Into October

I returned from my late September retreat to a newly-revamped bird & squirrel feeder outside my kitchen window. I returned to continued mild weather, making a very green Autumn. I returned to a mound of firewood needing to be stacked (a seasonal favorite; no joke). I returned to just enough crisp in the air to justify the dusting off of my most delicious stew recipes.

I also returned to a scary call-back for a second mammogram and ultrasound (they found nothing but exceptionally dense breast tissue, thank goodness). And... after a few brief weeks of transitioning back to normal life, there was a fatal hard drive crash that ended everything abruptly.

With a family vacation on the calendar for the next week, all I could do was take the failed hard drive to the Geek Squad and pray for the best. Normally a faithful monthly backer-upper, I had lapsed in my good habits for months. Meaning master copies of any new design and financial records were under threat of being lost forever. Re-creating them would have taken weeks of my time, so I paid the big bucks for the highest chance of retrieval, packed my suitcases for vacation and tried to leave the worry behind.

Summer Break: Week Ten

Ah... at last... breathing room.

Monday marked the (almost) end of a very long project; dropping that stack of boxes off at the Post Office was about the happiest moment I could have wanted.

The remainder of the week held many delights: A day of going to town just for the sake of doing so, Jamba Juice smoothies, the first harvest of Acorn Squash from the garden, the discovery that Clearly Canadian is back on the market! (hello 1990, I've missed you), RAIN (if just for one morning), a quiet afternoon sit on the nearly-finished back deck (stay tuned for a deck renovation post), a Wednesday night free of obligation so that we could return to one of our Summer favorites; Sandy Summer Sounds (live music in the town park). Now THIS is what Summer is all about.

(SIGH) is it really almost over? 

Summer Break: Week One

As far as first weeks of Summer Break go, this one was pretty uneventful. We mostly just caught our breath. Ran errands, did all the usual things, but without the added pressure of school. It rained way too much to get outside and play, but the local pool is covered, so at least that's something...

An official rite of passage (one that I'm not ready for)... this baby of mine was officially moved up to the church Youth Group. So proud of the person he is becoming, but it is happening so, so, so, fast.

The Rest of March

The rest of March was a blur of filling orders and rain and gearing up for Spring and also gearing up for my very first stitching retreat. There wasn't much time for breathing or resting, but I did it anyway, because I've learned that it just isn't worth it to push too hard any more. As much as you all on the outside and my own brain on the inside might think that I'm still a Spring Chicken, I just am not. Simple as that. And the better I take care of myself, the better Mom and Wife and Friend I can be.