For the first time in I don’t know how many weeks, I had a night of nightmare-less sleep! After nights of having my head sewn onto a new body, seeing a bat eat a baby and so many other pretty traumatic, vivid horrors, I am incredibly grateful for a dream about hanging out in the living room with my family and dogs. While reading about The Babysitters Club… I’ll take it!
In addition to a nightmare-less sleep, this week I am loving…
Indy’s 12-hour shifts. As much as I hate not being with him, I’ve decided to embrace them for what they do for our family. I still miss him like crazy. And go stir-crazy…
Help from loving family members. We got some much-needed work on the driveway done last week! We still have a long way to go, but it was because of one person’s generosity that we were able to get that done.
Awesome books. I just read My True Love Gave to Me, a compilation of holiday romance stories for teens. Some had supernatural creatures and yes, those were the best of the lot, but most of them were good anyway. I just love a quality collection of short stories. I picked it up because Holly Black and Laini Taylor had stories in it, and I discovered a few new authors that I like in the process. I was having a pretty rough week filled with overwhelm when I realized (for the thousandth time; is there an English word for when you remember something you’ve already learned over and over again?) that when I don’t create or read or listen to music–when I don’t immerse myself in the art, the Something Bigger Than (than dusting, than cleaning up dog vomit, than teaching math, than writing product descriptions…), I am pretty stinking depressed. You’d think I’d make time to nourish my artist a little more, knowing that a little time spent on it yields so much benefit.
Unexpected checks in the mail! Those are always fun to receive.
Birthdays for babies! A friend of mine invited us to her one-year-old’s birthday party next weekend. I am looking forward to baby-face-in-the-cake, which is, of course, the point of one-year-old birthday parties.
Bunnies. Sigh. I just love the babies we have, even though we have to find them homes. One already has a home, and although I am so happy that it’s with good people we know, I still miss him.
Our kitty, Cleo! The family who took Little Brother bunny (now named Bambino, which is adorable) gave us Cleo in exchange. I’ve always wanted a tortoiseshell cat and couldn’t pass her up, and I just LOVE her. She’s the prettiest kitten I’ve ever had and she is such a little mess. We named her Cleopatra because she walked in like she owned the place right off the bat. She even puts our 50-pound dogs in their place.
Lemonade. Sigh. It’s my favorite thing about summer. And fresh fruit! I’ve only had one lemonade this June, but I hope to make some homemade next week!
Hellboy. And Indy loves him, too, which is why I’m making him a giant Hand of Doom for Father’s Day. Shhh! Don’t tell. But I’m struggling with it a bit. So he may not get it until August… He already has some cool stuff for the big day (a new knife, a movie he wanted and a surprise race at the Rusty Wallace track!) so if I’m late I won’t feel too guilty. I hope.
New clothes! Indy picked me up some t-shirts because I only had two for summer. In the Midwest, that is a recipe for constant crankiness in the summertime. One is green with Yoda on it and it says, “Size matters not.” The other is an AC/DC shirt. I never get myself cool screen-printed tees like this–I always grab whatever is the cheapest solid color tee–so I’m pretty stoked about them. I also cut some pants into shorts, which is BRAVE for me, since I haven’t worn shorts around since having my daughter. Holy cow, is it so much more comfortable. It’s amazing how miserable we let ourselves get just because we are self-conscious about something.
What are you loving this week?
Sara J. Schmidt 