Sunday morning.  I woke up early, weeded the garden, unloaded the dishwasher, rotated laundry, folded and put away towels, cleaned out the chicken coop, gave the girls (chickens and dog) some treats, showered, and I have a lovely stack of books and magazines that I plan to thoroughly enjoy today in the air conditioning.  IT IS HOT OUT!!  Already 85 degrees with 86% humidity.  Really unpleasant.  I'm on my second large water already.

Exercise, check.
Water, check.

Later I'm going to the farmer's market to get some berries to make jam with.  That is so satisfying to me and at the end you have something so yummy.  I'm all about the win-win.

I've been dwelling on the negativity at work a lot lately, and the other night I got a really good night's sleep and when I woke up I knew what I had to do. 

Sleep, check.

I just need to concentrate on my own classroom, make it as positive as I can, and scoop everybody up and bring them with me.  The negativity can stay at the door.  This is a perfect time to do this because I'm getting a new assistant in a few weeks.  We will start out with good vibes all around.  She will be the first one I scoop.

New attitude, check.

I did some good thrifting yesterday.  Went to two Goodwill stores and got a Longaberger basket for 99 CENTS!!!  I adore Longaberger baskets.  I also got a bunch of men's shirts (for half price) to cut up for quilts.  This satisfies the save-the-earth-hippie in me.  I made a couple of little quilted flags for gifts, and decided that I need to re-open my Etsy shop. 

Sewing projects, check.

Feeling happy....check, check, check.

Sunday morning....I LOVE Sunday mornings.  My husband sleeps in, so I have some time to just putter around doing whatever I want.  Not that I can't do that anytime, but it's just different on Sunday mornings.  This morning, I watched a cooking show, made a brine for cucumber salad later, fed the chickens, collected eggs, gathered together the things I need to sew a project later, and thought about what time I want to go to the farmer's market.  (I need cucumbers for earlier-mentioned salad). 

I've been thinking a lot about my life, my health, my job, and my house.  I'm feeling like things need to change a little bit.  The kids are all doing well, and are all moved out so it's time for us to think about just us.  Things are really good right now, but I think they can be better.  The house looks lived in--and I'm feeling like there are only two of us living here and it could be more organized.  My health is okay, but I need to exercise more and I'm trying to think how that is going to work since I have some issues with pain when walking too much.  I'm thinking yoga, stationery bike or gardening (my choice daily), along with walking the dog.  I need to eat more vegetables, so I'm trying to find yummy recipes for that.  My job is good, but I feel like I could be doing some more amazing things with my preschoolers.  As for my life, I would really like to find more time to just BE.  I love to putter around my house and I don't make time for that regularly.  Ridiculous.

Quilting is wonderful again, thanks to my wonderful husband who encourages me to sew when ever I please.  I even take my featherweight sewing machine camping with us and sew outside, which I highly recommend if you've never done it before.  It's already EXTREMELY hot in Orlando, so I limit my outside sewing to early morning, but I love it.  I usually have a quilt cut out and I just have to sit and sew my little heart out.  VERY pleasant. 

So, the garden is completely overgrown already.  The tomatoes are prolific, the cucumbers grew nice vines, but not one cucumber, and they are already wilty and need to be pulled up.  The squash are huge and I get a lot of small yellow squash, but I think it's getting too hot for them too.  The herbs are wonderful--especially the lemon balm and the mint (naturally).  The blackberries are red and I can't wait until the Hubbs can have a nice bowl with milk (his favorite).  Everything else is just so-so.  I need to get out there and weed.

I am going to make blogging a priority, as it helps me to sort out my thoughts, and I think I have a lot to say.  We'll see where that goes.

Simple Sunday....a quiet day alone--well, kind of....

How much do I love a simple Sunday?  I never get them much any more, since everybody has an agenda for the weekend, and the hubbs likes to actually get out and do things.  So I'm taking full advantage of today, Devan (aka. the Hubbs) and Kaleigh are doing a tiling job so I'm kind of just puttering around the old homestead this morning.  

A little excitement....we finally got our first egg!  And it's GREEN!  Gorgeous, don't you think?!

We got our first egg on Friday, and we checked the yard thoroughly on Saturday, but no egg.  Not unusual.  This morning, Hazel, the beauty who is the first to be a contributing chicken, kept trying to come in the back door every time we opened it.  Weird.  So Kaleigh went out and said, "I can't find Hazel!" A desperate search ensued, and between me, Devan and Kaleigh, we just could not find that darn chicken.  After about 40 minutes, Kaleigh said, "Is there any chance she could get under the potting bench?" (photo below) 

 I looked and said I didn't think so, but to look under there anyway.  There is about 3 inches of clearance at the bottom!  About that time, Hazel stuck her head out from under it, looking back and forth as if to ask, "What are you guys looking for?"  Crazy darn chicken made herself a little nest under there and lo and behold....TWO green eggs under there!  We are pretty impressed with her.  I'm so excited you'd think I laid the darn eggs!

So, my big plan for the day is to read a little, some laundry, give some treats to the chickens, putting coffee grounds from Starbucks into the garden beds, make food for the Superbowl tonight, and generally just be a homebody.  

Challenge: Day 16 (and Simple Sunday)

Yesterday's post was super-long--sorry about that.  Not sure anybody wants to sit and read the ramblings of my sometimes-difficult-to-follow mind.  If you stuck it out and read the whole thing...yea for you!

The pickled green beans I made yesterday are pretty awesome.  I will use that recipe again for sure.  I'm heading out into the garden in a few minutes to see if any more green beans are ripe.  They have a way of sneaking up on me.  Pick them all one day, and you swear there isn't another one to be found, and there are hundreds ready the next day.  It's crazy.

It's also time for me to plant some lettuce--I have lots of room in my beds and just need to make time to get out there and do it.  Fresh salad would be lovely--I plant leaf lettuce and cut it when it's still small and it doesn't get a chance to bolt in the heat.  I plant on a weekly schedule--two square feet this week, two more next week, two more the next week, and when the first row is ready, I cut them and they regrow.  

This morning I think I'm going to the farmer's market with my daughter-in-law.  My granddaughter has allergies and needs to be taking local honey every day.  (Yes, this is actually a "thing"--not just a hippie remedy!)  I'm looking forward to it--I LOVE THE FARMER'S MARKET.  I hope the singing veteran is there--the baby girls love to dance!   Even Kaleigh likes to go to the farmer's market.

I've also planted the hardened-off segments of Christmas Cactus into their new little pots.  I hope they take.  They will make nice little Christmas presents next year.  

My plan for something nice to do today is to hang out with my daughter in law.  She's having a hard time right now, realizing that my son (who is in the navy) will really be gone for two years and she'll be doing this basically alone.  She has us, but we aren't the same, I guess.  Plus, Bridgette is still really little and a lot of daily work--I forget how much WORK tiny kids are.  

Yesterday I did some organizing of the shelves next to my computer desk.  They tend to be a catch-all for whatever I have on the desk, which gets messy.  I need to do better about putting things where they go when I'm done with them.  Story of my life, I guess.

Simple Sunday...

Simple Sunday is something I made up a while ago to make sure I get a day of peace (or at the very least, a day to stay home) during my busy and stressful week.  I don't always stick to it, but when I need to, I do.

Plan for this week's Simple Sunday...

• Coffee with my sister this morning.  We don't do this enough, and we've both been so busy that we see very little of each other these days.  Sad.
• Plant cucumber seeds in newspaper seed pots that I made myself.  The fall garden is really coming along.
• Read.  I'm now reading three books at one time, which is very unlike me, but they are very different and sometimes I'm not in the mood to read where my food comes from.  It can be upsetting.  So I choose which book I want to read by the mood I'm in.  The books:
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  I like this author, but this book is very eye-opening about where food comes from.  Hard to read at times.
• The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel.  One of my all-time favorites, and I reread it now and then.  
• The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin.  This one is like a textbook about compost.  I don't think it's a secret that I have a strange obsession with compost at this point.  But it's not really reading for pleasure.  
• Laundry--I don't mind doing laundry because I can do other things while the laundry is working.  And I love clean-smelling clothes.
• I'd like to do some sewing, but I don't have a project going right now, so that might not happen--I should at least think about a project I want to start.  
• Puttering around my house--one of my very favorite things to do.  Water plants, move this and that, sit in my rocking chair, whatever.