Week Update: Spring and other things

Definitely the highlight of this week was sharing a couple of days with my sister. (See my last Sister-City post). But there have been other good things as well, such as watching spring slowly come to Kansas.

Now that I realize I really shouldn't plant the rest of what I want to plant (with the exception of a couple of onion rows) until May, I have created some space to sit back and enjoy watching Kansas in the springtime. It is really quite lovely. The weather has been warmish, but not too warm. I am perfectly happy with the weather fluxing between 75 and 60. Keep it up, Kansas, keep it up.

I have not been living at this small little house (aka The Woods' Cottage) for a year yet. So I have not experience spring here. It's very interesting to see what kind of things spring up and where they decide to burst from the earth. (A little girl used to live in this house and apparently she (and her mom) planted a ton of random seeds everywhere. Since this house is heavily shaded, only a couple things are coming up and in super crazy spots). I can already see my hosta transplants starting to pop their little heads up. I wish them all the luck.

With all this warmer weather means that I am starting to open up the house. And Scout loves it… a little too much. Yesterday, when I was in the shower, she decided to make a break for it via bursting through the screen on the backdoor. It was probably a half hour before I realized she wasn't napping in any of her normal places. I basically freaked out. (Scout doesn't have a rabies shot yet nor does she have a collar. I also am terrified of her getting fleas because of a life scaring experience in South Africa where our gross kitten gave my teammate and I fleas for days). Thankfully, right after I texted Levent (of course), she came sneaking around the garage. But now she has outdoor fever so bad and I have bad anxiety about my cat running away. It's going to be an interesting spring/summer/fall.

 I go through food phases where all I want to eat is a particular food. (It is often potatoes). However, ever since I ate a crazed-sprinkled donut at my brother's house in Illinois, I could not wait until fate brought me another one. (And by that I mean I finally used my donut coupon that my financial advisor at Everence had sent me for my birthday last year). I am dreaming of getting a cake donut pan and of hundreds and thousands (of sprinkles) everywhere.

These past couple days (since Leah left) have been kind of stressful. Back in college when I would get really stressed, I would start to spill a ton of things. (It was always the joke with my roommate and me. I would spill things and she would start accidentally smashing her fingers in things). This week, I have managed to spill my entire 16oz cup of water on my lap at work as well as almost an entire can of chicken broth on to my very carpeted kitchen floor. What is going on?

Let me tell you. It's my OCD tendencies combined with budget things. I was talking with my friend Jill about our crazy schedules this summer all due to weddings very far from where we live. Oh man. It has been a real source of freak out in my life these couple of days. And I know something will work out, but in this moment, it does not feel that way.

All this to say, I am very grateful that I was able to go out with my co-workers to The Hill Bar and Grill in ICT on Friday night for "girls night." Moreover, Jill and I went and had coffee outside in the glorious weather at Mojo's Coffee Bar on Saturday afternoon. (I have a crazy necklace burn/tan line). My time with Jill especially helped curb my OCD/stress about travel plans as we joked that we wished those Southwest commercials were true. (There is one that features people who have to travel a lot for wedding season. Yes, that's us). We also talked about insurance for a long time. And then would make comments about how adult we were since we were sitting around talking about insurance. But the whole afternoon was definitely a week highlight.

Finally, I am happy to report that I tried another successful new recipe. Last night we had lamb burgers for dinner complete with a veggie relish (from onions, tomatoes and cucumbers) and a creamy feta spread. They were pretty good. And it was the first time I've ever tried cooking with lamb (after weeks of watching the meat section at Dillon's to see if the ground lamb would ever go on sale. It finally did!) The only critique we had is that we wanted to put more condiments on it, but we weren't sure what else to add. But it has already gone on the "keep" pile of recipe.

Anyway, here is yet another collection of random ramblings.

Here's to hoping that this week will be a good one and that my ODC won't get the most of me (especially as I think about going to Guatemala on the 9th). Here is to hoping that I can continue making space for myself to relax and watch spring fully show her colors.