Tag: Garden

Gathering Steam

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Welcome to the end of my first week back after the Big Spring Sickness of 2024!  Whew, it was a nasty bug—I’ve heard that multiple people in our area required medical intervention due to it.  Ugh, so much exhaustion experienced by all.  All in all, though, it was a good week full of good weather and a lot of productivity.

Top priorities this past week:

  • Prom Dressses
  • Garden tasks
  • Driver’s licenses tasks

Creativity

Ren’s Prom Dress:  I was still quite weak at the beginning of the week, so progress on Ren’s prom dress didn’t happen until Wednesday, but I put in about four hours of work and all of the basic elements of the dress (Bodice, lining, underskirt) are assembled in their basic forms and I can now move forward with attaching them to each other and doing finishing work.  The end is in sight!

Rachel’s Prom Dress:  I’ve not made any progress on this, which is extremely unfortunate because I was supposed to begin working on it in earnest this week.  We’ll get there when we get there.

Garden

I actually used some of the rhubarb this week, which was good because it’s starting to become a behemoth of a plant! We had a lovely rhubarb/mixed fruit crumble for dessert one night. Soooo good.

I got caught up on starting seeds and direct sowing seeds!  Renaissance helped me plant four different varieties of marigolds in one starting tray, and I planted sweet peppers, hot peppers, pepperoncini peppers, Big Daddy tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, crookneck squash, broccoli, and cilantro in the other tray.  I still have a few spots open for some more seeds in the second tray, which I might use for some herbs. 

I transplanted my started pansies and delphiniums into the garden, but they’ve been struggling for weeks in their trays and I do not know what to expect from them in the future. 

I direct sowed the last bit of peas, and some Bells of Ireland and Four O’ Clocks.  I also went back and fortified the trellises with better staples to hold them to the ground for the peas and sweet peas.

Caring

Driver’s Licenses: Renaissance is officially a licensed driver!  WOO HOO!  We finally did it!  I took her to the DOL on Tuesday and she’s got the paper!  We are waiting for our insurance company to get back to us on adding her to our policy, and once we have that confirmation she’ll be good to go.  She can’t park on campus until she has proof of insurance, so we’re waiting on that task as well.  Michael is also replacing the brakes on the kids’ car this weekend so they can be extra safe.

Rachel has been studying every afternoon for her Driver’s Knowledge test this weekend.  It’s a good thing I made a note to make sure she was doing this—every afternoon has found her completely forgetful of the task AND I had to intervene at one point because she was playing video games while listening to a YouTube video about driving rules and considered it as studying.  Uh, no.  I’ve not been her favorite person this week because I keep insisting on nitty gritty studying tactics.  You’ll thank me when you pass the test, girlie.

Emily hasn’t done any practice driving because I’ve been too busy with getting caught up with life this week, but I’ve scheduled daily drives for the next six weeks to get her back up to snuff.

Regarding the bridal shower and wedding gifts, I think I’ll just return them to Amazon and then re-order them and have them delivered to the couple’s new address.  I still need to text the mom and get that figured out.

Renaissance and I sat down to talk about her post-high school plans and run the numbers.  She qualified for every merit and music scholarship available at the colleges, but we are just middle-class enough to not warrant any financial assistance via the FAFSA, so she was going to be on the line for $17,000-30,000 per year to attend the four-year universities she was thinking about attending.  That is simply not feasible for her, so she’s going to go with her alternate plan of attending technical college and earning an associate degree in culinary & pastry arts so that she can have a marketable skill that can then help her finance her future plans.  She was really torn between studying music or studying pastry, so either option was fine with her.  The pastry program is good in that she can then transfer to a four-year school and earn some sort of business and/or food science degree, if she desires.  I think she wants to eventually open a bakery of her own, and that she wants to work with local high school students and the community to offer educational opportunities and/or internships in culinary areas.

I’m disappointed that the money couldn’t work out for a four-year option.  I entered the financials into a copy of the spreadsheet that I had made when we did this for Emily two years ago, and I was appalled to find out that one of the schools they both applied to increased their tuition by $17,000 in just two years!  It’s bonkers out there, and it led to some very serious conversations with Emily this week in order to adjust her expectations for the future as well.  You just can’t expect an 18-22 year old and their family to cough out or sign up for loans in the amount of $120,000 for a college education at a Division 3 school!  That’s almost the cost of our first house!  Gross.  The technical school option will end up costing just $8,000 a year, which is a sum we can work with.  And HELLO…a pastry chef in the family?  That’s just cool.  Ren was also wise and applied to start in January so she can spend a few more months working to save up money to pay for it all.  If you know of any bakeries hiring, she’s looking!

It was a really busy week, with a lot of important things happening, and I think it’s turned out well.  Hopefully this weekend sees a lot of time for sewing, weeding, and driving practice!  

Spring Break Plans

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Woo hoo, it’s April! Smooth sailing ahead as winter releases its hold and we get to head into the lovely weather part of the year! Yay! This week is spring break for my kids, so we’re chilling at home with no plans to do much of anything, which is good because Nathaniel woke up on Monday morning with a 103 degree fever and he’s been camped out on the coach ever since, hacking out his lungs. This poor kid gets sick on every single school break. Sigh.

I’m late in publishing my plans for the week because Easter Sunday is a very busy day, Monday had me feeling rather poorly, and yesterday was our last good weather day in the forecast for this week so I spent it outside working on the yard. (Oh my goodness, that felt nice!)

We got all the trellises put up, planted some more veggies and flowers, and got the lawn weed-whacked and mowed so we could set up the badminton net. There’s still so much to do out there, but this big burst of work took care of the most pressing tasks. Whew!

But the weather is supposed to take a turn for the wet today, so I’m back inside focusing on the prom dresses, which sums up my plans for the rest of the week: SEW THE DRESSES.

So please excuse me for the shortness of this planning post, but I need to use my time on these dresses. I wish you all a lovely week!

Cake, Silks & Pi(es)

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I feel like it was a really productive week, which is always nice. My little routine of writing these goals vs. outcomes weekly posts is helping me stay on-track with what I want to accomplish each week. I’m really glad I’ve reinstituted these. Not only are they keeping me focused, but I really enjoy writing them and re-reading them, like a journal. I rarely re-read my handwritten journals, so I don’t learn as much from my writing in those. Blog posts can actually be searched by keyword, for cryin’ out loud. Wonderful.

Top priorities this last week:

  1. Michael’s birthday
  2. Garden
  3. WREF Scholarship application
  4. Prom dresses
  5. Resurrecting music practice time

Celebrating

  • Michael’s birthday went well, there was an adorable “Among Us wedding cake” made by Renaissance, and each of the kids remembered to get him a gift this year. We did not have steak and potatoes for dinner, as I predicted; he requested fajitas.
  • The potentially brewing project died a sure death this past week. I’m bummed because it would have been a cool thing to do, but I’m also relieved because it was going to take a lot of time and effort to pull off. Many lessons were learned from this experience that I can apply in the future when such a situation inevitably pops up again.

Gardening

  • Trellises are in my house, as are some other gardening items.
  • All seeds needed through the month of April have been secured.
  • Rhubarb is still small.
  • I did sow the cabbages, some alyssum, but nothing else.
  • My sweet peas are just barely starting to sprout! You really have to look for them, but tiny little tendrils are pushing out of the soil!

Community

  • Renaissance did indeed submit her application for the WREF scholarship! Oh gosh, the arrhythmias…she submitted it yesterday at 2:15pm or so, and the pop-up that came up to confirm submission stated that it was due by 4pm that day. We had planned to work on it that evening, but something came up and we moved the time to earlier, THANK GOODNESS.
  • Band Parent meeting went well and many things have been scheduled for this last push of the school year. I still have a few office-y things to do for that.

Creativity

  • At Home:
    • Fat Quarter Shop upcoming quilt: Sneak peek video was posted on Friday on Instagram and I’m aware that my videography skills/software need an upgrade. I had planned to finish piecing the top on Saturday and even cleared my whole schedule for it, but some of my children decided to mutiny against their Saturday chores and much time was lost on this quilt because it went towards dialoguing and disciplining. I’m still confused as to why that day went so sideways. As it stands, I’m about 2/3 of the way done with assembling the blocks.
    • Prom Dresses: The fabric for Ren’s dress has arrived and I am so in love with it. It’s GORGEOUS. The contrast fabric isn’t as flowy as I would have liked, but we’ll just have to make do because it was the only kind of silk they had that came in the color we wanted. FYI, Shantung silk is not flowy. Tell your friends.
  • Van Crafting Sessions™: Designing wedding shawls: Newsflash: I’ve not done this before and I’m not good at it. Yet. (#growthmindset) Time was spent wrapping my head around how to actually do this.
  • Resurrecting music practice sessions: Did not happen because I’ve had them scheduled for the evenings, but now that it’s light outside again we’re actually outside during that time as a family. I’ll need to figure out a different time of day for this.

It was a really, really busy week with a concert on Thursday, which was also Pi Day, so Emily made three pies and because we had three pies chilling at our house I invited Ren’s band friends over after the concert and we all ate pie until 11:15pm. Ha ha. I’m generally an introvert who really appreciates a solid sleep schedule and bedtime, but sometimes you just gotta spend some time with friends. It was a good choice, despite how tired it made me the next day.

Flare-ups Happen, It’s OK

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There’s not a lot to report for this week because I had to deal with a pain flare-up that required a visit to the emergency room early in the week and had me focused on pain management for a couple of days beyond that.  The good news is that I started feeling better yesterday and even managed to tough it out and go to Renaissance and Nathaniel’s band concert, and I was even able to go into work today.  Sigh.  Take care of your backs, people.  So many difficulties start to stem from an injury to your back.

Creativity

I always think I’m going to be able to make great strides in crafting when I’m down and out with a flare-up, but when I have to add pain meds to the mix I can’t craft at all, as crafting + pain meds never ends well.  Seeing that I’m pattern testing for other people, I didn’t want to touch those projects and potentially derail them beyond repair.  It’s something else when it’s only my time and materials on the line; I won’t risk others’ resources.

So I’m behind on my test knit for the Baking Doodle Cowl.  It’s about 50% done.  I’m planning to spend a chunk of time working on it some more over the weekend.

I haven’t touched anything else in the craft room, which is a major sad.  I did receive some packages of new materials for some projects, but haven’t even opened them.  Frustrating week!

Gardening

My little herb garden is now a jungle that will need some pruning over the weekend.  I can’t believe how fast these plants are growing!  Friendly note:  Don’t be afraid to use dill.  I cut the dill plant back to almost nothing last Sunday, it had replaced all that growth by Tuesday, and now on Friday it looks to be about three times larger than it was a week ago.  I’ve always been so afraid to use my herb plants, but this little countertop experiment is teaching me a lot about the hardiness of these plants!  The kids have been given total access to the herbs and are encouraged to decimate the plants for cooking.  I’m almost to the point of wondering if we even could kill these plants through culinary usage?  Could be a weird goal to set…ha ha ha.

The rhubarb is starting to unfurl legitimate leaves, so I believe I can start using it in a few weeks.  I’ll make rhubarb crumbles, make some rhubarb marmalade, freeze some rhubarb for making Blubarb Jam during the summer, and I also saw a recipe on Pinterest for a vanilla rhubarb jelly that looks enticing.  Which reminds me that I desperately need to clean out the pantry if I want to have any sort of room for canned goods this year.  The pantry is a complete disaster.  Oooh, I think I also have some sort of recipe for rhubarb-glazed pork medallions in a cookbook somewhere.  I like cooking with rhubarb because it has the added bonus of deep cleaning any pot it’s cooked in.  (Did you know it’s the secret ingredient in Bar Keeper’s Friend?)  I started a Pinterest board for rhubarb recipes a couple of years ago if you’re looking for some rhubarb options in the coming months!

No sprouting from the sweet peas or peas that I’ve planted.  I was supposed to plant another section of peas this week, so hopefully I’ll get to it over the weekend.  I’m doing a big experiment with planting times and starting seeds this year, so we’re going to just keep our minds open and remain curious about how things work out with these seeds.  I’d really like to establish a planting calendar that works specifically for our property, and the only way to do that is to start and experiment.

The started pansies and delphinium are doing…OK.  I need to thin them out and they’re going through water really fast, which is tough to stay on top of.  I had five delphinium sprouts two weeks ago, and now I only have two.  I struggle to get this type of plant started.  I’m going to start some more seeds over the weekend because I adore delphinium plants for their beautiful blue color and their unmatched ability to lend an “English cottage” vibe to the garden.  I think I spend about $15-20 for each plant when I buy them from the nursery, so starting my own will save me a lot of money.  AND they’re a perennial, so they come back every year!  The last ones I had were back in Utah; I haven’t wanted to spend a chunk of cash on them here in Washington.  They make me happy, so I’m reestablishing them in the garden this year.

My little delphinium twins

Celebrating

I had to drop one of the parties the kids and I were thinking about doing because I really needed this last week to make progress on it, and that didn’t happen.  I’ve made note of everything we were thinking of doing, and I’ll revisit it in the future.  The girls still want to throw a spring tea party sometime in April or May, and that is still doable with our remaining time frame, so maybe I’ll just shift focus to that.  Plans also need to be made regarding Renaissance’s graduation party, which will take place in June or July.  I still have time to get going on that; I just need to remember that it’s out there so I don’t commit to anything that will conflict.

And that’s what happened this week.  Some weeks don’t see a lot of forward progress, and that’s ok.  The nice thing about a flare-up is that they tend to occur many weeks apart from each other, so I’m looking forward to a handful of really productive weeks!

And congratulations!  We made it to March!  It only gets better from here!  More and more sunlight, we’ll just ignore Daylight Savings Time coming up in a bit, and more and more opportunities to be outside and enjoy the shift from cold to only slightly chilly!  I hope you have a great weekend and wish you all the best as you embark upon a new, hopefully sunshine-filled month.

CROCUSES!!!

Happy Homemaker Monday: July 31, 2023

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We’re at the end of July, y’all! Oh, I just feel like I’m not experiencing summer ENOUGH this year. Hopefully we can cram some more summer fun into these last few weeks before school starts back up again.

Highlights of last week:

  • There’s been a lot of crafty progress made over the last week, including finishing up the knitted unicorn I’ve been working on for a while.
  • Ren and I are still showing up for our workout sessions. This last week’s sessions were rough, man. Owie.
  • We finally had our family portraits done! I think the last time we did portraits was nine years ago, so it was very overdue. Bonus: We took the photos at a blueberry patch and we got to pick some blueberries to bring home, too.

Things I Wished Had Gone Better:

  • I had Ren drive once last week, and Rachel did zero driving. I have to make these practice drives happen! I really don’t like doing them because they raise my anxiety like nothing else.
  • I’d say we needed to get out more, but we got out a lot for appointments and errands and stuff. Nothing fun. Hopefully we can do something fun in this next week.

The Weather Forecast:

Definite summer weather, a little on the warm side for my personal tastes, but nothing crazy like many others are dealing with at the moment. I’ll just be thankful for the sunshine and leave it at that.

As I Look Outside My Window:

Such a dry backyard. Michael applied the weedwhacker to overgrown parts of the garden, so it looks nicer out there now. Will I actually get to doing anything with it? I don’t know. But there’s some nice garden-y things happening in other parts of the yard:

The four basil plants are nice and healthy and we’ve been enjoying the lovely flavor that fresh basil gives to our meals.

There are three tomatoes ripening on the tomato plant at the back of the house. I’m literally the only person who is excited about this as no one else in our family even likes tomatoes. However, Renaissance makes incredible bruschetta, so I make sure to have fresh basil and tomatoes growing so we can enjoy that beautiful dish a couple of times throughout the later part of the summer.

I always have a random cherry tomato bush start growing in the gravel along the back of the house, and this year’s plant has green tomatoes now! I’m excited to have them ripen!

I don’t have a picture of the front of the house because it looks just the same as always, but I did want to mention that the baby birds have flown the nest. I’m surprised they left so soon. I’m not sure they were even hatched for a full week before they all flew away. Or maybe they were hatched and we weren’t aware of it for a few days/weeks? Or maybe they all got eaten by cats during their first day of flying lessons? We did see them perching in the bushes along the front porch, and one of them even tried to return to the nest when we (accidentally) startled it, but its aim was bad and it faceplanted into the porch eaves and fell back down into the bushes below. We checked on him and he was alright, but I don’t know if they could make it back to the nest at all. We haven’t seen any of them since that day, so we’re hoping they’re fine.

Right Now I Am:

Writing up this post before going to bed Sunday night because I won’t have time to work on it in the morning. Trying to plan out the next week.

Thinking and Pondering:

  • What can I cut from my to-do list?
  • What needs to be done for Ren’s birthday?
  • What am I going to knit next? Options include a teddy bear, or Halloween decorations, or a hat I need to design first.
  • What can we do for fun this week?
  • Do I want to can up some jams this year?

Listening to:

The creak of the upstairs floor as people walk around. A kid getting a drink of water from the fridge. The hum of the fans and air conditioner. Summer evening sounds.

How Am I Feeling:

Behind on a lot of things. Michael was really tired this last week, going to bed early almost every night, which was weird. I got hit with the same feeling yesterday afternoon, so I’m dragging and worried that the tiredness will follow me through the upcoming week. Working out is feeling better, despite how sore we can be after particularly intense workouts, so that’s a positive development. And I was able to connect with friends via text this last week and that helped to alleviate some of the loneliness I was suffering from the week before. The loneliness will take care of its self once school and PTSA stuff starts back up again, no worries.

On My Reading Pile:

Hee hee hee, lots of Christmas crafting books in honor of Christmas in July last week. And some knitting and crochet books in case I want to add some projects to my gift list.

On My TV This Week:

Not much. Probably a random movie if I’m feeling tired. I’m in a cottagecore mood, so maybe some Jane Austen-y things.

On the Menu:

Saturday: Steak Quesadillas
Sunday: Super Nachos
Monday: Pineapple Bacon Sausages, Corn & Zucchini Soup
Tuesday: Picadillo Tostadas, Veggie Slaw
Wednesday: Gyros, Tzatziki Cucumbers, Yellow Rice
Thursday: Pancakes, Bacon, Sausage, Fruit
Friday: Chicken Caprese, Caesar Salad, Pasta

Looking Around the House:

Still putting Rachel’s room back together, but it’s coming along.

To-Do List This Week:

  • Emily dentist appointment
  • YW Camp preparations
  • Send last of graduation thank-you cards
  • Driving practice (Blargh)

Devotional:

My word for this last week was STRENGTH, and my readings about it mentioned a lot that strength was born out of suffering, which really bothered me because I don’t like it when people dismiss suffering by saying it created favorable outcomes. It feels like that reasoning is used to downplay the extent of the suffering and pain, and excuses the actions of the perpetrator a little bit, and I’m never ok with that. So I thought about it a lot because I know that, in regards to building muscle, you do need to damage the thing that needs to become stronger so that it can heal into a stronger version of itself. And as I sat with that, I decided that it was healing that created strength, not the suffering. And the healing is all within the realm of the victim/self. Perhaps strength is the Universe’s reward for getting through difficulties? But I never want an abuser to be able to say, “Because of the pain I caused you, you’re a stronger person,” and feel good about themselves.

Also, healing takes time, especially if the injury was extensive. We live in a society that expects instantaneous healing and strength, despite nature not working that way at all…and that impatience with our own healing and the healing timelines of others only hurts us. Strength requires so much patience.

I also think there’s two types of strength. The first one that I mentioned, which is a healing-after-injury kind of strength. I like to also call it “glue strength,” because it’s the strength that comes from putting something back together after it’s broken. The other type of strength is the preventative type: When you apply layers of protection or reinforcement to something to make it strong enough to withstand something. I decided to call it “insulating strength.” I think this is the best sort of strength to strive for, as it doesn’t require injury or pain to begin the process. We add strength to our spirits when we consume uplifting media, surround ourselves with edifying people, practice looking on the bright side and questioning the veracity of the thoughts in our heads. We insulate and strengthen our children with our love, kind words, protective measures, and efforts to make our homes welcoming and comforting. Insulating strength helps us withstand the pain and injury that life throws at us, and can sometimes makes it so that pain and suffering doesn’t even damage anything, if the insulation is thick enough.

Now both strengths have their extremes as well—extremes that end up causing weakness. If you insulate your children to the extreme and never let them experience hardship or difficulties, they won’t develop the necessary strength to withstand the rigors of daily living. (Oh my gosh, I saw a lot of this while student teaching.) And glue strength can only fix so much—there are injuries that are too extensive to heal.

Also, glue strength requires time to allow the glue to set; if you don’t give the glue time to set and then jump back into the type of situation that caused the damage, the injury will just open up all over again. (Also, maybe stop jumping into things that injure you?) Balance is required, and once again, patience.

This upcoming week’s word is: Connection. Ooh, I’m excited to ponder this one! With the last year being completely focused on getting through my Masters degree, I disappeared from my social life completely and I’m trying to figure out how I want to connect with people, and which people, now that I’m re-entering the realms of living somewhat normally.

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

December Morning in the Garden: Thoughts on Resting

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I should have cleaned out my garden back in October, but I was still healing from foot surgery. Now that my foot is technically well enough to handle yard work it’s been raining or super cold. But all that leftover foliage mixed with a cold and misty morning sure makes for some lovely photos.

I love noticing the flow of nature, and for the last few years I’ve tried to emulate its rhythms in my own life. Winter is such an interesting idea–time to rest. In a society where we’re all working and recreating non-stop and trying to launch a side hustle at the same time, rest can be an elusive concept.

I’ve always appreciated the concept of the Sabbath Day and its insistence on slowing down once a week, but I’ve always had music callings at church, which meant Sunday was one of my most busy and dreaded days of the week. Yes, I love music; but that doesn’t downplay the stress and anxiety that comes with organizing and performing said music. I stepped away from and declined all the holiday music commitments this year, and I’m so glad I did. No rehearsals, no dealing with sore throats, no pounding heartbeat before a performance…just calm appreciation of the season.

I was sick last week with some little thing that is now creeping through the entire family. As much as I resent the missed opportunities to get ahead on the Christmas crafting, it sure was nice to Netflix and Nap during daylight hours. I’m reminded of the 12 Week Year insistence of including free time in your schedule (Breakout Blocks), and I’m realizing that I’ve forgotten to do that since my foot surgery. (Sitting around for six weeks straight will make you feel like you’ve had ENOUGH free time, thankyouverymuch.) I suppose I should make a note to include a block of free time in my week. It’d be nice to do some Christmas baking.

But, ugh, the guilt that comes with resting and doing something just for the enjoyment of it. There’s always more I think I should be doing! Unfortunately, I’ve learned over and over again that if you don’t make time to rest and heal, your body will force you into it with sickness or injury. I’m finally accepting this universal truth and making room for it in my own life. The earth rests every winter and the moon wanes every month–why do I think I need less rest than them?

I like the idea of taking a break in the winter to rest and nurture myself and my family. Christmas festivities infringe on that a bit, but the weeks after Christmas are beautifully quiet. The new year invites reflection and planning while wearing snuggly socks and sweaters. We dream up our vision for the coming year while nurturing our bodies with hearty soups, like we’re infusing ourselves for the work ahead. I love the winter months when they’re spent in quiet activities. Taking a break in the winter is such a lovely ritual.

Because March and April will roll around soon enough and next year’s garden will need planting. It’s a lot easier to do when you’re excited about it because you’ve had a break.

(It’s also a lot easier to do if you’ve cleaned up the last year’s garden before your break…my fingers are still crossed that I can get to it…wish me luck!)

Keeping Track of my Year has Made Me More Grateful

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I started using the app 1 Second Everyday last year when quarantine started up because I wanted a historical record of a historical event. As a result, I take more little snippets of video, which are so fun to watch of my kids. (I’m more of a still-image person, so video is a reach for me.) And the video at the end of 2020 with a one second snippet from every day of that monumental year? Amazing. So I’ve been keeping up with this year, too.

I was hardcore into some self help books at the beginning of 2021, because you know…2020 kinda whomped on all of us, and I noticed that a lot of them kept mentioning the importance of looking for things to be grateful for, trying to have a positive attitude, trying to frame things in a more positive light…all those rose-colored glasses suggestions that make me want to punch people, basically. BUT…I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try for a bit. Just an experiment. Watching the 1 Second Everyday video at the end of 2020 had helped me to remember a lot of good things that came out of that year…what if I also made an effort to write them down as I went along?

So I downloaded a handful of journaling apps and whatnot, started using them, and slowly uninstalled them as they annoyed me until I was left with one called Delightful. It’s a simple little app that asks you to write down three good things twice a day. I have reminders that go off in the morning and in the evening, and if I can’t think of anything, there’s questions to think about and answer. And if it’s a really terrible day, I don’t write down anything at all.

All of these Thanksgiving posts about gratitude had me feeling the pressure to write something similar, but I don’t really like writing those posts because they can come off as being boastful, and I’ve realized that I learned somewhere along the way that saying what I’m grateful for out loud is boastful and arrogant and show-offy. But I’ve also learned that’s not entirely true. Don’t get me wrong, I hate a humble brag, but being thankful and saying it out loud isn’t boastful.

I sat down with my Delightful gratitude app today, and it looks like I started recording my gratitudes on March 11, 2021. I’m rather hit-and-miss, but I do have 107 entries as of today, which is ~321 different things I’ve been grateful for this year. So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some random things I’ve been thankful for this year:

  • Michael is a thoughtful dude
  • My Zoom tea party group and my Sunday Zoom knitting appointment
  • Quesnel, Charlotte, and Marshmallow do so many little things that make me laugh
  • Watching people succeed
  • Gaining strength through so much physical therapy
  • The kids got to go back to regular school and not have to do distance learning anymore
  • When Emms found out about the college they want to go to and got all excited that such a place existed
  • Nathaniel’s first time trying to play the trumpet
  • Nathaniel’s first baseball practice in the spring, when I got out my EPP kit and just started crying because it had been two years since I’d stitched at a baseball event. That that little normal thing was back.
  • So many things about gardening make me happy.
  • Playing Mario Kart with the kids
  • Free time
  • When an unexpected rainy day happens during a busy time in the garden and I’m forced to stay inside all day and I get to do extra sewing or knitting
  • Every time another member of our family was officially fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
  • Michael made me a porch swing
  • Rachel’s newfound love for full, poufy skirts
  • Reading an article in a magazine about a town I’d never heard of and how fun it was to discover a new place I’d like to visit someday
  • Conversations with James and Denise
  • My neighbor planted a new species of grass in his yard and it was really delightful to listen to him be excited about it
  • Michael helps me a lot. Often.
  • People being really kind about my need to rest and heal after my foot surgery.
  • The drive to my kids’ schools has beautiful scenery, especially in the autumn
  • Renaissance’s work on her witch costume for Halloween
  • The kids like to cook and bake

This year has felt stressful and overwhelming almost every single day, but when I read back through these little entries I’m reminded of how much good there has been that I’m apparently blind to after the fact. I’m glad I embarked on this little experiment. And I’m not trying to pressure you into doing the same, because I always dislike it when the shiny, happy people give life advice. (And no, I’m not what I would classify as a “shiny, happy person.”) I’m just glad that a little experiment turned out well and that I have a way to see the good a little easier now. Life is always full of difficulty and good, and I appreciate any little trick to help me focus on the good a little bit more.

I hope you and yours have a lovely weekend. Given the international nature of my friends reading the blog these days, I wish my American friends a happy Thanksgiving, and my Celsius friends a fantastic end of November. Whether or not you have a holiday tomorrow, I hope the end of this week, and the rest of this year, treats you kindly. Thank you for being here and reading my words and writing your comments. All of those bloggy things bring little sparks of happiness into my world throughout the year, too, and I’m grateful that you allow me to experience them.

Also–I’m not affiliated with 1 Second Everyday or Delightful.
I just use those apps and like them a lot, so I wanted to share a good thing.

May is the Best Month

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Good morning lovelies, and a very merry new week and month! I think spring is the absolute best season there is; the awakening of the world after the cold, dark days of winter just stirs so much joy and optimism in my heart, and I believe that May is the glorious climax of the season. The fruit trees are heavy with blossoms, buds are peeking on the trees, flowers are planted and seeds are started…the fireworks of flowers in our lives for this year are now waiting in the side wings for their moments to shine. It’s just such a beautiful time of year, both visually and in regards to anticipation.

I spent loads of time in the garden this past weekend and the kids and I got almost all of the back garden planted. I’m opting to do a flower garden this year, rather than trying to grow food. I’ve decided that I hate growing food. I only do it because of the pressure the Church puts on gardening and food storage, and it turns out that I hate it. All the anxiety about whether or not the food will actually grow, the heartbreak when an animal or insect eats it, the stress of trying to eat it all when it comes into season, and then the backbreaking work of harvesting it and preserving it when it’s obvious that you can’t. HATE. IT.

But flowers? Just make me happy every time I look out the window. There’s no stress in growing flowers aside from the usual weeding and watering, which are quite meditative acts, and I’m rewarded with a beautiful scene that smells good and makes me want to sit in the sunshine. After last year’s wake-up call about the importance of self-care and doing more of what makes you happy to be alive, I’m actively trying to enjoy more of the things that Michael and I have worked so hard to achieve and possess. I’m now scheduling “Enjoy the garden” time in my planner, and “Have fun with the kids” on various afternoons. No ulterior motives, just enjoying life. That’s the whole point of all this rat race work, isn’t it? And it turns out that I harvest a lot of enjoyment from a flower garden, so flower-gazing and lemonade-drinking are my new jam.

A big development in our household is that we have baby bunnies in our backyard, too. The mom, whom my children named Clover, has been hanging out in our yard for years. Last year she was keeping her babies in the divots in the grass on one side of our house, and we killed them all with the lawn mower because we didn’t see them before mowing. Super sad day. BUT this year she made a burrow under our blueberry plant, which is nestled in a protective raised planter, and now there’s at least three, if not four or five, healthy baby bunnies that scamper throughout the yard if you sit still long enough and they are adorable. I named the first one we saw “Sprout,” Renaissance named the second one we saw “Fennel,” and Nathaniel named the third one “Becky,” which seems like a random name, but he was trying to stay on theme with plant names and I was planting a Becky Shasta Daisy at the time, so Becky was a totally respectable plant name. If we do happen to see a fourth bunny, Rachel wants to name it “Cinnamon.” Michael had to mow the grass over the weekend and scared the buhjeezits out of them all and they scattered to other yards, but those yards all have dogs, so I think they’ll be back soon. I think I even might start leaving out some food, because why not? They’re adorable and I don’t begrudge them a few plants that they eat from time to time because they make my heart smile to see them. (Plus my sister-in-law keeps chanting to give them “whatever they want” to me via text and Facebook comments. Can’t disappoint her, now, can I?)

While I was gardening this weekend, one of my neighbors introduced themselves over the fence and let me know that they’re putting in beehives in their yard! So jealous! I think it’d be great fun to raise bees. She said she’d teach me, and that’s it’s not particularly difficult. So perhaps in a year or two I’ll explore that idea. She was so nice, too; she explained that bees really like chlorine, and seeing that we have the pool in our backyard, she’s taken out “bee insurance” in case any of my kids get stung. I didn’t even know that bee insurance was a thing, and I truly appreciate the gesture. I’ve seen lots of bee activity in my garden already, and the buzzing of the hives is such a soothing sound. Oh my gosh, I love being in my backyard right now. Spring is so lovely.

What are you all up to at your homes? Getting back to regular life activities? Not? Emms played an abbreviated tennis season and it’s wrapping up. Nathaniel is just getting into baseball season, and I keep chuckling over how much my life used to be run by softball/baseball season in years past. The leagues work differently here and would have had us driving all over the place and needing to be in three places at once in rush hour traffic, so we opted out of softball when we first got here, which made me so sad for my girls. Softball is a thing of the past for our family, but we sure had fun while it was in full swing, didn’t we?

On the fabric side of things, I have sewn up the muslin and am now officially starting to cut out the pieces of my Lavender Birthday Dress! I don’t know if I can get this done by my actual birthday, but it will be a very beautiful piece of clothing and welcome addition to my spring wardrobe even it can’t be worn on my birthday day. I’ve been trying to make room in this week’s schedule to afford me some more sewing time, I hope it works.

Keep in mind that that’s the WRONG SIDE of the fabric–it’s a much more vivid print! So excited!

And I hope this post finds you well at the beginning of this new week. I hope you’ve got interesting things to look forward to, and that the week passes without any negativity or strife. Happy May, everyone, and may this beautiful season cheer your heart.