Thursday yeas and nays

Beautiful fall!

Happy Thursday, friends.

Thursday always feels like a wild card day to me. It's one of the two days each week when my daughter doesn't go to preschool, and it's also different from most of the other days because I don't have a set schedule to follow. It's almost a free day! As I was thinking about the things I need/want to get done today, I came up with this list of yeas and nays—and I learned that I can always find a lot of good if I take the time to look for it: ☺

♥ Project Runway All-Stars is on tonight. Yea!

♥ I'm way behind on my NaNoWriMo project, but I'm still plodding along. Yea!

♥ I have to write the store list for our weekly grocery shopping trip. Nay.

♥ My daughter and I are going to the library today. Yea!

♥ Yesterday's weather was beautiful, so I took the kids outside to play after school. Today, however, it's gray and rainy—not an outdoor playday at all. Nay.

♥ On the other hand, back home they already have snow, so I guess a little rain is just fine—and the leaves are still pretty. Yea!

♥ I'm almost finished with the book I'm reading, so soon I'll be able to move on to one I've been waiting to read for a while, Ted Kooser's Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. Yea!



We can find them if we look: rainbows and silver linings!

♥ Since I cooked so much this week and have tons of leftovers, I don't have to make dinner tonight. Yea!

♥ Mount Laundry is waiting for me downstairs. Nay.

♥ Today is a new day to get things right. Yea!

How about you? What are your Thursday yeas and nays?

Wishing you all a wonderful day. ☺

That day

Today's 100 words:

He came home from school that day to find the house strung with laundry, every surface covered--the backs of chairs, the dresser tops, the counters. Even the pictures on the walls had been removed so that the nails that had been keeping them in place--keeping them from succumbing to gravity--could accommodate hangers topped with dresses, shirts, pants, curtains...everything that could be held by those bent and twisted wires. He watched, openmouthed, as his grandma stood at the ironing board, her right hand moving back and forth across an old housedress, an overflowing basket waiting beside her.

It's 24-7; I'm exhausted. I still love it!

It's 3 p.m. I'm listening to my husband snore as he naps in the next room, and I suspect that more of the same will occur tomorrow: more napping, more snoring, more taking it easy. Now I don't begrudge my husband a rest: he works hard every day so that I can stay home with the kids, and I know he needs (and deserves) a break. But right this moment, in my current woe-is-me state, while I'm up to my ears in dirty dishes, unfolded laundry, and smelly diapers, I can't help but bemoan the fact that, as a stay-at-home mom, I don't get a Labor Day.

Despite it all, though, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

Happy (early) Labor Day to all of you!

In the game again

It's true what they say about vacations: you need one to recuperate from the one you just took. Ever since we arrived home late Saturday night, I've been unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning, and taking the kids to appointments and storytime. Yesterday I even managed to catch up on some of my writing. (Yay!) I've been busy.

And I am exhausted.

Returning home from vacation is always difficult for me. If I could, I would move back to Michigan, back to my small town with its small-town way of life. I don't dislike living in a large city--I certainly appreciate all of the opportunities living here presents to me and my family--but I miss the atmosphere of a smaller town and the sense of community and belonging that usually goes along with it.

And then there's my family. We've always been close, and it's hard to be away from them, especially when I know I can see them only once a year. I wrote a 100-words entry about this shortly after arriving back home:

I've been back in New York for only two days, yet I'm already homesick. Although I can think of many good things about living in a large city, I still miss the small town I grew up in. Mostly, though, I miss my family. Neither my husband nor I have relatives close by, and that's really a lonely feeling. I'm not the type of person who has a large circle of friends, and even though I've made one close friend since moving here--a friend I would miss so much if she weren't in my life--the loneliness doesn't subside.

But enough of the sad stuff. What I'm happy about is being back here, blogging and interacting with my online friends! It was hard to be away for so long, and I'm very glad to be back to the world of writing.

So what's up next for me and my blog? More writing and more writing about writing--just more of doing what I love.

And I can't wait.