Thank you to all of you who offered comments and support about my rant over the weekend about technology and how it steals our time. We made it through the weekend, and so did our pool plumbing and chlorinator, although we will still need to get better fittings for permanent use.

After church, Self-Reliant Man suggested we go out to lunch to celebrate Mother's Day, especially as there had been no time for any type of Mother's Day shopping or preparation of any sort (except for the cute crafts the children made for me in Sunday School). So we went out for Bar-B-Q, and headed home afterward. And yes, I did get a precious hour of sitting and reading, which is all I wanted for Mother's Day.

I received an Anti-Gravity chair for my birthday, which was Friday. This is a type of chair that is popular among RVers, with good reason. It is so comfortable! So I had an afternoon of cleaning the pool up a little, and then sitting in the breezeway (until it got too hot) on my new chair with my new copy of Creation and the Cosmos by Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe. It only lasted about an hour, and I dozed part of the time, but it was a real luxury and it was great! The children played in the yard, running around in the heat and humidity. And Self-Reliant Man..... well, he actually managed to slowly and methodically tap four pistons into the engine block of the tractor.

So there was ultimate redemption this weekend, for which I am grateful!

To answer my bloggy friend ,Paula, in California, yes, you are correct. When we moved to the country, almost five years ago, we did have visions of simplicity dancing in our heads. The problem is though, that all this time later, we are still trying to get the property to the point where it should have been when we moved in. There were some unreported issues with the house, and the previous homeowner sold us his farm tractor for $2000 while failing to report that he had real problems running it sometimes. In fact, after we moved in, one of our neighbors (the squirrel killing one) told us that they had to "pull start" the tractor before selling it to us (i.e. pull it with a truck while starting it due to severe lack of compression in the engine). This was a sign of a very worn out engine. So we struggled with it for five summers, with lack of power and difficulty starting. My husband figured out how to electrically simulate the "pull start" using two batteries and some wire jumpers, and starting the tractor could take 10 minutes, or it could take hours ~~~ you never knew which it would be. So it was this past Fall that my husband finally reasoned that it was time to completely rebuild the engine, a monumental, but necessary task. That was about 7 months ago, and it has been hard work. Though much is done, we are not out of the woods yet, because there are some critical steps to come.

Another thing. Three weeks after we moved into this house a hurricane hit us, and we had damage to our house and barn. That was an undertaking, too, getting that all fixed up (by ourselves) and the result of the stress of the move and the hurricane aftermath (there were three hurricanes here that summer) was that yours truly, Violin Mom herself, developed a case of shingles.

So our move to the country has been a mixed blessing. There are many times when I am thrilled to be here. And yet, it has been full of challenges for all of us at times.