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I was wondering how many others here have a Substack themselves? Erin does some great writing, but I love seeing others too. (I write a stack called Caitlin Chats.)

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My lilacs are finally blooming this week so very, very slowly. And there are flowers with teeny tiny baby strawberries on some of the strawberry plants. That tells my heart and head that it really is spring...in spite of the fact that it's been mostly in the 50s and rainy and gray.

I'm excited about the prospect of a lending library. I finally live in a place with a room big enough to be a personal library and I've almost finished cataloging all of my books. It's been a dream of mine all of my life to have a designated library in my home and now it's here. <sigh>

The greenhouse is full of veggie starts. A lot of my summer will be dedicated to tending of the garden. Late summer and early fall will be canning and preserving. Last year, we canned 35 quarts of tomato sauce. This summer it will be peaches, nectarines, and applesauce.

My yearly mammogram is coming up at the end of this month, so I'm holding my breath and praying that the cancer hasn't come back. It shouldn't, but my anxiety isn't listening to me, and there's always that small percentage of possibility that's there no matter what.

Randomly, has anyone else read The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera? It's about a girl, Petra Pena, who boards a spaceship with her family and a bunch of other scientists to flee Earth headed for another planet. But there's a seriously crazy twist that happens onboard the ship and some other people take over and wipe everyone's memories, so they can settle the new planet the way they want. But Petra's memory doesn't get wiped.

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It’s already May! What?!

Delirious by Prince came on the radio and I posted a pic on Facebook and said this is me the whole month of May.

We have one kid graduating kindergarten and one kid graduating 6th grade. This mama is not emotionally prepared!

Treasures:

1. Downtown Books in my hometown of Dothan, AL is where I work part time (on top of my full time job 🤪) and we are starting a summer book club. We’ve only been open 6 months but doing great and the owner has been so gracious in letting me develop it and get it running. We are starting with The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.

AND We just launched weekly story time for the kiddos!

2. Summer is jammed up and jelly tight between camps, trips and work!

3. I am fully invested in 2 high school theatre classes in TikTok. One is in Delaware and their teacher gives big Mrs. Darbus energy from HSM. The other is in Alaska and their teacher is a Swifty and he’s hilarious! Well, they’ve had all these musicals taped to their desks and each day that take one (or two) off. The point is to reveal next year’s musical. And I am here for it! It’s so fun!

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdg9VLx3/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdg93AKb/

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate and for those who have a hard time on this day, I see you and am thinking about you.

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I have never felt more seen than when I read that last tweet about being late. It's my biggest flaw and it feels like every time I try some new attempt, it fails. It might have something to do with the fact that I have ADHD! That's right, your girl is officially diagnosed and medicated. I'm only on my first day of meds but I'm thrilled to have the stress of trying to get diagnosed off my shoulders. I went through ADHDonline.com and it was super helpful. I highly recommend it to anyone who is having a hard time finding a practice that will do adult evaluations.

-I am so excited about the lending library! I've got a million books and I can't wait to share them with my lil' swipes. If there's a specific title you're looking for, let me know - there's a huge chance I have it but I'm not going to list the four hundred books I have on the list.

-I am loving Laura Tremaine's One Day May challenge and today Jenna freaking Fischer liked my photo so I'm dead now.

-I've made yet another adjustment to my schedule that will leave me nannying more during the week and only working at the library every other weekend. I'm hoping it's the adjustment I need - it will at least get me away from the 12 hour work day I usually have on Mondays.

-I finished my spring semester!!!!! I start my summer semester in less than a week but I am not letting myself think about that, I'm just reading and cleaning out my room of doom while I have extra time.

-My 30th birthday is next week and I'm celebrating with a handful of friends at my favorite diner and then heading to the 90's themed bar in our town. I can't wait to actually celebrate something. It feels like it's been years!

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I am planting flowers this weekend with my mom and sister. It truly is one of the best days of the year.

My treasures this week are: Kaitlin Curtice's poetry prompts, Laura Tremaine's One Day May, and Sanditon. I also finished my coursework for the spring semester!

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Pending completion of paperwork, it's looking like I'm going to start picking up shifts at the city shelter in the next couple of weeks. I met with the medical director yesterday and she is so lovely and so overwhelmed that she basically said I could do however much/little I want both in terms of hours and caseload, as long as it get something off her plate. Hoping I can be helpful and also give myself a little financial breathing room.

I guess spring is over since it's supposed to be 100 degrees here this weekend. It was nice while it lasted. Also, 8 months of #trailerlife resulted in my previously bomb-proof dog developing storm anxiety, so I guess that was also nice while it lasted. Thankfully she responds to meds pretty well, but it's just so frustrating when we had a solid two plus years of her sleeping soundly through the worst thunderstorms.

If you are feeling some feelings about the Judds this week: https://wpln.org/post/naomi-judd-embodied-the-role-of-country-musics-mother-and-helped-to-expand-it/?fbclid=IwAR3H9aSW-HwwXXWsAevRYI4oSWBPTZzwPvFD72QeIJkC3Q-GYOUNhQ0bvQQ

If you are feeling some feelings about the whole SCOTUS situation: https://jenhatmaker.com/my-thoughts-on-the-roe-v-wade-reversal/

A couple IG accounts that never miss:

- https://www.instagram.com/underthedesknews/

- https://www.instagram.com/ryan_ken_acts/

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May 6, 2022·edited May 6, 2022

I'm really excited to be spending 4 summer months at Olympic National Park in Washington! My sister and I will be there together, volunteering our after (and sometimes before) work hours to help in a park campground. I predict meeting lots of cute senior adults and vacationing families in our summer! She and I both have our fingers crossed that at least one of us will have a meet-cute with an adorable park ranger.

If there are any Lil' Swipes in WA state, I'd love to get together!

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In solidarity with Melanie S. I’m sharing my crummy week. I often stay out of the comments when weeks are no-good-very-bad since it’s depressing to only read about the 💩 in my life, but it’s been a week of irreverent spiciness for me so it seems fitting to compound the emotions here. 🤪

⚠️ Caution: unfixable problems and sad-sack stories ahead

I have zero summer plans but have been desperately trying to schedule a single week away by myself. I originally planned it for my birthday but my sisters weren’t able (willing) to accommodate staying more than 2 nights with my mom. So I put it off till summer in hopes that there would be more margin. But no, there’s none. One sister has scheduled herself out every single week till school begins again in August, and the other sister is teaching summer school during June. In essence, this is what I was told: they can give me two options, one for Monday-Wednesday but not one day longer, and the other for Friday-Sunday (maybe). And only during a 2-week period in June. 😣 I’m now trying to schedule a split week, going away Thursday night or Friday until Sunday afternoon, then going *back* for Monday-Wednesday. 😩 I just want some time to get away! My caregiver muscles are stretched thiiiin and I need a break from constant parenting of a senior adult. But neither sister is willing or able to work with me. After several days of trying to “work this out” I’m angry and sad and frustrated. And I still need a break. There’s one other option that may need to happen — renting a cabin for a week and taking my mom away with me — but she’s really not interested in leaving home and that wouldn’t really be a vacation for me. But it would be a change of scenery and that might be enough. Either way, I need to make a decision this week or the reservations window will close. 😞

Y’all, I was in a MOOD this week. Along with navigating my sisters’ schedules (and whims), I also heard one of them try to tell us that COVID was over and we didn’t need to worry about it anymore. She wanted my mom to “get back to living.” She also made a racist statement about a specific group of people being the only carriers of the virus. To tell you that I was LIVID. And I got whiplash trying to address all the problems in that single statement she made to my mom. It has frustrated me for *days*. My mom is a different personality and just brushes off comments that don’t really affect her life, but I stew on stuff like that. And it just compounds all the negative feelings I already have toward that sister. This came after the social media clamor of the SCOTUS opinion, and it was followed by a particularly ornery attitude from my mom. So I have been feeling especially raw this week. And tired. Ya girl wants a break from reality, a way to pay for it, and a caregiver my mom will allow to come into her home. [She won’t do nurse’s aids or the like.] Sigh. Some weeks are harder than others.

End rant. Thanks for listening. Sometimes this is the only place I can share the hard stuff. ❤️‍🩹

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Hello!

Just popping in to share my new Hack Your Crying™️: Rage Addition resource 🙃.

After a particularly trying week and big Enneagram 5 pent up emotions I resorted to my favorite Schitt’s Creek episode: Season 2 Episode 1 Finding David. I realize there are many other lovely episodes that should probably have the honor of being favorite episode, but I just relate to Moira’s screeching meltdowns far too much 😅. If you’ve clenched your jaw for too long and are vacillating between calm, quiet rage and hysterics, just watch the first minute of this episode and the tears will come. I swear her screeches are therapy 🧘🏻‍♀️😂.

Happy Friday!

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Anyone else watch Mad TV in the early 2000's? #LookWhatICanDo brought me so much joy this morning lolol

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcDZDn9skkd/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

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1. Past/present good thing: The Evolving Faith mighty network launched! Very excited for this new space, and to follow up on my comment from last time slandering Twitter, I do think this will be a better place to find soul friends and less likely to find shouty debates and worst-take duels. Lol That said, I'm still on the bird app so grain of salt, etc etc

2. Future good thing: I'm going on a river cruise through Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Czechia this summer! I've done the Bavaria part before but never a river cruise or the other countries, and it's been several years. If anyone has overseas travel tips, I'm all ears! (Preferably more advanced than "you'll need a different electrical plug," yes, got it, but less advanced than "learn three languages in six weeks" lol)

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Friends, after VBS directing the week of Memorial Day, I am flying to Madrid on June 7 for 10 days! I'm also headed to Granada for a few days during the trip. I was an exchange student in Mexico in high school and I'm 50 now and have wanted to go to Spain for 30+ years!!!

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Hello hello! :) Last night was my last 2nd shift of the school year until August. Hooray! :)

I have high hopes for this summer. At the end of May, we're going back to Lake Champlain, camping this time, and hope to drive to Montreal for the day, which would be our first time leaving the US since 2019 (also to Canada, actually). In June just me & my husband are getting away for a few days to California, where I've never been. In July we have a family trip planned to Costa Rica that we booked about a year and a half ago, that the kids don't know about. (Shh, keep the secrets)

Right now, we're in the middle of tearing down our ceiling and spray foaming it (done), and then refinishing it as a painted wood ceiling (still to do). Since we live in the woods, I get reverse SAD - it's very dark in the summer when all the leaves are out, so I am hoping this lighter, brighter ceiling reflects more light & brightens the house up during those summer months.

And now I may head back to bed - we were open late nights this week for finals, and lack of sleep is catching up to me! :)

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Greetings from the PNW!

This summer I will be finishing chemo and radiation and I am here for it! If everything goes smoothly, I should be finished by August. The closest radiation treatment is 45 minutes away over a mountain pass, so I am incredibly thankful it’s during the summer and not threatened to be closed due to snow, in winter. Radiation will be 5 days/week for 6 weeks. Throughout treatment, we have had a crazy support system of meals, financial support, prayers, encouragement, and gifts. It’s bananas. To add to this community beauty, there are people ready to sign up to drive me to radiation each day! This is such a gift, as my body is so fatigued from receiving chemo treatments since January. SO! My plan is to record a podcast with my drivers each day; I miss podcasting and I’ve been quarantined for so long that good conversation sounds like a feast. I’m so looking forward to this. For 30 days, I get to interview friends, get stupid Chuck the tumor zapped for 20 minutes and then we drive through the beautiful mountains back home. Any thoughts on a great name for this pod?

Also, we are headed to Connecticut at the end of August for a family wedding. As a gift, we hope to fly into NYC and spend a couple of days in the Big Apple, before the wedding. I’ve been there one other time, but I would love your thoughts:

If you had two days in NYC, what are your top places to see? Restaurants? Experiences?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and celebrating with me. The Wilderness is dark for certain, but also marked with Wonder.

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Happy Friday, Swipes. I am the lame-o person who has no time anymore to find awesome stuff on the Internet. I miss my friend Internet. I miss tiktok videos. I even kinda miss doomscrolling. (JK. It is better that I limit my intake of Dumpster Fire Updates.)

The tweet that made me laugh was the one about the coffee date. I've never done mushrooms in the desert, but I get way too excited these days about meeting someone to do a Costco run together. #oldandsad.

I did have a fun booknerd moment this week when in the intro and notes on the new book I'm reading (The Cartographers), the author talked about hearing a story that inspired the novel, and I had just heard the same story from John Green's Ted talk, which I watched after the Swipes Bookclub on Anthropocene Reviewed. I would not have watched that Ted talk without that book being a selection for bookclub. So thanks, y'all for making me smarter! https://www.ted.com/talks/john_green_the_nerd_s_guide_to_learning_everything_online?language=en

Our summer is mostly home repairs and moving and then more home repairs, but I am hoping to get in an anniversary trip to the ocean, if at all possible. Late July is a tough time to book something, but I'm working on it. Anyone in CA have a dog-friendly beach rental they can point me towards?

We made a bunch of limoncello a couple weeks ago, so I think our summer cocktail is going to be limoncello and hard selzer, maybe raspberry? I want something light and bubbly when it is 90-bajillion degrees with a side of wildfire smoke.

Looking forward to hearing all your summer plans in the comments!

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I realize this is the season when most parents try to get their kids OFF the screen and into the great outdoors, but AZ summers are a hot hell, so my son and I are determined to develop our Animal Crossing Island into an imaginary paradise. I promised him tickets at the end of the summer. Don't smash our dreams and tell me those dodo birds aren't real pilots.

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