and now it's Friday

Sometimes I think I should reinvent my retirement. Not the part that includes grandchildren -- that's all fine as it is. It's those other hours. Yes, this week is rather unusual, what with Ed's eyes flipping out and causing issues, but were it not for that, I would be doing something else that somehow wouldn't make it to "the most interesting ways to spend your retirement hours" list. When I worked, I fit all this nonsense (the chores, the tidying, the chores) into a few spare minutes of the week. And Ed and I still hiked and biked and hung out at cafes. There weren't little ones in my life, but there was work and a lot of it.

What I have found (and I'm sure that many retired people are just like me) is that when the last necessary chore is finished, when the little ones have gone home, the couch is awfully tempting. A quiet few hours reading, writing, or watching a ridiculous movie with Ed seems blissful. Taking on the Greek language, learning how to whittle, experimenting with new ways to pickle foods, or learning how to make stained glass windows -- those kinds of projects fall to the wayside. (No, I don't really want to study Greek. It's just an example of how I once imagined that retirement would include embarking on any number of new learning opportunities.)

You can't grow wiser if you stand still. Despite my mad dashes here and there and nowhere this morning, I would say that I actually did a lot of standing in one place.

Still, it was a pretty enough place. In the morning, I took a more serious look at my garden. There is a lot that should be done with the flower beds and I did spend an hour doing some minor trimming. Mostly though, I just looked. (From the porch...)






Ed and I eat breakfast in the kitchen. Mornings are rather chilly. The lure of the great outdoors is fading rapidly. Cozy comfy warm seems preferable.





Then comes the shopping washing oh, you know, the stuff that should have been done in an hour but somehow took up the whole morning.

In the afternoon, I play with Snowdrop.

(amazing what the little girl can do with school paints...)






(a milkweed leaf offering to two butterflies circling the flower bed...)






And toward evening, I see Sparrow. Was it just two three days ago that we crossed the Atlantic?






Good night, little Midwesterners! You, for sure, will not bypass the best adventures!