Incommunicado

For some reason I have not made the time to post here. I find myself closing doors that should be at least left cracked, not returning phone calls, not chit-chatting around the water cooler. Maybe it's a regrouping, regathering of the spiritual troops. Taking a breather from life. Vacation helped a little, but not much. I find myself very impatient and frustrated by the same old crap from the same old people. Not being supportive when I know I should be, wanting to give a kind word or a pat on the back, but feeling feeling "out of sorts" instead. I know this, too, will pass. Another period of the blah's.

As always, there are blessings to count. DH has a contract job for the next 10-12 weeks. Stinky Magee is enjoying school (except for Language Arts...not the teacher, just the work). Pumpkin Pie has had a harder time adjusting, as she is the socialite, the drama queen, and cannot hold her tongue, but some days she does manage to stay on "green." Apple-S has enjoyed his time home with Dad, going to the park or to the Y. He's still not keen on using the potty, especially #2, but hopefully, before he starts dating, he will be consistent. (Right now, he his hands and half of his face are teal from the marker he was using to write the alphabet.)

And now that Fall has begun, it's time for the "What I Did While on Summer Vacation" essay....

This summer our family went to the Swiss Alps and French Riviera and blew glass with the Venetians.

Or not.

Like most people, it revolved around work and the kids. One bright spot was the week we spent up at my folks, mostly just hanging out on the back porch and watching for deer in the evening. We went to Rural King and looked at farm equipment and bought cracked corn out of barrel to feed the ducks at the park. We shared ice cream cones outside the old-fashioned Dairy Queen and left behind little puddles of vanilla. One afternoon was spent in IL in Amish country, seeking some little shop the DH wanted to investigate, watching the horses and buggies, and trying to guess which of the homesteads were Amish (based on paint color and propane tanks). We did stop to pan for diamonds in Arkansas, but only found a bit of quartz and various colored stones.

The year is flying by, hard to believe that it is nearly the end of September. Less than three months until Stinky's b-day, then Christmas. MIL will be stopping by (hopefully) for a visit during the holidays.

Now to finish up the books that I have started this week and finish work on a couple of necklaces that are still in progress, one with freshwater pearls and Japanese seed beads, the other with SS chain, garnets and onyx. The latter will be a two-strand necklace, of which the first is done and I have worn, but I think I need to shorten. I plan to make it so that you can wear them together or apart. The former is a double-spiral that takes forever to stitch, as I have only finished about 2 1/2 inches, and plan to get about 8 or 9 inches done before I use up the pearls. I'll finish with about 3 1/2 inches of double spiraled seed beads on each side and SS cones to cover the ends, if I can find some decent ones that I like. Can't decide if I want to do a pretty clasp or a lobster claw with an extended chain. I, obviously, have time to decide.