A Midsummer Night’s Balancing Act

August.It’s just starting to hit me that time is running out and my opportunities for all my good intentions this summer are dwindling.

Son2 will be back at college next month and how many good home cooked meals have I made? Not many. I need to change that. Son1 flies into town on Friday for a week’s visit which we’ll also have the pleasure of celebrating his birthday with him at home. This is a real treat. He deserves a party. His request for his homecoming – home cooked meals. I’ve got to step it up.

We finally purchased a new replacement car a week ago which has helped both my husband and I to move on from our accident in June. I’m surprised how much this one thing has affected us. There is no joy involved that a new car usually brings and my only criteria was the replacement had to be equal or better than what we lost. I needed this emotionally so not to feel the other driver had taken more away from us. This has helped me to release some emotions but I need the closure only the tying up of loose ends will bring and this hasn’t happened yet.

I’ve also been wanting to change my blog over to WordPress, get a new look and activate my domain name. It’s time to tap into the social media world which makes my head spin and overwhelms me. Lisa, at her wonderful blog, Amid Privilege, has been a mentor as Amanda, at Everyday Elements has. I admire them both for stepping into this fray fearlessly confident and competent.

I have also been working with the very talented Anne Harwell at Annechovie. I have admired her artwork since I found her when I began blogging and have commissioned a new pink martinis and pearls header design. My schedule and forgetfulness has held her up this summer but she has been nothing short of a saint. I am so appreciative of all these special ladies.

And of course there are the cookies. I have many ideas and techniques I want to try to create. I feel honored to get email requests almost on a weekly basis although I don’t advertise. Some requests I can fulfill and some I can’t. They have to fit between my work for our family business that positively has to be done on certain days and what I can push to another. Inadvertently, cookie projects mean my counters are sealed in plastic wrap which also means take-out only and no home cooked meals… yet again.

I love my iPad2! I just finished reading The Help and am reading The Dukan Diet on it. I was shocked when a message came up congratulating me on playing 1,000 games of solitaire! I’ve had it since mid-June. I quickly shut my pink cover and walked away mid-game. What a waste of time I’ve gotten into the habit of late at night. My Elizabeth I hardcover book is still waiting for my return. I am ashamed I have been seduced by Angry Birds and glitzy apps.

I continue to write for my community’s online newspaper. It’s something I really enjoy. The audience is different from here but writing for two blogs in completely different ways can be another balancing act.

For the next few weeks, I have a few cookies orders to fill and samples to make for my nephew’s wedding in Sedona at a winery in October. It’ll be here before I know it.

I’m attending a second concert at The Huntington Library in beautiful San Marino, the town which we were married in, and planning a backyard movie night as the last hurrah of the season.

I want to study Photoshop Elements more, buy and make friends with a new camera and learn how to work the mouse in my car so I can rock the Sirius radio with the windows down and the moon roof open all without help from anyone under 25.

I need to be a more thoughtful friend, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law and write those thank you notes from my birthday in June. I’m blaming it on the iPad and the thousand games of solitaire whether it’s truly to blame or not.

I notice the Boston Ivy on our wall is beginning to change color with the passing season but our sweet corn has yet to fully mature. I want to be like both of them right now. Unpredictable yet with purpose.

So, for the next few weeks I’ll be popping in and out but not with any planned schedule. I’m going to let the end of summer take me where it will.

 

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Comments

  1. I know the feeling! I havnt made more than a couple of decent meals this summer. Thank goodness my husband works a lot and my son like cereal! I realised we just have a few more weeks til September :O( This is the first time in a long time that I have enjoyed summer…I dont want it to end just yet!

    I spend too many hours playing mahjong so I have decided to spend one hour each evening doing something productive instead :O)

  2. Enjoy yourself!! See you when you have the time ;-)!! xoxo

  3. Dang I wish we lived closer – I want to do those things too. Here’s wishing you lots of home cooked meals, “son” time, camera fun and lots of blessings. Have fun my friend. 🙂

  4. Weren’t you worried you wouldn’t have enough to do once both boys were at college/work? Ha ha. I’m exhausted reading that. It’s good to be busy though. Enjoy the rest of your summer with your boys, but write those thank you notes (that was my mom talking through me!).

  5. Marilyn, it’s been my pleasure and honor to consult with you on blogging. After many years I have come to believe that my true talent is recognizing, well, talent. And you, my dear, have it in spades. Enjoy the rest of your summer. They will be back at school so soon.

  6. Sounds like you will have an enjoyable August.

  7. I think having all your boys home and cooking for them may be the icing on the cake you need!! Are you playing words with friends yet on your Ipad? FrauWest is my user name if you are!! hee hee in-between solitaire and angry birds!
    Can’t wait for the move the help to come out I really enjoyed the book.

    I hope you are healed and now have your new replacement car and can move past this horrible start to summer…maybe a new name for the car happy and cheerful one!!

  8. Glad to know you are doing well. Thanks for the update. All these deadlines will keep you busy. You know I love the social media world now that I’ve gotten into it, but you have to really time management or you lose hours and have no idea where you lose them.

  9. May your August be everything that your heart desires.
    Your post reminded me that I owe you an email update message. Who goes to the time out bench now?!?

  10. Lots of good things coming up for you. Enjoy your son being home.

  11. Oh I just finished reading The Help on my Kindle. Love, love, loved that book!! It ranks right up there with checking in on your blog! Happy Summer & glad to hear you have new wheels!