Of Autumn Leaves and Cows Jumping Over the Moon

I can't quite see this blogging becoming addictive, but I do feel a need to keep it updated. Plus, I feel challenged to learn how to format the blog a little better.

I think our "winter plan" is in effect!! Often, those who work 8 to 5, wonder what retired people do all day. They wonder what retired--okay elderly--people could possibly do to fill all those hours. I used to wonder what on earth my mother did with her time. Actually what Mother did with her time wasn't a mystery--she kept her little apartment clean and orderly, and she sewed quilts. She didn't, as I remember, watch a lot of television, and she didn't read books at all. I thought it strange that she would often take naps at ten o'clock in the morning and constantly woke us up with calls at 5am, saying she'd been up for hours!! Now, I don't know what people do who don't have hobbies, but I know that retired people who have church responsibilities, hobbies, a home, and an intelligent mind are BUSY.

We, for instance, wake up at 5am still. We've always awakened at 5am; the alarm is never set; our inner alarms automatically clue us in. We take a morning walk by 5:30; another habit that we've engaged in off and on for years. Today, I accidentally stumbled through a small puddle and wondered for the nth time why we don't make it a habit to walk after the sun comes up!! Habit.... Then, we explain to each other what our individual plans for the day may be. On our "mission" days, we simply remind each other that we'll need to leave for Portland by 8:30, but on non-mission days we go through our plans. Then, we go on about our own business and meet up again at noon. We always know where the other is, but we really don't work together. We've taken lately to spending our evenings by ourselves--sort of. Tom is in his "office" doing lesson prep or writing his life story, and I work in my sewing room either sewing or indexing or genealogy research. We're hilarious, since we've both become a bit hard or hearing. Often, we're yelling through the walls at each other. We've thought about getting tin cans with strings to communicate. We're BUSILY engaged in activities that we seem driven to do, that we feel, somehow, will measure the worth of our lives. It's fulfilling and comfortable--like comfy old slippers.

These week Tom has been laboring with his leaf blower. I tried to get a picture of him with the leaf blower but arrived outside when he was mowing the lawn after he'd blown away the leaves. In the afternoon, a gusty wind came up, and the leaves are falling once again, which brought a grin to Tom's face. I, on the other hand, have spent hours making cows jump over the moon--a quilt for new great-grandson, Carter. I'm actually make two quilts at the same time--same quilt in fact. One for Carter, and one for the child of one of our favorite law students from LaJolla.

Life is good.