May Is My New Favorite Month - Daybook Entry

Outside my window... I'm enjoying an afternoon thunderstorm.  Sunshine and blue skies all morning, followed by a nice little storm later in the day.  This has been the pattern lately.  I can't say I mind it.  Since I've been putting fresh plants in the garden, these little rainstorms are exactly what is needed.  My yard is in full color with peonies, iris, hydrangea, and rhododendron in bloom.  I love it!

I am wearing... pink tshirt, black yoga pants and flip-flops.  I haven't taken the time to get dressed since I got home from my yogalates class this morning.  I'm comfortable, what can I say?

I am listening to... rain.  And, I've listened to a couple of podcasts this afternoon.  I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to learn about podcasts, but now that I have, I'm hooked.  Whenever I'm working in the house, weeding in the garden and driving in my car, I can tune it to one of my subscribed podcasts and listen away.   Today I learned about Carrie Nation from the History Chicks and then I listened to a debate on Intelligencesquared about whether South America would win over Asia as the next Superpower.  And then to get a little more down to earth, I listened to a mom talk about giving birth to quadruplet sons and her ideas on gearing up for summer ( those boys are now in grade school) on Inspired to Action.   And this was all background noise while I drove around in town this morning and made strawberry sauce and strawberry rhubarb jam this afternoon.  These were all interesting, but my favorites this past week have been one about avalanches on Stuff You Should Know and an interview with Joe De Sena on How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Peak Perfomance on The School of Greatness.  So you can see I listen to all kinds of things...

I am thankful for... May!  Warm days, flowers, green trees, a garden that's almost planted, a long weekend to spend with my husband, summer plans, strawberries and rhubarb, spinach and lettuce...

Around the house... I've been working in the basement.  I just passed the "it gets worse before it gets better stage" and there is hope.  Even though all the things I have stored in the basement are out of sight for the most part, they are not out of mind.  Just knowing that I have chaos looming below me burdens me down, and I'm tired of it.  So, I'm determined to get it organized.  It's a slow process, because I'm asking lots of questions as I work as to whether these things are something that is valuable to me or things that need to be passed on to someone else, the thrift store or the garbage can.  How do we accumulate so much stuff?!?  And what do we really need?  Not nearly as much as we have.

In the garden... I've been harvesting radishes, spinach, kale, lettuce ( all kinds), asparagus and strawberries.  So delicious.  The potatoes are up and looking good.  I've planted peppers and tomatoes (got my fingers crossed), squash, beets, carrots, green beans and onions.  The garlic bed looks fantastic.  I think I'm going to have some nice big garlic bulbs this year.  And I'm weeding...  I'm going to try hard to keep up with it this year (my garden resolution every year).  

I'm not a fan...  of chili pepper in my chocolate.  I've tried twice and no way!  Don't mess up my dark chocolate bar with chili.  I'll take mine with sea salt thank you.

I'm loving... the Wunderlist app on my phone.  Thanks to Anne for sharing.  I have lists for everything you can imagine and I'm keeping up with all the little things that are easy to forget.  Today's to-do list, the grocery list, errands, movies to watch, books to read, gardening tasks, gratitude journal, prayer list, letters to write, etc. are all on my phone now.  It's wunderful! 

I'm reading... as of this moment... The Catcher in the Rye, The Seven Deadly Sins Today,  Let Your Hearts Rejoice  and Tender at the Bone.   I just finished that last one and as soon as I read the last word, I turned to the beginning and started over again.  It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a book that much.  "Reading Ruth Reichl on food  is almost good as eating it."  Those are the words on the front cover of the book and I couldn't agree more!

I am creating... a vegetable garden and order in my basement. 

I am learning... to speak Italian.  Thanks to Duolingo, another fun app on my phone, I'm attempting to learn another language.  I have plans to go to Italy in 2015 and it would be great to be able to speak a little of the language.  Thirty minutes a day, five days a week, that's how much time I'm investing.  We'll see where that gets me.

From the kitchen... strawberry everything!  I've made ice-cream, shortcake, muffins, jam and crepes. It's a wonderful time of the year.

30 Day Challenge... It's interesting that I placed these two prompts next to each other.  Because of the wonderful stuff coming out of the kitchen, I have to make sure and stick to these 30 Day Challenges.  This month I've started training for that 5K I'm hoping to run in the fall.  It's week four and I'm still hanging in there.  I'm taking it nice and slow.  I'd rather take twice as long to reach my goal and not injure myself along the way.  And just for the record, I'm jogging, not running.  A nice ,slow jog.  

I'm pondering... "Grace happens anyway; the least we can do is be there."   Annie Dillard

Living my faith... This past week I was asked to teach the Nursery children at church.  What a treat that was!  I'm helping with a Relief Society activity that will be coming up soon.  We're having a recipe night, with lots of sharing of wonderful dishes and some demonstrations.  I'll be teaching a pasta making segment.  Time to dig out that machine and start practicing.  My personal studies are taking me into Colossians and I'm pondering what it means to "put on Christ".  More of Him and less of me.

A few plans for the rest of the week.. keep working in the basement and in the garden.  Go visiting teaching and make some pasta.  Distribute flyers for Patriot's Camp. Enjoy the beautiful weather, maybe take a hike.  Yes, definitely take a hike!