Hello again! Oh, it has been far too long. After four separate people told me lately about how much they've enjoyed this blog, and a couple of others asked questions about my cleaning posts, I decided that the time had come to jump back in here and start writing again. It seems like a bit of catching-up chat is called for.
Since my last post here, I've been posting over at Nova Scotia Kitchens each month, and over on Instagram. The Green Arrow peas are in the ground (the best peas for eating fresh!), the boys are growing (and eating) at a remarkable rate, and we're all healthy and keeping well. I continue to pinch myself - life is full and so good.
Things I've been enjoying lately:
Watching:
Detectorists on Netflix is hilarious and charming, the episodes are short, and completely fantastic. (One of the main actors played a particularly evil character on an episode of Sherlock, so it took me awhile to get over that, but it's great.) Can't recommend this highly enough.
Lulastic and the HippyShake - Lucy is a yurt-dwelling mama in New Zealand who doesn't use shampoo (#lifegoals) and has a thriving YouTube channel.
Clematis shoots. (Pictured above.) Because I couldn't control myself, after buying one beauty last summer, I bought three more. All of them are coming up, and I couldn't be more excited.
Tiny House Tours (my oldest loves watching these with me). Living Big in a Tiny House is a fun channel to start with. I have no plans to live in a tiny house, but they're just so darn fascinating, I can't stop watching.
Listening:
Brains On! podcast with the boys - we all love it.
Oprah's Super Soul Conversations podcast. Thought provoking, meaningful conversations - I don't listen to every episode, but most of them are really, really great. (Who couldn't listen to Oprah's voice all day, every day?)
My all-time favourite that I never miss and which is like a soil-scented hug every week, the Gardener's Question Time (aka GQT) podcast.
Kelsey and Erica have thoughtful, funny, insightful conversations about everyday life over on The Girl Next Door podcast.
Peepers! We can hear them loud and clear through our closed windows at night. I love it. (Maybe I should start the Peepers podcast. All peepers, all the time.)
Not doing:
Chicks: in an effort to save myself unnecessary work, we're not raising chicks this year. Our flock of 26 is quite happy, healthy, and productive, which I'm delighted with. And although they're cute, chicks are a royal pain to raise, at one of the busiest times of the year.
I am in a volunteer position related to work which has taken up a lot of mental bandwidth and time over the past several years, and I will be finishing up with that in a few months. I've learned a lot and have enjoyed it, but I'm also looking forward to the reprieve.
Doing:
Fostering creativity: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron was recommended by a few people lately, and I have it out from the library. My weekday mornings are too full to incorporate morning pages, but I love the idea - just getting three pages of writing (no matter what it is - that's not really the point) down on paper, and I try to do it on weekend mornings. I have a few other writing projects that I'd like to tackle over the next few years, and I've been working on those, too.
And of course, a million other tasks of daily life are also getting done. I am constantly reminding myself that there will always be more things to do, but this moment will only be here once. Sometimes it works, and I can set the list aside without guilt or anxiety. Sometimes it doesn't.
I'm so happy to be here and writing again! It makes me feel more like myself - the same experience as puttering in the garden, cooking, or collecting eggs and hanging out with the chickens. That alone is worth the effort - but I'm glad that you're here, too.