Hello and welcome. Come on in. What do you fancy today? Tea, coffee?

I am seeing myself with a cup of hot cocoa today. It feels like one of those days, just wish one of those days include no physical labor and just be a couch potato. Unfortunately, I don’t see myself having this privilege today nor this weekend. I have officially lost track of the number of weekends I haven’t properly rested.

Last week, having worked 5 straight weeks of 50+ hours, I was hoping for some rest but nope, no rest for me. I actually got out of work early this week after finishing yet another week with 50+ hours. My boss was afraid I would work myself to oblivion so he set a number of hours I’m allowed to work per week.

To be honest, I’d rather work because if someone knows I’m free, I’m ought to be bothered like being asked about Daylight Saving or about the total tax deduction amount for a married couple filing jointly, questions that should be directed at Google, not me.

So back to yesterday, I got out of work extra early. The thought of having a free afternoon absolutely terrified me because of what I said – someone’s bound to bother me. My mind began to wander. What should I do? Should I spend the afternoon crafting a story? Should I waste the hours watching YouTube? Should I binge a TV show to clear my DVR?

I ended up doing none of the above. I went out into my back garden. I needed time with nature. After doing a walkthrough of checking on my plants, I decided the mums need some pruning and so did the Asters. As I began deadheading the flowers, mom came out and began hammering the only remaining grass area with a garden hoe while mumbling complaints beneath her breath. *sigh* What do I have to do to get a quiet moment?

“I need you to rake the leaves.” Mom ordered while I was still deadheading my flowers.

Inwardly, I sighed. The rest of the afternoon stretched on with yard work. First, it was raking the leaves, then came lawn reseeding, and just as I thought we were done, she dragged me to her house – the house which she refused to live in – and there, more leaf raking. “Let’s call it a day,” she said.

At last, I thought. I could hear my stomach grumble and legs go weak. I barely had anything all day and my last full meal was the day before when Mr. CFO invited the department to lunch where I had a ginormous turkey burger at the Cheesecake Factory.

After putting away the tools and locked up both gates to the backyard, mom came in with a roll of black landscape fabric. “Help me,” she commanded. I stood there for a moment, my legs refusing to move. “Help me cover the area beneath the bench.” As much as my knees had hurt, I forced my legs to bend. “Get the wheelbarrow from the shed and go shovel some rocks.” Mom ordered afterwards.

What. A. Liar! And here I thought I could go in and get myself some food.

In the end, I probably shoveled 6 wheelbarrow-full of rocks. My arms and legs felt like jelly by the time I pushed the final cart full of rocks.

So much for getting off work early, over four hours, doing yard work.

Thank you for joining me for this weekend’s #weekendcoffeeshare. I apologize for the rant, really need to get it out of my system. I hope I didn’t scare you away and hope we’ll both return next week.