July 9, 2022

 Well, here I am again.  Just boring ol' me.

Chuck is gone until next week.  My Nigerian house guest just left yesterday.  So I am suddenly feeling rather....alone.  So I am posting to keep you company, or vise versa.

Do you ever get the feeling that you are always staying busy, but feel like you get nothing done?  That is how I've been feeling.  I suppose it's because I tend to do the same thing every day.  Every day I have to repeat what I did the previous day, as if I hadn't done it at all.  Like making the bed, watering the garden, cooking meals, washing dishes, washing dishes, washing dishes, did I mention washing dishes?  Apparently we are always eating something and dirtying up dishes.  I keep doing these things over and over and over.  Like a hamster on a wheel.  I keep moving to get these things done, only to do them over again, as if these things never get accomplished.  It's not like writing a book where you write every day, and then "Voila!" one day it's done and you don't have to work on it anymore.

Oh, me and my hum-drum-ness.

I am not complaining though.  I am very happy with all my blessings. It's like the old poem about washing dishes - we should be grateful for dirty dishes because it means we have food to eat.  Right? Of course, right!

So all that being said, it's nice to have something different or unusual happen once in a while to break things up or just to make my hum-drum life a little more interesting.  Nothing real big has been going on for me, but I did do something that I normally don't do.  I volunteered to host a college student from Harding University for 3 weeks.  Her name is Hannah and she is originally from Nigeria, so I was able to have some interesting conversations with her about her background.  She came here with 3 other Harding students and 2 chaperones on a Mission trip, so they spent 3 weeks just helping out church congregations with whatever they needed help with. I mostly only saw her in the mornings and evenings. Anyway, I don't know what compelled me to rise to the occasion and host her, but at the last minute they were still looking for hosts, and I have an empty guest room, so I thought "why not?"  I had no idea who I was taking into my home or what it would be like or "what was I getting myself into?", but it turned out to be a good experience for me.  Anyway, after 3 weeks of her company, and Chuck gone in Juneau, I just suddenly feel alone.

But I still remain busy with my everyday routines.  This summer has been hot and dry, so I've been watering my gardens every day.  I have learned to do this in the mornings because the afternoons were getting "scorching hot" and it's no fun to be outdoors working in that heat.  I know that high 70s, up to 80 is not "scorching" to most people, but for us Alaskans, that's hot. Our June temps were 10-15 degrees above normal. Our Harding guests were feeling hot too, but they were still dreading going back home where it's worse.   Anyhoo, it's been like that day after day after day for most of June and into July.  Just this week we are finally getting cloudy skies and cooler temps (high 60s), but still not enough rain, so I still have to water everything.  Sometimes I get bored with my daily routines, but I am glad I have something to do, and I can see that the fruits of my labor are already coming.  We are already picking some tomatoes, and I am picking a bowl full of strawberries every 2 or 3 days (YUM!) They are so good with granola! 

My greenhouse is looking like a jungle!

I have to be very careful now walking to the back because my squash plant got too big to be under the shelf, so it decided it needed to lean out into the aisle.  When I planted those there, I was not anticipating them getting that huge.  Also, you can't see it, but way in the back is where I planted my pumpkin, and the vine has gone crazy!  The vines are growing so long and hanging onto everything it can.  I just wish I could see some pumpkins on it.  Chuck said he saw a good-sized one, but I still never saw it - I suppose I'm not looking in the right place. I tend to avoid digging around in the leaves too much cuz I don't want any spider surprises. My cucumber vines are also getting out of control.  After Chuck gets back, we will have to see what we can do about getting them stringed up.  Strung up?  

Other than that, in my free time I have been doing more scrap booking  because Hannah was sleeping in my sewing room.  I had to stash away all of my current sewing projects while she was here.  Now that she's gone, I can pull them out and work on those again.  I don't even remember where I left off, but I believe I was starting to tie my Halloween quilt.

Welp! That's about it.  I'm back in the kitchen again now.

Enjoy your summer weather!

Wild flowers growing in my back yard.