Preparing for a Garden

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

We are so, so close to gardening weather here in Colorado.

I’ve been waiting. And counting the days. And checking the temperature.

See, Colorado is cold. And it stays cold for a long, long, long time after the ‘first day of spring’ that the rest of the country enjoys. Our first day of spring is usually a signal for the first day of spring storms.

Snow storms.

March is still considered the middle of winter for us.

But! We are now moving into June, and in June—when we aren’t preoccupied with weddings and other such very exciting events—we will finally be able to plant our garden without worrying about a late frost coming and destroying literally everything.

I can’t even tell you how many times that has happened to me.

Last year, in an attempt to curb my winter blues and hurry spring along just a little, I planted a large part of my garden in my house in pots. You know, getting those seedlings started, giving them a bit of extra time to bloom and get going.

Yeah.

That did not work.

Something about Colorado winds and needing to be planted outside first so that they start hardy and strong.

This year, I have managed to restrain myself, and have planted nothing but one garlic plant.

And a few onions.

And two blueberry bushes.

But nothing else.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on the garden in front of my house. I figured that I can dig up and fix the soil, even if I can’t plant, so I’ve been carting buckets of mulch around, widening the borders, and working on my compost bucket in preparation for planting. Now it’s almost ready, and I’m so excited to get seeds in the ground and begin defending my tiny seedlings against squirrels, deer, turkeys, dogs, hail storms, and the rest of Colorado.

We’ll see how I manage.

Are you gardening this year? Tell me about it in the comments!

Freedom

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

Now that I am not working full time, I have a little more flexibility in my schedule.

Obviously, I’m still getting up early to work out and spending the majority of my day at my desk, but since my only boss at the moment is myself, it’s a little easier to wiggle out of writing for a day.

If I have a good reason, anyway.

Lately, that good reason has been renewing some neglected friendships. Between Covid and work, my writer girls and I have not been getting together as much as we wanted to when we started our little group. We chat almost daily and sprint together and offer encouragement, but actual in-person interaction is rare.

I’ve missed them.

And their stories.

So we finally got some dates on the calendar to meet up and look over our stories, talk about our lives, and get some group writing done.

It was a blast. We missed one of our lovely members, who, unfortunately, couldn’t escape her job to join in, but the rest of us were able to meet up, have lunch at my house, spend a few hours outside in the glorious sunshine, and share a bit about where we are in our writerly journey.

Days like that are healing to my soul, let me tell you.

Being a freelancer also has the added bonus of being able to work where I want, when I want. This particular month, that means working down in Missouri while I help a friend prepare for her wedding, and writing in the car while out road-tripping with my amazing husband.

We’re camping.

I’m gonna tell you all about it, I promise.

When it’s over, and I’m back in my house and can get my head on straight.

Until then, I’ll be working away from wherever I happen to be and enjoying the May sunshine. Yay for spring!

What spring activities are you enjoying this month? Tell me about them in the comments!

Wedding Hair

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

My sister is getting married next month.

We’re all wildly excited about it. What better way to celebrate June than with a wedding?

I am not in this particular wedding, but I am working the ‘behind the scenes’ to get all the little miscellaneous tasks done. Lots of flowers. Lots of decorating. Lots of lists.

Things like that.

I’ve got a lot of caps in this wedding. Including hair stylist.

Not for the bride, thank heavens. I’m not ready for that one.

But my three youngest sisters all have very fancy dresses and they all need very fancy hairstyles to go with those fancy dresses.

So I obliged.

Since my hair is fairly short and these particular sisters have long, gorgeous, luxurious hair that I am constantly jealous of, we decided it was going to take some serious practice on my part to make sure I got their hair right.

They’ll be in pictures, guys. I can’t fail this one.

So, instead of our usual Wednesday game night, we’re doing a Wednesday night hair appointment, usually involving movies and ice-cream and me tugging at their heads for three hours in an attempt to copy the styles that were decided on for them.

I’m gonna get this, I swear. I’m smart. I can do hair.

Not perfectly, of course, but I can do hair.

I am very thankful, however, that we have time to practice, because I need it.

Badly.

At least we’re getting in some good sister bonding time while we do it, right?

Any hair tips for a hopeless novice? Tell me in the comments!

Writing Free

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

My writing habits are changing.

I like to think that they always are, actually. As a writer, I like to go with what works and change things up when something begins to feel stale. If I don’t, things get stuck.

Actually, I get stuck.

Being stuck is my least favorite state of being. I stare at the computer. My will to move drains away. The words refuse to come. I consider chucking this whole author thing and becoming a goat farmer.

I could be a goat farmer, you know. I would be a really good goat farmer. I know a lot about goats.

Probably more than I should, actually.

Goat slobber is a thing, y’all. And it is way stickier than you think.

Yuck.

Since I’m not quite ready to go back to being a goat farmer and enduring the bruises and slobber that accompany that job, I’ve learned to change my writing habits when necessary. And now that I’m freelancing instead of working for a company and punching a clock, writing free has become a lot easier. I still like to keep to my routines when I can, so I have a certain time every morning when I sit down to write and a certain time—most days— that I finish up and close things down.

Routines are great. For normal writing days.

Some days, sitting down to write at the normal time just is not going to work for me.

My brain says no. So does my creativity. I stare at the blank page for a long, long time. I distract myself. I write terrible sentences in the hopes that some useful ones will get dragged out behind them.

It doesn’t work.

When you’re punching a clock, you gotta be in the chair. It’s kind of a rule. But when you’re writing free, like I am learning to, it’s okay to shut the computer and walk away. Go outside. Take a walk. Hang out with people and play a board game. Make homemade tortillas.

For me, all of those things wind up being miles more productive than staring at a blank screen. And when I come back, I don’t have to open the computer. I can snag a notebook and curl up on my bed to handwrite a few pages until the block has disappeared.

I may not get us much done as I would on a normal day, but I’ll get pages more than I would have if I hadn’t been up for changing my habits a bit.

How do you free yourself up when you’re stuck on a project? Tell me about it in the comments!