Sunday, August 30, 2009

It's a small world department

As I've talked about here before, the girls and I have been attending one of the local UU churches. It's turned out to be a good spiritual community for us, and a good support network for me. But that's not the point of this post.

Today, they held the annual SummerFest party at a member's home. It was a house on the shore of Lake Washington. Very relaxing. While there, I met someone new to the group who I hadn't seen before. After chatting for a bit, I noticed a goddess medalion AND a pentagram on a chain around her neck. Of course, I introduced myself, and doing a bit of Jack channelling, mentioned that I recognized the pentagram saying, "nod-nod, wink-wink, secret handshake" the way Jack would have. It turns out that she used to live in Napa. And she's been to many Ancient Ways Festivals, which is where Jack and I met in 1992. I mentioned to her the Sweet Liquid Trouble tasting parties that he used to have on Sat. nights, and she remembered them! Of course, I told her that he was my husband and the father of the 2 beautiful girls in the room and that he'd passed away.

She was looking for the right congregation in the area for herself. I hope I was able to make her comfortable with this group and that she'll continue to come back.

It's still sometimes hard to believe how folks we knew down there through the AW festival and the Pagan community are slowly migrating up here. It's a nice thing, though.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

This Ain't for Sissies

It seems like I've just been busy lately. Busy spinning my wheels, that is.

I managed to hold a yard sale last week-end. That took a week to get ready for. I made what I wanted to, so I was happy. I didn't get rid of as much stuff as I wanted to, so much of it will be donated to Children's Hospital Thrift Shop. I still have what didn't sell taking up half of the garage. I can't get to the freezer with my car in there. Ugh!

With the heat, it's been hard to get outside to do any kind of yard maintenance. I desperately need to go out and do some deadheading of some flowers. At least I got some watering done this evening! I think I need to have some friends over and have a back yard clean-up party and feed everybody BBQ.

I feel a little overwhelmed at times. It seems like my list of stuff to get done is longer than my arm, and it gets longer every week. Even though the girls are in daycare, I feel like there's still not enough time in the day. I'm still trying to take care of myself, and sometimes I nap when they're not here. But I feel behind on a lot of stuff. Yet I'm the kind of person who hates someone coming in and cleaning my toilet. I'm probably being too hard on myself, anyway. To be fair, I DID get some studying done this week on top of having out-of-town company AND two appointments this week.

Jack was such a neat & tidy guy in most things. There was never any question about which desk was his and which was mine. It was easy when he was around and there were both of us to look after the kids and to keep up on things, including housework. It's totally different when it's just one person. So, like the title says, single parenthood & widowhood ain't for sissies. Just sayin'.