Found this draft piece unpublished, today, April 21, 2024! Yes, I was in an interview with Bishop Naumann and he off handedly asked if I ever thought of going on a mission. I told him that if he 'saw' that for me, I must need to go. He told me to pray about it for myself...I was recently divorced in between jobs, and everything was right for it to happen. "You probably would like to go to Hawaii? Right?". "Well, no, I was kinda thinking Spanish speaking, Macchu Picchu!"
Later, after putting in my application, Stake President Anderson told me that his comment on my application was that I'm adventurous!! Whaat? I don't wanna be sent to Africa!! But the call came that I was to go to the Missouri, Independence Mission. I was to live in the small town of Hiawatha, in Kansas, which was a part of that mission. A few months later the mission was split, and the Kansas, Wichita Mission was formed. I didn't need to move from Hiawatha. And the rest is history.
This is my brain--not on drugs. I don't seem to need them, not even caffeine, to get me through. And YES, I DO SLEEP between 6-8 hours a night, and sometimes 10. In project mode, I sleep less. You know how some people are morning folks, and others are late nighters? I am BOTH!! But right around 2 or 3 in the afternoon I rest for a bit. Kinda like Spanish siesta time for me, and afterwards I'm raring to go again--into the night.
It was a late night/early morning of an airport run and we picked Kawailani up at the airport (her flight had been delayed), got something to eat at Denny's (not my fave, but at 1a.m. there aren't many choices) and the mango smoothie was awesome!
The day had began pretty nice--cool and sunshiny, appropriate for the task at hand, which is, to deer and rabbit proof the garden before it's time to plant veggies!! I started inside, transplanting baby bok choy from seed starting blocks into larger red plastic cups (I washed them from last year's planting, where I had used a wood burner to melt drain holes in the bottoms). Found a nice raised bed organic soil at Walmart and had picked up 8 bags of a cubic foot each. I like the texture and color. I haven't had really great luck before this, with garden soil--some have so many wood chips and fibrous stuff.
I dunno what you spend on seeds, I try not to go overboard but I did plant a lot of bok choy seeds, and separated them out, cutting them down to a single seedling per block, after planting 2 seeds in each block (well, as much as I could focus and keep track of while singing along to Hawaiian music--I missed a block and a couple of blocks had 3 seeds that emerged!). Further thinning happened and I wondered if these cast offs could be used as micro greens?
Now I have 45 of them in the red cups. And I only had one grow light set up and now I have 3 trays of seedlings. I put them out in the sunlit porch for a few hours and they perked up, making me joyful that they survived my transplanting. I had laid a few out checking for strong stems and roots. They were pretty leggy so I planted them pretty deep inside the cups. Voila!! They shared the grow light as I rotated them for 12 hours and today I'll get the other grow lights from storage.
Out on the ladder while trying to wire extensions to the t-posts and then attach the 10 foot deer netting was a true fiasco for one person, and the weather changed to chilly and the wind started up, growing stronger and stronger and eventually into a strong windstorm. Of course, since I'm solar light and energy powered, as the sky clouded over and the chill began, I put things away and headed indoors to clear up the sewing room, turning it into Kawailani's space as she returns home for spring break.
I'm looking around just now, trying to decide what today will be like, so far I've looked at my finances and arranged my budget, wondering to transfer some savings over to fix some things--like I spent some on garden soil and grow bags and metal raised beds, had some urgent car things taken care of, and think that my emergency fund needs a deposit.
Do I feel like Thai coconut curry? Should I work on one of the quilt projects-I need to place it near the couch for when I watch TV and maybe switch the French program into English so I don't need to read the subtitles, and I can work on the quilt at the same time. Should I leave home and run errands, nope, save gas, put that onto Tuesday when I have a doctor appointment. I could get at that fence again, but today is Sabbath and I don't like to spend money or work hard on a Sunday. It's also when I stop in on the grandkids with a project, dinner item or treats. There's a horse painting, and some hand building of clay but I don't need another unfinished thing on myself. I could spend a few minutes decluttering a thing or two. I'm choosing peace...TV and quilting.
