Saturday! Kinda.

I haven't had a "real" Saturday in a very long time.  And I have a lot of personal days left untouched.  Therefore, I used one today.  On a Tuesday.  And I wasn't sick.  It was splendid.  Or, it was splendid once I made an agreement with myself to not get anxious and realize that other Saturdays will exist so I didn't have to try to save the world today or feel guilty for any laziness.  I only had to remind myself of that agreement twice, which I think is pretty good.  Well, maybe more than twice - I forgot to mention my sister was using her off day to go take care of my  mom - which made the guilt battle extra difficult.  And I felt like I was lying for not telling people outside of my job that I was off that day.  Ok, so maybe I need to work on this guilt thing.

Still, the day was glorious.  I made homeade dog biscuits for the first time!  They have to stay in the oven for 8-12 hours after baking, so I haven't taken a picture of the final product yet.  But, I did sneak one out of the oven and my dog seemed to really like it - so score one for me!  I see more dog biscuit making in the future.

I also raked and bagged the leaves in half of my backyard.  I only did half because the sun went down, not because I'm a quitter :).  Despite raking only one side, I fillled 4 black trashbags of leaves.  I do not have a big yard.  At all.  Filling that many bags totally amazed me, and there are more leaves to gather once more of the wet leaves dry.  Maybe this is normal, I don't know.  This is the first time in my life that I've had leaves in need of raking, but I was shocked at how they seemed to replicate. 
My dad apologized to me for not being able to take care of this for me, which was sweet, but I don't think he realized how meaningful it was for me.  Aside from trimming my front hedges last week, this was the first time I'd ever worked in my yard as a homeowner.  It was gorgeous outside, neighborhood children were running around and playing and squealing, I was getting some exercise - and all of this combined made me feel excited and inspired.  I would have felt robbed for him to do it.  (That and the fact that my dad has more than enough work of his own to do).   

And while looking for a decent picture of a rake, I discovered the blog called North Coast Gardening, which was kind of cute so I'll probably go back again.

Today was as perfect as a Saturday could be - a sugar free iced mocha from Heritage House, Target, finishing a good book, baking, running into friends, a good nap, and yardwork in the spring sunshine.  I'm so thankful.  And I highly recommend taking a Saturday on a Tuesday.