Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
Today is Celebration Saturday, and I am celebrating the first full week of summer and taking care of myself. I think we are all guilty of putting ourselves at the bottom of the list. This first week out of school I had time. I celebrate the gift of time to take care of myself.
- Cleaning out! I hit the laundry room first. The shelves are clean. The junk is thrown out. The useful, but no longer needed, things are bagged up for Goodwill. Luckily today is a community household waste collection day, so my husband’s truck is ready to go with many cans of paint.
- Hosting Poetry Friday and having time to read all the posts! See the round up here.
- Crochet time: I recently learned of a second grade student at one of my schools who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I am crocheting my first afghan as a prayer blanket for her.
- Eating right: I’ve caught a few episodes of Dr. Oz. He advised us to eat berries at breakfast. I went blueberry picking this week and am enjoying these pops of fruity deliciousness with absolutely no guilt.
- Playing with photography: Last Sunday I put out a DigiLit Challenge. Tomorrow I will post another one. I also took Kim Douillard’s challenge of the week to try Black and White.
New Orleans City Park
Grandmother Oak Morning
Candle sculpture
- Exercise: I love walking my dog. In the summer, you must get out before 8 AM to beat the heat. My inner clock is still tuned to getting up for school, so I took advantage of early mornings to walk with Charlie. He celebrates walking, too.
- Time to write: This is last because I have a tinge of guilt that I didn’t spend more time writing. I worked on a draft for a future blog post. I revised my middle grade work in progress and wrote one poem.
Reflections on the Teche 
Your photographs are beautiful. I especially like the candle sculpture photo. I am looking forward to starting summer in order to do more walks with my dog too. She will celebrate the walking as well. It sounds like you had a nice first week of summer vacation. I hope you continue to enjoy your time off and take care of yourself. Have a great week!
Margaret, I just gave that advice to Leigh Anne in commenting on her blog post, “Take care of yourself”. I love how you are caring for yourself!!! I am going to spend today making plans for my summer days…help get me through the craziness of the final push through school. Enjoy your moments!!!
Taking care of yourself is so important and it looks like you’re onto a great start. Those blueberries look amazing. My favorite time of the year is when the raspberries are ready for picking.
I so needed to read this. When I chose my OLW for this year, I knew my life was gong to be taking many different turns. But I really wanted to take my turn…and I have not been very good about doing that! Now that summer is officially here for me, I might have to do some readjusting for me! Have a great week and I will be emailing you soon about the Skype visit if you are still available.
I am envious, but praise you for taking the week for just you, Margaret. The photos are gorgeous, and eating berries that you picked yourself is great, too. Keep having a good time!
Oooh – love the candle sculpture photo! Such wonderful celebrations of the beginning of summer! BTW, I eat berries every morning and love them! Glad to hear Dr. Oz says that’s the right thing to do! 😉
Margaret, thank you for introducing me to Kim’s black and white challenge. The New Orleans City Park photo is a wonderful combination of angles that could really move me to write. Unusual pictures always spur me on to write. It is the unusual perspectives that give me an angle. I am so glad that you were the host of Poetry Friday this week. It gave me a personal one-on-one connection.
It sounds like you had the PERFECT week! Your photos are beautiful. I especially also like the candle picture. Keep making those great memories and have a wonderful week!
I’m glad I waited until this morning to read celebration posts. Yours helped me slow down and think about what I want to do. I opened a draft post right up and started thinking about my summer goals. I have learned that if you don’t say them out loud exactly as you want them to be, you won’t know when you’ve reached them. So sorry to hear about that little 2nd grader. I knit a prayer shawl for a teaching colleague with breast cancer who is raising her grandson. He is in my class, so I had an intimate connection, but it feels so right to make something so special for someone with your own hands, doesn’t it?
I love the photograph of Grandmother Oak. It reminds me of trees from my childhood. We used to walk on the branches that stretched down almost to the ground. Your celebration post reminds me to get busy, planning my summer!
Banish that tinge of guilt – more writing will come as you relax into summer’s pace. I am constantly in awe of all that you do! I love the oak tree, maybe I’ll try some b&w pics. Blueberries – my favorite hand-to-mouth snack. I love to wash them and leave them on the counter this time of year.
After caring for all of those little people, it’s time to take care of you. During school, I have that feeling I must make every minute count. The summer allows for the slow down. And everything about this post makes me breathe easier and slow down. I’ve got one more week till that can happen!
Good for you! That’s a wonderful way to begin summer, my friend.
What a great way to begin summer – taking care of yourself. I too will need to start in the laundry area – it’s a disaster area awaiting a full day of me! Like you, I will feel better when IT looks better.