Ins and Outs of my Life

The sky is falling!

I titled this entry “ The sky is falling” because I have not updated here since 2011. I can’t believe it has been that long!
Update on my life: Well, I am beginning a new season in my life. I have empty nest syndrome bad!! When I started at writing .com (then known as stories.com), I had a three year old son and seven year old. I remember some of those first entries sitting at my desk holding the three year old. Now that three year old, Dalton is 19 and a freshman in college. Yes, he is away doing the dorm thing. Kaleb, my oldest is 23 and about to graduate college in May. He attends a local university, so is still living at home. But, he works a lot and as most twenty- three year olds, if he isn’t working or in class, he is off with friends.
So, I have told so many people lately, and I know I told some of you guys; that when people say raising a child goes by fast, well they are right.
When you are in the midst of it, you do see it going by quite so fast, but in truth it is even faster than you can imagine. It is hard to explain. I teach with a few younger teachers now that bring the memories back. For exampleas they talk about their lives I then too remember holding the towel in the bed as your child pukes all night. Going to all those travel ball games, not to mention the practices. Dealing with the homework night after night until you feel you are back in school. Those are the types of moments that drag and you think you will never get a moment to yourself again. But, then there are the moments where you know this time will not last. There are the kisses and hugs, the smell of the baby’s head, the first school play, the first time they go out driving, first dates and dances, and then bam graduation.
We have been a baseball family for over ten years. I mean full time, all year. Dalton was in school ball, and played travel ball. Before that it was little league. Almost every weekend was a ball game or tournament.
When he went away to college, which is about 3 hours away, it was rough. My son Kaleb was away for the summer doing a intern about 3 hours away too. He came home about the same time Dalton moved into his dorm. Then he started a new job, with hours 5:00 to midnight with a TV station. So most evenings hubby and I are now sitting here wondering what to eat for supper for only two of us, instead of rushing off to a practice and grabbing fast food. This started in August. We enjoyed Christmas break with both boys home.
So, as many of you know my mother who was my best friend died back in 2008 at only 74. My dad and she had been married 51 years, and she did everything for him. So when she die, he was in good health, but he needed myself and my siblings to get him through a rough spot without her. He needed me more and more in the last couple of years since his health declined. So, he died in April. So not having to take care of him, and having my babies out of the nest has been life altering. I can’t say it has been all bad. Hubby and I are just in that adjusting to a new way of life. Retirement is around the corner, if we choose that route. I am 52, he is 49. We plan on early retirement.
I grew up on a farm, which shocks people who don’t know me well. I guess because I am so prissy now. I will talk about driving a tractor and they look at me always shocked. My daddy and brother were living in my childhood home when he died. For the last few years, I have done a lot to help daddy as he got frail. Feeding cows, bush hogging the pastures, worming cattle..the list is endless. So when he died,my siblings and I could not bear to break up the land (farm), or sell the animals. So, now eight months later, my life is back to farming. I feel like I am a child again. Once I married and started my own family, I didn’t have too much to do with helping with the farm. I mean I would be there if I was needed, but as far as day to day operations, that was my parents’ farm. So when I started back helping daddy these last few years, I found I loved it. We are in the process of buying my siblings out of the actual land and farm. My brother will buy the house from the estate. My husband and I don’t know if we want to build there (about 20 min. From the city where I live now), or go buy a beach condo. His parents live near the farm too. I love my husband for making me happy. He knows how much the farm means to me. So, we go out there about twice a week to put out hay or do other projects. My brother keeps an eye on the farm. The farm is about 45 acres. My hubby’s grandparents had land that backed up to our farm when I was growing up, so when my hubby’s father inherited that land, he signed about 7 acres over to us that is on the same road as our farm. It is on a creek and would also make a great place to build a house. So we have or soon will own 53 acres . We only have cows right now. But, y’all growing up , we had goats, chickens, a horse and over 200 pigs and about 75 cattle. Daddy sold off a few acres a few years ago, so the farm is smaller. But the potential to increase the animals is there. Not to mention, I miss my daddy’s huge gardens. He of course died in April before planting time. I knew it was near his time when I asked him what he was going to grow in his garden and he said he didn’t think he wanted a garden this past year. So, as my children are off to their studies and careers, hubby and I are onto new adventures. I still work for the school system as a librarian. I have been out of the actual classroom as a teacher almost 12 years. I still have to teach lessons, along with admin the library, but I have a lot of freedoms in my curriculum. The way education mandates has changed, I don’t think I would ever want to go back to the classroom again. I also am a IT facilitator for my school. It is very fast paced as I have a pretty big school. I find I am getting older body wise and mind wise. It snuck up on me.