Catching Up!

Howdy, Sunshines!

It's been a while since I've updated so I figured I'd drop a line, ask how you're doing, and catch you up on ALL THE EXCITEMENT going on around here.

That's it right there behind me.

Pansies, mums, bougainvilleas, geraniums, perilla, two kinds of mint (TWO KINDS!), Vietnamese coriander, tomatoes, various cucurbits, and lots and lots of Japanese eggplants.

Oh, and making sure that annoying neighborhood cat hasn't taken any shits in Bella's sandbox lately.

It doesn't do it often thanks to the sand toys I'm usually good about spreading all over so it can't find a soft place to land, but my recent hormonal changes and the extra olfactory perception that comes with them (I already have a hound's nose) pretty much ensure I'll smell it if it happens.

Those hormonal changes also thwack me in the face with exhaustion most afternoons (the B-tabs are helping), make me extra thinky and feely on top of my already extra thinky/feely nature (a little self-awareness helps with that mostly, but not always), cause me to be exceptionally bitchy from time to time when it's not that time (my poor family), and sometimes even make me alarmingly and embarrassingly sweaty. (But surprisingly not HOT. Just SWEATY.)

Perimenopause, I think they call it.

That's what I've been up to. Yard maintenance and perimenopausing.

Oh, and I've also been up to trying to live this little mantra I read the other day:

I've been trying to consciously and conscientiously nurture my relationships more and more. Trying to pour more empathy and effort into my interactions with the people I love instead of taking those connections for granted while pouring all my thought and energy into projects...

...which admittedly are focused on things I also love in another way, but on which I am gaining different and better perspective.

I feel the people and the projects less and less at odds with one another as the people begin to take much clearer priority over the projects.

Which, oddly, has had the effect of making my project related decisions so much easier and less stressful.

If the logistics of a project don't easily allow for the prioritization of the people (self included), then it gets reworked or scrapped.

Hence the creation of my Women's Cookshop Meetup group, which allows me to combine my passion for food and cooking with what has become an increasingly stronger calling to support and work with other women in a nice blend of enterprise and service (and fun and fulfillment, too!), where business is not the primary focus but hopefully a nice side effect if it's meant to be.

(If you've been with me for a while, you know it's been a little over a year in the making while I've explored several different avenues to fruition. That's a really cool thing about blogging your path on a social media platform with a strong search capability, by the way. Just type a few key words and BAM! Instant recall. ;) )

So that's another thing I've been up to - learning the ins and outs of Meetup and also learning a great deal about human nature in the process. The way people socialize and the way they interact about it tells you a lot about where they are in life.

So yeah.

That pretty much sums up what I've been up to.

Except for the cat crap and perimenopause, it's all been quite lovely. If I have to take some imperfections with this life right now, those are totally doable.

Love and gratitude always for accompanying me on this journey.

Your company is such a gift as always.

HUGS!!! ❤ ❤ ❤

shinae

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