Living Inspired.

"Holy Grape, Batman!"

   One of my favorite things about the house is looking out my window and seeing a vineyard in the backyard. The grapes also grow around different parts on the outside of the house. Of course, this beautiful vineyard has to be kept up. If you're like me, you see a vineyard on television  and I think, "Man, I'd really love to have one at my house. It doesn't look like it would be that hard to maintain." False. It is hard hard work. I spent most of my Saturday morning helping Sasha climb (yes, you read that correctly) and pick grapes....out of trees. Yes, I'm fully aware that grapes do not grow on trees, but the vines decided that they wanted to wrap themselves around the tree. Let's just first say that it took Sasha maybe a good 30 minutes to try to coax me to climb a ladder, climb up a tree, and climb on the roof to pick grapes. I saw bad things happening in my future. I would climb up to the top of the latter and say, "Sasha, I can't do it. I'm not a girl who climbed trees when she was little...what if this latter falls and we're both stuck up here...no one is holding the bottom of the latter, I don't feel safe..." So, using my super creative thought powers I got another ladder that was smaller and safer (for me). Here I am, picking the prettiest green grapes out of a tree when all of the sudden I feel like my finger has caught on fire. I lifted my finger to see a bee hovering by it...with it's stinger stuck in my finger. Stupidly, I tried to pull the stinger out with my other hand and it broke off. Awesome blossom. Now part of the stinger is stuck in my skin. In under 15 minutes, I had a "man hand" and a "hot dog finger." That's really pretty.

My grape picking adventures continue as I help Ruslan's Mama pick grapes from the vineyard "out back." As I'm putting the grapes in the crate, I'm noticing that there are little spiders crawling over some of the grapes. I hate spiders. However, I put my big girl panties on and kept doing my job. I did get the feeling every once in awhile that a spider was crawling up my arm. 

Let's just stop here and say, stupid language barriers. Ruslan's Mama cannot speak English and I speak very little Ukrainian. This made the task a little difficult, but still very enjoyable. She has been a great nurse the past 2-3 days...I've come down with a cold. This cold is gnarly fo sho: sinus pressure, ear pressure, cold sores, cracked lips, chest cough, runny nose, fatigue. I have tried my best to understand and to respond to her directions. She has been extremely patient with me, but has threatened to give me a "spanking" if I don't wear socks around the house. I understood that perfectly :).