Up and Down the Gravel:

1. Winter does not want to let loose its death grip. G'ma Opal
is sure she'd feel better if she could get out a little bit.
She is coveting the onion sets in the Mayberry grocery store.

2. I've only heard the peepers twice so far. It takes three
times, according to hillbilly tradition, to be on the brink
of spring.

3. Monday night we had a combined birthday party for Tandy and
Uncle Jim. Fried catfish was on the menu. We filled it out
with spinach salad, asparagus vegetable medley, canned pears
and cottage cheese, and chocolate cake topped with pecans.
Then to finish the night G'ma Opal and Joel took on Mom and
Hattie in a game of High Five. The General lost; I hope she
slept okay afterward.

4. We hosted a volleyball tournament this past weekend. When
the weekends are as full (as they usually are) as this last one
was, it is hard for me to catch up on other things and find time
to update the blog. My apologies. And now I am headed into
another full weekend. I head to The Big City on Friday for a
Ladies Day happening at my in-law's church. It has become a
Harding Women tradition...a mini family reunion of sorts. Of
course, I'll get to see Billy while I'm there, though he says
he'll be studying all weekend. Nothing new about that, is there?

Then I'll stick around through Monday and play second support
member when Mom has chemo session #4. Philippine sister usually
does this, but she is in the Philippines right now, how odd!

5. Joel has his second batch of eggs incubating. He is also
going to pick up some live chicks on Saturday and has invited
Hattie down to meet them. He has been working hard on building
himself a snug little chicken coop. I'll post some pictures of
them when they get here. He is talking ducks now too...in
addition to the geese he is supposed to be getting. He is going
to have some fun now keeping them all out of where they are not
supposed to be. And, my question is, what will Max think of all
this? It should prove to be a very interesting little experiment.