Theme-What I did for my summer vacation

     Today is my relaxing day, so far I have been spending it thinking, planning, getting supplies and trying to sit for 10 minutes at a time in absolute relaxation.  It is nice.  My sister and her family left after visiting for several days.  The week before that we where lucky enough to have my mother and father in law.  It was the best summer in my whole life in every single way.

     Things are going very well.  The issues I have been struggling with for the last ten years off and on look like they may be getting better.  It has been a journey and here and there I see a glimpse of the reason for the struggles.  

     I am doing well in my job, by well I mean that my life has meaning through this work.  I am excelling even if I am the only one to see it, I do not care.  To protect the privacy of others I will not give details, but I can see that I was brought to this position for a reason and that might be a long term one.  I am very grateful for the way I am treated at work.  I am appreciated, well cared for, and feel good about giving in a job where you have to give give give.  What more can you ask for?  I am also up for a part time volunteer position which is very important to me.  I have been considering a certain career change for a long time now and I think that through the volunteer work I will have the right aspects of my personality tested to see how well I could handle the pressure of the new job.  

     I think that since moving here I had to learn more about flexibility, self care, and patience.  I am trying to hold those things in mind each day so that I can better serve the next time I am called to do so.  I have been on a good dose of a lot of vitamins to compensate for my birth related health issues and have not been sick or hurt myself for a long time.  I think that is a sign that I am getting to where I need to be as months of health issues where trying to show me something!  I also give a lot of credit to my Chiropractor as I could not be where I am physically without his care and encouragement.

     The highlight of my summer has been my yard.  I did not expect that I would care so much about a garden and yard.  I mainly wanted one so that my little pup had her own place to do her business without having to wait for me to get shoes on, find my keys, etc.  But something happened while I was cleaning up the debris left by the last tenants.  I enjoyed it!  I knew that I would like the veggie gardening as it means a lot to me to grow my own food, but creating a space for relaxation, for butterflies, birds, and bees to enjoy brought out a nice place in my heart.  It is hard to be frugal when starting from scratch in any respect, but overall I think I have a good first year.  I did as much as I could from seed with a 50/50 success rate.  My mother brought me some  veggies and flowers that she got from a friend's garden, I found a lot of great deals in places where they order a lot of plants, not care for them and then sell them for .50 cents to clear them out.  I also traded a little here and there with my neighbours.  So overall it was a good year for experimenting.  In my front yard the flowers where not so happy.  Those are my indulgence so it did make me kind of sad to see them struggling.  The potatoes died pretty quickly as well.  I was wasting a lot of water to keep my flowers growing so instead of doing that again next year I just went and bought a whole bunch of end season drought resistant perennials and made a fake pond with rocks that I found in the neighbourhood.  Next year I hope to get a good handle on mulch and compost so that the water will be held in and the plants will get what they need to grow.  It is a work in process and I like having something to look forward to in the new year.  

     

     And so with fall in the air and a few red leaves I begin my plans for the upcoming season.  Canning jars and my new deep freeze will play a big part in that.  Stay tuned for delicious details!