I just amused myself with a lame click-bait title. Hardy-har. Yesterday my Facebook feed offered me the worst one yet: 15 Reasons You Should Give Your Dog Coconut Oil. I am sorry, but this is just preposterous on so many levels. Who has time to research and write about the urgent health benefits of coconut oil for dogs? Who has money to spend on coconut oil for dogs?? What’s next? 5 steps to teach your dog oil pulling? There was a photo of a dog licking out of a squat little container of the really pricey stuff and I just giggled and did NOT click on it.
March has been gorgeous, gorgeous, warm and balmy! This is my season. I roll around in it, figuratively speaking, of course. My children do it quite literally and when they are done in the bathtub, there is a layer of silt on the bottom. I get back energy that I forgot about, and no, I didn’t start drinking Plexus recently. It’s my built in solar panel booting up the systems for an all-outdoors bash. I did a few things in the last week that made me feel really alive again.
- I sat in brilliant sunshine to eat lunch. Outside. In bare feet. And I had chocolate covered strawberries too.
- I saw a Craftsy project that I really wanted to do, but I didn’t want to spend $20 on their kit, so I bought a whole bunch of gorgeous fabric and trims and buttons for $16 and made it myself, trial and error.
- I sewed more than one project with the fabric: a petal-skirt dress for my smallest flower, and some pretties I will show you tomorrow. And then I will give one away to one of you.
- I pruned the grapevines and raspberries, pulling all the weeds that had flourished and died out over the winter. Then I asked Facebook if anyone local wants the extra raspberry plants and the first ones to reply were from North Carolina and Ohio and Georgia. I may need to do an instructive post on the meaning of “local”.
- I treated those plants to composted horse poo and I enjoyed doing it. I thought to myself, “Goodness, I am turning into my mother!” when I remembered how she would haul barrows full of poo from the barnyard to the flower beds while we children went EWWW.
- I trimmed my lavender hedge that lines the stone walkway to the backyard. A lavender hedge is romantic and lovely when abloom, but requires rather more maintenance than I knew before I planted it. Have you ever spent a therapeutic hour plucking maple leaves out of twiggy stems? At least it is fragrant work.
- I tilled down the cover crop in the kitchen garden, so that I can plant peas by St. Patty’s Day. That is my hope. I could have planted yesterday already by the condition of the soil. We are Zone 6, folks! It would definitely have been an early record for me, but I remembered the fiasco last year, how our peas didn’t germinate because we hadn’t killed the cover crop first.
I told you it has been amazing and warm. That is some of the reason why I dropped off the face of blogdom again this March. Also, after I have scratched out 28 posts in February, I feel a bit dry, so I just sink into it for a while and get all private. One thing that perplexes me and even makes me feel a little queasy is this: who am I actually writing to? Who is my target audience? Am I writing to homeschoolers? Maybe to their children, who I have been told read my stuff. What about the men? Yikes. I am suppressing all my birth stories for their sakes. Well, not quite. What if I write something insensitive to someone who is hurting? What if I write something unflattering about someone and they recognize themselves? What if I want to write a childhood story about a girl at church who had halitosis and she ends up reading it? It’s just this bit of paralysis that strikes occasionally and I realize I am taking this way, way too seriously. But I gave myself a break.
I will tell you a secret. When I get stuck like that, I write to Becca, my sister-in-law who was first my friend before she married my brother. She is the one who kept telling me to blog and she “gets” me and encourages me, so I just told her my 7 Spring-Madnesses to Try and I am saving a bunch of raspberry roots for her, even if she lives in North Carolina.
wocket in my pocket 
Okay, I am part of your readership: 49 years old, married 23 years, mom to 10 kids (the oldest of which died 4 yrs ago of brain cancer at 17.5 yo), homeschool teacher, overweight, hypothyroid, wear glasses/bifocals, love to read, love spelling, love jasmine dragon pearl tea, never met you before, didn’t know of your existence until a few months ago, love reading your blog, have not (yet) been offended by what you’ve written, am awaiting eagerly your next installment of 8 Steps To Peel A Blueberry, or something similar =).
Thanks for introducing yourself! So nice to hear from you. You made me laugh with that last sentence!
Dorcas, I Love reading your blogs !! Anything but boring , never been offended by one !! Blog away 🙂
I am a faithful reader, you know that!:) I am honored to be a mommy of five. I am a crafter,lover of all things pretty, simple and organized. Gardens and flowers and coffee make me tick too. Keep blogging please! You make me feel so normal, and yet, stretch me too. I’m blessed to know you:)
I’m another one of your readership. Started reading your blog a few years ago at the recommendation of a fellow missionary wife and mother, and I’ve been an ardent fan ever since. Lonely, sick, in the village….or in the states trying to get well, your posts have kept me smiling. Kept me watching for the delightful in the mundane and showed me the life of a person who has found her niche and is making it a happy one. Which is nitty gritty important, no matter if it’s in a lovely bungalow or a mud hut. Keep writing!
Aww, no wonder I love your posts so much, you’re writing to me!😊 I can’t imagine anyone enjoying or appreciating your writing more than I do… I always eagerly pounce on your new posts when they show up in my newsfeed. Thanks for being vulnerable enough to bless and encourage so many people, whoever they may be.
I faithfully read your blog, and so often think you put my thoughts into words! I don’t often reply, (sorry! :() but I especially “get you” when you write about your boys, because ours are about the same age. When you started writing about each of your children, I wondered with a grin how you would handle writing about your boys. And sure enough, nope, yours wouldn’t appreciate being the focus of an entire post either. 🙂 Keep writing please! I love seeing your posts in my inbox.
I read your blog because your stories are so refreshing and fun and encouraging, and because I love your mom and you sound so much like her, and I Would love your family a lot too if we could meet you. Your stories make me laugh and brighten the day. And I wish I could plant raspberries and lavender.
Thank you for the helpful insights into your lives. I love the connections I make with friends, old and new!
I love reading your blog, Dorcas. (I refer to you in my mind as Dort, because: your brothers.) I read it faithfully every evening in February while I nursed my Bitsy to sleep. (My) Gabe even reads it and enjoys it, which I find pretty cute.Haha! Just keep being yourself and real – that’s what people love about you and why I read.
My favorite line is that your renewed energy does not come from taking up Plexus 🙂
Oh boy. Now you did it.
Your “friend before family” raspberry person in NC recognized herself in your post. Ooooops… 😂
It’s better than recognizing one’s halitosis! Ha-ha.
I love every blog post that you write! I would be more than delighted to find a post written about a family trip to Maine years ago to visit this family with girls who had no idea how to socialize. Haha! I now live in KS with a family of 3 boys ages 7, 6, & 1. I homeschool also. I love hearing from moms who are a step ahead of me in the trenches and I’m inspired by so many of your posts! Keep writing!