This week is filled with actual spring weather. Chilly in the morning followed by robin’s egg blue skies all day. Blooms everywhere you turn and temps warming into the 60’s and beyond!

I am loving that I have the time to work in my yard to rake, trim and gather. I love that I can take the time to cook meals from scratch and that I have the time to care about the ingredients that are going into our meals. I love that I have time to volunteer and keep up with my book clubs. I am incredibly thankful that this is what my life is at the moment.

I DO understand that I am extremely fortunate that I can live this life – I know that it is a luxury that I can spend my days as I choose right now. I also know that this bliss can change in an instant.

I am enjoying learning how to take care of our yard. As a Virginia girl living in this desert-y climate it took some time to understand that nature works a little differently here (I actually miss humidity). In VA you didn’t have to do much to get things to grow. Here, I want to be mindful of our water use so I try to have native and drought tolerant plants. I think boulders might be my favorite (just kidding, I know they aren’t plants). I have discovered the beautiful world of succulents!

I am relishing learning how to cook better and with better ingredients. This week I’m testing plant-based options for our upcoming Graduation Brunch.

While I have been to lots of interviews and heard lots of silence aka no thank yous I am out volunteering. I chose something out of my range and started volunteering at Zoo Boise. I was encouraged by a friend to apply. I became one of their Zoo Naturalists last year. On a personal level I struggle with zoos but Zoo Boise’s strong conservation message and program along with the Species Survival Program that they participate in convinced me to learn more and give it a chance.

I volunteered at the Joel Sartore talk that Zoo Boise hosted.  First he is a phenomenal speaker. Entertaining and inspiring AND a voice for conservation.  Joel is the founder of the The Photo Ark, a groundbreaking effort to document species before they disappear – and to get people to care while there is still time. Learn more about The Photo Ark  and his photos and galleries.

Reading. Oh, I do love to read -even though it puts me to sleep. I’ve read some incredible books this past year thanks to splitting my time between two book clubs!

One book club attended Readings and Conversations with author Katherine Boo, brought to us here in Boise by The Cabin. Katherine was a passionate and eloquent speaker. In her book Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she writes about the poor and disadvantaged. This work, is set in “Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport”, and follows  a portion of the lives of “Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.””

Thinking back to last year (my year of recovery) I spent much of it traveling here yon and everywhere. While I loved every second of that I am happy to be connecting with the routine and the day to day activities that make up all our fantastic lives.

FYI May is Stroke Awareness month