I always forget how busy May is with Mother’s Day, end-of-the-year school events and projects, a birthday in our house, and I seem to end up scheduling too many maintenance appointments during an already busy month.  I keep reminding myself and the boys that the end of the school year is right around the corner, and we all need to focus on finishing well.  I am looking forward to a more relaxed summer schedule.

Here are my four things for this week: An art history primer, big wave surfing, developing longing, and big garden jobs…

what I’m reading

I’m almost done with We Need Your Art, but I felt like taking a break from it today on my walk, and picked up listening to Artcurious by Jennifer Dasal.  I started it but got absorbed in another book, but after enjoying Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart so much, I wanted to return to stories of art history.  So far, it is informative and enjoyable.

what I’m watching

Not long after we moved into this house, Jeff was sitting in the living room watching a surfing show.  “What are you watching?”  I asked because a surfing show was something I wouldn’t typically find him watching.  He invited me to watch with him.  I did and got completely sucked in.  Since then, we’ve watched the first two seasons of 100 Foot Wave and just started the third as the first episode was released on MAX earlier this week.

The shows followed Garrett McNamara and other surfers on a quest to surf the biggest recorded surfable wave.  The documentary is made very well, with stunning footage and great storytelling.  I have never paid any attention to surfing, but this show has piqued my interest to the point that I at least care about it.  The heroes aren’t all good.  You sometimes question decisions that are made.  You can see some of the surfers are gypsies, still looking for their place in the world.  But I find myself rooting for all of them to be successful.  I’m invested, and that’s what a good documentary does.

what I’m loving

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them to tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the immensity of the sea.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

what I’m working on

We had three pallets of mulch delivered this morning, so I’ll be working on that!  Last year, I drastically underestimated the amount of mulch I needed, so I ended up having to order a second time, incurring a second $70 delivery fee.  This year, I’m a little wiser, so I walked around the house, estimating the number of bags I would need for existing garden beds as well as the new ones we’re cleaning up and planting this year, and I added an entire palette to what we used last year.

Jeff and the boys are going to help deliver the bags to their beds, and then I’ll open them over several days while I work on weeding, moving a couple of things, and planting.

We’ll also open the pool next week, which will be fun.  We still need to clean up things that blew into our yard from the storm a couple of weeks ago, so we’ll work on that, too…