How to Recover From a Preschool Pick-up Fraught with Difficulty (You Will Need Mushrooms for This) (No, Not the "Special" Ones)

I spent the morning cleaning. I don't really like cleaning, and it put me in a bad mood. Then I went to pick up Daphne from school. She was in a great mood. In fact, she was sort of manic and wild. Things did not go well. I had to do a lot of chasing - and Daphne's a lot faster than me - before managing to get us into the car and on the way home. Needless to say, this did not help my mood.

I got Daphne down for her nap, and still had more cleaning to look forward to. Plus, my weekly meal plan (and some chicken in the fridge that needed to be used asap) dictated that tonight I had to do some real cooking. All this was enough to almost put me over the edge, which I have been teetering on lately.

So, Kev made me sit on the porch swing. It took a while, but I slowly started decompressing.

I admired the azaleas:

I cut some new peonies for the kitchen sink window:

I put on a skirt, attached my pannier, and rode my bike to Safeway:

I adorned my herb garden with cool labels from my mom:

And then, I put on my apron and cooked up probably my best batch ever of chicken marsala:

And a bad day turned good, just like that. Thanks, Kev.