quite at my leisure

ahhh. blessed, sweet friday.  like the first breeze of a cool front, it brings that full-body awareness that something different is about to happen.  something refreshing, filled with treasures unknown, and it invites you to inhale and absorb the glittery reality of weekend.  

and what does that mean for yours truly? well, right now it means luxurious computer time usage prior to the older hours of the day that usually accompany our rendezvous. the computer’s mama is out and about, frolicking in youthful revelries.  well-earned revelries, might i add.  and i, surprise surprise, have been feeling a touch under the weather today, and so i opted to lay low, drink water and sprite zero, eat pretzels and cranberry chicken delight, and try to rally all of my white blood cells to come to the rescue and do me a solid over here so i can party with the fousin set to arrive tomorrow.  the duck flies at noon and i hope to be sailing on the sea of anticipation of a true fousin weekend sans the poor health anchor weighing me down come tomorrow, so here’s to that!

Rachie = the duck flying in around noon for some serious fousin reunion 

this week has been one of gift, answered prayers, and struggle.  so business as usual, i should say.  i have a job thanks be to the Provider of all good things.  this has been a great and welcome development for me.  first of all, because job-hunting is the pits.  it was a good reminder for me to pray for the unemployed, especially those who have families to support, because it is a darn sight stressful enough without throwing other people besides oneself into the mix.

secondly, i have a definite end to this extended summer vacay i have been cruising along in.  now, don’t get me wrong, if you know me, you know i love me some sweet action vacay (bbqs, clam bakes, trips to the cape-jkjk-not jk to the bbqs, but to the other things-though i am sure i would love a good clam bake and a trip to the cape should the opportunity ever present itself). 

see that face? i take vacays very seriously-- just ask bubba

that being said, vacay is much better enjoyed when it is well-earned.  and idle hands are the devil’s play-things or something like that.  what i’m getting at is that i need to work, i need to be productive, proactive, synergize, and make some deals and kick some butt.  i need to not feel like i am floating around in never never land.  never going forward. never doing something new.  land before time.  part X.    

but really, what's not to love here?

or here?

not that i don’t love going to Mass at my leisure, praying at my leisure, leisurely strolling down west at my leisure, baking biscotti by the tupperware full at my leisure etc. etc. etc.  because i do love it.  but i also love earning it.  and i ran out of the good chocolate chips and i am almost out of the good flour and guess who doesn’t have any bones to throw toward her baking projects as of now? (my hand is raised).

heart shaped measuring cups full o' sugar do not come free after all

so, all things considered, the job came at the perfect time.  God’s time.  

i had grocery shopping with the apple dumpling and her mama on wednesday. 

those apples look very septembery to me and please appreciate sophia the one-shoe wonder

and a lovely tortilla soup made by said mama who, by the way, has mad wife and mama skills.  it is the cutest because anytime you do anything with sophia to make her laugh or anything that allows her to accomplish something (like put a key into your skirt pocket) she looks at lianna and awaits her approval or her encouragement.  or a combo of both. and mama li gives it with gusto.  it is great and a half.  

best friends

mama feet baby feet

joy 

and yesterday i reveled in leisurely doing things (like making biscotti-my baking obsession dujour) at my leisure with the sweet knowledge that there shall be an end to such days and so i must absorb the goodness while i can.  

part of my leisure was enjoying looking at the exterior of this egg prior to the inevitable smashing

china and i drove out to meet bubba for mass at his school, which was wonderful, and then what was to be a jaunt into georgetown to hit up the store that put cupcakes on the d.c. map.  and a show into girls homes (like me) that enjoy watching cupcakes be made in a kaleidoscope of flavors and colors, yet all unified by that swirly icing cap each sprinkly treat dons before being called to their final home.  

the scene of the yet to be fulfilled cupcake conquering 

yet, it was not meant to be, for it was around this time that i began to feel under the weather and unable to partake with total enjoyment what i desire only to totally enjoy when i partake in it.  so we just rolled through georgetown, marvelling at the endearingly quaint and absurdly expensive homes, and glorying in the golden early evening first-day-o-september light sunshine.  

i really dig the lamppost sitch they got going on 

and now i sit, in the luxurious couch of a first friday evening, full of cranberry chicken and pretzels and anticipation for doing some of my own (though perhaps not so well-earned) youthful frolicking and revelling in the coming days.  

past fousin frolic hope to be repeated presently 

oh yeah, p.s., girlfriend LOVES long weekends.  by girlfriend, i mean me. and by loves i mean LOVES. i have always felt, since the young elementary days of my girlfriendhood, that 3 day weekends were really the only proper amount of weekend days.  4 day weeks are a breeze compared to 5 dayers, and 3 day weekends give you a day of pre-rest, a day of rest, and a day of post-rest.  and who could argue that logic?

cheers to labor day, cheers to finding out again what labor day is for...whoops...and cheers to you and to some frolics and reveleries because you probably have earned it.  and even if you haven’t, God Loves you, so go frolic and revel in that sweet knowledge.

just to give you an idea of what good frolicking looks like

peace, girlfriends (and boyfriends-though i don’t think any dudes read this blog...you never know).  

happy september and happy First Friday!