It was a beautiful day. I opened the windows upstairs to let the fresh air in. On my way out of my youngest daughter’s room, I noticed this photo in a shoebox, of me and my oldest daughter when she was a pre-teen.
That daughter is now 21. I choked back tears, seeing how little she was. So I stole the photo, scanned it, and taped it on my office wall.
By 10 a.m., I had cooked dinner, a Philippine chicken stew called afritada, which is my 21 year old daughter’s favorite. I had a busy day ahead, and I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to cook later in the afternoon.
Afterwards, pulling my hair back in a ponytail and sans makeup, I went to Walmart to buy flats of annuals and a few perennials. As I lined up at the store, someone said, “What nice plants. You’ll be the envy of your neighbors.”
I just smiled. We live on a very rural street, and our neighbors are kind of far away from us on either side. These flowers are more for our pleasure.
And then I put on bug spray (didn’t seem to help much against the gnats and mosquitoes) and planted for a couple of hours.
I’m glad I’m finally getting around to planting. My hubby does our garden and I do the flower beds, is kind of our unspoken agreement. I love flowers and I can’t wait until they grow into their spots. My favorites are red geranium, pink cosmos, French marigolds, and delphiniums. I got a delphinium years ago but it died. So I hope these two defy the odds. I usually have my flower beds planted earlier than today, more around Mother’s Day, but considering we had a freeze last week, I am glad I didn’t have any plants out.
Finally, I helped my parents at their house till late. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. There was time for only a light dinner and walking the dog.
So I suppose you can count this as writing. I have a goal to write every weekday on my blog. Day two done.
As for writing fiction…the fact that I didn’t produce words today is okay. I look at the photo above, and I am reminded that flowers and family are important.
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