It appears now that my initial attempt can only be classified as failed. I briefly skimmed the entirety of what I’d posted thus far, and I see a reference to planting a coming garden. Said garden has since been planted, tended, harvested, and, ultimately, ripped out. Our garden did not fare so well this year. In fact, it’s probably the least successful yield we’ve ever produced. This year’s “garden” makes me pine more than ever for a place (and land!) of our own. I should add, though, that tonight’s dinner of homemade pizza included a couple handfuls of basil straight out of the (still standing) herb garden, so I guess we are still enjoying small victories.

We are comfortable here, and the location couldn’t be more convenient. There has been major construction ongoing since we moved here, and we’re now an additional hour away from many of the places we felt fortunate to have such easy access to before (Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Washington, etc.), but aside from these two realities, we really have no complaints – and much to be thankful for – in where we ended up when we found out we had to relocate.

Earlier today, I was longing for a local coffee shop where I might become a regular customer. It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have one within walking distance. I was surprised to find that there is actually a coffee place in Danville that I did not know about. They weren’t open at the time of my discovery, but I am already thinking of ways to try to schedule a weekly trip or two. I need to be more intentional about things like reading and writing, and spending some time in a place like that would be conducive to making this a reality. If I am able to actually get out of work on time tomorrow – a near impossible feat for a Monday – I would like to make a trip over and hang around for their last hour of business for the day. Should that come to pass, the task at hand will be compiling an official TBR list!

I’ve had the last 4 days off from work and it’s been glorious. Not because I did anything that wonderful (although we did make a quick trip home on Wednesday) but because I didn’t have to be on call 24/7 and had the luxury of ignoring my phone. I am hoping that moving forward, I can devise strategies to encourage my employees to sharpen their problem solving skills rather than calling me the second there is an issue. We are open 108 hours per week, and I am (on paper…) only there for 40 of them. That means I need my people to step up and start tackling problems without expecting the answer to be waiting in the form of a phone call or text message. I go back bright and early tomorrow morning to open. It will likely be busy, and I’m hoping that we’re able to have a good day.

We have a homemade fence ready to be stained and installed so we can plant our vegetable garden. This is our second year here, and we’ve made the garden a little bigger for round 2. We crammed way too many plants in it last year, and we’re trying to be more controlled this time around. We have 2 different types of romaine and kale (we’ve never done lettuce/greens before), a different type of basil than our usual, dill, zucchini, peas, cucumbers, green and yellow (new!) peppers, and (I think?) broccoli. We still need to secure some tomatoes from our usual place, but they didn’t have any ready yet last time we checked. We have several herbs hanging around from last year (oregano, peppermint, sage, lavender, lemon balm, and lemon thyme) and also some eucalyptus and rosemary that I’m still hoping will spring back. It’s looking pretty bleak at the moment.

We have a blueberry bush that we just planted in a pot, so we’ll be able to take it with us when it’s time to move, and we’re in the process of trying to secure some raspberry plants. We’re also pretty excited to have 12 strawberry plants to plant. We tried them last year, but they were consumed almost before they were even able to produce berries. We’re trying to be more strategic about how we plant things so that we’re not merely feeding the local wildlife. Hopefully the fence does its job, and we’re planning to plant the lettuce/kale on the outskirts in the event that a deer is able to bend his head down far enough for a snack.

My goal is to be better this year about using herbs in our cooking. I have a good amount of potatoes, green beans and asparagus that I need to use, so I read through a bunch of recipes and figured out how to use them up this weekend. I’m going to use fresh basil and oregano to make a sauce for them.

We have a dress rehearsal on Sunday for our spring concert (Monday night), so it’s going to be another busy stretch of days. We also just got a call to play at a nursing home next week, so we rearranged a couple things to make that work.

I’m off on Tuesday and Saturday next week, so that means my breaks are fairly well-spaced. The following week I’m on 6 days, so that will be a little trickier. As long as my college kids open up their availability, things should look better for the next schedule I’m working on. I might actually have to try to figure out how to promote/train someone on the next 2 weeks of schedules that I already have done, so I’ll have to figure out how to make that happen if need be. It would be a quick fix for a sudden staffing issue I’m having and hopefully work out okay for the next few months. The more I think about it, the more I might just take the chance and go for it.

I’ve been trying to get good routines in place so that things don’t get so crazy when I have to spend a million hours at work during the week, but I am still coming up short. I’m working on meal planning and scheduling quiet and fitness time, but it’s pretty slow going at the moment. Sometimes I feel like the only way I’ll get it all to work is to add more hours to the day. Obviously not an option.

One recent (small) success is that I’ve been better about making more time to read! I’ve been getting back in to fiction, and that is proving to be quite enjoyable. Fiction hasn’t appealed to me for several years, but I think given that every other part of my life is so crazy, I’m appreciating the break and escape that fiction has to offer. I feel like I have no time for introspection or processing these days, and for an introvert who’s been recently thrust into a stressful leadership position, it’s a tricky place to be. I’m trying to bring it all back – hence the blog!

(Note: I haven’t written regularly in several years, and I know that it most certainly shows. Almost every sentence starts with “I,” I am completely without direction in my thought processes… It’s pretty rough stuff. My goal for now is just to start writing again consistently and hopefully regain some of what I’ve lost. We’ll see where that takes me.)

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton