Kathie’s Spring Days

Over the course of the next few weeks each of us will be sharing what a “typical” day in spring is like for us.

A typical week-day for me always starts at 4:30 AM when the alarm goes off.  I get up, make coffee, and head out the door by 4:50 to hit the gym when the doors open at 5.  After working out anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, I come home to shower, make breakfasts, pack lunches, and head out the door to work.  It’s after work and on weekends that I get to all the other things that are so dear to my heart.  Weekends generally start around 5am with the donning of an apron before sitting down to a nice cup of coffee and the newspaper at the kitchen table with my love.

In spring, I’m thinking about gardening if not actually gardening by the spring solstice (generally speaking snow is still covering my garden on the solstice).  Seeds are getting a jump start indoors with a little worm water from the compost bin.  In another month, I’ll be starting potatoes, greens, onions, and other cold hardy plants (I hope).  Once the seeds get started, I make sure to do something gardening related each and every day.  Gardening related activities include:

• Watering and transplanting of seedlings
• Harvesting compost from the worm bin
• Shredding newspaper for mulch and the worm bin
• Looking for manure and moldy hay in the newspaper, Craigslist, and Freecycle for the garden and paths
• Preparing the garden and containers for planting
• Actually planting in the garden when the time is right
• Covering plants for an unexpected frost
• Weeding

In the spring, we’re still carrying wood into the house and lighting fires in the woodstove.  Though, we’re starting to only burn them in the night and early mornings, allowing the fires to die out during the day and even opening a window or door to allow in the cool spring air.

 

There is some baking and cooking that goes each and every day, of course, we have to eat after all.  Big baking projects like bread generally happen on weekends, while everything else can and does happen before or after work.  The crockpot and leftovers are both used liberally during the work week, but everything is always cooked from scratch – no meals from a box around here.  Meals are also usually very simple: beans and rice, soups, roasted chicken and veggies, etc.

I try (but don’t always succeed) to clean one room in the house a day.  If I keep up on that, it takes no more than 15 minutes to dust, tidy, and vaccuum that room.  It’s much easier to do it that way than try and do entire house cleans once a week for me.  Dishes are always kept up at the end of each day, but that’s more because I enjoy doing dishes than for any real belief in that’s how a kitchen should be kept.  Laundry is done in spurts and Jeff helps me with that, being only two of us its not something we have to tackle more than once a week.

In the evenings after the sun has set, I spend time with my Jeff, talking about our days, dreaming of the future.  We like to have a cup of hot cocoa during these chats from time to time.  Sometimes we get involved in our individual hobbies or crafts, sometimes we read or watch TV, but either way we try to make sure the last hour before bed is spent relaxing in the company of each other rather than busily trying to dust one more shelf or start one more seed or any number of other things.

Bed time is anywhere between 9 and 10 PM most of the time.  I love crawling into my bed at the end of a busy day – its just so very cozy.  Flannel sheets still cover our bed this time of year as well as a comforter and my grandmothers quilt to keep us toasty warm.  There is usually a little spiritual reading, prayer, and mediation before the lights are turned out and (hopefully) sweet dreams visit.