Powering up for the day and waiting for it to be a socially acceptable time to make noise while we work outside. For the first time in over a decade we are home on Memorial day weekend. It is culturally the kickoff to summer and everyone goes crazy with travel, outdoor activities and large gatherings. Note: many aren’t staying home and hoards of tourists came North because a tiny relaxation of the lockdown for our area was issued which has left me completely conflicted over it all.

We usually mark this weekend as a kick off to the Highland Game season, they have all been cancelled for the weekend as well as the summer. I am a little sad about it but then I got thinking that we can really use this time to do things we don’t usually have the time or money for. It is a way to look for some positive in it all of the losses and then make a plan of action.

We have been fixing the garage for the past few weeks so it will be our home gym. I am glad that we can do that. We have been taking care of disposing the personal effects of my late mother in law and that meant a dumpster in our driveway. We have some room in this last dumpster load so we are sorting through our things that are junk and need to get cleared out of this house, garage and basement. That has been a very liberating feeling I must admit.

Since being home for the lockdown things have felt very small and cluttered in this house. We were just extended for two more weeks of the lockdown by our governor, I am ok with that. I am not ready for life to go back to the way it was. Maybe it never will. I need time to transition and this means I will be working from home probably for the next month. So while dealing with my own anxieties of being locked down and then surprisingly some things opening up , I needed to focus on what I see every day. My little house and patch of garden. It is what I have and what I have to be mindful about. To clear the house of excesses will allow more appropriate storage of things we keep. That will take all summer to sort but it feels so much better already.

The yard and garden will be a project too as the property line issues is a mess .The neighbor (an entity not a person) was called to ask what the final outcome will be. No answer yet but volunteers have been trying to fill in the trench they dug getting tree stumps out. I am dealing with elderly volunteers, seriously they all graduated in 1957 per the leader, and I am not hearing there is a end plan. Which means I can’t fix the part of my garden that was destroyed. With my husbands help, it will be re designed and become something better than it was. That statement has taken me several weeks to be able to say.

I am getting so many quilts dropped of on the porch to longarm for customers. People are sewing quilts now not just masks. I am getting some quilt jobs done which means I have the brain space to do it and physical energy to work beyond my day job. That will keep me busy and focused. I have been faithful in posting here as well as my podcast and I am trying to get the YouTube channel on a regular schedule. All this has been helpful to me and are things I enjoy very much in addition to my quilts and other crafty projects. Feels like some things are returning to pre Covid 19 in my life.

I have been trying to slowly acclimate my self into the world outside of my home. I have been walking in the neighborhood, gone to a store and a garden center. I have been slowly approaching places where people are. I even went into my office to upgrade my computer software. I have to learn to drive again lol.

Life is going to be different for a while but I want to take advantage of the “down” time and being home. I want to observe the beauty in silence and beauty in the lack of people in places normally crowded. It is a different time but rather than be concerned about productivity and business as usual, I am just working on projects when the opportunity presents itself. A time to truly enjoy the journey in each project.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend,

Vicki