Life - grace grits and gardening

Are you a list maker?

September 2, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

I’ve always been a list maker.

When I was a kid, I kept a list of all the books I owned, books I had read, and books I planned to read on a piece of notebook paper in the front of my binder. In alphabetical order, of course, which meant I was always rewriting it. I think in a way, this list making routine was a form of collecting for me. Collecting the names of books.

Maybe I should have been a librarian?

Even today, I have a strong urge to buy an old wooden card catalog case. It would make a nice place to store seeds packets. Or a catalog of book names, not that I have one anymore.

Really, I don’t.

But I do have To-Do lists.

Since we started this process of moving from Texas to Arkansas, I start a new list every morning, adding and marking off as I go throughout the day. I admit sometimes I add things I know I will 100% do, just to have something to mark off. Like the dentist. Last week when I had a dentist appointment, I added “go to the dentist” to the list so I would absolutely have something to mark off that night.

The whole marking something off is satisfying.

Each morning I rewrite the list, including those things I didn’t accomplish plus new items. There are always new items. I’m not sure what any of this says about me, but I do stay organized.

Are you a list maker?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Paul Simon, Rewrite

easy like Sunday morning…

August 31, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

This Sunday morning I awoke to an easy, pleasant 67 degrees in Fayetteville. Fall sits just over the mountainside, only a few weeks away. Although we haven’t officially moved the bulk of our belongings from Dallas (that will happen in a few weeks too), we have moved enough things that I can settle in and begin enjoying our peaceful new home.

Peaceful in part because we have no television. Yet.

I brought a few plants from my Dallas kitchen windowsill. They seem to love their new sunny spot.

I’ve met lots of neighbors already including my next door neighbor who drinks wine on her front porch:)

And she gardens.

So far, so good.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Easy Like Sunday Morning, Phil Vassar

miles to go

August 27, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Over the past few days and nights, I haven’t had one moment to scribble out anything other than to-do lists, and that’s okay because John and I have accomplished quite a bit. Our things won’t arrive from Dallas for several weeks (because I haven’t packed the first box), so I’m hanging out in our new home, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, sitting in old leather chairs that desperately need to be re-worked (but I like the battered feel of them), and unpacking kitchen items moved from our tiny house down the street (that will soon become a rental). I am basically excited, overwhelmed, astonished that we are really making this happen.

And we are all exhausted. Miles to go before I sleep and all that.