already tuesday!

Wow! Is Monday already here? Ha! Wait! It's Tuesday! Oh the week just started off on the right foot! The schedule for the week is: work four days, happy hour with the office folk on Thursday evening and lunch out with them on Friday.... Good thing we all like each other!

Also, I get PAID THIS WEEK (!) and so will very likely be in the market for a tent and sleeping bag this weekend.... Gearing up for some camping trips with Beulah here. I've never camped alone and so think it's high time to remedy that. Beulah agrees. Or, rather, she will when she knows what I'm talking about.

I'm actually psyched about this week and really am not even sure why. But hey, that's ok with me. Hope your week is starting off right!

out and about

Whew! The sickness has passed! Unfortunately not in time for me to make my yoga class, but hey! at least I can swallow!

Last week was a bit of a whirl and I am just now breaking the surface of normality again. Rather than bore you with photos of the wedding (I'm sure my sister will ensure more than enough of that) here are a few glimpses of Mother and I in our walking tour of DC, in it's entirety....

At the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetary:



The Lincoln Memorial: (a bajillion steps)

The Korean War Memorial (my personal favorite):

One of the cool flowers at the Botanical Gardens:

AND Mother being dwarfed by the Capitol Building and some guy on a horse:

Boy, did we have a good time!

i feel like uga

Well, we're back. The wedding is said and done and the Greene family is scattered back all over the place. After a week of moving pieces, late nights and long talks I'm home with Beulah and I feel terrible! I guess it's the inevitable crash after all the excitement, but it looks as though Emily is going to take herself home early today, try to manage to get Beulah outdoors for a bit and then crawl onto the couch and try not to think about how much my throat hurts.

It was worth it, though. It's worth a zillion sore throats and stuffy heads to see my whole family in the same place at the same time!

the garden of virginia

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Virginia is gorgeous in the Spring! Every day there is a new flower popping out to say good morning! Here's a little taste of what Beulah and I are seeing right now on our daily morning walk:

Isn't it pretty? This state never ceases to amaze me when it comes to green grass and trees and flowers everywhere, all the time! It makes me feel like a whiner wishing for the beach so much! Hands down, this is the prettiest Spring I've seen in a long time.

the calm before the storm

You wouldn't know it by the look on Beulah's face, but things are starting to get exciting around here.

Next week is wedding week for Esther and Charlie and that means... family coming into town, packing bags for both casual and semi-dressy events (not to mention the wedding stuff), making arrangements and arranging the arrangements for Beulah's staycation and well... all the little things you have to do to make all this happen.

Not to mention the fact that a week (and a wee bit more) of traveling back and forth between here and Richmond means I really shouldn't go grocery shopping until after it's all over. Which means I'm eating a lot of beans and rice this week.

Beulah, of course, has special meals of ground turkey and green peas to help me assuage my guilt over leaving her overnight for the first time ever. Yes, I'm that crazy poodle lady a few decades too early. What's it to ya?

Wish I could get a little help from the poodle. Instead, she's busy. There are bones to chew and holes to dig. I'll just leave her to it and maybe figure out what to pack...

six paper cranes

I've been finding it hard lately to focus my creative energies on just one project or idea. It seems as soon as I start in on one project, another immediately springs to mind and I just have to start in on it immediately. After all, one can't let so many good ideas go to waste, can one?

The problem with this is that I now have at least three projects going and probably at least half a dozen in mind. Things were beginning to get a little frustrating until I finally decided to work on one small thing that I could complete in a sitting. And so, as you can see, I finally learned how to make a paper crane. However, apparently paper cranes are like potato chips; you can't make just one.
Now I have a small family of paper cranes at home just waiting to be hung on my yet-to-be-erected prayer tree. They sure do perk up the potted garden though!

one step at a time

Sometimes it's the little things that make life a pleasure. I've been working hard to try to do all the little things I've always wanted to do and simply never bothered to make a reality. Nothing hard or complicated. Little things. Things like making sure I have plants on the patio, a good mix of flowers and (hopefully) food-bearing plants. Actually attempting to compost my food scraps, running every day, eating a mainly vegetarian diet, burning that incense I love, drinking good coffee, turning off the tv and reading a good book.

None of these things are hard to do, or terribly earth-shattering, but the more I make the decision to do them instead of the alternative the more I find the days are happier somehow. It's really true; you have to live your life one moment at a time and not spend so much of it planning for the future. I'm a planner, always have been. To a certain degree this is a good thing. It keeps me moving and growing, always looking for the next thing. However, when I remember to slow down a bit and not miss all the moments in between plans I am happier and the days are better.

I hope I can keep this up. My goal is to remain mindful of the small things you can do to make every day a little special. It makes a big difference.

pickle paradise

This weekend, the long-awaited, much-anticipated pickle party happened. One of Esther's (thankfully diminishing) list of DIY projects for her upcoming wedding was to pickle a bunch of stuff for folks to nosh on through the day leading up to the wedding.

Neither of us had ever pickled before, but thankfully there were two other helpers who showed early in the process and the internet is a wonderful thing. It was much easier than either of us had expected. Ok, well easier than I had expected anyhow. The hard part is going to be letting them sit for the next two(ish) weeks and allowing that pickling process to take full effect.

I'm actually thinking I might have to do some pickling myself this summer...