Ref, Can we get a time out?

A strange set of events have been happening to me recently.

I tried to ride a tube the wrong way down a river that was too fast, and ended up clinging to green branches and sobbing a prayer of thanks for this life of mine that was spared. The cold of the river kept me from knowing about my most painful bruises until that night when I sat down. The bruises on my legs were so impressive I had to ask my mom if they were too disgusting to wear my long shorts. Luckily they covered my knees so she gave me the go ahead.


Shortly after that I found out I GOT MY DREAM JOB!!! I did a little (o.k. BIG) dance and had to restrain myself from WOO WHOOING out loud. Then reality hit. My dream job.... A Career.... Responsibility.... Big Time Responsibility.... WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!?

Every day since then my to do list has been a million miles long.

Today, Patsy and I weeded and harvested the fruits of our garden. And then Fish and I had a great conversation. He also gave me some great ideas for what to have for lunch. Unfortunately, the lettuce had gone bad, so I had to regretfully turn from the delectable ideas Fish gave me. Instead I had to go with my own mediocer ideas and had a sad, sad little lunch.

Lunch marked the gateway to a long afternoon at the computer. So what do I do to take a break? Read and write blogs. Yup. I'm consistent.

Hot, hot, hot

I apologize for my absence, my three readers. I have been on vacation on my couch. Someone turned the temperature up in my garden. The vegetables are loving it, but I prefer the beauty of a cool dark room.

Yesterday the dude and I were able to taste the fruits of our labors. I made a sauce to drizzle over our delicious chicken. And in it ... (drum roll please) ... fresh basil, white onions, and garlic chives from our delicious little gargantuan garden. My mouth is watering just thinking of all that deliciousness. Rats! I should have taken a picture of it to put on here so you could be extremely jealous. Oh, well. In my head you are jealous.

Absoluteness

I have been reminded lately of how absolute life is when you are a teenager. No I am not a teenager, but once I was. And I have been blessed with the ability to remember what life was like then. If I couldn't remember, life would be a lot, lot, lot more frustrating. My head would be full of, "What are you thinking?!?!"s and "Are you kidding me?!"s and "Grow up!!!"s. Instead it's full of, "I remember when I said stuff like that" interspersed with internal giggling. Internal because when you are a teenager nothing is worse than having someone laugh at your absolute opinions that you know are right. That's right spelled with an absolute in the middle. It's not the silent absolute of the passive aggressive. It's the absolute of the "I'm so sure I will write it in cement" or "carve it into a desk" or "I will stand by this until I die, because I know I am right. Yes, yes you are my young friend. You are right. You stick by that opinion. You show them how right you are.

Adults: don't roll your eyes, you used to be right too.

Mom, I'm sorry.

Ritual

Peppermint tea, scriptures, and a conversation with my garden = a perfect moment in the day.

This little ritual helps me get out of bed and keep my sanity.

Peace and projects

My peace is found in two places right now. The scriptures and my garden.

Our acreage turned into a lake a few nights ago when the monsoon hit. I'm a little worried about mosquitoes. There is a lot of standing water. All of the mud meant I couldn't work in my garden the way I had planned. We also ended up being busier than we thought we would be with gatherings. My goal is to improve the drainage in our yard and to get my poor plants from the nursery in the ground or in their planters. I won't have much time to accomplish all that in, and I'll probably be covered head to toe in mud, but my poor plants are crying out to me. They need to grow and to flourish. I need to scrounge up more planters. The dude and I created the master plan for our yard and garden a couple nights ago, and the verdict is in, the coleus that I put in the ground that gets sun half the day is going to have to go in a planter anyway, so I'll be able to move it to all shade. Lucky coleus. Now I just need to find something else to put there so I have something to look at from the kitchen window. The marigolds in the west 40 are also going to have to be put into planters. Right now they are getting flooded out, so I bet they'll enjoy the planter. I hope I can come up with a good way to improve the drainage in that part of the yard. The dinosaur dig created sort of a pool, but I think the contractors didn't do what they said they did with grading it anyway. Grumble, grumble. Wait! Why am I complaining? This just gives me more projects outside! There's nothing bad about that!

And, Yes, ancestors and Mother, I have been faithfully putting sun block on my face and my ears. For the past few days the rest of me has been covered up because of the cool air so no worries there.

Relaxation

Something strange happened to me this week. Mom, are you ready for this? I found myself weeding for relaxation. After an extremely stressful day away from my garden in front of a lot of check boxes on a screen, I came home and found myself on my knees in the dirt telling myself, "No, you can only pull weeds until 8:00." I was sure that something in the universe was awry until a few days later on Saturday morning I decided that I'd had enough weeding after an hour. It seems like there are an exorbitant amount of weeds in our vast acreage.

My garden is my sanctuary. Today before Church I just sat out there and listened to the birds and the Sunday morning neighborhood stillness. Peace poured into my heart.

The new love in my life

Cinnamon Head and I spent Saturday working in the earth. What a satisfying activity. We waxed very philosophical. Earth and plants. Sun and water. It was one of the most calming things I've done in years.

I had to leave my garden today. Work unfortunately has to come first. I miss my friend. We had a nice little chat as I watered this morning. We think we know where the rest of the marigolds will go. And lavender will be going into the east 40 still leaving room for a corner vignette of evergreens and coleus in the back 40. I still need to find some geraniums at one of the local establishments. My garden is not complete without geraniums. The dude and I are still discussing what to do with the last of the land. Cinnamon Head and I were talking about me getting an ox to till the rest of the land, because it is so hard packed. Then we went to a yak, and then the genius idea of a water buffalo came to us. She was over joyed. Why would anyone be over joyed at the prospect of a water buffalo becoming part of the family? I personally think that's a silly question. The answer should be obvious. Fresh Mozzarella.

You know you love your garden when you go out to bend down and water it at 10:00pm when you are sick to your stomach.

Bring on the Water Buffalo!