The Prodigal Comes Limping Home

I thought I'd try taking the plunge into J-Land once more.

But Toto, we're not in Yuppieland any more.

I debated what to call this thing. "Hippies in Deliverance-land"? "Hell's Half Acre"? But "Green Acres" is pretty appropriate, even though I don't long for 5th Avenue and Marty hasn't taken to wearing a vest in the fields...yet.

I can't promise a post every day...for one thing, dial-up down here is hella slow, and I have my Domestic Goddess things to attend to, plus homeschooling, and generalized polishing of the turd. But at least the turd is ours this time around.

Put it this way, when we finally got the house, my Dad handed us the door-knob and said "here's your key". (You might be a redneck if...) You can only go up from there, right?

As I write, Marty is working his shitty maintenance job in the nearest small town. The place used to be government housing and is fondly referred to by the natives as "Plywood City" or "Mannington Manure", if you want to get fancy about it. Apparently every woman there is either a whore or was a whore in their prime---LOL. Or they have a substance abuse problem, or both. The guys---I don't know. He usually comes home with an intriguing tale every day. It's only a part-time job, so he fills in the gaps by working for another painter and working back in the 'burgh from time to time. That got lonely at first, but me and Pie, we go with the flow.

The Pie loves it down here. She didn't care when she had to use the outhouse until we finally got a septic system. She thought the fact that it rained inside the house was funny. She thinks it's interesting when a bat gets into the house and lands on Mommy's neck in the middle of the night when Daddy is out of town... Right now she's sitting in a chair reading herself The Secret Garden. She's quite the little bookworm these days, but she reads in bulk. Right now she has a huge stack of chapter books that she reads piece-meal as the mood strikes her...Little House today or American Girls? She still likes every subject and has a knack for math that she must have inherited from Grandpop, cuz Lord knows it skipped me. Maybe that's why my finances are still an unholy wreck (some things NEVER change).

As for me, I do my chores, I teach, I spend an inordinate amount of time birdwatching (a lot of birds here---they always brighten my day...) I dream of how I want to decorate once all of the rooms have walls---LOL. The majority of the downstairs is drywalled now---at least most of the walls---the ceilings are another story, but all in good time... We hope in the Spring to build some stairs, so Pie and I can actually get to the upstairs for the first time :) Hopefully by next fall, she'll have a room of sorts...patience, patience. I listen to a lot of pop music, take walks to the lake or to my parent's... It's nice to be within walking distance of my family for the first time in 22 years:)

We still have both the cats. Itchy escaped and was gone for 6 weeks. I was resigned to never seeing him again, when one morning in September I heard a familar meow in the basement. He was so skinny I almost didn't recognize him, but he's bounced back and is as fat and evil (if not fatter and more evil) than ever. Darth was devastated when he returned---he so liked the life of the only boy... No dog yet...I don't think I'm ready for the rigors of a puppy with everything else I've got on my plate.

Well, believe it or not, that's the Cliff's Notes version of the last almost year of my life---LOL. I'll try to squeak out some more time for this soon:)