And.... We're Back.

Well. More or less. I'm holding onto the no doubt soon to be blasted hope that spring has finally well and truly sprung (I'm thoroughly ignoring the news which calls for snow showers on Saturday, childish but I do think it would make me weep to contemplate it.) as I'm staring outside a window at bright sunshine, actual blooming flowers, and the neighbors temperature wheel proudly proclaiming its 60' and well on its way to hitting the projected 70 the weather channel promised! I'd be planning on planting the seedlings that are beginning to devour the card table they are stacked on... if it wasn't for that nagging feeling about snow on Saturday. Perhaps the weekend after I can finally begin to really get into the garden.

It has been a busy week or so here at the nest. Good news all for the most part. Baby Grace has finally decided she likes it here and seems to be jolly well determined to stay at last. She's still in “critically stable” condition, but has been weaned off the ventilator as well as taken off her blood pressure medication. Still fragile, but fighting. Now... if I could only get her mother to stop putting those horrid ribbon rubber bands around her soft little head, it would all be roses. (Seriously. It won't be the scars that split her stem to to stern that will bother her... I just KNOW I'm gonna get an angry call from a livid teenager one day wanting to know why no one stepped in and got that thing off her head! To that future kid.. I'm trying, I swear I am.)

The hand is finally mending as well, which is all to the good as forcing this nerdling to sit without her knitting, her sewing, as well as the inability to type OR write makes for one seriously neurotic nerd. Someone suggested I finish up Meditation March and ease my fidgets that way.

Riiight.

I will confess I learned a few things thanks to Chile's challenge. Not as much as I may have hoped... but I think I will walk away in the long run with more then I realized. I do need to start finding time to quiet myself, both physically and emotionally. I can't run off of an empty tank forever, so its better to start figuring out how to fill it now... then find myself stranded in the desert with a crisis on my hands. I don't think I'm going to reach that point by chanting, becoming a yogi, or learning to transcend (kinda like this reality anyway)... but there are other ways to reach a quiet spot in my own head. Time to work on those.

In the meantime, things are gearing up to a high frenzy here. More on that tomorrow. At the moment this nerd is heading for her third long soak of a so-far short day.

Why? Simple enough. Sunday was gorgeous. Birds singing, bright warm sunshine. And a hand that finally – just that day – got cleared to go back to work. So, of course, being the well reasoned nerd I am, I spent the day moving about a ton of dirt from one part of my lawn to another in readiness of the gardening season. Moderation? What's that? I have well trenched lines in my front yard now, all ready for my pansies to go in (pretty... but planted more for the tastiness when added to salads).

But now, my back would like a few words with me on subjects ranging from misuse and inappropriate movements.

See you tomorrow.