a day in the life of a latvian mom

I spent almost the entire afternoon in the greenhouse on Friday — around 2.5 hours cleaning it up, planting tomatoes, moving things around, and trying to calculate what else I can still squeeze in there this year.

A while ago I even wrote about it here:

A Love-Hate Relationship with My Greenhouse

And honestly? I still have a complicated relationship with that greenhouse.

It’s old (but not the charming kind of old — truly old things are usually practical and sturdy. This is more the “modern things that already aged badly” kind of old). It’s in a terrible spot. To get inside, I practically need climbing gear and a survival instinct. Every year I tell myself that maybe this is the year I’ll finally love it… and every year it fights back.r it fights back.

Still, the tomatoes are planted.

I cleaned it out. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I answered Jānis with, “Put them in the greenhouse, I’ll use them,” after he asked where to put all the cardboard from IKEA. I uses only 4 🙂

I had checked the weather forecast and picked a cloudy day for the job — but of course, right in the middle of everything, the sun came out and absolutely melted me.

I had to weed the entire greenhouse and plant the tomatoes. They’re far too tall and looking very leggy at this point, but luckily I know the trick for planting tomatoes like that, so they should be fine in the end. Hopefully.

By the end of it, my whole body felt completely destroyed. Not “a little tired” destroyed — properly finished. The kind where even lifting your arms feels like a personal attack. I still had to walk back home afterwards, feeling like my head was pulsing and my face was red as a beetroot.

At least the tomatoes are finally in.

I went straight into the shower and then pulled out the nicest day dress I own because I desperately needed some sort of emotional recovery after what felt less like gardening and more like an accidental obligatory workout program.

Apparently, this is my fitness era now. Against my will.

The evening ended exactly how it needed to end — in bed, watching Hallmark movies and doing absolutely nothing productive.

I was so tired. Terrible state to be in, honestly.

But maybe… just maybe… a tiny bit of fat melted, a tiny bit of muscle grew, and hopefully my heart got a little better trained for this kind of accidental “cardio” next time.

And most importantly — the tomatoes are in, and they’ll hopefully survive all my efforts.

At this point, I’m considering the greenhouse less a gardening space and more a full-body endurance training program I never signed up for.

At this point, I think we are all just trying our best — me and the tomatoes alike.

Ilze