15 minute posts,  artsy fartsy,  Slow Living

Been Busy

mom-visits

Where have I been? Well, I’ve been a little busy lately and I got out of my newly found habit of blogging in the morning. I’ll blame it on my mom. But it’s a good thing. My mom came to visit me for a week (while my dad drove a friend’s van from Portland Oregon to Austin Texas) and she actually gets up earlier than my kids so it was kind of nice to have some morning company for a change. But that also kept me away from my computer. So if you were wondering where I was, I was sitting at my kitchen table drinking coffee and chatting with my mom. It was super nice to have her around.

In my old age I have come to love cooking. I know those who are older than me are laughing and shaking their heads. Shake away, I’m right behind you. This is really great except it has been a source of frustration for me when my kids turn their noses up at my newfound love of cooking. I mistakenly think to myself that if I put love into my cooking, they should reciprocate that love with compliments and requests for more of my loving cooking. Harumph! It’s not going that way at all. Not that it won’t someday, but presently they are not interested. In fact, they would much rather not eat my cooking at all in favor of a bag of chips with a side of YouTube. They ask me what’s for dinner and then decide if they are hungry or not. You probably know how that goes.

You can imagine how wonderful it felt to hear compliment after compliment from my loving mom when I made her special dishes that stayed within the boundaries of her new healthy living die-t (that we have corroborated on together). I am super thankful for my relationship with my parents right now. I think this is the natural way of things. When your kids start to pull away from you to become their own strong individuals, you find comfort in your parents. At least that is how it is working out for me. My relationship with my parents is better than it has ever been.

I know I’m lucky. My parents had me when they were barely twenty so we don’t have that many years between us in age. Bug will not be so lucky. When she is my age, I will be (hang on, let me grab a calculator) eighty-three. EIGHTY THREE! I only plan to live until 82 so that’s kind of grim. Of course I could live until I’m 120 so who knows.  Anyway, I’m super thankful for my parents right now.

my-nature-trail

My mom left Saturday and now I am back to my usual routine. She did leave behind a photo album from that trip we took when I was sixteen across country in the broken-down RV so I am looking forward to blogging about that. It will be challenging though. I might have to fill in some gaps in my memory with a little fiction, and maybe embellish a little to protect the identity of my loved ones.

This morning I walked the nature trail with the dogs and I made you a little video. I had a rough anxiety-filled night (it was so stupid, I was stressing about the strangest things. I’ll elaborate later.) and I’ve been trying to start my mornings with positive thoughts instead of long lists of things I need to do. Most days I am not successful at this new morning mantra, including this morning. There I was thinking about all the things that are bothering me and all of a sudden my nostrils were hit with the super strong scent of honeysuckle! I didn’t take a picture. I should have but I was busy with dogs and dog poop bags and just not ready. But my point is from that moment on I took myself out of my anxiety filled brain and I started to notice how pretty it was outside!

It was really pretty this morning. Summer is definitely in full swing. The brush in the nature trail is dry and brittle. All the creeks (except that one really swampy one) are dried up. The mustard and queen Anne’s lace are dead. Their white branches look like tiny birch forests for squirrels and quail and speaking of quail, they are everywhere! I saw dozens and dozens of quail. If you have a keen eye, you might even see some in my movie but they are tiny specs.

My to-do list is still flapping away like a rolodex connected to a fan but I’m ignoring it in favor of checking in with you and sharing all the beauty around me. I love where we live. I love California. I know we have a bad reputation for traffic and politics but in the nooks and crannies are the prettiest things and of course everyone knows we have the best weather. So I’m trying to dwell on these things instead of worry.

prickly-pear

So pretty, right? I’ve been watercoloring a lot more lately too. The hardest part is getting myself to sit down *and slow down* in order to paint but once I do I am very happy.

A friend sent me some pink lemons and avocados and of course those lemons were screaming at me to paint them.

painting-pink-lemons

To the untrained eye, the painting looks pretty good. Don’t look too close, it’s very messy. But just like everything in life we can’t obsess over little mistakes. Just blur your eyes and soak in the pretty parts. That’s my mantra these days.

4 Comments

  • Gingermog

    So glad your able to spend time with your mum, it warms the cockles of your heart to say your relationship is so closer than it ever has been.

    I’m cooking more in the pandemic than I ever have and enjoying using my own home grown veg. Must say, the other day I was in a sad predicament. I steamed a bunch of burple sprout brocolli and infortunately a gang of caterpillars had hitched a ride, hidden within one of the florets. Let’s just say, likely if one your girls had exprienced it they would be put of brocolli for life. I was feeling bit squeamish about it myself and lost my enthusiasm for PBS.

    Happily my baking has been more successful, less room for creepy crawlies. I have never made (and eaten) so many cakes before. I am now the proud owner of a vintage bundt tin, (I am a proper lady now – it was gift from Matt). Who knew making cakes with holes in them was so much fun! Yesterday I and made a batch of ginger cookies they were yum but we’ve devoured almost the whole batch (I did give some to family) in a day. Hmmm. I’ve dug up my old fit bit flex to remind me to move from my computer.

    Loved the video you made, felt like I was right with you and I greatly admire your painting skills. I can’t see any mistakes myself, but I know what you mean we are always so self critical of our own work and only see the errors.

    The pink lemons look so luscious, I’ve never seen any, I don’t think. I guess these are what pink lemonade is made from? Mmm pink lemonade. That would be nice right now. Think I will go an and squeeze some regular, yellow lemons and make a sugar syrup. Thank you for the inspiration.

    Have lovely day,

    Xxx

  • Gingermog

    P.s. I really enjoyed the video, the lighting was so vivid I thought I was golden hour in the evening not the morning. The tinkling music was beautiful too. You’ve inspired me to begin taking little films on my camera again. At the height of lockdown, I was posting some to remind my city living appartment bound friends that nature was still there. Perhaps I should begin again xx

  • Rachel M.

    I am so excited for you to blog your historical RV trip. You’re literally taking us back in the past with you. That’s 1000 times more interesting to me than somebody’s current-time road trip. I look forward to you sharing.

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