Daily: Reflect on 5 things for which I'm grateful.

1) it finally got dry enough to till—and we got two beds done before tomorrow’s predicted rain

2) I found locally grown vegetable plants—and bought fairy tale eggplant and bush zucchini

3) sunshine

4) warm temperatures

5) my pepper seeds are sprouting!

1) enjoying the new look of 43T, although it threw me for a loop at first

2) a big job completed

3) plans with friends for the weekend

4) plans with R for tomorrow and Friday

5) that R brought me a book and a snack when the wait for the termite inspector at the old house took longer than anticipated

1) a busy and productive day

2) the local public library director wants to hire me. I’m going to turn her down, but it is so nice to be wanted.

3) planting cannas in pots (a rhyzome that becomes a stately flower)—it reminded me of the Mandrake root scene in Harry Potter

4) walking with a friend in her neighborhood, a new place to me

5) making enough progress on our landscape design so that we can really start to picture the potager

The April Fool’s edition

1) my yacht

2) my chateau in France

3) my estate on the Gulf in Florida

4) my army of servants

5) my high-powered position in my huge corporation

Just a few things I’m grateful that I don’t have and don’t want.

1) devoting the day to my husband on his birthday

2) exploring four new places to shop for landscaping supplies and plants

3) having everything I need to start some seeds indoors

4) a nice lunch out

5) a nice rainy evening in

1) that my brother and sil thought to take us out to dinner for R’s birthday. This is the kind of thing we did when my parents were alive and it’s really sweet that they want to continue the tradition.

2) that everyone enjoyed our dinner out (Japanese food)

3) a productive, if muddy, session measuring things in the yard so that I can design my potager for our landscaping class

4) yeast

5) bread with rosemary in it

1) baby greens

2) the supper we made with those greens (here’s pictures)

3) the internet—today I figured out how to make my own sourdough starter and yogurt from a variety of websites

4) friends who like to visit farmers’ markets and take walks with me

5) a pleasant time chatting with my husband in the dark during Earth Hour.

1) more progress on the old house

2) my neti pot. Over the winter, I phased out my steroid nasal spray in favor of neti. I’m encountering my first real challenges—blooming maple trees and old house dust. I think I’m doing just as well with neti as I did with the nasal spray. For a lot less money and a lot lower risk of side effects.

3) sunshine!

4) new flour (locally-grown 10 grain) and sweetener (locally-grown sorghum) to try in my bread—and it’s delicious!

5) organizing things in the new house

1) some self-accepting thoughts while writing in my journal

2) real progress on emptying the old house

3) sunshine! well, a little

4) paid bills

5) how good it feels to do a few stretches and yoga poses, even if I haven’t done it in awhile

1) seeing the sun rise

2) locally grown and produced apple syrup. I first heard about it today and was able to buy it at Local Harvest Grocery. It’s yummy…and apple-y.

3) locally-grown little early spring spinach leaves

4) yummy supper—that spinach stir-fried with chicken and peanuts in a peanut sauce

5) that I’m over my first burst of energy to research local eating and I learned a lot and will follow through, but now I can get something else done!