If I could put one word to my day today it would be sigh. Maybe, I’m saying less a word than an exhalation, the actual motion of letting go a teeny-tiny bit.
As in, the construction brigade is in front of my house* being loud (to me, this spells W-A-T-E-R and even more so, less anxiety soon, even if we won’t have water tomorrow in all likelihood). As in, we made it through our surprisingly large (ask my dear husband, whose plea after this past Sunday to me was: next year, keep better track of how many people you say yes to) craft show. There were about fifteen artists and easily 150 folks streaming through—and the plumbing held up! What a colorful, textured, friendly day we had (and we even raised some money for Grow Food Northampton and were interviewed for a radio story).
We were exhausted by day’s end. It was one of those exceedingly satisfying types of fatigue, though, the one that comes from having so enjoyed seeing—and meeting—so many lovely people, and having provided a way to make the day nicer for so many folks. I mean, really, you cannot beat that. It’s pretty much in the good-as-it-gets category.
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So, one kid’s break has already begun. He didn’t feel great—part of the chain reaction of near-illness/low grade something we experienced during and in the wake of our upheaval last week—and he explained it thusly: “We’re still above the weather from having no water and having to leave the house.”
As the week moves forth, the vacation/holiday mode will… intensify. Every year, I hope it’ll be less of a production and every year it still feels like more of a production than I wished. That said having nears and dears to brunch on Christmas morning is absolutely always a delight.
Although I tend to get overwhelmed by the “stuff” factor, this year, I have not obtained nearly so much (and I like what I’ve obtained) and I unearthed plenty during my blitz of cleaning and clearing before the craft show that I’m glad to gift/re-gift. I’ve dropped off photos for the annual calendar at the copy store—Steve said, “We wondered when you’d show up”—and I’ve got a couple of other photo projects in the works, like printing some beloved photos taken on the just-one-year-old digital camera. For me, I’m almost relaxed about all this, which for me is unprecedented (ask my dear husband about this).
I have a few snacks left (purchased for our full house) and so I’m hoping to spend some of this break time having people over and being able to just hang out and eat chocolate animal crackers and nuts (maybe get ambitious and mull some cider?). Besides continuing my clearing out the house project—I went through twelve plastic storage boxes yesterday, and offloaded, saved for later and generally dealt with clothes and puzzles and have a big bin of Duplo for my nephew, now—I’m enjoying other tidying projects, like adding to my blogroll. See? How can I not sigh? It’s such a nice puttering type of day.
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Meantime, I’ve spent the past day pretty much blown over and obsessed by the most delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever had. Local baker Ellen Darabi made it—her chocolates, also divine, were part of our craft sale—and I ate a piece for lunch—and I’ll admit it—another for supper yesterday. I raved and raved about its delectableness and wondered why anyone would eat cake by another baker (even though, I do know there are other very wonderful bakers out there; this one rocked the house).
I’d link right here right now, but she doesn’t have a website… yet. Ezekiel and I are hoping to set her up with one—he’s dreaming of cake blog, too—and a Facebook page to boot. It would not be an exaggeration to say that at ten o’clock last night, we were pledging to one another to become Ellen Darabi’s chocolate-confection (meaning, most especially cake but not exclusively by any means) champions.
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If you needed any further convincing about my commitment to the notion of me and sigh, let me prove it beyond doubt: once our pipe issue is solved and the very extremely lovely workers have dug their hole in the street and refilled it, I say let it snow. Winter’s here and the days, they are elongating.
*Photo provides glimpses of: construction crew, eight year-old’s best vacation activity, clean house.
