April Showers

When it rains, it pours.

We were enjoying the sporadic sunny days in the first few days of April. I transplanted any seedlings that were ready to go into the garden and started a new batch of seeds. So far, I have had tremendous luck with snap peas and green beans from seed. I am still letting the onions and potatoes grow in my other raised bed. All of my herbs have been doing really well this year too. I'm not sure if it's because I paired them with certain plants beside them or what, but I'm glad for it. I have never been able to just clip fresh herbs and keep them alive through summer. Maybe this year will be different. For those who may be curious, I planted my dill and chives next to my onions and potatoes, parsley next to tomatoes, basil next to asparagus and oregano and oregano and cilantro next to cucumbers. I chose to plant them this way after doing a little research beforehand.

My older hens have been getting along well, but I have been so cautious about letting them free range. At the beginning of April, I was keeping them contained with some fencing while the dogs and I hung around with them. I also had the younger chicks moved into the coop with my greenhouse tunnel repurposed as a barrier between them and the hens. It worked pretty well for a couple of weeks, which was perfect for all of the chickens to get to know each other before completely intermingling.

We were soaking in all the new warmth by spending as much time outside. We went to the lake and let the boys fish and stay up late. We grilled out and watched the sun set. We played in the sprinkler and filled up buckets of water to play "sink or float". It was looking like a great start to the upcoming summer. Then, the rain started.

We woke up to phone calls and a text message saying that my husband's grandparents' house was on fire. My husband and his cousin both tried to get to the house. The firefighters just told them to go to the hospital... I won't get into the details of it all, but it was a very difficult day to get through. It was a difficult week to get through. It was a difficult month to get through.

His granny would try to feed every person that stepped foot in their house, and her cooking was phenomenal. We all knew she had a direct line to Jesus too. There wasn't a day she didn't have her Bible right beside her. His grandaddy was the hardest worker and provided for his family nonstop. It took a lot of convincing to get him to finally sit down and stop working on anything and everything. Together, they created the family that I married into, and I'm so grateful for that. It was a tragedy to lose them due to smoke inhalation and to lose their house almost completely from the fire.

This all happened during our kids' spring break. We were supposed to go to the beach. We had to cancel, of course. We had family coming in town from all over, and we opened our doors (and yard) for everyone to come and stay for as long as necessary. Matt's brother and his family were on a camping trip and came straight to our house. They camped in our driveway. Everyone else that needed a place to stay was inside on a couch, on the pull out couch, in one of the boys' rooms, or anywhere else they could fit. It was a houseful. We were sad, but it was so nice to just have everyone so close. The silver lining in this is that his grandparents were able to pass away together, and we were all able to grieve together on a week that no one had school. The first night that everyone stayed at our house, which was the same day as the fire, it stormed.

We stayed up late. We watched the rain. We thought how pretty it was. That his grandparents were putting on a show, and it was beautiful. Then, we all started to get notifications on our phones telling us there could possibly be a tornado. I started to worry a little bit. The men stayed outside to watch, and I went upstairs to check on the kids. I just had a feeling. Then, it was so loud. The rain, the wind, our house was so loud. I grabbed my three boys and their cousin and brought them downstairs for shelter (they had been asleep). My brother-in-law and his family rushed inside from the camper. We all turned off our alarms, but we kept hearing one still going off. The power went out. I lit candles. The alarm kept going off. After searching everywhere, I finally found the phone that was still alarming us about the tornado. It was my husband's granny's phone that we had found in the house after the fire. She was being our guardian angel, no doubt about it.

The storm finally settled down. We all went to bed. The next morning, we woke up to one of our trees down in our yard. It hit the house. It actually hit exactly where my sons and their cousin were sleeping. It didn't break through the roof, but it could have been so much worse. The roof has since been replaced along with some of the siding. Again, it could have been so much worse, and we are so thankful it wasn't. The kids actually had fun just climbing the fallen tree all week. Every night we had someone bringing us food, and every night turned into a get together with lots of stories and laughing. After the funeral, we had one last get together at the house. It was a beautiful day. The next day, we slept...

School started back, and we had to be thrown back into our routine. I cried at work multiple times. My husband and his family did the same. Without all of the chaos of everyone in our home, it was like the quiet made it all sink in even more. We planted a part of granny's azalea bush in our yard. I see red birds there almost every single day.

I've done lots of gardening since the funeral. As if it wasn't already my therapy, it is even more now. That goes for the chickens too. I've been finding new ways to give them treats (like making my own lentil sprouts for them, which they loved). We've had more family time with cousins and siblings. We've been soaking up all the family time lately. We've gone back to the lake to play in the water. We've filled more buckets with water and ran around the sprinkler. We've jumped on the trampoline. We even spontaneously ran our first family race, which was so much fun. We updated the watering system for the the chickens, which I'll write about on a later date. We've stayed busy when it's pretty outside, and we've watched The Terminator countless times when it was rainy (it's my sons' newest obsession).

Things were looking up for the end of April. Until my middle son decided to go in the woods without shoes or pants. He came back with poison ivy (not his first time). I got angry with him. His rash got worse. He wouldn't stop scratching. He scratched so much that he gave himself a staph infection... Luckily, we were ahead of it, and ten days later, after steroids and antibiotics and ointments and sterilizing baths, he is completely fine... I still don't think he's learned his lesson about wearing pants and boots in the woods, but I'm just glad that we're past this incident.

So, thank the Lord, it is now May, and we can move on to more positive things! Thank you to everyone who has reached out to help with a meal, sent a card, gave me a hug, taught one (or more) of my classes, or simply listened to me talk about it all. I am so very thankful for the best community, family and friends. I love you all.