Neglect

This post topic relates to previous posts about manageability and moderation.  I tend to have "manageability issues" that allow some areas of my life to flourish while others are largely neglected.  My seedlings project was successful overall, however there are a few areas of my life that are in need of a little attention (ummm... like clothing my children, perhaps?).

Take for example my home.  It has not been dusted, vacuumed, cleaned in... well...  I'm too embarrassed to try and figure out how long.  A new friend is coming to visit next week and I HAVE to get this place into ship-shape before then.  There is germination soil on the windowsill, dustbunnies procreating in every corner, and mysterious odors coming from the refrigerator.  I did clean the toilets yesterday, but that just scratches the surface.  A WHOLE lot more work needs to be done.

Then there is my health.  Staying up so many late nights with my seedlings interfered with time that I should have been sleeping.  For me, not getting enough sleep sets off a whole domino effect of other problems like not exercising.  I also haven't been meal planning well, which for me is a "recipe" for potato chips and pasta.  Not so good at all.  So before today's trip to the grocery store, I am actually MENU PLANNING so that I purchase foods that are healthy, incorporate food preparation into my schedule, don't purchase more food than is necessary, and actually eat well.  Still recovering from surgery, I can't do much more than walking for exercise.  That's needs to go into my health schedule as well.

Being an extravert, I have accumulated some very lovely friends over the years.  However I owe so many phone calls and emails it's kind of bumming me out.  I have been assured by wiser mothers than myself that your social life does come back as your children get older.  But they tend to follow that comment with, "But don't wish it away!"  Okay, okay.  I don't want them to grow so fast, but I WOULD like to stay in contact with people who are important to me.  I did catch up with a few last weekend while also engaging in some family fun.  Read on.

Family Fun time had been neglected for far too long, and that was addressed over Memorial Weekend.  The four of us went camping with a group of friends for three nights in Acadia, one the most beautiful places in the world (not that I've seen THAT many places, I"m just saying).  If there is such a thing as a spritual vortex, Acadia is one of them.  We cooked on Coleman Stoves, had group feasts, slept in tents, made s'mores, hiked around, explored, and had a whole lot of fun.

Yes, you read correctly.  We went camping over MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND  - a sacred time for gardeners!  Ideally this would have been a major planting weekend, but the camping trip won out.  Fortunately the good weather this spring had allowed me to plant many things early, so most of that work has already been done.  And a lovely neighbor was kind enough to water my garden while I was gone (because of course it only rained in Acadia, not Southern Maine). 

Upon return, there was definitely some evidence of neglect.  Some of my salad greens are overgrown and need to be pulled out.  Mystery weeds are battling for dominance.  However my seedlings are looking pretty darned good!  Some of my radishes are ready, my second wave of salad greens has grown significantly, my snap peas shot up, and my sunflower seeds have popped up out of the ground.  My "unplanted" seedlings have been relocated from my deck (yes, I have my front window AND my deck back) to a concrete walkway and ready to be planted in my garden, the Plant-A-Row Garden, and the rest given away.

So here an effort, yet again, to get into balance.  My shopping list is ready, the rain has taken care of my garden's need for water, and I'm off to run errands.   Fortunately people, plants, and things are mostly resilient to periodic stints of moderate neglect.