Thinking Outside the (Planter) Box

I started my weekend with my mental list of to-do’s.  Before much time had passed however, I got distracted by something shiny and was off on another worthy task but not one on my list. So by the end of this long weekend I’d accomplished much but still things are undone.

One of those is moving the woodpile from it’s current unslightly location to being hidden behind the garage.  I’ve moved several loads with my wheelbarrow but now my wheelbarrow is full of a load of dirt.  The load of dirt is waiting for hubby to make another planter box.  There really is no good place to unload the dirt and even if there was I don’t want to unload it and then reload it.  But it will be this weekend or next before hubby has time to assemble my planter box.

Then I think outside the planter box.  Much of the firewood is cut into carryable size pieces. Every morning and every evening I take a walk, up the road and back, and down the road and back (it’s a short road).  Twice a day I make 4 trips by the house and the woodpile, two in the middle of my walk and two at the end of each walk.  Each of those times I can pick up 3 pieces of wood and carry them to the back of the garage.  That’s 12 pieces of wood a day.  In a week I’ll have moved 84 pieces, which is probably close to the number of pieces that are small enough to carry.  That doesn’t count the wood already stacked on the patio but with our lousy spring weather I may burn all of that!  So here we go, outside the planter box.  I moved 12 pieces today!

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Timing is Everything

Last Friday afternoon turned into a poorly directed play.  Timing is everything they say and I needed some of it.

The weather outside was frightful.  Blowing, hailing, thundering. So I started making some bread and a noodle dish  for dinner.  Just as the noodles began boiling and the bread was half way through its rise, the weather got its angry out of the way and the sun came out.  Perfect conditions for taking my dog for our afternoon walk.

But I couldn’t leave the boiling noodles and the almost-risen bread. So I waited for the noodles to boil and the bread to rise.  Then I put on my shoes and was ready to go.  Enter stage left, another fit of rain and wind!  So off with the shoes and back in the house  trying not to start another big project, waiting for the sun to return.

Sure enough it did and this time I was ready.  I found my shoes and the dog and we took off.  Just in time, too. Not 5 minutes after our return the clouds unloaded again.

Yup! Timing is everything!

The Buzz of the Saw

It’s Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  No sun but no rain so hubby and I spent most of the day working outside. I’m pretty good at thinking up projects that I can’t do on my own and today I was in prime form.  I pulled out some good tongue and groove boards we’d salvaged from another job and got hubby working on making me some planters to edge our deck.

I headed off to another part of the yard to work on my specialty–taking things apart.  I love taking things apart but am at my best if the things don’t need reassembly. Today’s project was perfect–it was a take-apart-no-reassembly required project of removing a fence that used to be part of the dog kennel but our remaining dog never remains in there and it’s ugly so out it goes.

From my location I could hear the whine of hubby’s  saw.  And instantly  I was a young girl again, listening to  my father’s saw and hammer as he worked on another project. I’ve been gone from home for decades and my father has been gone for over 13 years.  But the sound instantly took me back to my girlhood. The security of home with dad making things.

It was a good day.  We got things done.  And I remembered my girlhood and dad.

Be Brave My Tomatoes!

The sun was still out when I got off work today and I had nowhere to go, no errands to run, so home I came.  It was fabulous.  After tending to my chores I went out to play in my yard.  So many choices!  Weed the ornamental grasses along the driveway?  How about working in the flower garden by the garage?  Or cleaning off the patio?  After looking at the endless possibilities I decided it was time to be brave and put the tomatoes outside.  They have to leave the safe nest of home and spread their roots  sometime.

So I gathered up my tomatoes, the Epsom salts for their special snack, and the buckets-without-tops-or-bottoms that fit over the tomatoes to help keep them warm.  Then me and my stuff headed down the driveway to my garden plot.  And I use that word loosely.  It is supposed to be my garden plot.  But there’s little garden to be seen.  The dandelions have banded together and are making a valiant effort at taking over the world.  My goodness!  Those things are three feet tall and 3 feet across!  And already they are going to seed,  part of their evil plot to subdue us all.

I  dug up a few of the dandelions, whacked a few more, and cleared a small area for my tomatoes.  I hope they won’t be scared out there, just the 6 of them, surrounded by monster dandelions.  I promise to come back soon and do more battle against the enemy.

Be brave, my tomatoes!

I’ve Become My Daughter!

I came home from my writing class Wednesday night and walked into the house checking my phone for a text message from my husband.  My daughter was in the kitchen fixing herself a late dinner.

“How was your class?” she asked me.  “Fine,” I answered as I read the text.  “What did you learn?” she continued.  “Stuff,”  I mumbled as I texted my husband.

“Oh, my goodness!” my daughter said, laying down the knife she was using and turning to face me.  “I’ve become the mother and you’re the kid!  I ask you how school was, you say ‘fine’. I ask what you learned and you say ‘stuff’ and the whole time you’re texting!”

I’ve often heard that we women become our mothers.  But I’d just become my daughter!

Run Hard and Jump!

I helped with a High School League Track Meet today, running the girls’ long jump.  16 girls from area schools competed.  Tall girls, short girls, thin girls, not-so-thin girls.

The 2nd place finisher was a tall, thin, happy  girl who took the job seriously.  She lined herself up, went thru’ her paces and gave it all she had.  The jumps were long, but even more, they were beautiful.  You could feel the jump with her and when she landed you couldn’t help but say, “Good jump!”  Even when she scratched you were proud of her because the jump was so graceful and fluid.

The winner also gave it all she had.  But with a different attitude.  She said she didn’t want to compete in the long jump because she’s not a jumper.  She’s a runner.   “I just run as fast as I can”, she said.  And she’s running so fast when she hits the board she just flies through the air.

That’s a great motto for life. You don’t want to pay that bill because you’d rather spend the money on something else? You don’t want to clean house because you’d rather read a book?  You don’t want to do your math because science is your thing? Well, take some advise from a high school long jumper who’d rather be running. Get going, give it your best, hit the board and fly! Pay the bill, clean the house, do the math.  Do it well.  Do it now.

Then go run.

Today: A Sunny Day

The sun came out!

After my day job I came home and worked in the yard for awhile. My, what a disaster.  The weeds have been having parties and inviting all of their friends.  Our yard was brilliant green flocked with lovely yellow dandelions.  It looks so much better now that my husband mowed the lawn, chopping off the heads of those miserable plants. They’ll be back but for now their green leaves blend in the with grass.

It was 65 degrees at my house. Which made it only the second day that I haven’t built a fire in the wood stove because it was warm.  Some days I don’t build a fire ‘cuz I’m not home long enough but the too-warm reason has been scarce this year.

I’ve got lots of packets of seeds ready to sow.  Fred Meyer had them half price. “Do you have a big garden?”, I was asked as the clerk scanned my purchases.  At which point I realized I’d overdone it. But I couldn’t pass up the rainbow colored carrots, or the peas which like this cold weather, or the kale that I’ve discovered is so good.  Ah well, that’s what sun does to me.

May there be more of it!

Moms! It’s all about us!

What a great Mother’s Day Weekend. Last night the youngest daughter, her boyfriend, and another friend of theirs spent the evening with us, cooking enchiladas and playing Clue and Sorry!

Today, each of the 3 kids,  my own mother (of course I wished her the best, too!) and a couple of friends all wished me a great day, and  my husband made me breakfast and took me out for lunch.  To top it off perfectly the sun made an appearance this afternoon! We had to wait til afternoon but the rain finally quit,  the clouds thinned, and the sun has been been playing peek-a-boo for a couple of hours.  We’ve hit 58 degrees and it’s beautiful!

I spent a couple of hours working in my garden.  The tulips are beautiful, the hostas are coming along, a couple of azaleas are showing off, and the weeds are going for it!

It’s been a fabulous day.

Thank you, all!  I love you!  And blessings to all moms!

New Friends and Slaps on the Back Side

I made  a couple new friends this past weekend while walking 7.5 miles in the Bloomsday Race.

Along the route bands play and singers sing.  One of these bands inspired two women to begin dancing.  Which elicited a funny comment by the man walking near me. We didn’t exchange names or home towns but we did have a delightful, short conversation about Bloomsday, walking, and the mysterious reasons that people do these walks.  A bit further along the route another fellow and I had a short chat about the weather and the crowds and sore feet.

Which reminds me of one particular Bloomsday about 15 or so years ago.  The night before Bloomsday our son, who was about 16 at the time, let his sisters “do his hair” resulting in numerous little  “ponytails” all over his blond head.  For unknown reasons he left his hair like that and ran Bloomsday.  Along the trail he ran feeling pretty good about passing folks older and younger. He was still doing well at Doomsday hill when he felt a slap on his backside and an old woman zipped past him saying, “Nice hair, Sonny!”

Ah!  New friends.

Our Bloomsday Family Reunion

For me it was like watching Fiddler on the Roof, the movie I’ve watched many times, the profession musical I’ve seen twice, and the songs I’ve listened to and sung along with hundreds of time.  Start the movie and I know the next line. This past weekend had that same familiarity.

My family has an annual mini-reunion in Spokane the first weekend in May. We gather at the old homestead in preparation for running and walking Bloomsday. Some of these kin I see several times a year;  others  I haven’t seen since last year; still others I haven’t seen in many years.  But time doesn’t matter.  A few months ago, a couple years ago, it’s all the same.  We walk into the room and there we are. The months and years since our last visit are of no concern.  We know each other because we grew up together or watched each other grow up and we’re kin.  Familiarity and tradition lends a comfortable easiness being around each other and we pick up like we were last together just yesterday.

It was short and quick.  We ran and walked Bloomsday with 50,000 of our closest friends and neighbors then, to celebrate our mutual victories we ate way too much at an all-you-can-eat buffet, shared hugs and kisses all around then spun off into our varied orbits of life.

It was great.  See you next year!  Love ya!