I believe I am almost entirely recovered from both the surgery and my cold. There is some white on my tongue that the Mayo Clinic website seams to indicate may be a bacterial infection, however salt water rinses should take care of that. I did manage to visit my cousin, though over the weekend rather than during the week. There is kerfuffle about the cars, however I will not bore you with that.

I absolutely love going to see my family, however I think I will limit my travel to spring and fall. In the summer work tends to take up most of my time with Summer Reading Programs, and I would like to focus on my garden some this year. Since I live in western New York winters can be dicey so I prefer to stay between work and home for those months. This means that, after the wedding, my next trip is likely going to be in October since I am teaching classes in September.

While I was visiting there was an amazing gem and mineral show that we attended. I purchased some lovely larger stones that I hope to use as focals or pendants, as well as a few tiny gem quality stones. I also had time to listen to a couple of audiobooks during my travels. One of which is “The Lost Art of Doing Nothing”. This is an amazing book that speaks about how in this day and age of instant gratification as well as the ability to entertain our selves with doomscrolling, or tik tok videos, we no longer take the time to allow ourselves to be ‘bored’. This means that all too often we do not allow ourselves to enter into a creative mindset. Most of the time the best of ideas come to you when you are in the shower or driving because you have little else to focus on so your creative mind can come out. Personally, I had a few good ideas while I was driving along so I used the notes app on my phone to make sure I will not forget them.

I hope to use this summer as a chance to explore my creativity, plant a beautiful garden, and set my workshop up for an amazing year of creativity. I am so very lucky that I have the opportunity and freedom to explore my creativity, get to spend time with my extended family more, and have an amazing job that I love. Until next time remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!