This past weekend was all about small steps rather than big leaps. My garden is slowly, slowly, slowly coming along. My husband fractured his elbow back in May and he is still healing up, and unfortunately can’t do the digging for us. My brother has been coming over and helping me out – this past weekend we rototilled the front garden area and I hope to plant some things in there around the raspberry bushes soon. It is so weird to be so behind schedule, and off plan. I am a person who makes a detailed plan and then for the most part, checks it off. So this has been a learning experience in flexibility and rolling with the punches for sure. And honestly, I am ok. This just wasn’t the year I guess! Despite the setbacks, we are still doing great with what we have planted – I am super excited about all my radishes and I am going to pickle some of them today. We are also going to try our hand at baguettes (using sourdough since I can’t find yeast still!) and having our radish and butter sandwiches on baguettes, with radishes we have grown and bread we have baked. Simple but good, like my life lately.

We spend our evenings in the front yard, where we actually have some shade, all nestled on a blanket in front of the apple tree. We snack and chat and watch the birds flying about in the twilight. It’s a great way to wind up the evening before going in. We have been doing some read-alouds at night as well, poems from a book called A Poem for Every Night of the Year, and sometimes from Farmer Boy too.

Then this past weekend we took a spontaneous walk through the marsh. Most of our favorite hiking spots are now super crowded so when we go, we try to find some of the smaller, off the beaten trails. Sunday we headed out to one of the places we knew would be crowded, but we only planned on checking out the hive to look for bees, since we were starting bee week this week. Well, no bees, but we decided to wander down one of the less popular trails for a bit. It was such an impulse that kiddo didn’t even wear shoes, we didn’t have our hiking backpack – or sunblock, so it was a quick trip, mostly under the canopy of trees!

I am slowly learning how to live without a plan, something that is hard for me. But I am learning we don’t always need one.

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Last week was pretty focused on the outdoors – gardening, toads, ponds, playing in the yard and water. My husband worked pretty late all week and the kiddo and I are still on lockdown, but we made the best of it that we could. We even made sugar cookies cut out to look like dragonflies together on Friday – although Wyatt was more about eating the frosting straight out of the container rather than helping to decorate. I’m not the baker in the family, that is Billy, but these turned out pretty ok!

Read Last Week:

I was so excited to see this on NetGalley! I am really enjoying this series.

Reading This Week:

Well this book has been a sort of personal revelation for me – it is everything I feel in my soul as a mother! It resonates so deeply for me – I had bought the kindle version and then the next day ordered a physical copy as well. Needless to say I am loving it.

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Ponds and Frogs

Book Review: A Death Long Overdue

Weekend Vibes..

Watching:

We finished up When Calls the Heart and I miss its simple, happy ease already! We started watching Living the Dream on Britbox and Rosemary and Thyme and are enjoying them.. but I still miss my Hope Valley characters. Our movie nights this weekend we watched the new Emma, which we thought was ok, not great. I kind of enjoyed the golden warmth of the cinematography, so much yellow and gold, like the sun was constantly shining on them. My husband and I are heathens though – we both agreed our favorite version is…Clueless. LOL. Then we watched The House with a Clock in its Walls. I was so excited to see this! John Bellairs was born in Michigan, not too far from here really, and I have stood in front of the house that inspired this story. So I was really excited to see this movie. It was a fun kids movie for sure! Kind of dark, so if you are not a fan of that for kids avoid this one.

Stay safe everyone.

Some days, it seems like this new world will never change. That we will be isolated from our friends and family forever, that life will never go back to “normal”. Other days, I have more faith than that; that our smart science people will figure this out and we will no longer be as afraid to go grocery shopping or being closer than 8 feet apart.

And then, how much back to normal do we really want to be? I don’t want to go back to the crazy rush of life, where we miss things and take people and life itself for granted, ever again. To fully appreciate the little things, because life really is about these little moments.

So many moments still make me smile – sidewalk chalk in a colorful jumble on my walk, cats all snuggled up together in the sun, naps and a surprise gift in the mail, nature and gardens and butterflies and dandelions and my snail Sampson. My friends sending me photos of their gardens and toads and treasures they find throughout their days too. The other day my cousin orchestrated a family Zoom meeting where he played for us a DVD that he had made from old film footage from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s that his parents had taken. It was bittersweet, to see loved ones who are no longer with us, vacations that we all took together, my mom as a young girl, my 2nd birthday. And these days that we are living in are becoming memories too – one day our children will remember this time and what we did, how we adapted and tried our best. Our masks will become heirlooms we pull from cedar chests, and remember how family and friends made them for us to keep safe, that is how much they loved us. But for now we keep on moving, one foot in front of the other, one moment at a time. Finding solace and smiles where we can.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

We had a crazy week last week. If you read my homeschooling post, then you already know that we had to spend an overnight in the hospital with Wyatt for an overnight EEG to see if he was having seizures. Which unfortunately he was, but he was able to get on meds right away so that is good. My husband also had a bike accident and hurt his elbow, so our week was all messed up. However up until then our week was actually going pretty well! Lol.

Anyway, I didn’t get much reading in at all, but I did read a little bit of Watership Down. It’s my favorite book and so I know it backwards and forwards.

Reading This Week:

I’m not sure where I will land with reading this week, but I will try these two and see if one works!

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Interrupted

A Day of New Life

Little Wanderings

Watching:

We are just finishing up When Calls the Heart, only a few left! What will I do without my happy show? We are also watching Midsomer Murders…

Stay safe all!

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! Today we are just having a quiet day at home…lol. We are going to have a virtual chat breakfast with my mom soon – and my husband is going to make me chocolate chip pancakes, yum! I do have that pancake obsession you know. Then since it is cold and rainy I think we will take a drive, then bake a cake and play some games with the boyo. I wanted to stop by and visit with my mom outside for a few minutes but it is too cold and I don’t want her to be outside in the rain. Last week was busy with zoom meetings for Wyatt – it makes me laugh that he now has meetings. We have been doing some therapy with his therapists online – let me tell you, that is pretty tough! They direct me and I have to do it for physical therapy and occupational. But I am learning!

Read Last Week:

So I wasn’t going to read another Witches of Palmetto Point book but then I realized this was the last one that is published so far and I felt like a quitter so.. I did. Then I started Reading Up a Storm and I am able to focus on it so yay! I’ve progressed in my quarantine reading!

Reading This Week:

I am rereading my favorite book Watership Down, like I do every spring, and I will probably also read (or try) Ever Faithful.

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Snail Week!

Quarantine Book Tag

Currently.. May

Rolling With It

Watched Last Week:

We are still working our way through When Calls the Heart, and we took the plunge and started Midsomer Murders. I wasn’t thrilled with our choices for movie night this week – we watched Doolittle which wasn’t bad, really, just silly (which I expected) but Billy and I couldn’t handle whatever voice RDJ was using in that. Then we watched The Lighthouse on Saturday, which I have to say I really really didn’t care for. It was not my kind of movie at all. I will say the cinematography and sound effects were awesome. But that is it. So those were bummers but hey you win some you lose some.

Stay safe everyone!