Home *sweet??* home

Admittedly, it was hard coming back to Castroville after such a fun week in Tennessee and even a fun day and 1/2 at my mom and dad's. My love affair with familiar things didn't diminish. It just made it harder to come back. But not coming back was not an option. Thankfully, the closer we got to Castroville, the more I was able to feel like maybe it was ok to come back. Even Jeremy said" Well, it's ALMOST like home". I agree. But our homecoming was a little less than sweet. Our beloved (I say that just to keep from growling!) goats made a mess of gigantic proportions on our front and back porch. I guess when the dog's away, the goats play!! There was stuff over turned and poop everywhere! Well, I thought, at least it's outside. Then I walked inside and smelled a wierd odor inside. Yuck! I sent my sniffer on a mission. This is certainly a time when I'm glad to not be pregnant and have the hypersensitive "bloodhoundesque" pregnancy nose. I would have been throwing up for sure. After hunting, we found out it was a combination of several noxious things. First, there were clothes in the dryer that didn't get totally dry and were left to mildew in the dryer. By the way, how much Downy CAN you put in the washer at one time??? Actually I dumped vinegar (probably more than I needed!) in the wash and was very thankful to not be using All Free and Clear. I certainly wanted something SCENTED!!!

Even after the laundry was done, the smell didn't go away. I could smell it in the laundry room, but also the pantry. I really thought maybe we had a mouse or something that had died in the pantry. Sick thought!! I very cautiously moved some things around in the pantry and then like a brave pioneer woman...sent my boys in to move other stuff around. Thankfully, no mouse or anything else dead. Meanwhile, Josiah's going a little Febreeze-happy. Thankfully I'd stocked up on it when I got it cheap a while back. And then yesterday after a trip to the grocery store, the mystery was solved. I opened up our back-up fridge that's in the laundry room and whoosh! the pungent aroma of spoiled chicken welcomed me. Just to add to the mix, there was a spoiled red pepper and a couple of grapefruits that were science experiment-y. Obviously, in my rush to leave on the Friday morning, I forgot to make sure THAT fridge was cleaned out. But it is now.

You know, it's funny how one little thing can stink up almost an entire house. And how just getting rid of it, makes things much more pleasant. There's a life lesson there!