Rainy May

It has been a very wet spring and is continuing to be so this week. Living in a generally dry state, you don't want to complain about precipitation -- the summer is coming, and at some point everything will dry out and then burn. But when it's wet like this the farmers can't plant, and all the green stuff growing like mad right now will be fuel for the fires later. You can't win, in other words. Still, I'll take the wet, even though cloudy days dampen my mood, too. 

Teen A and I got the front lawn mowed yesterday, before the afternoon rains began. We have a 60% chance of rain this afternoon, 80% chance tomorrow, 70% Tuesday, and 50% Wednesday, and beyond that they don't give percentages. But it looks like a pretty wet week ahead regardless.

I'm trying to think of what I accomplished this week, but not coming up with much. Little bits of this and that. The kids and I are planning a trip to St. Louis to see Dad after school gets out, so I... (1) arranged a rental car, because we're going to drive there, drop the car off at the St. Louis airport, and then use Dad and Lyfts while we're in the city; (2) made plane reservations for me and Teen B to fly home, because Teen A is going to stay with Dad for a few weeks on his own (Teen B will do the same thing later in the summer); (3) arranged for our favorite pet-sitters to take care of Sillers and Mr. Merlino while we're gone; and (4) researched exciting things to do while driving across Kansas. This coming week I plan to focus on cleaning the house.

The Mother's Day presents I ordered for myself both arrived, and I am very happy with them. The maybasket pins arrived about three days after I ordered them and the plates just came today (they got stuck in Wisconsin, for some reason). There is nothing wrong with the plates except a few tiny scratches (which are surely from normal use), so have no idea why they were identified as damaged. I washed them and put them away in the cupboard with the other china. And now I have something to hunt for -- because of course I should have at least four. (There are some on eBay but they are too expensive. I will keep looking.)

I'm very pleased with the maybasket pins as well, and that's going to be something to hunt for, too -- not aggressively, just if I happen to be somewhere that has vintage costume jewelry, like an estate sale or a resale shop. It's kind of cheating to just look for them online. My mother and my Aunt Helen used to enjoy hunting for costume jewelry for me at estate sales, because I appreciated everything they found. When I find glittery treasures it makes me think of my mother and my aunt.

I did something interesting yesterday. With a group that I've been zooming with for a while, I went to a dog park in Westminster and placed some stones in honor of Chester, Pie Bear, and even Whiskers, who died back in 2010. Don't laugh at the art -- I have never claimed to be an expert painter, and I was working with pretty terrible little brushes.

Most people just wrote the names of their pets on rocks they found at the park, but I had poked around our yard ahead of time and found little stones to work with. Then, on Friday, I sat outside on our back patio and painted them, using old photographs as a guide. Our backyard is a jungle right now -- every square inch of lawn has a gigantic dandelion plant growing out of it, and the trees are leafing out, especially the maple. There is a red-breasted nuthatch hanging out (nesting?) in the Siberian elm, don't know if it's the same one that gave up on the hole in the half-dead aspen in the side yard, but it might be. It came over near me and climbed on the wall of the house, just to say hi (well, that's how I interpreted it). 

Speaking of bird friends, on Mother's Day I heard a hummingbird, but I have yet to see one at my feeder. I think I may have put the wrong strength of sugar water (too weak) in it originally and that may have so disgusted the hummingbird that it left and hasn't returned. I have the right strength now and I hope more hummingbirds will come and give it a try.

There was a very noisy meadowlark at the dog park on Saturday, and I think I saw two lark buntings. Is that possible? I don't think of lark buntings as being down here, they're more likely to be out on the eastern plains, but I don't know what else they could have been. They're a pretty distinctive bird.

I am making some progress on my resolutions. I finally managed to unpack the sewing machine, though I haven't sewn anything yet. I spent some time wondering why it took nearly 10 months to get it out of its box, but really, there's no point in dwelling on that. Anxiety is not rational -- that's one of the most frustrating things about it. I mean, think about it: I was afraid to take the sewing machine out of its box because... it's hard to take things out of boxes? (obviously not, things arrived in boxes all year and I took them out) because... it might be hard to learn how to use a new sewing machine? (OK, but really? It's a Singer, my old one is a Singer, I've been sewing for over 45 years, is this a rational fear?) because... I also might want to get my old sewing machine fixed? (getting closer -- having two related things to do often prevents me from doing either one). Basically it's all nonsense. You just have to push through it somehow.

Anyway, the sewing machine is out, and sister Barbara and I have decided that I will make her Littlest Angel doll a nightgown and robe. I downloaded a pattern from Etsy that she chose, and today I went to JoAnn's and bought some material and notions (that's always the fun part, matching colors and so on). Now I have to do some actual sewing, but I might not start until after our trip. I'm not sure.

The other resolution-related thing I did this week was write. I've actually been working on this writing project for months, but that was all planning and organizing. The project is a mystery novel, so I had to work out the structure of the mystery, and plan the characters, and do all that sort of prep work before I could write. I don't usually do that much prep work before I write something, and I was afraid that I might have killed my interest by prepping too long. But no -- once I sat down and began typing it was SO FUN. I wrote two chapters this week and started the third. 

I am writing this instead of my usual angsty short stories and such because I wanted something that would make me happy, something completely escapist. There is no Covid in my story, no politics, and people of different races/ethnicities all get along happily. Oh, and no death -- it's not a murder mystery. The characters are based on some of my Barbie dolls, so I set them up on my desk before I start to write and it's like they're cheering me on. 

A few plans for the coming week:

• Monday: Do school with the kids at home. Do my laundry. Take a walk before it starts to rain. Switch out my summer/winter clothes. Order phones for the twins unless my anxiety proves unconquerable, in which case ask Rocket Boy to do it. Pick up junk off the floors, throw away/recycle. Take Mr. Merlino to get his nails clipped at 4 pm. Something easy for dinner (scrambled eggs?); then go to the grocery store to pick up my prescription and get food for the week (planning the meals would be a good thing to do first).
  
• Tuesday: Get the kids to school. 10 am appointment with endocrinologist; also get a blood test while I'm there. Write for two hours (or whatever I have time for). Clean off flat surfaces. Do the kids' laundry. Pick up the kids at school at 2:45 and take them for their 3 pm vaccine appointment (yay!!!). Something easy for dinner.
• Wednesday: Get the kids to school (unless their arms hurt from the vaccine, in which case I might have to keep them home, sigh). Cut out the robe pattern and explore how one might begin to sew it. Clean the bathroom! Take a walk. Something simple for dinner (what are all these simple dinners that I'm supposed to be making?).
  
• Thursday: Get the kids to school. Write for two hours. Sweep and vacuum (probably a two-day job). Take a walk. Do something simple for dinner. Put out the trash & recycling at night.
• Friday: Get the kids to school. Pay bills. Do a little more sewing. Sweep and vacuum the rooms I didn't get to on Thursday. Take a walk, do something simple for dinner.
  
• Sat & Sun: Go for walks, get the kids outside. If not raining, work in the garden. Get takeout for dinner on Saturday; make something simple for dinner on Sunday. Plan what else I need to do to get ready for the trip in the week ahead. Get ready for the book group (they're supposedly coming here on Monday!)

And there you have it. It's 6:00, so I should go for a quick walk before I cook (I think it's stopped raining, but in any case I'll bring an umbrella). I think I'm going to make French toast for dinner. I actually made a banana coffee cake earlier today, after planning to do so for several weeks, but I want to save it for breakfast. (We've already had some as a snack. It's very good.) 

Here's to a stress-free week with no complications. Or, if that's not possible, then I'll wish for the strength to deal with whatever the complications happen to be.