Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the wind wasn't blowing 40 miles an hour. It could've been a recipe for the best day ever. But it wasn't. Well, it wasn't the WORST day ever. But if I could pick the 3 things that annoy me...that make me tired...3 things that equal a recipe for the worsts... it would be the 3 things that we did on Saturday. While I will try to have a good attitude in future posts, you need to know that this blog isn't about sharing all the sweet, fun, happy stuff that I do all the time. Life isn't like that. Sometimes, you have to deal with hard experiences. Too often on social media, people over-share to the point that their life looks perfect and pretty all the time. Or they complain so much that you unfollow them because you don't have time for all that negativity. Writing is about telling the truth. Owning up to the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love writing because no one else can see things like I see them. I have one voice and it is mine, and only I am prepared to tell the stories the way I tell them. So today, I'm going to tell you about three things that I hate. And why I hate them. Because that's life and this is what my life is like right now. Obviously, there ARE worse things like illness and injury and losing a loved one, but these are the annoying little things that I HAVE to do because I am an adult...and sometimes it is hard to fake joy. Unless something funny or wild happens, these stories never get told. They are just little annoyances that get lost in my memories...I just go through the motions, take care of the chores and the errands, and never spent time thinking about why I hate it or hopefully, someday learn to love it. Here is a tried and true recipe for the WORSTS: 4 boxes of junk mail, 10 pounds of aluminum, 13 dozen glass bottles.....Recycling is a pain. It is annoying to sort and store all the garbage, and then to spend an entire Saturday morning loading it up and hauling it to the recycling center where it has to be sorted into the receptacles. One year, we were on our way to the recycling center with all of our aluminum, glass, cardboard and plastic and THREE times we had to pull over to chase down a trash can lid or secure the load since it was an exceptionally windy day. When we finally got to the recycling center, it was closed. Apparently, the day after New Years was a day it needed to be closed that year.....it was so maddening to have to haul all of the bins and boxes home, unload everything and wait a week before we could get rid of it that I announced we were through with recycling! NO MORE!!! And we didn't recycle for almost a year....but then I got some cute recycling stickers and some little trash cans at the Dollar Tree, and I found spot in the back room to organize the paper, glass and plastic....and we started recycling again. Every month, we spend a Saturday morning at the recycling center. Yesterday, we had to take all of our garbage to the recycling center. I spent an hour sorting cans, cardboard, glass, paper, and plastic. Half a dozen dog toys, one giant rawhide, two plastic frisbeesWhen I was in college, I brought home a puppy. Did I need a puppy? NO. Did I have time for a puppy? Definitely not. Did I know anything about owning pets? Nope. That puppy was a long haired dapple dachshund that I named Charlie. After a few short weeks, it was obvious that I did not have time to train a dog, so Charlie went to live with my mom and he became hers. She told me often that he was the best present I ever gave her. 7 years later, my mom was in the hospital and I had to take Charlie to the vet. He was injured and had to be put down. Watching the life go out of his eyes was incredibly sad and heartbreaking. My mom wasn't there with him and she was devastated. Since then, I do not like going to Pet Smart. Especially on Saturdays. The place is full of puppies and dog toys and reminders of him. Any time we need fish food or aquarium junk, I try to wait in the car. All the barking and the smells of the dog treats....I love dogs, but that store is just not a happy place for me. Yesterday, we had to go to Pet Smart to buy dog toys for a silent auction gift basket. I spent an hour browsing the toys and treats for items that would be good for the basket. 50 Scoops of dirt, 13 bags of leaves, 199 handfuls of weedsI love owning our my home. We have lived in our little stone cottage for 10 years. Our house was built in 1915, so it is 100 years old. The best part of owning your own home is that you can paint and update anything any time. It is also fun to entertain and host family events---our house is small but it is actually good for entertaining. The worst part of owning a home is the maintenance. Countless hours spent on big projects always take longer and cost more than you bargain for. The other bad part of owning a home: yard work. We have a relatively small yard. As often as possible, we plant perennials and bulbs and bushes that down't take a lot of work. But we live on a street with a lot of mature trees so every fall, we get TONS of leaves in our yard. The front yard has two big sweet gum trees. Beautiful and full, they provide amazing shade in the summer, but every winter, they drop TONS of spiky brown gum balls. Between the leaves, gum balls and weeds our yard can be quite hostile. Some people get pure joy from 'gardening' but it is YARD WORK. Miserable, dirty, back breaking work. With bugs. And blisters and back aches. Gardening sounds so sweet and tender....but it is nothing like that. I would get just as much satisfaction from paying someone to pull weeds from the flower beds and pick up sticks in the yard and bag up the gum balls and leaves. Yesterday, I spent 3 hours bagging leaves, pulling weeds and getting the back yard ready for spring. Is there a moral to this? No. I just wanted to take a second to complain about the stuff I hate doing. Now it is Sunday and my back hurts from all the heavy lifting and bending down I did yesterday. The wind is blowing 40 miles an hour, and I have a basket full of laundry and a sink full of dishes to do.
First world problems, right? **(A lot of great/fun things happened in between all of the annoying chores and errands, but I'll save those for another post. And I'm sure I'll write an obligatory 'grateful' for post....but it feels good to explore all the things I don't enjoy).
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Mrs. Mitchell
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March 2020
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