Pussy Willows.

Every weekend, we try so hard to not be busy, to have at least our Sunday as a true day of rest. But each week, we start to work on little projects or take the extra time to finish up things that need our attention. We do have time for rest and relaxing. But we still "sneak" tasks in and cross them off my list. This morning, as we worked awy in the garage to tidy it for Spring and break down the cardboard to take over to the recycling station, it struck me that maybe there are several reasons we do this each week. Not the cardboard, but the tasks! Maybe we recognize how short life is and that we only have so many Sundays in our lives. With grief all around us and a number of family members who have died young, perhaps we wish to fill every moment with work, tasks, fun and relaxation, so we have no regrets. Or maybe we just enjoy making our space look clean and tidy. Or maybe it's a distraction from life's worries. Or maybe a way to give back to the community. What ever the true reason, it's time to stop being hard on ourselves each weekend. We always feel sooo good after getting things off the list, so my guess is the idea that the day needs to be only full of rest and relaxation is not for us. For now, we'll instead embrace the idea of doing what we need and want to do, then rewarding ourselves with the nicest Sunday dinner, or an afternoon nap, or time to work on our art. I'm sure we'll figure it out but for now, no more beating ourselves up during and after working on our task list. I'd rather spend the time and energy on completing tasks, then looking around and not liking what I see around me! 

Last night, after a busy day of visiting an event, shopping for groceries, stopping at a 2nd store for fresh fruit and veggies, and a final stop to pick up some dinner, we settled in to watch the hockey game. I find it so stressful, especially now that we are heading in to the final games before the playoffs. So when I get stressed, I find things to keep busy. I ended up re~organizing our task cart, took all the new packs of paper out of the box and stacked them up neatly, took everything off the kitchen counters and wiped down every surface, unpacked the new towels for the half bath, and finally did a quick vacuum. By then, we were well on to a win and I could relax and watch the last bit. Then upstairs to bed.

Today, we did sleep in a bit, then got up to shower, make the bed, clean up the garage and loaded up all the cardboard we've collected since Christmas. Our County provides 2 huge recycling bins each month for 1 week, so timing is crucial. After dropping all the cardboard off, we did a little drive, marvelling at the snow that was deep yesterday and virtually all gone today. Home to sweep the garage, and then we cut down some pussy willows from the garden. I can't believe how big they are! Never had them this size before. I took a moment to decide where to display them and then settled on the dining room. They may move in time but for today, here they are. I love that we finally have a sign that Spring is finally on it's way. All week, we're supposed to have super warm days. The geese have returned, the buds are starting to appear and the ditches are full of water from the melting snow. Soon, our landscape will be green.

All for now. I'm off to work on our tasks!

~ Chy