Labor Day in Our Home

 

After our busy-ish weekend it was very nice to have a holiday.  Of course, we did basic housework.  John washed clothing and made the bed.  I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and made meals.  But for the most part, we ate, we rested and we created.  It was a very nice day overall.

We didn't cook out, but I made a holiday-ish sort of meal, and we ate it twice, with the main meal and then the leftovers later.  I want to go back to doing that on the weekends: cook once, eat it twice.

I slept super well on Sunday night, and woke early yesterday, before sunrise (not before daylight, though).  I had a dream that sent me off a writing jag and that turned into two posts (so far).  I spent all day long banging away at the computer, trying to make those posts coherent and to the point.  

At one moment, I was in the kitchen working on dinner, John was playing in the music room and hit upon a song that just moved me with power, so I headed back to the room and sang it to his guitar accompaniment.  There I was with two fresh posts on the computer screen waiting to be edited, singing, cooking, and I felt absolutely fully alive.  It was a wonderful sensation.  I suggested some rearrangement I'd like to see in the song and sang him an example of what I meant, and I realized "Hey, I am arranging this song!"  That just made me feel like I was on jet fuel yesterday.  It truly did.

What I didn't do yesterday, much to my chagrin, was relax.  True I was 'just writing and cooking' but both were a lot of work.  I might as well have done the fall cleaning I've done in the past on Labor Day!  I was so bleary eyed and irritable by the end of the day because I was overtired and frustrated that all those smoothly flowing creative pursuits had suddenly snarled into a nasty knot (except the cooking).  One day I will recognize that resting is as important as pursuing inspiration.

I finally realized my absolute need to STOP that particular set of work.  I shut off the computer, but I was so restless.  So, I took up my books for this month to read a bit in each one and that led me to actually start the whole study portion of The Artist's Way.  I have really wanted to do this for ages, and I've put it off two or four times already.  

Last night after supper, John wanted to take off the trash and he came back indoors saying the tire on my car was going flat.  He pumped it up and noticed that the radial wires were starting to show.  He wasn't happy at all about having to buy a tire.  Now he's been talking for months about getting a whole new set because he felt it was getting to be time (he was right) so why he was upset I'm not terribly sure.  Eventually he said, "We were going to get a new set this year anyway...Why postpone it?"  I agreed with him.  

The only thing I was not happy about was driving that car to the tire place this morning, but I made it over safely.  And why did I do that and not John?  For one thing, I was going to Warner Robins anyway to keep the boys.  Katie met me at the tire place and took me to her home.

As well, we were expecting to get connected to fiber optic and sure enough the technician called me only moments after I got to Warner Robins saying he could be at the house around 9:30.  So I'm glad John did stay home in anticipation of that.  And yes, we now have fiber optic internet which will be a substantial savings over what we've been paying to our former carrier.    Drawback this month is that I shall have to pay a bill for both months, but we are well pleased so far.

The day with the boys went along just fine.  Caleb, who is only 5, asked manly questions about my flat tire.  How flat was it?  Was it on the front or rear?  Passenger or driver side?  Why did it go flat?  What were they going to do about it?  When would my car be ready?  Katie and I looked at each other and smiled because they were really intelligent questions and he seemed to be fully aware of the importance of knowing the answer to each of those questions.

All in all, it was a good day, but I was glad this evening, when I headed home to think of my dinner already cooked, in the fridge, and just needing to be warmed up.  I'm so happy I planned ahead for that yesterday!

I think September is off to a good start.  And if you think my optimism sank because we need new tires, think again.  I feel just as happily optimistic over this month as I have since mid-August!

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