I Hear You

We all have rough days.  We all have days where we just want to turn around, walk to our car, drive home, crawl in bed, and try again in a few hours.

Recently I've been having my fair share of rough days.  Work problems, car problems, house problems, money problems, friend problems, health problems.  It's a lot to handle.

But it could be worse.

I know I'm blessed.

This is just a little note to tell anyone that this little blog reaches that you are loved, you are wondrous, you are worthy.  If you are broken, if you are sad, if you are in a hole so deep you don't think you'll ever get out, I hear you.  I'm sending you all my love right now and I hope that somehow, someway it makes its journey to you and wraps you up in a big hug.

Good night lovelies, and remember that things always look better after a good long sleep.

And The Dead Came Round To Listen

I'm trying to get used to staying up late for work and sleeping all day. Tonight is the third night in a row that there has been a big windy thunderstorm roll into the little town that I live in and I have to admit, it has me feeling quite superstitious. Just now, for example, I can hear tree branches blowing and scratching on my metal porch roof.  Very spooky.

Some of the dinner on my tiny table

 Two nights ago I had a little dinner with a few friends and it was super fun. I made herbed chicken with lemon balm, rosemary, sage, lavender, garlic, dill, onion powder, cracked black pepper, and a little lemon juice. I also made chicken that I pounded out very thing and just marinated in Italian dressing. I marinated baby mushrooms in wine and put them on skewers with onions and the herbed chicken. Then I also made Texas toast, fruit salad, and Mexican street corn. Grilling out makes food taste amazing and it so much easier to do in the summer, despite my trying to light the grill with vicks vapor rub in place of lighter fluid. I hate turning on my oven and heating up the house. My friend brought potatoes for a side and I made very sweet tea. The only way I like tea is if it is medicinal and hot or very sweet and iced. I had so many people at my house that I ran out of chairs! After dinner we sat on the front porch and talked until the bugs became too bothersome in the dark. Then we watched the basketball game that was on. It got pretty loud and crazy, but I for sure and certain did not mind. It gets pretty lonely around here. Part of my favorite section of the night was painting with my friend's little 8 year old daughter, despite getting green and purple paint on my face. She even painted me a picture that I hung on my fridge!

It says, "I love Katie"

I have to work the next two nights, which is awesome because I'll get weekend pay as well as night shift pay.  Hopefully I can sustain this odd schedule!

Mix Tape Time

Just A List

1. I'm still on a mission to fit as much as humanly possible in my home.  Treadmill?  Why not!

2.  I found one of my dog's chew bones in my bed yesterday.  It really scared me.  Then I was irritated that she got on my bed while I was gone.  Sneaky.

3.  I realized today that I have an unhealthy love of texting people.

4.  I have recently rediscovered Interpol.  Damn good band, guys.

5.  I'm grilling out tomorrow and trying to figure out how to ignite my charcoal.  Hairspray?  Shaving cream?

My Home In Pictures

My front porch, overrun with day lilies and my herb garden

Lela waiting for y'all to come visit

My little kitchen.  This is where the magic happens. 

My DIY wreath.  I have magnolia seeking behavior.  

Hardly ever make my bed

Skeleton Key Door! 

Oh, So You're a Nurse?

I recently graduated with my bachelor's degree in nursing and I've been getting a few questions from friends and family about what it is that I do exactly.  I just got hired on a Medical-Surgical Nursing unit this past month and I work the night shift, which is 7pm to 7am three days per week, sometimes four.  

Medical Surgical nursing is difficult to explain because in many ways, it is all nursing specialties put together.  Some, if not the bulk, of my patients are pre-surgical or post-surgical.  Others of my patients can have a variety of issues, from coming down off of drug addictions, recovering from exacerbations of respiratory, renal, cardiac, or other diseases, and other nutty situations.  I could have one patient who is 17 and recovering from an appendectomy right next to a lady who has Alzheimers and insists that it is 1954, down the hall from a 45 year old who doesn't speak any English and has a slow bleed in his abdomen.  It is a very broad specialty of nursing.  

I've heard that all new nurses should do a year or so of Med-Surg nursing because it makes you a hell of a good nurse in the end.  It is very difficult and tiring, as I always have at least six patients.  I am currently orienting though, so that is a bit easier.  Orienting means that I have an experienced registered nurse (RN) that I am assigned to, called my preceptor.  We have the exact same set of patients.  She typically sits back and lets me do my thing, but is there when I need her or in particularly difficult situations.  My preceptor is a bit different, personality-wise, than I am, but that's ok.  It's good for me to be put into difficult situations.  I tend to be a little bit more gentle, calm, and cheerful while she is very upfront and blunt.  She has very strong opinions that she is not afraid to share.  Hopefully I stay on her good side. ;)

So I hope that clears some things up.  Tonight I have to work a night shift, so I am going to try and sleep a little before then.  

Garden Talk

For the very first time in my life, I inhabit a house that is entirely my own, and with it comes a front and back yard.  I am drawn towards plants and gardening, especially beautiful, healthful things.

  I remember as a child my daddy planting berry plants, apple trees, and always, always we had roses.  He can grow anything.  Big bushes of rosemary, trailing jasmine plants, big, prickly roses of various colors, and barrels of lavender.  He has always had house plants as well.  For a while he grew orchids.  There is always a big pot of aloe vera somewhere in my parents’ home, used many a time for mild burns.  Marmie has always loved hanging plants like geraniums and ivys.  I remember looking up at her red-flowering potted plants at a very young age. 

  But this brings me to my own personal yard.  I am drawn towards medicinal plants, to be sure.  As a nurse, herbal medicine is something I am very passionate about.  However, as a fledgling nurse, I do not have much money or time.  For starters, I’ve planted some very common culinary herbs.  Rosemary, sage, oregano, peppermint, and two basil plants.  These are all together in a small bed at the front of my house, beside the porch steps.  I desperately wanted lavender, but I can not seem to find a plant anywhere and it is a bit late in the season to start them from seed.  I also have plans for a backyard vegetable plot, but that is for another post.  My favorite thing about the herbs that I have planted, is although they are delicious, they also have healing aspects.  I love being able to assess my mood and body, then go outside and pick a few leaves to add to my supper and enhance my health.  I feel such an earthiness when I take something from the ground, especially something I have grown, and wholly ingest it into my body, to help with functions, moods, thoughts.  It’s darn near magical, if you ask me.  

My little herb garden 

My Fake Man Voice

Today I sold a couch on craigslist.  Actually, I gave away a loveseat for free via craigslist.  I'm in the process of moving and I recently bought a beautiful, new full sized red microfiber couch that I had delivered to my new cottage home.  The big, bulky green loveseat was still at my old apartment, but I didn't have any room for it so I advertised for it on craigslist.  Wow.  People love free stuff, let me tell you.  An hour in I had seven texts from people wanting my tufted little charmer, despite about a billion broken springs and a suspicious stain on one of the cushions.  I picked the first lady that called me and set up a time for her to come pick it up and haul it away with her husband.

Fast forward to this morning, when I was set to meet her and her husband at 8:30, alone, by myself, solo.  I didn't think anything of it until my friend reminded me of the craigslist killer and how vulnerable I would be there. I wrote my name and social security number on my stomach in sharpie in case they were going to get shady.  But it still wasn't enough.  So, I did what any rational girl would do: turned on the shower and pretended my big hulking man was there.  At one point I even slipped into the back bathroom as they were unscrewing the couch feet and yelled out in my deepest possible man voice, "Babe, where's my razor?!"  Clearly I was not a person that they could easily murder.

Creepy?  Maybe...Dramatic?  A smidge. But it worked.  They left quickly and I got my loveseat hauled away to what will hopefully be a happy new home.