy day.  Funny though, because my day doesn't really begin until the kids are home.  That's when I really work.  They all have thoughts that they feel compelled to ask in examining, behavior that often needs modification, laughter that needs expression, and life for a moment can be took less seriously or more seriously depending on the moment. The Snape usually is absent when this happens because of his schedule, so after I've sent the kids off to their beds, I'm exhausted not from housework so much, but emotionally. I spend the day gearing up for them to walk through the door. My Mother used to tell me that women are the heart of the family.  I believe this to be true for ours.