To Live in a Palace

A hard working woman named Alice,
Grew jealous to live in a palace,
She was sad to conceive,
That a crown she’d receive,
If her heart and her hands were not callous.

The boys and I are in Michigan this week. I conjured a plan last Friday and presented it to Kris on Saturday. Had a setback on Sunday afternoon and overcame it by Sunday evening. Monday we hit the road after an amusing chiropractic appointment in which Aron thought the Dr. was murdering me, and a quick stop at the bank and a gas station. We were on the road before 9:30 a.m. and got to dad’s driveway by 6:15 post-meridian.

The weather has been wonderful up here. The air is deliciously cool and the boys have played outside a lot. One of the reasons we came up was to meet up with the Bowens. They have been traveling non-stop this summer and we haven’t seen them in over a month. So with one week left before school starts for Owen and the knowledge that his cousins would be staying at Grandpa’s this week as well, we headed north for our last hoorah before school. I have been intending to come all summer, but with back problems, sprained foot, appointments with doctors and events with our Sunday school class it’s been a bit of a challenge to get away. Responsibility and physical issues…am I that old?

Becky and Bobby and the gang arrived on Tuesday night and up until that point we didn’t do a lot of activities. Wednesday we worked around errands and other things and then planned a cook-out around the campfire with some cousins. My brother, Joel, took care of most of those arrangements and we had a nice time. The steer that dad keep were penned off in one area and we had taken over the other half of their world. One of them decided he didn’t like that very much and somehow got out of his world and into ours. We chased him back but I was having more trouble keeping Aron from running into the path of the stomping beast. Completely unafraid of an animal more than 10 times his size, Aron would squeal with delight and run right at him. He had discovered early on Tuesday that the cows are scared of him and felt sure that he could help round up the cattle too.

Yesterday after a quick visit to the playground in the morning, we made arrangements for the kids to see a matinee with Grandpa and uncle Bobby while Becky and I visited a salon to get much needed pedicures. My toes are much happier now.

As soon as we picked them up at the theater we headed south to Middlebury, IN to my cousin Regina’s home. She and Merlin and their five children have a beautiful home in the middle of the farmland. The rest of Gina’s family arrived soon after our group arrived. With a party that included Gina and Roxie’s grandfather, my dad, my aunt and uncle Esther and Larry, my cousin Emily, my cousin Danny and his new wife Danae, my cousin Roxanne and husband Jeff along with their nine children, we were a happy little crowd. The grilled chicken, home grown green beans with ham and bacon, fresh garden cucumber and onion salad, colorful pasta salad with olives and home grown cherry tomatoes, roasted potatoes, homemade bread and strawberry freezer jam, along with some homemade ice cream with choice of zucchini cake (tasted just like carrot cake) with homemade cream cheese frosting or blueberry cobbler was enough to make me want to move back home. I don’t think I ever eat as well as when I’m with my weed pullin’, row hoein’, pea pickin, bean snippin’, corn shuckin’ fruit cannin’ cousins. Gina’s basement storage room was full of canned goods from her garden and there were apples in a bag ready to be processed in some fashion. Other than the flies that would not relent in their passion to be in the house, we had a great time.

The kids had puppies to play with, there was baseball to play, s’mores to roast on the little stone pit of flames off the patio, bikes to ride, and toys to play with. Ivan cried when we left.

Today…we plan to do some more visiting…We’ll go to see Reubmommy this morning and probably lunch at Roxanne’s. Hopefully the morning will include a visit to the Sand Lake Party store for the best ice cream cones in the country. Becky and I will divide up the kids again later and do a little shopping in the afternoon. The older cousins will go fishing with Uncle Joel and the younger ones will take naps and hang out with uncle Bobby.