In the weeds!

There is so much that I wanted to happen this summer that is not happening.

The garden has--once again--been given over to weeds. The compost bin that seemed so simple to make is still a pile of wooden pallets in the driveway. The chickens are pretty much living a feral existence in our backyard.

I was thinking this week about my (brief) tenure as a waitress and the crazy-can't-catch-a-breath feeling we used to call being "in the weeds."

In my restaurant days being "in the weeds" was a shift where nothing seemed to go right. The kitchen was running slow. The hostess was seating fast (often double or triple seating tables) and no matter how fast you moved, you could just never shake that feeling of being three steps behind.

Now, as a full-time at-home parent of two little children, being "in the weeds" is when I don't get a chance to shower (sometimes for several days), and the dishes start overflowing the sink. The grass is suddenly knee-high and I can't get from one room to the next without tripping over toys and other junk. And the kids' needs (my full and undivided attention) and my needs (quiet time to clear my head and write) feel completely at odds and we spend most of the day annoying each other or trying to figure out how to get ourselves out of the muck we are stuck in.

And that's where we've been lately. In the weeds.

But even here in the muck, when I'm struggling to catch a breath, wonderful things are happening!

My Morning Glories are absolutely splendid.





We have been "putting up" as much food as we can. We're picking blueberries a couple of times a week (or buying them pre-picked when that feels much easier) and freezing them. (I lay them out on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and put them in the cold oven over night to ripen. In the morning I move the cookie sheets into the freezer and when they are frozen I transfer them to bags.)



John has been making weekly batches of pesto, which we freeze in ice cube trays for later use.

And I have been chopping and freezing greens (like curly kale and rainbow chard) to mix into omelets, casseroles, sauces and smoothies.



And I've started dreaming and sketching and talking about "next summer's garden," when hopefully, I'll be feeling a little less "in the weeds."