Morning Stuff

a room with a desk and computer

a green budgie, Pickle, sits on a perch

a small dog, Nova, looks out a window

I moved a few more things up into the studio yesterday and did some tidying this morning. I usually wake up early, between 4:30-5:30am, but the kids aren’t up until around 7:00, so that’s my time to myself. I’m not one for the revenge bedtime procrastination thing — I’m TIRED at the end of the day. But I like a slow, quiet start in the morning.

This morning I watched the newest video from Roaming Wild Rosie, one of my favorite YouTubers. We watch more YT than anything else around here, and I have quite a list of channels I enjoy. I always look forward to Rosie’s videos — she tackles so many projects and is very thoughtful about them. I’m a big fan of learning by doing, but there are several YTers I watch while repeating, “That’s not how you do that!” I doubt I’ve been 100% in agreement with ALL of Rosie’s methods, but they always make sense and seem solid. So it’s more the joy of thinking, “Huh, I wouldn’t have thought to do it that way!”

Once the girls were up, I made breakfast, and we let the budgies out (after securing the cats!). The two in the photo, Pickle and Gemmy, are usually the only two to come out. There are two others, Ivy and Snowy, and Snowy can’t fly. So she and shy Ivy tend to stay far from the open door. But Pickle and Gemmy like to sit on top of the cage and lick the wall (???), and sometimes they do a lap or two to around the living room, to exercise their wings.

After breakfast was math and chore time, and then we went for a short walk across the field. It was too wet for F, but M and I had rubber boots on and didn’t mind. Nova loved bounding through the field, but she was a soggy doggy after a few minutes! (She was still damp in the photo.) She’s so short that the wet grass that was hitting us in the shins was getting her in the face. She’s twelve years old now! But, like Beany, she hasn’t really slowed down. There’s just less energy for naughtiness. But she sprints down the driveway like a greyhound and PepĂ©-Le-Pews through the field like she’s still a pup. Henny passed away in January 2023, at the age of fifteen and a half, and her decline was mental (dementia), not really physical. I’m hoping Nova makes it to eighteen — the vet says she could!