Sunlight, storm light, all in my study window.
This morning already I've drafted part of a poem and finished my essay for Monday's Substack, so that's something. I've also packed up a Poshmark sale that I'd made a couple of weeks ago and, I think, managed to print out the wrong mailing label for, so yesterday it came back to me. After messaging with the (extremely nice) buyer and with Poshmark support, that little tangle is all sorted. The parcel is out on the porch with the right label, ready to ship to the correct recipient (to whom I gave free shipping because of all this delay).
One thing to be grateful for today: other people's kindness when you mess up. This buyer could so easily have been indignant, canceled the sale, and given me a bad review --- which, frankly, I would have earned, even though the slip was honest. I've also been on the receiving end of a label mixup, so I know these things happen, and it's not just me, but still. This is the kind of thing I find instructive and try to pay forward at every opportunity. Grace given to me is grace I can pass along to others. As bad as I might feel about a mistake I make, I'd feel a lot worse if I chose to make someone else feel worse than they have to feel about being human and fallible. And I thank God for every time that I have been preserved from making that choice.
Other things on the agenda today:
*dog walk to clear my head
*book chapter
*plant some more carrot and beet seeds while the soil is so wet
*Stations of the Cross
The husband is out tonight at an awards banquet, so it'll be just me for dinner and Stations. I'm glad I went to confession last week, because I bet this afternoon's line will be out the door. Usually I'm sliding in at the last second, but for once I just went, without being under the gun to get it done before Easter. I'm also glad to have some red-lentil soup left over from last night. This is the recipe I followed, and it turned out to be delicious. It's automatically vegan, as long as you use vegetable broth, and full of good things. I actually subbed frozen diced sweet potatoes for carrots, because I had them --- they made the flavor maybe a little sweeter, but then that's what carrots do anyway. You could actually sub frozen diced sweet potatoes for both carrots and potatoes, if a bag of frozen diced sweet potatoes is easier to keep on hand than fresh produce is. Simmered for an hour, they just kind of dissolve into the soup and thicken it. I mashed mine a bit with a potato masher toward the end to make it less chunky, more like a puree, without bothering actually to puree it.
I have that left over, so it'll be my dinner. Otherwise, I have eggs and potatoes, so I'll do one or the other for lunch --- I can cook halved Yukon Gold potatoes pretty fast in the air fryer and just eat them with some salt. OR I can do a couple of fried eggs over some wilted lettuce from the garden, because eggs and wilted greens are also a nice filling lunch.
Wearing today:
I started out with this --- thrifted Banana Republic lavender sweater over Wool& Audrey, with my oldest pair of Xero shoes --- but didn't love it. So . . .
*Wool& Audrey dress (S) in Black Heather, bought November 2022, last worn March 26. Wears in 2025: 9, I believe. I think I wore it one day that I didn't document when I was in Texas back in February. This was my most-worn dress of 2024, with 30 wears. I think I wore it about that much in 2023 as well, though I'd have to check my records. It's just a great dress, comfortable and versatile. I've worn it to knock around the house, and I've worn it to the symphony. My husband loves it, which is always gratifying. I've had to mend a pocket seam that came unsewn a little, but otherwise it's been in perfect condition and has stood up to intense and repeated wear better than just about any other Wool& dress I own. You can understand why I'm such a fan of this tencel-wool-blend fabric (a blend I also like in my leggings and bralettes), and why I'd be interested in adding another of this dress to my closet.
*Very old thrifted Gap linen hoodie, quite possibly in a second decade of wear. I really don't remember when I bought it, but 2015 seems plausible.
*Xero Oswego shoes, bought fall 2021, fourth year of wear
I don't wear these Oswego shoes that much anymore, especially since I bought a charcoal-gray pair secondhand last year. These were the very first pair of Xero shoes I ever bought, on clearance, very cheap, and they were a good introduction to that brand and to the barefoot-shoe experience. I have worn them enough in the 3+ years I've owned them that I don't think they're really worth reselling --- and sometimes they are what I want to put on. Witness today, when I am sick of every other purple clothing item I own, and these shoes leap suddenly into action. I'm still wearing neutral + purple. And by now my cost-per-wear, though I haven't been tracking it, is bound to be pretty low.
This Gap linen hoodie also doesn't get a ton of wear. I really do need to remember to reach for it. It's a nice alternative to a button shirt, though the boxier shape can be a little tricky. I like it best over this long, drapey dress, so that the Rule of Thirds seems to come into good effect. It doesn't work so well over shorter things, and as much as I always wanted to love it with jeans, I never quite did. But this combination I really like. It's also a bit more realistic for today's temperatures, which aren't that hot --- I put on the wool sweater initially because it was chilly when I went out to leave the Poshmark parcel for the mailman --- but will climb above 60F. I might need a jacket this morning and evening, but in the middle of the day I think these layers will be just right. This again is why I hang onto certain things: I do like them, and some days they are exactly what I want to wear. It's okay if they're not what I want to wear every day. I am glad, though, to be prompted to wear them. At least at this point I'm sure the cost-per-wear of this hoodie is under $1 --- I got it at Goodwill, where it cost approximately $4, and I know I've worn it more than four times in the ensuing years. So it's all good.
And here's a new poem for the season, which you can read while I get in a dog walk before it rains again.