MyLeslieNotebook

Did you know we were blueberry farmers? It's one of our family's many hobbies that sounded great at the start but takes much more sweat and work and time than we realized. Not only that, but my husband doesn't do anything half-heartedly: he started our blueberry patch with fifty [50!] bushes. We started getting teeny tiny fruit in April. We would walk through the patch every day or two and identify how well they were growing. We'd watch them carefully, excited for the first ripe berry. That happened about a week ago. It was so delicious. And just this week, the ripe blueberries started flowing like water. We call it the "blue tide." For the past three days we have spent at least two hours each morning picking.  They are BEAUTIFUL. One one branch, you'll have every color from white to green to pink to purple to blue. Sometimes they're so heavy with delicious fruit the branch will bend over to the ground. And just like this picture portrays, th...

I did something a month ago that I hope I never do again: I hurt my back. I didn't tweak it or pull something or twist funny. I HURT it. I couldn't lean forward at all . I had to seriously consider how I could grab the crock pot from the bottom shelf of the cabinet without screaming in pain. I couldn't lean over to kiss by kids in bed at night; they had to sit up and kiss me. It took me four minutes to get into bed the night I hurt it.  (Full confession: I hurt it jumping on the trampoline with my kids.)  That should not have  hurt  me like it did.    I thought I was strong. I thought I was fit.  But the truth is that I wasn't nearly as strong or fit as I thought. And e very motion  reminded me that there had been a weakness I didn't know about . It didn't just hurt my back. My legs hurt when I walked. My hips hurt when I sat. I shuffled when I walked and somehow I couldn't even pull the brake on my car when I needed to park; I didn't r...