Liz Cultivates | L.M. Fern

Well, Reader, you know what I’m here to say.

Once again, I bit off a little more than I could stomach — but this time, in my defense, it’s not entirely my fault. These things would have all been doable, but it turns out, a multi-week sinus infection can really take you (me) down. Let’s recap what I was up to in May and see what I can accomplish in June!

Writing and reading: A story about hubris

I didn’t exactly finish the novel, but I am ready to hunker down and get it done. I got a new laptop for taking to coffee shops and writing when I need a change of scenery. The plot has all come to a head, so now we just need to bring it home! I’m not going to make any grand goals this time around, though. I’m going to give myself grace and do as much as I can. It’s not a race.

I am finally reading Onyx Storm, after looking at the book on my living room table for a few months. It’s . . . Sigh. It’s good. I hate that I am enjoying it so much. I’ll have more thoughts about this later. My goal is to have a “review” up sometime in June! (“Review” is in scare quotes here mostly because I’m not going to review the book in a traditional sense — I have some more introspective things to say about it.)

June goals

• Review of Onyx Storm
• Blog posts in the queue about life, writing
• Pick up a new book from the TBR pile

Homesteading life: We’re getting somewhere

The garden is officially in the ground! I’m trying some new things this year, notably: snow peas, pole beans, watermelon, and corn! I set up a trellis (it’s the cheapest one possible, and broke almost as soon as I put it in the garden, but it’ll do well enough for an experiment this year) and if it works out this year, I’ll invest in a more stable version. (And better trellis string, because buddy, it was a nightmare to untangle.)

The garden has provided a fair amount of peace in the last month or so. My mental health has been a bit rocky just because of stress and being sick, and forcing myself outside and into the dirt has helped. Getting everything set up took much longer than I wanted it to, because I could only do little bits at a time without becoming overwhelmed or overdoing it — and I did overdo it several times, leading to exhaustion and renewed body aches — but I’m happy that everything is now in the ground and I just have to patiently wait for the plants to grow!

June goal

• Be patient! Grow, little veggies, grow!

Crafty corner: Crochet camaraderie

You can guess that the blanket didn’t get done, but that’s not because I didn’t work on it! This thing is a bit bigger than I thought it was going to be, so I’m just letting it grow and measuring the final size with my heart. It’s not a race.

June goal

• Vibe . . . and if it gets done, it gets done!

It’s not a race

You can tell I’m on a journey with this post — of course I am always making plans and trying to get things done, but if there’s anything these regular goal-setting blogs have shown me, it’s that having goals is a good way to motivate me into doing more, but I shouldn’t push myself too much. Because things happen. Sometimes you have a sinus infection that puts you on your ass and it’s all you can do to go to work (because you can’t take sick time since your boss is on vacation, and you’re on point). Giving yourself grace is important.

What are you all working on this month? Do you have big goals? Small goals? Let’s work on things together.