Back to regular life — with sketches!

Today is Saturday, and my husband is home. As I write, I smell the warm scent of bread he’s baking. I recently heard an idea to switch the end-of-day question from “How was your day?” to “What was your happiest moment from today?”, and as of right now, at 3:08pm, my happiest moment is smelling this bread. I don’t know if there’s a cozier, more comforting smell in the world. Maybe cookies baking.

I’ve completed my gardening vacation. I spread all the mulch. I counted the number of times I filled the wheelbarrow, and it more than doubled my estimate of 50 barrows per pile: I moved 107 wheelbarrows for the pile out back, which I assume means I spread 100+ wheelbarrows from the pile out front as well.

Once I finished the mulch, I filled the bird feeders with seed, and I washed the bird bath basins, set them back on their pedestals after winter, and filled them with fresh water from the hose. I saw a little pink finch splashing in the one by our bedroom window this morning.

I still have garden stuff to do, but I’m gardened out for now. The fertilizer and new plants will have to wait for another weekend. With my two remaining days before going back to work, I want to return to my sketch journals. After completing my four week 10-minutes-per-day drawing challenge, I discovered that, surprise! I enjoy drawing as a method of journaling. I don’t complete an entry every day, but I do manage 2-3 journal pages per week. I enjoy the process of drawing little doo-dads from my days, and unlike my written journals, I actually go back and look at my drawn journal pages. I enjoy the little delights I’d forgotten about.

To help keep me going, I signed up for a 12-week creators club at work where we each committed to making something to exhibit at the end of the 12 weeks. I didn’t know what I would make; I only knew that I wanted to keep drawing, and I’d probably use pen and ink. We’re now 4 or 5 weeks from the exhibit, and I still don’t know what I’m going to make. I seem to like the mundane — I gravitate towards it in both my writing and my drawing. I enjoy daily nothings, just little delights. I also like lists. The list assignment in week four was one of my favorites from my January drawing challenge: I drew my ink bottles. I’m considering a list drawing for the creators club. Maybe a sketch list of 10 boring things about me, or of my favorite drinks.