I love days like yesterday. I went to knitting group and helped the gals learn how to make teddy bears on the circular knitting machine. There were only three of us because one is recuperating from Covid. I stopped at The Pig on the way home to pick up a few things. I’ve been hankerin’ for some smoked pulled pork so I bought a good sized pork butt to throw in the smoker today. I haven’t used the smoker for probably two years so it’s about time! Mr. FixIt had an appointment in town so he stopped to get me some corn on the cob and strawberries for a shortcake. 

When Mr. FixIt got home, he suggested we go out and wash the camper, but I talked him out of that. It looked like it was going to rain. We’ll get it done before we go on our trip. The pool is staying clean and sparkly and that makes me happy. But it got cloudy in the afternoon and the temperature dropped to 70° so there was no way I was getting in that water! I spent most of the day reading while Mr. FixIt watched TV and snoozed in his Big Red Chair.

Are you detecting a pattern here? I have these great ideas of an evening when I’m writing to you good people, then by morning I’m off chasing butterflies and rainbows. I have some thing very common to people with ADHD…”wait mode.” When I am presented with a big event coming up, like the Colorado trip, I go into wait mode. It’s kind of like freezing up…sensory overload from all the things running around in my head that need to be done and my executive function goes out the window. People with ADHD are often called lazy, without ambition, disorganized. We KNOW what needs to be done. We can write 5,000 lists, but when it comes time to actually DO the thing…we shut down and blank out. That’s why we’re really great with a deadline because at the last minute, we will work something to death to meet it.  I really try NOT to be this way, but trying not to be who you are causes more problems. I know this is how my brain works. I’ll get it done. I might make some people crazy, but if they really know me and love me, they’ll understand. 

Speaking of butterflies, I came around the corner of the camper the other day and ran right into a monarch butterfly! I was SO excited!!! My milkweed patch has exploded this summer and I am hoping for more of these orange and black beauties. When Mr. FixIt and I went out for our walk around the pollinator gardens last night, we saw a bird sitting on the ground. There is a window near there. And there are plenty of places where it could have fallen from a nest. I tried to identify it with Merlin and Google Images, but I’m not sure what it is. It said starling, but it has a black beak and starlings have light colored beaks. It had moved when I came back later so hopefully it’s on its way.

I snapped a few photos last night to identify some plants around the edges of the fields. Wingstem, Horse Weed, Creeping Charlie and a surprise coming up at the back of the wood pile…Sassafras. Grandma used to go out in the spring and pull up sassafras saplings, peel the bark from the roots, and make a tea fur us. She said it was a spring tonic to clean our blood. There have been studies done over the decades that have disputed this and the FDA has actually banned the roots and barks of the sassafras because it contains a high concentration of Safrole which has been known to cause cancer in rats. Grandma would pooh pooh the idea, but the last time I drank sassafras tea, it caused some most unpleasant gastric distress so I’ll not be drinking it again.

My friend Loretta from knitting group brought us some more succulents to plant. I hope I can polish up this brown thumb and turn it green! I used to be able to grow beautiful plants. But now I swear I could kill a silk flower! 

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“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

Matthew 11:29-30 ESV