Over here in the Writing Corner and Beyond, I can say with confidence that this summer has not turned out quite like I’d anticipated! I knew that things were going to get busy around here on the farm, but I was not expecting it to consume me so completely. I’d like to chock it up to tackling so many projects, but I honestly think it’s more because I get easily overwhelmed and have a tendency to dwell over things and can’t think and work at the same time. It’s a little embarrassing.
And I still haven’t gotten one of those daily planners. Which could be a reason why I keep forgetting some things. Including getting a daily planner!
The farmers market this year was an unexpected blessing. I hadn’t given it a thought until we started going, and so far it’s been a pleasure promoting my bitty business through that avenue with products I love making. This past week I had a return customer for my tea jellies, which is so thrilling, that someone likes your product enough to come back for more. But the big money maker so far is cinnamon rolls, oddly. Who would have thought? Between six batches of those each week plus five loaves of bread, I’ve never handled so much dough (I mean literal dough, with yeast and flour and stuff . . . But I guess you could say the other kind of dough, too . . .). I’m still figuring out how to craft a consistently good loaf of sandwich bread, but I’m making progress! I’m learning something new all the time.
Preparing for the market is a multi-day process, consuming Wednesdays and Thursdays completely. But there’s also the menu planning and shopping that happens on other days. Besides that, there’s the farm and household projects. My area is almost exclusively the kitchen, processing a great deal of what we’re harvesting out of the garden. So far we have three batches of pickles and three canners of tomatoes down, with more (tomatoes) in the lineup for today. And now we’re bringing in the sweet corn to can! If anything ever winds down, something else never fails to take its place. My heirloom tomatoes are ripening steadily, and boy are they tasty ─ and so pretty! And HUGE. The other day I picked one that fit snugly in both hands. It took us two days to eat it! The peaches are coming along, too, finally. Just yesterday I made a batch of honey-ginger-peach jam, and the flavor combination is something special.
Some days around here it feels like we’re just treading water, but at the same time it’s such a joy to look around at all the bounty and opportunities we’ve been blessed with. God has truly been so, so good to us, and I want to enjoy these moments more and stress over the busyness less, to take each day as it comes and work hard, but also pause and bask in the beauty and wonder around me and appreciate all that I’ve been given. He has provided for us everything we’ve ever needed just when we needed it (including but not limited to the content of today’s post, even!) without fail.
Scripture says that for everything there is a season, and this is the time for working the land and enjoying and storing up all those delicious fruits and vegetables, and for interacting with the community at the farmers market (and really, we have the best neighbor vendors!). It has most certainly not been the season for getting much writing done. Still. And I can honestly say that it probably won’t be for the next couple of months yet, until things start settling down some. That’s not to say that a day goes by where I’m not thinking about Falconsbane, because it is always there, simmering in the back of my mind, and when I do get back to it there won’t be much trouble settling into the story again. I’ll be glad for those days to come, to have several cups of tea and spend copious amounts of time with these characters, but even so I’m not impatient for them. I don’t want to spend today pining away for tomorrow, because then one day I’ll look back on all my yesterdays to find them empty and wasted – and we can’t have that, now can we?
In summation, Writing Corner: dusty; Beyond: cluttered. But that’s the current season of life, and I’m glad that I can share a little bit of it with you.
Until next time!
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