Quote of the Week

Local and Regional food systems are about opportunity.

                                --Tom Vilsack

#agreenhaven #growfood #Tom Vilsack #garden quotes

Wordless Wednesday

Quote of the Week

Our food system belongs in the hands of many family farmers, not under the control of a handful of corporations.

                      -Willie Nelson

#agreenhaven, #food systems #food quotes, #Willie Nelson

Joy Came in the Morning

 Thursday morning, I sat in my driveway, waiting to take my eldest daughter to a job; my mind and fingers were cobbling together my words for a text to my team lead, to quit! Leaving this job has crossed my mind throughout my training, but I kept trying to swim against the current, and the exhaustion kicked in, immediately, but I kept going when I should've left earlier when the loss of appetite set in, but no, I kept pushing on, and in turn, my appetite came back, but I began having severe headaches every time I was near or at my computer and desk(also, I worked from home), after work, I had no energy to do anything else afterwards.

I would clock out and head to my bedroom to wind down with a list of tv shows or movies to watch, but I never got the chance to watch them because I would always fall asleep. The only way I could stay up after work was whenever, I got the chance to talk to my sister on the phone. We would stay on the phone for hours and just laugh and enjoy each others company. But the falling asleep immediately after work was real and seemed so weird because the job was a customer service job for a large well known Insurance Company( I worked as a third party rep), so actually I was employed by the third party company, but anyways, I didn't feel like I had an easy comfortable work at home job; I actually felt like I ran a marathon everyday and unload a tractor trailer load of large boxes. 

I've worked at two other customer service jobs in my lifetime and neither one of them made me feel this exhausted and physically sick, either. However, both of them actually gave me some type of confidence in my ability to do the job during training. We all know that the actual learning and knowledge of the job comes when you start taking calls, and for me the training was lacking with this company---many technical issues and the majority of the training environment(where we had to practice writing policies) didn't work---that's a big problem. 

So, the unpreparedness and tiredness just compounded, but I continued on, hoping and praying that it'll get better the more I do it. But how long can I continue to not really live? Is a decent paycheck really worth my physical/mental health? Even though I did one day of taking phone calls, in nesting, I continued fighting with myself about the job and giving it one more chance because the members were great, and I got great feedback about my interactions with the callers, but----I didn't feel good about my experience on the job. So, at 9:50 a.m.(10 minutes before my shift started) on Thursday morning, I sent my resignation text, and just like that, my headache was gone, and joy suddenly came to me that morning.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday was a Good Day

Sunday was the only day I had to myself to do what I want which could've been binge watching any one of the streaming services: Hulu, Prime, Disney+ or Netflix, in which my day would be filled with unique storytelling, classics or a wacky reality TV show---which I don't watch as much as I used to, I can't stand the drama, which comes across as fake with some of these shows. When it comes to reality TV, I still have favorites, just not so many.

Where I'm at in my life right now, is surrounding myself with peace, opportunities to learn or expand on skills, slowing down to enjoy the little things in life, setting and meeting financial goals for myself, and Sunday was the perfect day to hit many of those targets while in the garden.

The two hours spent in the garden spreading out cardboard, emptying compost bins and dumping bins of leaves on a mild winter afternoon was so peaceful. Whenever I start to feel like, life is just happening and I'm just going through the motions, the garden always seems to allow me the time to stop, reflect, find myself and truly live.

-Shelly

#agreenhaven #gardening #peace #slow living #backyardgardener

Quote of the Week

photo by Eva Bronzini, found on Pexels 

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

-May Sarton

#agreenhaven #gardenquotes #May Sarton #Eva Bronzini #gardening #patience

Re-connecting with Self

Last week, my girlfriends and I were suppose to get together for brunch, everything was set for a great day to re-connect at, Milk and Honey, however, one of my friends got sick and our meet up has to happen another time when everyone's schedules lines up.

Hopefully we can see each other soon! In the meantime it's time for me to re-connect with my garden/lawn. Don't have much time during the week to work in the yard like I used to, since the new job. Sometimes, I give myself 40 minutes to an hour in the garden during the week before I start work at 10 a.m., however, I want a day where I can spend two or three hours working the land.

I say, two to three hours, but once I start working in the yard, I honestly lose track of time and can spend countless hours nurturing the soil, the environment, my body and mind. It's a way for me to wind down and connect with myself.

With today being Sunday, and the last day of my weekend, so I think it's a great day to get lost in my thoughts!

P.S. I have a podcast over at  Anchor, I'd love to see you over there. I'm known as greenatlmom at Anchor and over at YouTube, if you didn't know. 

#agreenhaven #nature #gardening  #reconnecting, #Anchor

Re-connecting in 2023

Welcome to Monday, in the New Year, everyone! Sorry, no quote for the week, I took time out over the holiday to take time to plan meet up with friends I haven't seen since last March. So I'm really excited to get together with them this coming Sunday for brunch.

Connecting with them immediately brought back memories of us sitting, laughing, dancing and talking about life, being band moms in the stands. Oh you guys just don't know how much this meet up means to me, I can't wait to connect with my band mom friends, and so many other friends that the pandemic, my budget, or transportation issues hasn't afforded the chance to see.

Here's to 2023 and re-connecting!

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a healthy and abundant 2023, and as always, keep growing!

-Shelly