New Week – LFG!

And another week begins – NEW WEEK – LFG!

BUT I DON’T WAAAAANNNNNNA.

I had a nice weekend. A good Friday. A meaningful Saturday. A productive Sunday (until it wasn’t).

FRIDAY – I actually took OFF work – barely logged in all weekend. Stayed away from technology for the most part (except Saturday when I was scrolling in bed after spending all my spoons at the rally.) Actually, now that I think of it…last night when Harley Boo was being… well… vocal, I thought, damn, he wants me to go to bed, but I’m not ready to go to bed! (It was about 8pm.) Maybe he thought that because the last three nights I’d been in bed before 9pm? Ha – you know you’re older and wiser when you realize that this is actually a good thing and not at all pathetic.

Friday, good. HWMMS and I had porch coffee time. The weather was finally dipping into seasonally appropriate sunshine territory, and we just sat there and hashed out the to-maybe-do-wish list. Oh how I love slow, lingering mornings, no alarm clock, nothing to-do. Just be. Eventually, we came inside and he made a big breakfast (his weekend project as of late) and I puttered around the house, tending to all the houseplants.

I gave our two humongous aloe plants a good trimming and now the windowsill looks bare! I think the thought process in my head at the time went something like – deal with the plants on the balcony that are in “assisted living” so I can get everything organized for seed starting. HOLY CRAP it’s the middle of April and I haven’t started seeds yet. (Ugh.)

Well, I managed to get one side organized-ish? Anyway, all the houseplants are happy and singing and totally love me.

As for the rest of the day,  I, um, did? (What did I do? No really, I can’t remember and it was just a few days ago.) Oh yeah — NOTHING.

I spent time on the porch in the hammock listening to a thunderstorm roll by… and then spent more time in the hammock, but this time I brought a book to read (which I didn’t read, I just listened to birds). HWMMS was also out on the porch, moving between the creekside and the pondside.

WAIT! There was something else!

We took the doggos for a car ride into town to pick up Fish Fry at Apple Dumplin’ and our online Aldi grocery order. HWMMS wanted to grab one thing I forgot to order, so he ran inside…and came back out with the prettiest, oh-so-fragrant purple hyacinth.* The woman in front of him in line had a big cart of groceries, saw he only had two items and asked if he was buying the flowers for his wife. When he answered, “Yes ma’am,” she smiled and said, “You can go ahead of me.” Aw.

*ASIDE: I have NO idea how to spell hyacinth and I’m usually so off that spell check doesn’t even recognize the word. Does this happen to anyone else?

And then, it was straight back to the porch.

HWMMS later that night lit the first lantern and so begins the first candle brigade of the year. The porch is really my happy place.

SATURDAY – headed to the city for some fascism fighting and grits. Came home, played with doggos and went down for a nap, er, for the rest of the night. Sorry not sorry!

SUNDAY – The plan was to host Easter Brunch for Mom & Keith at Weber Wonderland. But they weren’t feeling well, so, HAM for two!

And asparagus. And not pictured – corn on the cob, biscuits and croissants.

Deep thought – Why would someone choose a boneless ham roast when that bone is so delicious for stock? Stock on stove – boiling away.

Sunday was another porch day – I got up early (for me – 9:30am!) made coffee, started food and headed out to the porch with my buckets of seeds. MOST of them were already organized, but I did find a postage envelope filled with oh, maybe 27 packages that I overlooked a few months ago. (Oops!)

Organized! I just need more containers! Of course this doesn’t include most of the seeds we’ve saved from last season. I have very large bags filled with sunflower, zinnia, marigold, runner beans, winter squash, baby pumpkins, holy basil – yeah, lots of seeds. At the bottom of the brown paper bag filled with marigold heads I found, um, maybe a few more packages of seeds I forgot I bought. Maybe a dozen? No room for those in the seed organizer at all!

I did get some lettuce, carrots, beets and more peas started in the porch railing planters. And then the rest of the afternoon I spent on the other side of the balcony – which was a total plant pot disaster zone – organizing and cleaning and prepping for seed starting.

See! Almost there! I made the mistake of taking a break — around 6 pm? And then almost couldn’t get off the couch OW. Two arthritis Tylenol later and an early bed for me – because – ow. Collector of Chronic Illness Jenny cannot do all the things even half the day as she once could. Sigh.

And now – MONDAY.  Anxiety antenna on high alert today – just logging into work has me overwhelmed. First message before getting out of bed from HWMMS tells me the Pope died. I do a quick message to my boss and then voice message to friends and start crying. (Not because of the Pope, but because I fucking miss my friend Karen so much she was my ultimate go-to about all these things) – and of course I’m also worried about people having emergency heart surgeries and cancer treatments and and and…

THEN I GET MY PERIOD – 3rd time in two months. Fuck perimenopause.

I’m gonna blame the anxiety on the hormonal swing (justified or not.)

But I am worried for my friends/family. And I do miss Karen. And the world is literally a ball of flaming shit.

Oh well – onward!

Found this little gem in my inbox this morning from Biddy Tarot –

“Now is the time to take the fire in your belly and use it to create something real. And the world is asking more of people like you right now. But you can’t lead if your cup is empty. You can’t change lives if you’re constantly in survival mode.”

Big sigh.

Alright, let’s get this party started. Monday, LFG.