I'M FREEEEEEEEE!!!

Yes, all the fosters have left my house. It won't quite be official until Monday, but as of late this morning, they're having a weekend visit with their mother Margo and won't have to come back to our house. Wheeeee, we're a family of five again! Funny how being the mother of three suddenly seems like a breeze. *grin*



We did lots of laundry last night and sent them home with plenty of clean clothes. It took two trips to get all their stuff home, and we're still finding little things here and there. Of course, this doesn't mean they're out of our hair for good. We'll be babysitting for various appointments on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, and every Tuesday and Wednesday for a few months, but at least it's just for a couple of hours at a time and if we want to, we can do it at their house so that Margo doesn't have to get two toddlers and an infant strapped into her car.



I haven't really relaxed yet. It's going to take me a while to adjust to my freedom, not to mention the peace and quiet. It's so quiet here tonight! I keep getting that sneaking feeling that someone's doing something they're not supposed to. Trust me when I say it was a hell of a long four-plus months -- I can't even begin to describe everything that's happened since I last blogged. I don't really want to relive it all, but suffice to say that I've never heard so much screaming, yelling, whining, crying, stomping, and door-slamming in all my life. I've had more contacts with police officers and sheriff's deputies in the last four months than I have in all my life. And I've been defied, called a bitch, and involved in more physical altercations in the last four months than I have in all my life.



I'm never doing it again. Never. Not that I could if I wanted to -- just a couple of weeks after we took the fosters, the state laws changed. If we wanted to foster again, we'd have to go through a lengthy licensing process. Margo had better keep her shit together because next time our hands will be tied -- we won't be allowed to take her kids.



My own kids were absolutely amazing throughout. They put up with a lot and helped me even more. I even got to attend RWA National in Los Angeles last month -- my 11yo daughter went with the 8yo foster to summer camp that week, and my 13yo daughter did all the cooking for everyone else. What I regret most of all about this whole thing is that my kids had to give up the summer vacation we'd planned. School starts next Wednesday, and my 15yo son already has football practice and band activities that prevent us from trying to do it now.



And as if having three fosters, one of them uncontrollable, wasn't enough to deal with this summer, we experienced both our worst drought and our hottest July in recordkeeping history. There were more 100+ degree days this summer than there've been in all the eighteen years I've lived here put together. (And for six weeks of that, I helped Mr Robin clean out ten grain bins. Can you say heat stroke?) As a result, we won't be having much of a corn crop. Only one of our sixteen fields is irrigated, and even that one will see significant yield loss because of the weather. Fortunately, we carry decent crop insurance, so it won't hit us nearly as hard as it will some farmers. Plus, we finally started getting some rain last week -- in fact, it rained four out of the first eight days of August, and August is the critical moisture month for soybeans, so those might turn out all right.



But I'm sure you didn't check in here to get the farm report -- on to the writing report.



I'll say right up front, I haven't written a word since the fosters were dropped on me out of the blue that first week in April. There was just no way I could with first seven, and then six, and finally five kids around the house all summer. The 2yo stayed with us from beginning to end, and he didn't settle down and start sleeping through the night occasionally until July. He generally woke up crying two to four times every night, and just when he finally adjusted and started sleeping better, home visits began, and he was always so upset after them that he'd sleep badly for a couple of nights. And I had appointments out the ears with social workers, doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, attorneys and school officials all summer.



Fortunately, that's all behind me now. As I said earlier, school starts Wednesday, and I plan to dive back into my works-in-progress immediately. Getting a book or two out will be my top priority in the coming months, and I'm calling on all my writing buddies to crack the whip and help me focus.



And speaking of which, I'm thrilled to announce that I recently joined my dear friends, the Smutketeers, and we're busy planning some very special projects for the near future. Rest assured they'll light a fire under me -- not to mention, keep me blogging more regularly. :)



Thank you all, my fans and friends, for being so faithful and patient. I promise I'll deliver the goods! Stay tuned...



p.s. If you've emailed me this summer and haven't had a reply, I'M SO SORRY! I'm just now beginning to wade thru the pile and I promise I'll answer at the earliest possible moment!