Apricot Summer.

For the first time in such a long time I took some time out for myself. It was calm, simple and fun. Our normal morning routine still commenced and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast before my husband, my love had to head out for work.
To start I cleaned up the kitchen and did simple things that when they add up, well they add up. I was most excited that I was able to be a little domestic today and get some fun recipes completed.

We live in a GREAT area. I love the surrounding sights, houses, the people, the park...Ah! It is wonderful. On a walk with the pups we ran into an apricot tree abundant in fruit. Lovely. I let the apricots ripen as a little centerpiece at home and today seemed the perfect day to create. It was like having summer brought inside for a little sunshine!

I tried the first recipe to make stove-top preserves with no need for pectin! The results as you can see below were yummy.

The second recipe I tried was a little tart and I ended up adding some agave nectar at the end to sweeten it up! Admittedly I have WAY too much and so I plan to make the jars a little more pretty and give some out as gifts!

Currently I am struggling with a couple little things:

I am trying to find my role in my career. Being a nurse is something I believe to be in my blood. It is part of who I am. Sadly the hospital environment can be overwhelming, stressful, irritating, and to be honest a situation that I don't enjoy being in. The constant struggle to make your charge nurse, your patient, the doctor and everyone else happy is troubling.
Yesterday morning I left my job at 7a after working overnight. No big deal. I had ton of energy and I thought, embrace it! Enjoy the morning for what it is! Sunny and BEAUTIFUL. Andy picked me up we ran some errands and decided to have a breakfast out! We were seated next to a table of very young and very new nurses. Something I am intrigued by. When I was a new nurse I was ready to see anything, do any procedure, whatever. I craved learning. I craved being better! These two sat there and complained about everything! Their patient load, the orders the doctors gave, their schedules, their co-workers and their preceptors. I was FUMING at the table with Andy! It is normal to hear nurses complaining. Not OK, but is normal. We get burnt out, we get literally pooped on, yelled at, screamed at and everything else by patients doctors and our co-workers. New nurses, I am sorry...you don't have the experiences and the right to be that upset.  I struggled with getting up and throwing a little temper tantrum at them vs. trying to put things into perspective for them. In the end I didn't say anything to them. But, like anything new there are growing pains. Being the new nurse you don't get the best schedule, you have to prove yourself, and most importantly you DON'T complain! I am not a new nurse! I have been in various roles as a nurse, but I know that as a travel nurse I am looked at, "new." So I stay quiet, I offer to help and I give my input....Being positive and optimistic is contagious just as much as negativity. Sadly as nurses  most tend to favor being negative.  

Walk in with a smile, that exuberance that you want to share with your co-workers, doctors and most importantly your patients. Take it as an opportunity to be a ray of sunshine on  what is probably a dark and cloudy day for people. It will change your outlook. 

The other things I am struggling with are things I don't often talk about...They are my own illogical situations that my mind comes up with. Not 100% sure how to stop thinking this way, but whatever I am doing isn't working....

So back to my apricots and sunshine!