Summertime can be very busy
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

I have been so busy the past week I don't know where to begin.

The first thing that happened was last week, I ran over a hen in my driveway. I don't think the hen caused it, but I when I got out of the car I saw that I had a flat tire. I was sorry for the hen but glad that I had the flat tire at home and not on some lonely road.

Right after I discovered I had a flat tire, my daughter Molly drove into the yard in her 1988 Honda with smoke pouring out and antifreeze spraying out of the hood. Bad luck comes in threes and that night my computer told me that there was no more memory and I could not save or print anything.

My children had downloaded too much stuff and too many games were on the C drive.

I got two new tires put on my car, took the computer to get fixed, but Molly's car has way too many things wrong with it and she is now looking for an affordable car to drive back and forth to college at St. Mary's in Winona. Good luck to her.

Last week was the final week of picking raspberries. I made jelly with most of the berries as I can never get all the black picnic bugs out of the berries when I make jam. I also made sauerkraut and it is fermenting away in a crock in the kitchen. My cucumbers are growing steadily and I will be making dill pickles.

This past weekend, I gave up trying to do anything in the garden as I took care of my three-month-old grandson, Tommy for two days. He is a good baby and smiles a lot, but when you have a baby around you might as well forget about trying to do any project, because it ain't going to happen.

I do live in chaos, but it was more so with a little baby around. My daughter Bridget and her boyfriend Lucas came and painted the dining room white with green trim and got rid of all the junk in the corners. Between feeding the baby, burping the baby, walking the baby, changing the baby, rocking the baby and cleaning the baby, I cooked for everyone. I recalled very clearly that when you are taking care of a baby you are really stuck with the baby. Tommy is a very nice baby to be stuck with because he is so adorable and everyone wants to hold him for 10 minutes or so at a time, but he is a baby and needs 24 hours of constant care.

Now I know what other grandparents mean when they say, "It's great when the grandkids come and it's great when they go home."

When Tommy left with his parents, all I wanted to do was sit and read. I kept thinking that when he went home, I'd get some chores done, but I didn't feel like doing anything but reading a book when my arms were finally free.

This week I will be at the Mower County Fair with Cari Quam on Thursday night in the Plager Building. County Fairs are fun events known for getting people with many different interests to come out of the woodwork to see what is happening right around where we live. Please stop and say hello.