It's officially 3:18am - yikes - and I can't sleep. Why? I have a throbbing pain in my right arm that won't go away. I know the source of this pain but I'm sad to recognize it as it has a significant impact in my life. I spent a couple of hours gardening today and this pain is a result of overusing my right hand. I've experienced this before in Bellevue when I was teaching, installing gardens and maintaining them - I overused my hands and it was becoming problematic. At the time I was working for a lovely woman named Anna-Karin who had lost both her husband and son on the same day due to a aviation accident. During her grieving period she installed a lovely garden, complete with large pond and waterfall. It proved to be therapeutic but during the course of a couple of years she lost the ability to use her hands due to overuse. The pain she described and the onset of the pain, at night, is exactly what I'm feeling now. Yuck.
So, I'm giving thanks right now that, once again, I live where I live. Balin and I have often commented that if we still lived in the Northwest, I would probably have extensive gardens or would still be installing/maintaining gardens for others, which of course would leave me literally in a world of hurt. (How would I not be able to garden for myself and others...there are so many amazing plants that grow in that climate...) Here in Prescott I am limited in gardening by a couple of factors: water, wildlife and general lack of appreciation of gardens by the general public. I've found that between the natural elements of water conservation (which by the way should not just be a high desert consideration but one for all regions, but I don't have the energy to go there tonight.) and the effort it takes to garden here (rocks, javellinas, rabbits, deer, etc) there is little struggle for me to want to make Prescott one big garden. It's just not realistic. Seattle...Southern Oregon....there's no excuse people - except maybe Jacksonville where the deer are like undisciplined children running amok. So again, I'm grateful that my garden space here in Prescott is manageable, or so I thought. I'll have to remember tonight and the pain I feel and hopefully that will encourage me to do just a little bit at a time.
The frustrating part in all of this is that I'm going to be really tired tomorrow and with Balin gone I can't really afford to be tired. I think I might be skipping a few planned activities and ask a friend if I can take a nap on her bed tomorrow after dropping the kids off at school. I'm finding that I need to be really careful with how I spend my energy lately - with Balin's prolonged absence. I've been trying to work out regularly and it seems to be going well, except that I've been struggling with Sam. Between my lacking patience and his not doing what I ask (get your shoes on so we can go to school, pick up your room etc) we're hitting heads. Today was a great example. The kids had the next door neighbor over, who is in 4th grade, and they were jumping on the trampoline. I'm trying to pick up the massive amount of dog poop in the yard (another reason 3 dogs was not a good idea) when I hear huge amounts of laughing. I look over to where the children are jumping on the trampoline and there are Stretch and Stanley on the trampoline. I lost it. I started running over to where the trampoline is and started yelling at them to get the dogs off - how in the heck did they get up in the first place? Ugh! Sam starts crying since I'm yelling at him, the next door neighbor is probably feeling very awkward at this point and I'm livid. I apologize to the neighbor and tell her it's time for her to go home and then send the kids to their rooms. Not my most glorious moment in parenting I have to tell you.
So I'm a little concerned that I'm up at 3:45 and I've got a busy day tomorrow. But at least the Advil has kicked in so maybe I can get some sleep.
So, I'm giving thanks right now that, once again, I live where I live. Balin and I have often commented that if we still lived in the Northwest, I would probably have extensive gardens or would still be installing/maintaining gardens for others, which of course would leave me literally in a world of hurt. (How would I not be able to garden for myself and others...there are so many amazing plants that grow in that climate...) Here in Prescott I am limited in gardening by a couple of factors: water, wildlife and general lack of appreciation of gardens by the general public. I've found that between the natural elements of water conservation (which by the way should not just be a high desert consideration but one for all regions, but I don't have the energy to go there tonight.) and the effort it takes to garden here (rocks, javellinas, rabbits, deer, etc) there is little struggle for me to want to make Prescott one big garden. It's just not realistic. Seattle...Southern Oregon....there's no excuse people - except maybe Jacksonville where the deer are like undisciplined children running amok. So again, I'm grateful that my garden space here in Prescott is manageable, or so I thought. I'll have to remember tonight and the pain I feel and hopefully that will encourage me to do just a little bit at a time.
The frustrating part in all of this is that I'm going to be really tired tomorrow and with Balin gone I can't really afford to be tired. I think I might be skipping a few planned activities and ask a friend if I can take a nap on her bed tomorrow after dropping the kids off at school. I'm finding that I need to be really careful with how I spend my energy lately - with Balin's prolonged absence. I've been trying to work out regularly and it seems to be going well, except that I've been struggling with Sam. Between my lacking patience and his not doing what I ask (get your shoes on so we can go to school, pick up your room etc) we're hitting heads. Today was a great example. The kids had the next door neighbor over, who is in 4th grade, and they were jumping on the trampoline. I'm trying to pick up the massive amount of dog poop in the yard (another reason 3 dogs was not a good idea) when I hear huge amounts of laughing. I look over to where the children are jumping on the trampoline and there are Stretch and Stanley on the trampoline. I lost it. I started running over to where the trampoline is and started yelling at them to get the dogs off - how in the heck did they get up in the first place? Ugh! Sam starts crying since I'm yelling at him, the next door neighbor is probably feeling very awkward at this point and I'm livid. I apologize to the neighbor and tell her it's time for her to go home and then send the kids to their rooms. Not my most glorious moment in parenting I have to tell you.
So I'm a little concerned that I'm up at 3:45 and I've got a busy day tomorrow. But at least the Advil has kicked in so maybe I can get some sleep.
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