Stories Collected While Living in France
Have you ever had a day start and wonder how in the world you were ever going to do everything that was expected of you?
Have you ever had a day planned and then before it started, had twenty thousand things added to it?
Have you ever had a crazy day start a few days before the sun actually came up, or worse start living your day in your dreams the night before?
Today is wacko, with a hundred, no make that a million balls in the air.
What are you doing today?
Still working on my house…painters come back in tomorrow and start on the bedrooms…then carpet “should” be in by next Wednesday! Keeping my fingers crossed!
I can totally relate, Corey. May you accomplish all that needs to be done today and have wisdom for the rest. May you be able to prioritize all your tasks and have much grace to get through your day. Thank you for being a bright spot in my day every day through your photos and writing!!!
Lots of days like that have happened to me. Today I am sewing pillows for the chairs on the deck. It is raining, again, so can’t be outside working on our new trellis. Still a good day! Hope yours will be too!
It is raining here in Napa on this June morning. What I really want to do is not get out of my pajamas and stay in bed and listen to the rain. Even the dogs aren’t getting out of bed.
It’s ironic that you posted this topic today. My day started at about 4am thinking about how everything was going to get done and which things I could leave out. We live in a 50 year old house (not old by European standards) and we have a water leak. So far the plumber and husband decided the dining room was the best place to cut a hole in the wall. other side of wall is refrigerator which would have hid a patch nicely!!! The leak is kitchen related, happens when we run the dishwasher, but it’s not the dishwasher. Wood floor is buckling, so moved refrigerator on top of buckle, now you have to squeeze into kitchen. Big party on the 13th. I’ll have orange construction cones up. Great look for a party – right?
My house is old and I am getting older. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. And of course, I try to do it all myself. I need a vacation… in the south of France… that’s not happening this year.
Funny you ask, Corey, because that’s exactly how my day will be, as I get ready for Farm Chicks, a wonderful antique show in Spokane!!
Isabel
I’ll be driving the street sweeper around town at 5mph. The hardest thing I’ll be doing, is trying to stay awake.
Not juggling a million balls, but a few are up in the air today. I must start back to walking today, visit the dentist, work on a quilt pattern I am developing, work on plans for trip to France. That will be my day. Oh and maybe talk to my husband later today.
I’ve spent most of the day working with a colleague in an effort to get a book ready for printing in Singapore. More frustrating than having to achieve a lot in a working day is having to do things where you don’t really have full control over the elements. We have picture gaps to fill and the content has to be scientifically accurate and … uhm… the image libraries submit arbitrary pictures of species in places such as Hawaii. We’re in Africa. This is how one becomes a control freak. 🙂
I knew something must be up when I checked on you and a new post had not yet appeared……
Make a list.
Make a list of your list.
Misplace them both.
The skies look threatening here in the North West USA — left my projects due to the last minute === now trying to figure how to get it all done, and do them well working on my PHD… & wondering why I ever started in the first place?
Joanny
It’s grey here in Sacramento. I am meeting with several friends to see if we can pull off an Art Festival in Setember. This is our third annual. In the past it has just been two of us putting the whole event on. This year, my partner, who did almost everything, is moving away and I’m frantic trying to get a group to replace him. After the meeting, I am going to my cabin in the mountains to deal with a black widow spider infestation. Meanwhile, my husband and his son are in Taos on a father/son road trip. Where’s the justice?
It’s raining in Turlock today Corey. No doubt there will be more rain tomorrow. Today is filled with work, medical visit, and a private talk with my pastor. Lots going on and my heart is not at ease.
Warmer weather than usual for Seattle. Hopefully we can get the a/c unit in the bedroom window today. One load of laundry done, then to work. After work do walking errands, then indoor chores, maybe walk the dogs in the early evening. Must make a list of errands to do when car is available. Dinner will be a huge salad from the garden. Note to self-next year don’t plant 5 heads each of 4 varieties of lettuce. It grew more robust than anticipated. The wonderful news is neighbor said he’d mow my lawn this week!
I suppose you’re question could be answered in different ways: what I SHOULD be doing and what I AM doing.
I should be…:
*completing the wardrobe organization project I started some days ago, but the weather has been so finicky as of late that I’m not sure if I should put the winter/heavier clothes away just yet; after all, I’m wearing jeans and a jacket today…in JUNE!
*doing laundry, but I don’t want to add more clean clothes to the ‘should I put this in the wardrobe or attic storage’ piles that are stacking up due to my unwillingness to finish the wardrobe project!
*balancing the our checking account, but there’s no fun in that
*”helping” one of my children finish a science project (by the way, what teacher postpones science projects until the last two weeks of school when the kids are all but out of steam?)
*planning a running course (see cherry comment below)
What I am doing:
*reading your blog for a boost 🙂
*pitting cherries for a dessert I should not be eating and which will require 32 minutes of running to burn off
*sitting on the loggia and enjoying the rare appearance of the sun
Hi Corey:
I get it : )
I do the same thing : )
I glanced at a post above and the lady mentioned Turlock; I smiled as I remember swimming against Turlock as a teenager : )
Have lovely evening.
Please e-mail me your address. Look in your spam folder and see if my e-mails are landing in there. Okay?
Thanks
peace & hugs
carole
How did you know that today was that day? Getting ready to drive to Sthn calif – heaps of to-do lists, leave-behind lists – will wave to Willows as we go thru’ tomorrow 🙂 🙂
Dido
setting up an investment fund, check.
cleaning the kitchen, check.
washing the comforter, check.
still need to:
wash dog’s bedding
run vacuum
plant bottles around garden beds
pick up more bottles from various friends
soak picked up bottles to remove labels
get dog out on hike
go to costco to stock up in bulk form
corral the errant moth that lurks over yarn
dust house
drink wine
the list continues to be added to…ugh.
Wishing I was closer and could take a few things off of your “to do” list!
Best of luck my friend!
xo
Oh Corey, you just described my exact life for this past solid month — it’s why I haven’t been around! I have a sneaking suspicion it is all going to slow down next weekend – my son graduates from High School then. =)
My day has been driving, driving, driving – hither to and yon on errands – drop off at school, return to school with the things left in the car, then off to the post office, the drycleaners, the vet, home for a quick bite of forgotten breakfast, a sneak onto the blogs to visit quickly, then laying down the rugs I got weeks ago because it involves heavy furniture moving that I can’t do alone and the neighbor is in view, so i’m going to go grab them. The rest of the day is nothing exciting, but I’ll make a nice dinner and open some ruby red and force a slow down =) How’s it going sans the kithen?!
xo Isa
Reading my favorite blogs instead of doing the gazillion things I should be doing. And yesterday I read a great book, Catfish and Mandala, instead of doing the million things I had to do which is why I have a gazillion things to do today.
hundreds of things at a time…as almost every day….hahahahahaha!
🙂
Bliss, the minutiae of peoples lives – I love it. Your readership is so extensive now that I rarely have time to justify reading all the comments. Today I could not resist !
I had my weekly French lesson this morning. We were all extremely rusty after just 1 week break for 1/2 term. Then I caught up with some email including a most important one to you regarding our immenent trip to Provence. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year in South East England (& quite likely the entire Summer!) so I was simply not prepared to tackle the ironing. I managed at least 6 shirts this pm plus all the bed linen and have achieved some grocery shopping and a reasonable supper. Daily call to my father and thats my lot. Happy days ! Jx
We are waiting for the tradesman to measure up for new carpets to cover the bare cold concrete floors that we have been walking on since the house flooded. Only problem is that when I agreed to him coming at 6.30 I didnt realise I was agreeing to 6.30am !
And so my day began at 6am with the alarm going off. 6.10am I’m dressed in my nurses uniform eating cereal in front of the computer, checking emails, reading your blog! In twenty minutes Mr Carpet man will arrive.
By 7am I will be working hard on the Rehab ward in our local hospital. I will finish up at 2.30pm and then have 15 minutes to run to the car and drive to my kids school to pick them up when school ends at 2.45pm.
Then will begin my real day of homework, school projects (The circulatory system in the eyes of a 9 year old!) laundry, preparing dinner, and hopefully at some point a cup of tea!!!
Corey, You have just blown your cover! My image of you is….oh, sipping wine .. making jams and jellies…eating macarons … lovely parties ….. beautiful antiques … but never never ever rushing madly …. oh no oh no.
Its Thursday 4th mid morning – my day off and its a beautiful suuny one after a frost – winter down under!! I’m going for a long walk and making pumpkin soup for lunch.
Give your day to the Lord and ask Him to organise it – far better than we ever can!!
Those kind of days are a weekly occurance around here… LOL
Today? I’m doing Wordless Wednesday… where words don’t matter… just the pictures get to tell the story…
Corey,
This should be very easy because Monday-Friday is the exact same routine.
Wake up, let the dogs out, shower and get ready for work.
Get on the expressway along with the approximately 6 million people who live around me and head to work.
Work all day and then return to the expressway along with the same 6 million people I drove with in the morning! 🙂
Exciting, eh? lol
Marilyn (in Dallas)
Hi Corey!
Lately, on top of the usual chores, we have been been getting ready for my youngest daughter’s wedding on Saturday!
We drove up to Toronto Friday (6 hour trip) for this weekend’s clebration of the Azores’ annual Dia da Região (officially June 1) — this year held in an Azorean emigrant “comunidade” rather than somewhere in the archipelago (the usual choice). Till now, Farmboy Husband had never before received any exposure to my half-Portuguese ancestral culture, nor met any of my Azorean friends who’d made the trip to Toronto in their official capacities, nor any of my Portuguese-Canadian amigas, so it was a grand weekend, and he now has a whole bunch of new friends (as do I)!
Farmboy Husband ate his first sopas and alcatra at Saturday afternoon’s festa, served under huge tents, lest it rain — and he was dazzled by the efficiency of the volunteers who carried off the feeding of perhaps 1500 people (in three shifts) seemingly without a hitch — which reminded me of your blog posts on the topic in California last June. On Sunday afternoon we got dressed up so we could attend the Azores’ awards ceremony for distinguished Azorean emigrants (including a virtual amigo who lives in New England), and the large cocktail/buffet reception afterwards.
We drove home on Monday. No problem crossing the border at the Peace Bridge on the first day the new law went into effect requiring either a passport or enhanced ID, probably because too many people were scared off by news reports of its impending stern implementation. We then spent yesterday sprinting through life trying to get caught up.
Today, I had the luxury of plowing through over 200 digital photos of our trip that we’d loaded onto my computer — cropping and doctoring them so they’d look presentable. Since then I’ve been busy emailing selected images to the subjects of the various photos (as well as to a few other interested parties who couldn’t make the trip).
And suddenly it’s time to start fixing dinner (I’m so relieved that MY kitchen’s not torn up!).
P.S. Glad to read from others that NorCal’s getting some desperately-needed rain.
After being poked and prodded at my annual Dr appt yesterday, I was looking forward to today. I got up and went to boot camp class at the athletic club. I survived. The sun decided to make an appearance after kicking the rain away, I met with a friend I haven’t seen for a while and though there was a chill in the air we dined outdoors (heater above made us feel like the sun was beaming down on us), treated myself to some clothes that may or may not be appropriate for “my age” and the day continues….
Well my day started at 1:30 am vomiting(sorry for sharing that), couldnt sleep and up until 4:00 am thinking of all of the things I probably wouldnt be able to do today on my day off. I also had to buy 4 wedding gifts & get cards ready for 5 graduations. Not to mention the festa is coming up at the end of the month. Not a single weekend available sets my mind into what you just mentioned today. Actually is it normal to feel that way all of the time? I guess thats why we all take 5 minutes to visit your blog and escape! Now its almost 4 in the afternoon I better get some stuff done. And, I wish I could have shared a much more exciting day…
My day yesterday was very like Mindi’s (stated ahead of me here)… after being poked prodded and squished, I went home to foggy skies to be still as possible since I am now sore… not that I have anything close to “D’s”… I don’t. But soreness is my closest friend for about 2 days. Other than that, it was great because my hubby fixed supper yesterday and today! The fogged cleared today too… so a good ol American BBQ’d steak is about to be served. BTW… I rarely rarely have steak, but when the first sun we’ve seen in 17 days appears… its time to celebrate! (:
Oh my, I think almost every day for me is like this.
Today I just gave up on it after awhile- and am now scrolling through my favorite blogs 😉
Curious to see how your expectations of the the theme of Secret Garden translate from French to your English idea.
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