Letters to Mom

Ma; I must be a little nuts.  I'm in two online courses through Coursera (Bible history and Crafting a Better Writer) and I'm planning on doing the "summer camp" with NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month).  I've got the basic idea down, some hint of what the characters are, some indepth research (and a great memory) and planning on trying to reach at least 25,000 words by the end of July. I'm also working on the garden, working around the house and trying to plan freezer meals (preparing our own packages of veggies, meat, seasonings, etc - freeze them, thaw and then cook in the slow cooker, pressure cooker, whatever).  I've found that making large meals and freezing them is okay but I really don't care for the taste of most stuff that we've cooked and then freeze so I'm going to try doing the prep work but not cooking.  We'll freeze the prepared stuff, thaw bags out and then cook.  Should taste a bit better and be convenient. I

Hey Mom; We've been busy with the garden (I've been busy with the garden and plants).  It's hard work but I've got flowers, strawberries, spinach and some basil growing and I think the two dogwood trees and weeping Willow are going to take. We'll probably do the memorial stones to you and Marie this week, Ma. I can't even describe how badly I miss you almost everyday.  It also hurts that we haven't seen Holly for almost two weeks.  He never would miss a meal of the canned food and one morning he wasn't there.  His appetite had been healthy but his allergies were really giving him fits. The raccoon haven't been aggressive this year and there's no large dogs that roam close to us except the hound dog next door and he's afraid of his own shadow. We think Holly went for one last walk into the woods to go to sleep.  Dusty tried to do the same when he got so very sick but I found him. Then Blake went missing.  We think someone visiting