Happy Monday

Monday mornings aren't usually my favorite. As I stood in the shower this morning the usual refrain began in my head. Ugh, Monday again...I'm so tired....how can the weekend already be over...how can I be so tired... That's just my brain on autopilot on a typical Monday morning. And then something clicked, shifted, pivoted, changed. For some reason I stopped the usual refrain mid-whine and actually checked in with myself. How does my body feel right now, in this moment? What's actually going on in my thoughts. And it turns out my usual refrain was dead wrong. I actually felt pretty darn refreshed. Energized. Clear-headed and focused. Well-rested. Content. Ready to start my week. It kind of caught me off guard.

This last week was a wonderful week, and it was capped off by a wonderful weekend. I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I didn't. So here's a quick summary in list form instead.

Planted: Three nandinas, two camellias, one azalea, several new clumps of monkey grass, one maybe-gardenia (? we're still not sure).

Waiting to plant: Lots of seed packets for our herb garden (cilantro, mint, parsley, thyme, etc...), several clumps of daisies and black-eyed susans, and four gorgeous peonies (two pink, two white).

Friday night: Friends over for dinner, chicken and white bean enchiladas with green chile sauce, spanish rice, fresh guacamole, great conversation.

Saturday: Brunch at the Green Onion in Norfolk (French-pressed coffee, eggs benedict, biscuits and gravy), followed by Wicked (the tickets were my birthday present from Keith), followed  by an amazing dinner at Byrd and Baldwin downtown (rib-eye steak, crispy salmon on creamy risotto, lobster mac and blue cheese, chocolate sin cake with vanilla gelato), followed by a trip to Trader Joe's, followed by a group of friend hanging out on an awesome porch enjoying a lovely evening.

Sunday: Some friends had a bunch of us over for brats and burgers in the backyard, followed by badminton (alliteration purely coincidental), spent the rest of the day resting and preparing for the week, ate cherry pie a la mode for dinner.

And today, I finally did something I was absolutely longing to do all last week. I carted my laptop outside and have set up shop to work from the patio table all day. My hair was already wrecked from walking Keith to school in the morning mist and there may not be many days that I can really do this, so I figure I should take advantage while the opportunity is at hand. It feels good.

Wishing you all a happy Monday and a gorgeous week. Do something you really want to do today.