A Thursday Post

I think maybe I will experiment with when works the best for me for a weekly wrap-up and/or goal post.

The weather has been cool and rainy here for quite some time. Post-car accident, I'm still going to the chiropractor three times a week (although getting tired of how much time that's taking up) and last night, the massage therapist said, "I feel like it's been raining for the past three weeks." I answered, "That's because it has." (Up side? We're now out of drought.) Highs have been mostly in the 60s and, with that and the rain, I have done very little outside work -- which is getting to be frustrating. I have washed up my sweaters for the seasonal switch, but am still living half out of my winter wardrobe, so the clothes haven't been switched around yet.

I've also done some of the spring deep cleaning inside (insides of windows, laundry room, entryway, living room, bathroom, kid's room) and am working on sorting through paper stacks. (I am an inveterate magazine clipper.) Haven't faced the kitchen yet, although I'm kind of wanting to, and working toward minor home improvements this year to make life easier. I read a Kindle book a while ago, Organize for a Fresh Start by Susan FayWest, which talks about organizing for the season of life you're in, and the season of life we're currently in is working parents of a school-age child. (She's about to finish first grade. I'm slow in getting the house caught up.)

I'm also transitioning to more electronic time management (to-do lists and reminders, notes, etc.) and am wondering if there's a good way to keep track of my weekly meal plans electronically so that I can go back and refer to them. This week, we had weiners from our bulk meat purchase from our freezer for Memorial Day (we boiled them on the stove. Because it was raining), with chips and strawberry-rhubarb pie (fruit from the freezer from previous summers). Tuesday was Saucy Chicken (chicken breasts baked with cream of chicken soup, served over rice) and frozen peas; Wednesday, spaghetti. Tonight? Leftovers.

I got together with my book group friends this week; when we weren't discussing each other's lives, we discussed the book Illuminations by Mary Sharratt, historical fiction about Hildegarde von Bingen. I'm always interested, after reading historical fiction, in how much of it was historical fact. In this case, ti seems like all of the main characters were indeed real people, although the author of course gave them personalities for the book. Since Hildegarde spent decades walled into the room of a monastery as a servant to an anchorite, the part of the book where she carried a plant around to the sliver of sunlight that she could see for those years also had me thinking that yes, I probably would react that way, too, if penned away from the outside for years.