February Focus

annestuartteter
Feb 12, 2018
4 min read

I've talked before how I don't set resolutions, rather I set focuses and goals for myself. This February I wanted to focus on getting my booty to the gym 20 times, starting my indoor herb garden and having a "me"ekend.

I'm working on the gym thing, although I missed quite a bit last week for pure business and not making sure I scheduled time. The herb garden and the "me"ekend should have been the easy part. Essentially what a "me"ekend is, is about self care. It's such a trendy thing to say right now, but that doesn't make it any less important.

I texted my friends and family on Friday afternoon to tell them I was turning my phone on "do not disturb" and checking out for the weekend. Friday evening I enjoyed wine and reading while I hung out with my dog (truly an ideal for me). Saturday was really the day that I wanted to dive into some things. I started by doing all my laundry. I had quite a bit piled up with all the blankets from the dog I babysat over the week and just generally getting a little behind. (I promise this post gets more interesting than laundry.)

I was nearly done with the laundry and vacuuming when all the sudden I smelled rotten eggs. I could literally hear every commercial telling me to get out and call someone if you smelled rotten eggs because it could be natural gas. So, in the most unrelaxing way possible I threw on shoes and grabbed Phoebe and ran to my car. Of course it was pouring down rain. I called the emergency maintenance staff for my apartment and explained my situation. Now what...I decided to make the best of it and went to pick up some jeans I had altered in Short Pump. (Again, not relaxing.)

After that, I still hadn't received word that my apartment was safe, so I decided to hit another goal for February. Phoebe and I headed to Strange's to shop for some new indoor plants. I really love having plants, but I live in an apartment and don't have any outdoor space, so anything I have has to be able to survive inside.

I wandered around the huge atrium for a while admiring the beautiful plants and thinking about what I would do if I had a big yard. Eventually I stopped someone to ask for help. I explained that I wanted to grow a few herbs but only had one window that really got any sun. The specialist explained that oregano, mint, basil and bay leaves would work well for me. I decided to get everything but the bay leaves, because those plants were a little bigger and I only have the one window sill.

I selected my three herbs and asked how to care for them. She said it was fairly easy, I just need to make sure they stayed water, had drainage and I could fertilize in the summer. Since I didn't have any pots that would work I decided to get some there. This was the hardest part. What personality and style did I want my new herbs to have? I decided on a blue and white motif. It's classic and the pots I found looked really cute together. I finally made it back to Phoebe in the car. She was getting annoyed.

Still not safe to go back to the apartment, so I went to my safe place, The Veil. It had stopped raining, Phoebe needed attention and mama needed a beer. I tried one of their new IPAs and Phoebe got all the attention she was looking for. Finally got the call that everything was okay and checked out. Hooray! I could now carry on with my self care.

When we got home, I decided that along with my new plants I needed to redo my bookcase because they are adjacent and I wanted to freshen up the whole corner. This type of thing is fun for me. So, I spent time whipping down all my books to make sure all the dust was gone. Then I got to work on rearranging. I also got rid of a few books that I didn't connect with anymore. I got my plants in order and stepped back to admire. I was happy. This seemed like self care.

My little corner

I felt really accomplished with doing all my laundry, getting errands done, getting my mini garden set up and redoing my bookcase. A good lesson learned for me was that even though this self care day didn't go quite how I wanted, I still had a great day. I love spending time with my dog and I accomplished a lot on my to do list. I finished the day with a delicious chicken and veggie skillet meal, wine and reading the Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille (great read). Self care is whatever makes you feel good. It doesn't have to be mediation or completely unplugging, it's just what feels right.