even though they look a bit more more like true blood, that's what sarah calls canned tomatoes in the dead of winter. she gave us canning lessons the other evening and although it took about six hours to can forty pounds of tomatoes, it wasn't as difficult as i expected from reading canning books. it's the kind of thing much better taught in person, among friends and stories and coffee breaks.
these adventures in cutting, roasting, peeling, mushing, sterilizing and pressurizing was about the most productivity i've known in a good while. i did have to get my house in order before my oldest bff came to visit last week (so fun!!) and then, i also finished up the last lesson of ragtime before she came. so maybe i haven't been as lame as it seems. but the little boxes are not getting checked lately! and now, i'm off to visit mum on wednesday and that means it will be difficult to list things on etsy or prepare for our handmade market over the next week.
all i really want to do is curl up in bed and read knitting mysteries (finished death by cashmere last night, and started died in the wool this morning), and then move to the fire and knit a little of the new sweater i've started (i treated myself to a rowan book and yarn. it's thrilling so far).
maybe it's the nesting season. or hormones. maybe i'm just lazy. or maybe it's that i can't get my freaking meds paid for by insurance, and my fatigue is always out of control when i don't have my meds. it's definitely not that i don't have the spark, or don't enjoy what i'm doing, because i do!
maybe i'll start listing my goals here rather than my accomplishments, at least sometimes, to help me get on track.
1. get copies made and insurance papers mailed out (tomorrow)
2. take photos for new 'smoking section' of etsy shoppe (tomorrow)
3. meet with sarah to decide on vendors for handmade market and get emails sent (tomorrow)
4. groom three bunnies (tomorrow)
5. list around 10 new items on etsy (11/10 to 11/17)
6. figure out tags, banner, postcards and display for handmade market (while at mum's, 11/10 to 11/17)
7. crafty craft for handmade market (11/18 to 12/3)8. figure out winter plan for hotel and turn on gas (before 12/4)
9. work on grant stuff for hubby (before christmas maybe?)
10. eventually must deal with looming question, to quit or not to quit (grad school). or try that other thing that one professor suggested (afraid to mention yet and no clue at this point but i stress on it daily)...
whew! i know there's more, but that's all i can think. anyone else having these issues, or any words of wisdom to share??
Jere those tomatoes look really great. Our tomato crop the past few years has been dismal. I attribute it to climate change since we used to have bumper crops. now it is too hot to grow them. It's been years since I have canned but we had more than we could eat and gave away salsa for christmas. Good luck with the to do list. Oh and about that number 10 on the list....well too bad we are not close enough to talk about it over a glass of wine :-)
ReplyDeletehi d! our tomatoes were dismal this year too. we have a friend who works on a big organic farm north of town, and this was their surplus from the last farmer's market of the season. i can't imagine having enough at one time to can my own crops, but maybe some day! btw we can always chat and drink wine on fb.
ReplyDeleteWell #10 is a Doozy, no? Whew! I can only offer this--that there will be No Wrong Decision--it's just another fork in the road. People put too much emphasis on "leaving school" and degrees. People leave school and do great, People stay in school and do great. It's just a Left or a Right.
ReplyDeleteThat said--you probably need to have a reeeeeeallly serious talk with yourself about Fear, as that's the bugger whose usually messing with one's head. And Then--- what's going to make You get Excited? Be doing something that makes you Excited Right Now and for the Long Term. And of course, reference your patterns from earlier in life--like for me---I need to get some Savings because I have never had that so that is now factored into decisions (which is is weeeeeeird for me).
And sometimes--you just have to Guess---which is the Worst--- when you actually make "The Move Based On NOTHING"---but sometimes your gut is quiet.
The rest of your list looks easy in comparison!!! As for your Etsy stuff--if a lot of your People down there are all on Etsy too, why don't you all have a day of photo taking and Photoshopping and Posting? I've noticed things go a lot faster when it's not just You moving something forward.
Hope you are feeling better. Insurance is really the Most Depressing Topic--You should write to whoever makes your drugs--- I did that once and they put me on a free perscription plan that they run (in very small print on their website). Glaxo Smith Klein---but I am sure that there are others like it.
xo
P
dear perpetua, you should be a life coach! you have the knack for it, for sure, and i am so grateful for your thoughts and wisdom. i Do need to deal with the fear thing. the fear of regret is really the only thing keeping me in school (other than inertia i mean). any tips on How to deal with it though? i'm tired of therapists. maybe journaling would help..
ReplyDeletexo
These pics and the Elsewhere post bring such good memories.
ReplyDeleteI cannot even begin to say how well you stylize this blog. it is one of the moodiest, in the good way, things I have ever read. Your art is good, you write well, and its all a beauty to see.
ReplyDeletebascom, you are too kind! you have no idea how happy it makes me for you to say this about my lil old blog..
ReplyDeleteMaking art is the only way I can haul myself along. Once, while angsting over some life choice, I realized that what was causing all the grief was fear of the unknown (and the worry that things would turn out badly). When I was able to see the odds were just as good, if not better that things would turn out well, the anxiety lessened. (And in that case, everything turned out just fine.)
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