Reading: through all the new books I’m collecting for the upcoming school year. We school year-round, but July is off completely and summer is lighter overall. The perfect time to plan for new and better things. Planning is one of my favorite ways to procrastinate.

Listening: to Kate Wolf sing my favorite song:

The trumpet vine grew in the kitchen window
and bloomed bright orange on the wall

you sat in the morning light holding a guitar

as the first summer rain began to fall

Drinking: A mixture of burdock root, hawthorn berries, milk thistle, yarrow, and chamomile. It’s deeply soothing and nourishing. It’s been steeping all morning in the blue and white teapot. It’s nice to change over from my early morning coffee to something a bit more sustaining.

Thinking: Of all birds outside my window, wondering if the scarlet tanagers will make their nest here again this year. If I have time to wrap my dreads this afternoon. All the careless, little things.. It’s fun to have a mind full of small thoughts after a busy week of heavier thoughts.

Seeing: the geese grazing along the road. We have two crows who have made their home nearby coming in every day to share the corn with our birds. It thrills me to watch the crows bond with my domestic birds, and even in these more expensive times, I can’t begrudge my beloved crows a bit of corn as well.

Creating: a well-ordered house and yard. This summer, my long, slow project is the building of a functional homemaking binder that includes all the things no planner ever managed to contain: homesteading notes and cleaning schedules and homeschooling plans. Part of the process of making it functional though, is that I’m not just using it as a means of procrastination – what I’m doing is organizing spaces as I organize that space in the binder. So as I’m planning paddock-rotations for goats and sheep, I’m also building or seeding in those pastures. It’s a huge, long, gradual project. But it is such a refreshing one for me!

So, how is your day going? What are you drinking, thinking, creating, or listening to? These little, gentle parts of the day are my favorites..so refreshing!