Squeezing every productive moment from the day

I knew that I’d pay for not getting to sleep early enough. The price, of course, was a sleepy disposition come 5:30am. I didn’t really want to get up but knew that I had to. The bright spot was the weather. It was very nice, and the day’s high was expected to climb to near 80 degrees. By the time I completed my exercise regiment I felt OK. And after my walk with Ykraps, I was fully awake and engaged in the game. I delivered Mindy’s morning coffee around 6:15am. She was feeling a bit under the weather exhibiting most of the symptoms I had last week. She had the deep, dry, incessant cough and complained of being profusely tired. She had diarrhea too. Fun! I told her that the fever and nausea were almost certainly next. I spent time meditating and then stretching before taking off on a run. As stiff as I was after the yard work last night, I felt OK this AM. I was still a tad achy but nothing too bad. I had already conceded that I would trim a mile off of my run all week in an effort to heal. Because of this, my run took only about 28 minutes. It was gorgeous. Now, as I run towards the east, the sun is already shining on the horizon, and it’s simply beautiful! I love it! Communion with the Sun - RA! Mindy was still preparing our breakfast upon my return. We actually had a little time to interact with me getting back 8 or 9 minutes earlier than usual. We reviewed the evening’s plans, which included me stopping for another load of mulch on my way home. We’d also have Olivia. I was once again looking forward to seeing her. Mindy & Bella soon left. Jacob and I headed for the bus stop at our usual time. Pat shared that he had a funny photo he wanted to send me. It reminded him of my ex-Kelly. I was humored. Before heading off to work I leashed Dad’s trailer back to my rig. For some reason, I was a little uncomfortable driving into work pulling the empty trailer. Work wasn’t bad at all. It was a pleasant work day. I decided to take a lunch break and drove to Home Depot and then the Hallmark store to get Mother’s Day Greeting cards. I bought some outdoor potting soil for our two new Hibiscus and a few new tomato cages. I was a couple short last season. I was gone for just about an hour. Time went fast. The afternoon went quickly, too. Before I knew it, it was time to go home. I took the back way stopping at Ohio Mulch on Roberts Rd to get a second trailer full of Absolute Black shredded mulch. I bought 1.5 cubic yards on each run this year. I found that I got as much as I would if I had ordered 2 cubic yards. What a deal! I didn’t bother covering my load. Home was just a mile or two away. I was hopeful this load would cover the rest of the beds. Olivia was a joy right in the door. She was very happy to see me. What a change being around her several days in a row. She and I played lots before dinner. I put her down to walk Ykraps, which I did in the back yard. Uh-Oh! Ykraps had diarrhea. Not good! I read that the Rotavirus is easily spread to pets. I wondered if that were the case here. I alerted Mindy then inspected the downstairs looking for any indoor land mines. I found none, thankfully. We sat for dinner around 6:30pm – just after Ashley arrived. We had brats, hot dogs, and burgers along with baked beans. A fantastic summery meal. I begged out of the full clean-up to get to the pile of mulch setting in the trailer out front. I quickly changed into my grubbies and began carting/spreading the mulch. I mulched the fairly large west side beds. That took a much larger share of the mulch than I expected, as well as the remaining daylight. I was dirty, itchy and covered in bits of mulch. I was looking forward to a shower to rinse away the debris. But before I could get a shower, I still had to put the tools away. I took notice of neighbor Kenny still out working in the yard even as darkness fell upon us. It’s a tough existence! After my shower I went to tuck in the kids but they were both already sleep. Mindy & I spent a few minutes together downstairs before agreeing to an early bedtime. She was feeling under the weather and I was achy from the extended yard work.