...and even more "busy"

I got back from my Texas trip ... and my husband wanted to take a road-trip himself, before the construction starts and he feels anchored to the work.  So i quickly laundered and re-packed my modern-day clothes, we put the car-top carrier on and filled it with things for "Cowboy Town" and the kids' place, loaded the dog and the canary, and we headed out again.

The long road-trip with someone else driving is an entirely different experience to doing the trip by myself.  We stopped overnight to drop off firewood and a rack for it at the first location, and then moved along to Houston.  Again.  :-)

Fortunately, our daughter's house is a very comfortable place to visit -- we have our own guest-room, and the kitchen is pretty well equipped.  The kids enjoy whistling to Pip to encourage him to sing, and they know Spense "has a sharp end" so they don't try to pet him.  The day after we arrived, we went to visit a local farm which sells raw dairy products, grass-finished meats, and pastured eggs, which L had spotted some time before but never took time to visit.  It was a good place!  I'm actually going to have some fresh whey to work with again!

But a few days later, J was eager to get home again, to keep progress going on the Big Project.  We loaded up our stuff but not the dog and bird -- we brought the kids with us instead.

Now, when dealing with grandchildren of seven and eleven years. you do things a little differently than you did with your OWN.  You're more lenient about MAKING them eat the way you would prefer.  I don't know if it's harder or easier to have hard-line parents to deal with; our daughter and SIL are laid-back and practical, and i know i won't get in trouble for letting them eat "junk" but of course i know they should be limited with it.  A malnourished child is going to be more unhappy and uncomfortable than a properly-nourished one, but it's hard enough to find good meals on the highway and on-the-go for adults who are TRYING to do just that -- with kids it's far more tricky.

So when we hit the grocery store yesterday, we bought more carbage in one day than we had in the entire previous YEAR.  Kids burn off a lot of energy, of course, and these lean little people don't have a lot of body-fat to fall back on, like J and i do.  Their stomachs are small, and they need feeding often;  i was actually impressed on the highway that they weren't clamoring for snacks.  Of course, i didn't TELL them i'd packed some, but i was prepared.  ;-)  The power of not knowing snacks are available -- out of sight, out of mind -- my Dear Readers will grasp that Imagination can be the enemy of Willpower....

We had a number of ideas for outings, but the forecast is predicting quite a bit of rain for the next week, so plans will surely have to evolve.  Today, which was overcast and wet when we awoke, will feature a visit to the Butterfly House, a VERY well-executed place belonging to the Missouri Botanical Garden "family" of sites.  After that...