06.11.07
Monday Mania
It’s Monday here at the Haven of Bliss (If you never seen this movie it is a good rent, one of our favorites!), the last week of school for the two youngest (and I guess you could also say the oldest since she is now a teacher :-). My day is full starting with a trip to the gym then on to deliver lettuce, purchase groceries and knit a shawl on my Silver Reed.
I’ve started going ( or you could say returned to) our local ladies fitness center. When I was in the aggressive weight loss mode I went 3 times a week and monitored everything I ate. I lost 45 lbs over 9 months but then I got sick. I was always battling a sinus infection or bronchial thing and I thought the problem was I was exposed to all that recycled air and germs in the gym. So I stopped going and everything has slid south (think gravity and rising bread dough and you get the picture). Now that I’ve got my illness under control (between my 3 doctors and I we’ve figured out the right cocktail of medication {my friend would call all the meds I take a crutch but that is what gets me through the day!}) I have been infection free for the past 6 months. My goal for going to the gym has nothing to do with getting in shape but it would be nice to stop the slow and inevitable slide south of everything below my neck that having 4 kids by c-section seems to have resulted in. I only want to increase my fitness level so I can make better use of the oxygen I breath in.
Next I’ll deliver 8 bags of organic lettuce. One of the things my kitchen garden does very well is grow lettuce. I planted 24 plants a couple of months ago and they are ready to harvest. I’ve asked around and there are no takers among my friends so I’m donating it to Our Daily Bread.
(This is ‘Mr. I’m so happy to have my picture taken’.)
A few years ago I was the local organizer for a movement called Plant A Row for the Hungry. It encouraged local gardeners to plant a bit extra and donate fresh veggies to food banks in their area. I used to give my extra to our food bank. I even volunteered to help distribute food boxes just to complete the circle in my mind. I was amazed, astonished, angered that some of the people who received their food boxes actually stood at their cars, rummaged through the box and tossed, threw, trashed my lettuce before driving off. I couldn’t believe it, that was MY lettuce, the lettuce I started from seed and loveingly transplanted into the garden. I remembered the nights I walked through the garden with a flashlight and gloved hand picking slugs from the plants. Watering and caring for 60 days resulted in ungrateful people throwing it in the trash for the crows to eat. I was speechless. Did they toss those extra large pies and cakes donated from CostCo? No, of course not! Now my extras to to Our Daily Bread, they serve meals 3 times a week. At least I know it will be served to someone.
The least favorite ‘chore’ of being a stay at home Mom is grocery shopping. I can say I hate it. It is such a waste of time, you buy it, they eat it and you have to do it all over again, kind of like laundry. It is a necessary element of life and even though it really only takes me about 30 minutes to do it when I’m in the groove, I still hate the time to unload and stock the kitchen. I would much rather be knitting. That brings me to the last thing on my list.
Today, being Monday, I’ll knit another shawl for sale on my Silver Reed. I purchased it to help with dying yarns and it does a great job knitting blanks for that purpose. Last week I decided to try something different and this was the result.
There are purists out there who will consider using a flatbed knitter as cheating. I still knit by hand every day. But you cannot beat the consistent stitches and professional look you get by using the hand operated machine to knit a shawl in 6 hours.
So onward and upward into the day.