Mid week slug days
Two things and then the last two and a half days:
(1) Have you tried, lately, doing something outside in the heat for 30-90 minutes and then taking a cold shower under the garden hose? Marvelous.
(2) I felt almost guilty about the amount of sitting still I did the last two days but pushed it off because who reads the in-between, not-emailed posts? And then got worried because I thought they would end up in the Friday round-up because I had put off writing about them, and then found relief again because… it’s only Thursday. Not weekly recap day yet. If you’re here reading this… I will yet have a hard time apologizing for relaxing during my time of non-employment.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning I took longer than I should have to run a couple errands and get groceries. I did some food prep because one of my missions in July is to Eat Out Less — so I roasted a chicken (the thighs I picked for quesadillas and the breasts I picked and used for orange chicken Weds) and made a chicken stock with last week’s chicken carcass and used that to make a leek soup.
After a light lunch I went for a run. This is Heat Acclimation, Part 7. Parts 1-6 were to do some farm work in May and June, and since I haven’t done any farm work this week, Part 7 was to go for a 3 mile run at 12:30PM. It was good. I took a cold shower under the garden hose after. Amazing.
Then I made a quilt sandwich! I sewed together a backing piece and cut out a piece of batting — luckily I had enough that I didn’t have to piece it. Then I laid it all out flat and used big safety pins to hold together. I’m going to hand quilt it with diagonal lines.
Today I felt a little silly because I did my errands in the wrong order and did a lot of driving just to get a bag of coffee, but I’ve since been enjoying that coffee in the mornings. I love the feeling I get when I am a couple steps ahead on dinner prep — if there’s any way I can sustainably make that happen when I am back to employment, I would love that. I like that I stopped cooking to do my project. I could have kept cooking, but I liked how I consciously chose to balance the day with something else.
Wednesday
Yesterday I was a bit of a slug. A productive-ish slug, but a slug nonetheless. I did some job hunting, and I assembled all the jobs I’ve applied for into a list so I have a better idea of what I’ve got. I’ve applied to about 20 positions so far.
Then I got to work on the quilting. While I did that, I tried out Ted Lasso. I like Ted a lot but I do not love all the side characters and I only made it through a couple episodes. Then I switched to Frasier, because why not. Frasier was much easier to have on in the background while I quilted. When my fingers got tired, I switched to reading. I’ve finally started in on Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings.
Last night I went to my sit & stitch group — a knit and crochet group at my local yarn store — and I took the quilt to work on — nobody minded, and it was nice to get a couple of oohs and ahs from the ladies who also quilt. I’m almost halfway done with the quilting, which is coming along faster than I expected.
So I said I felt like a slug yesterday. I’m not sure what I might have done to feel less slug-like. I did walk two miles to the coffee shop and back to de-funk myself midday. By the end of the day I was embracing it — that this is my sabbatical and if I want to work on a quilt for six hours in one day — this is the time to do it.
Today
Today I have not been a slug, and that is also part of what got me through yesterday — today I ran seven miles, which is the farthest I’ve run since, I think 2018 which is when I ran my last half-marathon. Maybe that was in 2019. Hmm.
But! This is my third week of training on purpose, so with that I can allow myself to sign up for the half marathon in August. Next week I’m scheduled for 800m repeats and an easy four-miler.
After my run I mowed the lawn, and now I am finally showered and writing up this post. I’m going to take the rest of the day and quilt. I’m very excited by my progress yesterday and would love to be putting the binding on next week!
A Note on Lunch
I’ve talked a few times about real lunch and my lunch the past couple days has been the epitome of why at-home lunches will basically always beat at-work lunches, because of the number of items I had to pull out of the fridge to build it. Worth the effort during a lunch break time; not worth the effort while also trying to feed a toddler breakfast and get ready for the day.
Open-faced veggie pita sandwich (hummus, cucumber, cheese, tzatziki, cucumber) with pickles, carrots, and crackers and goat cheese.
