To the North

I love watching the change of seasons as I pass through the Skagit Valley.  Fields that are flooded this week will give way to thousands of snow geese and then to daffodils in a month and potatoes in five months.

I'm still unearthing bulbs that have been smothered by mulch and fallen leaves. I am hesitant to remove all the protection that the leaves provide, but it really does feel we've turned a corner.  President's Day is the start of the seed planting at Casa Ernest.  Sweet peas and lettuce will be sown next week followed by other cool weather crops.  I'll put in seedlings as well. I know that is cheating to some, but I'll take anything that looks like it is living.

It makes me hopeful.

Goals and giving up

💙💙💙💙💙 #nmnm2016 #theyearthatis2016 #2016yip #2016.017

A photo posted by Nazila (@nazilam) on Jan 17, 2016 at 11:57am PST

I wish I could tell you have a slew of goals for the month. I'm just going to be delighted by making it through with healthy parents and a few nights of decent sleep.

I have been tracking my food.
I have been keeping better track of what I have accomplished.
I have been feeling much better because I am tracking my food and realizing that I do accomplish quite a bit each day.

I'm not Catholic, but in the past I've given up something I liked or spent too much time doing during Lent. I guess I could do it anytime of the year, but we talk about making these changes or sacrifices either at the beginning of the year when we're loathe to repeat old habits or patterns, or this time of year, when some believe we should suffer.

A friend posted something about the things we should really consider giving up - for Lent, for life, for whatever.  A few things that struck home for me were the following.

• Fear of failure (trust me, everything fails, get over it)
• impatience (learning this the hard way with my parents)
• people pleasing (I'm learning this from the dog)
• distraction (what? No, listen, really listen)
• bitterness (see no. 1)
• busyness (Say YES to No)
• resistance to change (be the change, and I don't mean that in a Bernie Sanders way)

I believe these things are much harder to give up than chocolate or Facebook.