Today felt like a day off for me . . . well at least the first half of it did. We had a relaxing morning. I tried a new muffin recipe for breakfast—Low-fat and low-sugar—Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins. They were pretty tasty. Ordinarily I try not to do much baking during the sweltering Alabama heat, but it cooled off a bit and the air is so much drier and less humid.
Following breakfast, a friend and neighbor Dale Casteel stopped by. He is the man I edited a book for. He had a couple of short stories and a poem that he wanted me to type for him. He compensates me quite well for it and I do love to type and edit things. (I know . . . I really should edit these blog entries but if I went back and read them and started making changes, the perfectionist dwelling within would never get anything posted—this way it just comes from my heart).
After Dale left, I leisurely read yesterday’s newspaper. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch and that is when my leisurely day came to a halt. After lunch, I started to put a casserole dish away and noticed that the shelf in the cabinet where I stored it was sagging. Upon further investigation, it wasn’t merely sagging but it was literally resting upon the pans and bowls underneath it! So I had to take out all of the items in the cabinet and try to repair the shelf. Bob ended up helping me (with my tender, fragile knees that was such a blessing) and then I spent a while organizing several other things in the kitchen.
A short time later, Bob came in from a garage sale with some things and that got me started on another dreaded project. I cleaned out the cabinet in the storage room that houses all the small items in our year’s supply; like baking chocolate, spices, herbs, sauces, pudding and Jell-O mixes, etc. I tried to store like things together and that job lasted for much longer than I would have liked. Then I went outside to water down the flower bed. Since we haven’t had any rain in over a month or more, the ground is as hard as a rock and the weeds are impossible to pull out. Once I had it really saturated, I came in and prepared our dinner.
After watching part of the evening news, I donned my work gloves and found my cherished dandelion digger and went out to weed that flower bed. Remember that I haven’t done any weeding this entire year . . . I have been unable to do so following my double mastectomy. And God bless him, my dear husband has never pulled a weed in his life. He will weed whack them, mow them or spray them but he just won’t pull a weed. He has lots of other redeeming qualities however, so I guess I will keep him anyway.
The flowerbed is finally weeded but I somehow managed to disturb some fire ants in the process and they viciously attacked my feet and ankles. Once I rested up a bit, I showered and slathered on anti-itch lotion. All in all, I think I did okay today. I accomplished two dreaded tasks that I hadn’t even written down on my list—that makes it okay to write them down and then cross them off. 😉
The bad thing is, and I knew it would happen, is that my chest and underarm muscles are very tender and sore after all that weeding. For the past week or two, I have been having nerve pain in that area. It feels just like an insect sting or like someone is poking me with sharp needles. At best, I think tonight before going to bed I will take a prescription pain pill just so I will be assured getting a few hours of restful sleep . . .
Mary Lou's Space 