JUN’ 20

13

The weather this morning is delightful. It's cool and there's a slight breeze but you can smell the edge of heat in the air that will surely crest around midday. I made our weekly frittata, filled it with kale from our CSA, chard and garlic scapes from our garden, and feta. And, because I felt like I should, I made buttermilk biscuits. Everything washed down quite nicely with an iced coffee. 

We raised over $1000 this week for Campaign Zero! Taking action has radically changed my mindset for the better. Feeling more empowered has led to feeling more hopeful for the future. I highly recommend it. I am a better partner, mother, neighbor, friend, and community member for it. 

Something that I am currently working on is to push through the discomfort of initiating hard conversations. I am not a rock-the-boat sort of person. When I post about defunding the police, positive engagement with privilege, really anything to do with racism, I am deeply apprehensive about it. I know that, if someone is offended by my efforts to call out privileged lines of thought or is unwilling to be discomfited by the things that I am putting out there, I am probably better off without them in my life. But, still, I worry that I will offend or that I will lose someone who I thought was my friend. I am gonna have to get over that, I think. It's the only way to make racism wrong again in this country. We have to call people out on their shit. We must be accountable to one another. That's where I am right now. 

My weeks have a new rhythm, having layered in the virtual bake sale into my to-do lists. I am ideating all of the time. But, once I have settled on the treat that I would like to make for next Wednesday, I break the pastry down into its components. And I tackle one or two things a day over the weekend. I like to have all components ready by Sunday or Monday. Assemble on Tuesday. Photograph and pitch on Wednesday. Promo picture on Thursday. It's a neat little process.

Thankfully, the garden is relatively self-sufficient these days. I check on all of my plants: prune the tomatoes as needed, trellis the tendrils of peas, cucumbers, and grapes, weed (bindweed is the worst!), negotiate the berry brambles behind their trellises, and try to stay on top of the harvest. The squash are pretty self-sufficient. I have to water some rhubarb seedlings that have sprouted. 

The chicks are so big now and quite mischievous. It's necessary to keep an eye on them because they have a tendency to sneak out of the mobile run and nibble on things that they shouldn't, like my poor Juneberry bushes. We are almost ready to move them outside into a temporary coop. We're waiting until all of their feathers have grown in so that we can be sure that they'll be warm enough outdoors at night. We'll also need to clip their wings. 

Yesterday, I set the kids on the block up with a simple art project. I traced their silhouettes on a large roll of paper. They had a blast coloring them in with crayons and markers. I am thinking about making this a regular thing- putting on a morning art hour once a week during the summer.