Mid May Life in a Nut Shell

One reason I rarely blog sometimes is because I get anal-retentive about wording....and it ends up taking me an hour or so to just write a post sometimes.....

So here's an attempt at a quick one with the promise that I'll actually READ others blogs sometime in the next week:

--Arbor is basically complete. My brother came back this last weekend and we literally had a great time together finishing construction and demo. We're going to add three more boards around the middle for extra support and then Dad has to bring up his saw so we can cut off the ends of the posts, but it looks so much better. Can't wait to secure some sort of a hammock situation under there again.

--Housemate M has started moving out. He'll be completely out on Saturday. Classmate will start moving her storage shed contents into the garage over Memorial Day and then will slowly start moving in during the month of June. Emailed my AirBnB gal yesterday to let her know of the changes and she's still on board. So....I'm not exhaling completely until the end of June BUT things could potentially stabilize a bit for the summer at least.... Here's hoping!

--The schedule for massage courses for the summer came out this week. It looks like I can bunch courses so that I'll just be on campus for two days. So I'll either be teaching or in school M-W or T-Th. That gives long weekends for grading, yard stuff, family stuff, and hopefully some play....

--Yesterday I blew off the sustainability discussion group. I've been stressed this week with housemate stuff, my midterm that was on Tuesday, lots of grading, yard projects that needed to get done before summer arrived, and my interview that is tomorrow (eek!). But I seriously just needed a day to myself and to do some of the stuff that I love doing but haven't had as much time to do them.....so the dogs and I went to a new regional trail and ran four hot, hilly miles, I laid on the patio while I prepped for the interview, I texted with my dad, and then I took the chickies out for their first outdoor exposure. It seriously was a much needed day and afternoon. (I also weeded, cleaned up around the house, did some work, etc...but there was much relaxation...)

--The chickies continue to be thriving. We've had some really hot days the last two days so it's been difficult to figure out what to do about the temperature for them, but so far they're continuing to do ok and be highly entertaining. These three have such distinct personalities :) My brother is coming back this weekend for us to finish the coop project.

--Beyond the four miler yesterday, the dogs and I logged a 7 miler on Sunday. It was the first outing I've had that while still slow, I actually felt really solid about it. It made me feel like....I'm making a come back.

--I've also gotten together with a few of my massage classmates in the last few weeks and that's been nice. Always an interesting bunch of personalities but rewarding all the same.

--I've been thinking a lot about how happy I was last spring. I know WHY I was happier last spring and while I definitely feel content with life (but still stressed), I'd like to get to that level of happiness and just pure joy on my own again without external sources influencing my happiness. Maybe this is my newest goal.... :)

--Book club with the gals is on Saturday--so looking forward to seeing them again. And the next kayaking outing is this weekend also. Lots of grading to get through this weekend but lots of good things also!

Continuing to focus on the positives!!