No-Labor Monday

Good morning, friends --

I have been fretting a bit about the lapse of my blogging habit, and then this week my friend Terry Grant posted about blogging again after a lapse, and she jogged me into opening up my page to get going again.

So here I am, taking full advantage of the Labor Day holiday to putter and NOT labor. I've had a bit too much labor in my life lately, actually. I telecommute as an attorney for a law firm in New England, and I seem to have drifted into working full time due to the demands of a particularly complicated and active case. I remind myself that I am working at home, wearing comfy clothes and often doing so from my patio to enjoy the garden and summer weather, with my pup curled up at my side. So, all things considered, it's a good way to work. Still, I'd have lots of things I'd rather be doing.

To enjoy the free day, I started by baking muffins to use the rest of the gorgeous white peaches I've had in the fridge to prevent them from over-ripening. I haven't baked in AGES. And, as you can see from above, I am not the tidiest of bakers. Still, they came out of the oven fragrant and were exactly the combination of soft crumb and peach chunks I was hoping for.

Yesterday was my brother Gregg's birthday -- many of you might know from Facebook that he died about 6 months ago after a rough battle with colon cancer, and so he has been on my mind even more than usual. I think that has been part of my moving through my days a bit more silently -- grief is a funny thing, I find, and has caused me to meditate a lot on issues like family, childhood, friendships, the evolution of relationships... you know, small things like that.

And then I crave escape into fiction -- so I have been reading up a storm, devouring books as if they were potato chips and I can't stop. This summer I've been alternately reading an assortment of beach/women/friendship novels, and soothing gentle cozy mysteries.

There has been quilting, and other crafty activities, and even a big trip with Miss C that was a grand adventure. I will tell you more soon!

I hope you are enjoying the Monday holiday with as little labor as possible.