Monday (evening) Musings--22 October 2012

Right now...it is 6 in the evening.  Sebastian is out milking rather late because he was helping Bret clean up around his shop this afternoon.  We ate leftovers from yesterday for dinner, and ate al fresco, as the weather has been absolutely glorious.

This weekend...was busy, exhausting, but yesterday was the payoff, and we had the most wonderful day.  On Friday we went grocery shopping in the afternoon and stopped on the way home at a thrift shop which was having a $2 bag sale.  I managed to come away with two bags and a number of very nice things.

On Saturday I spent some time in the kitchen making cookie bars, pasta salad and burgers for Sunday, when we would be expecting friends.  I did the usual mountain of laundry, ironed, tidied up the house and delegated vacuuming and bathroom cleaning to the kids, and by evening everything looked pretty good.

 Yesterday was brilliant: I woke Gabriel at 5 a.m. and we wrapped ourselves up in blankets and sat together on the back stoop staring at the stars and watching for meteors, which we did, in fact, get to see.  The reason I chose Gabe to share this with, was that he has always been the one most interested in the stars. It felt so nice to have this special, private time with him.

The day dawned clear and crisp and perfect, making the nearly hour-long drive to Mass wonderful, a real delight for the eyes.  Mass was lovely and Fr. David Wilton gave a very good homily, as we have come to expect from the Fathers of Mercy.  These mission priests can run a bit long on the homilies, but they are always edifying..

After Mass we got home as quickly as we could, and soon afterward our new friends arrived with their crew of six kids.  The weather was perfect and the kids all got on famously, spending the entire time here outdoors.  We adults were hardly interrupted at all in our conversation, as the kids kept themselves well occupied. I didn't take photos of the kids, mainly because they spent so little time anywhere near us.  It was dark when they finally piled into their van to make their way home, and we went in to sit back and listen to the kids telling us about the games and exchanges of the afternoon.

The beautiful day was paid for with a very bad night.  I think Gemma was a bit over-stimulated, and she was noisy in her sleep, and had some ankle pain from her JRA.  I slept very little, but made up for it a bit by sleeping in until 6:45 this morning.

Some plans for this week:  We missed school today, as we had several errands to run  and didn't get home until after 2, so we have a little catching up to do this week.  I really don't have much to do on my agenda, so I will look at my "master list" of projects each day when and if I have a little open time, and see what I can manage.

If I find some time for myself, I want to...finish the Sunday Sweater I am knitting for Gemma; finish reading Cold Mountain; maybe cast on a hat or a pair of mitts...

I am grateful for...this beautiful autumn, if only for the reason that it lifts my spirits to be surrounded by such beauty; for friends who will be living only 12 miles from our new Patch O' Dirt Farm; for some progress made on the house (Bret is hoping to start on the siding this week).

Some prayer intentions for this week:  I have such a list...it seems to get longer every week.  But for the economy  to pick up and for Bret to get work again at his old cabinet shop both figure heavily in my prayers.

Something that makes me smile: 12 kids playing together for 4 and a half hours without a single argument.

Have a blessed week!