A Day In the Life: April 2017

I haven't done a "Day in the Life" post in forever (since February of 2013!!), so today I thought I'd have some fun. I'm also changing the format of the traditional "Day in the Life" post, just cause I can 😜

I woke up yesterday with the intention to blog. It was one of those mornings where I felt completely uninspired and couldn't come up with anything to say. I wrote out a post and then I reread it. Even I was bored. Deleted. One of my intentions since coming back from my break was to share quality work, not just sharing work for the sake of sharing. So I decided to take the day off from posting. To work in the garden. To do some yoga. To enjoy my pups. It was then that I had the idea to do a "Day in the Life" post so I decided to take some pictures throughout the day.

Oh yes, it's definitely time for a fun post! Let's get started-

I've got weird dogs. Most mornings when I wake up the first thing I have to do is either let Mariota out to potty, or I have to change his water. It's up to me to decide which wiggle dance he's doing- the H2O dance or the potty dance. Yesterday, it was the water dance. This dog actually waits for me to empty his bowl and then stares at me as I fill it with new water. As soon as the bowl is full, he sprints to its spot and waits for its arrival. It's on as soon as the bowl hits the ground. 

Haloti and Gizmo are usually cold and giving me the stare that says, "Turn on the heating pads woman!" Done. 

It's that time of year where I've got tomato starts growing in my guest room closet. I always head to the closet when I first wake up to see if anyone needs water. It's at this point that I usually stand and stare at my little tomatoes and 3 pepper plants. I've never successfully started tomatoes from seed, this may be my first batch. I've just got to keep them alive for another couple of weeks and then through the hardening period. Fingers crossed that these guys keep thriving, because I've got 2 or 3 with yellow leaves 😕

Finally, it's time for coffee. I'm in the middle of one of my favorite author's books and I'm having a hard time putting it down. So I read for an hour and it. was. glorious. 📚💕

One of the reasons I didn't make myself post yesterday was that I had some work to do out in the yard. With our mild winter, the wasps are atrocious this year. There seems to be double the usual amount. While I've been working hard on my fear of wasps, the fear still gets the best of me most of the time. I like to work outside in the morning, before they get out. It's perfect. So, after my coffee, I headed outside. First stop was filling the bird feeders.

I love getting outside first thing in the morning. Especially in the spring. I can hear the neighbor's roosters starting to wake up and crow. The gobble-gobble of wild turkey's down by the creek. Chipmunks run crazy routs through the forest, panicked when they hear my footsteps in the crackling leaves. The sun was trying desperately to peak through the clouds and the air smelled like fresh rain. The birds were all singing their different songs, their calls reverberating through our wooded area. I never fail to feel renewed when surrounded by nature.

Our honeybees are out near the bird feeders and it's that time in early spring when we supplement them with sugar water. Just until all the flowers bloom and they have plenty of food. I stopped along the way to the feeders to check their supply and was happy to see they had plenty of sugar water. An empty bottle means I'm putting on the bee suit and filling up that jar. Something I'm getting better at but still not my favorite chore 😁

I dumped a bucket of corn in our wooded area for the deer. I also catch squirrels, chipmunks, turtles, and bunnies at the corn pile. Sometimes, I even see that wily fox sneaking a snack 🦊

I admired all the new growth in the woods. Everything is turning green again. I love how these little purple flowers pop up all over the forest. 

Weeds, shmeeds. 

Why are people so against weeds? I just don't get it. Seriously. The definition of a weed is "a wild plant growing where it's not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants". Well. Most of my yard is wild. We've got our landscaped areas around the house, but for the most part, I prefer the majority of our 2 acres to be untamed. And you know what? All these "weeds" were here first, growing fiercely without abandon. They feed the ecosystem of bugs, spiders, bees, squirrels, birds, etc that live in my yard. 

These weeds are just trying to thrive in a world where one day the consciousness that is humanity decided they were evil. Part of a broken system that we must eradicate with deadly and cancer-causing chemicals like Round-Up in order to have that beautiful, plush, green lawn that will make the Jones' sigh with envy. 

I call BS. 

I say NO to that un-diverse lawn. I'm not going to let the world decide what's beautiful. To me, this is true beauty. One of my little girls collecting pollen for the good of the hive. Look at that tongue! By the time she's done rolling in this flower, she'll be bright yellow with pollen and I'll probably run away screaming because I think she's a yellow jacket. 

True story. I ran away from multiple bright yellow honey bees yesterday 😃

Has anyone else ever pondered the similarities between humans and weeds? Something growing "where it's not wanted" and thriving there to the point of obliterating all else? In "competition" with the rest of nature and destroying it by said thriving? It might be a fairly labored metaphor, but I think there's something there...

Alright, enough ranting about weeds. On to the rest of the day!

We were due for thunderstorms yesterday afternoon, and I'd been meaning to fertilize our landscaped plants for some time. Yesterday seemed perfect with the impending moisture. Down went the organic fertilizer.

Our ground cover we planted last year is starting to pop with these beautiful purple flowers that the bees love. They are just so pretty. In fact, I just checked these this morning, and there are twice as many flowers blooming on them as yesterday. 

I trimmed both our butterfly bushes before fertilizing. They are already greening up nicely. I can't wait for blooms as I've already seen a handful of butterflies out 🦋 I meant to clear out the leaves but I couldn't find my gloves and I didn't know what might be hiding under those leaves. I certainly didn't want to find out without hand protection... *Shudder*

I thought this was a weed coming up through our landscape fabric. That is until I remembered that the hubby and I had planted a lily here last year that we thought had died. It definitely didn't die, look at that root!

These lilies have beautiful orange blooms that kind of remind me of Tiger Lilies. I think this one is called "Tiny Bee Lily" though because I know we didn't plant Tiger Lilies. I fed it some flower fertilizer to help it on its way.

I fertilized the strawberry bed too. Lots of growth already, more than last year at this time. Maybe I'll have berries earlier this year? 🤞🏻

I planted a big bed of carrots, radishes, lettuce, kale, and spinach. I can't wait until they start popping up.

After I was done planting and fertilizing, I checked everything I'd already planted. Chamomile seedlings are sooooooo tiny, you might not even be able to spot them. I've got a couple popping up here though. 

A few onions have come up.

My arugula sprouted fast. Then again, arugula loves the colder spring weather. 

After admiring my sprouts, it was time to head inside. After all, I'd been outside for 4 hours. Have I mentioned that I just love spring? 😁

I'm one of those people who after moving the last load of laundry into the dryer saves the folding for the next day. My back was super-sore from all the gardening and all I wanted to do was yoga, but I wanted these towels out of my hair too. Fold, fold, and more folding.

Upon exiting the laundry room, I found Mariota growling at Gizmo and giving him the "My bone!" face. How can one be in a bad mood when you live with goofballs like this? 😜

My favorite spot to do yoga- the living room. I push the ottoman out of the way, and I usually just do yoga on the living room rug. I love how the sun pours through the windows and I can see both the woodpecker suet and the bird bath while I'm doing yoga. Nature helps me feel even more relaxed for the stretching. I did yoga for about 30 minutes to combat the effects of kneeling to plant.

It was then shower time and cleanup before a little lunch. The hubby and I had taco salads the night before, so I made another one for lunch. I totally meant to take a picture of my salad, but after that morning- the salad was hoovered in 2 seconds flat. You can see my empty plate behind 😂 And yes, there was plenty of lettuce in my salad even though I'd already put it away before I took a picture. 

The rest of the day kind of flew by. I read my book for awhile, and then watched a little Netflix while resting my back on the heating pad. The hubby got home a little after 5. When the hubby comes home, I usually make dinner and then we veg out until bedtime. Last night, I made a disastrous batch of Fried Rice that the hubby and I will probably be laughing over for a long time. What can I say? Another day, another cooking calamity 😁 I try not to let it ruin my night. 

Finally, right before bed, it's time for a cup of chamomile tea and a piece of dark chocolate. I smiled when I saw the quote on my tea (how apropos), and then it was time for bed.

I hope you enjoyed this "Day in the Life" post. Happy Wednesday everyone!

P.S. That first picture is a total flashback photo. It was taken shortly after the hubby and I moved to Kentucky almost 7 years ago, and was actually the very first cover page for my blog. I just felt like using it as the introductory photo 😃