Ah, still. life. I need some still life. Neel, Mom and Dad, I know that you will be able to picture the look that would have been on my Grandma Charlotte's face when I say this: I'm about ready for daylight savings to end. She hated the end of daylight savings, hated dark and early evenings, so if I were to say this to her, she would take it as a personal slight. But I'm ready. Bring fall on. The picture above was taken at seven this morning and I'm tired of the sun not coming up for two hours after I do.

We're aided in our cozy morning by leaden skies and the threat of much-needed rain. I've been yearning for a day like this. Neel has taken Callum into school, and I'm home from work today. It's how my schedule is meant to be, but somehow part-time jobs never quite work out the way they're meant to. I have some thoughts on work and craft and balance that I'm not quite ready to share, but I will soon. I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

I told Neel that all I want to do this weekend is sit. Why is it that the very thought of being still engenders so much guilt? Callum and I come home from work and school and a half-hour commute, and rather than simply sitting and resting and talking, even for a few minutes, I immediately move to the refrigerator to think about dinner or start straightening things. I work so hard during the week, and still, somehow every weekend I feel compelled to move from one thing to another. Yard work, groceries, fix the screen door, do the laundry. We could do a better job at being still, that's for sure. Last week, when we pulled into the driveway Jean and Paul were across the street, and Callum and I never made it into the house. We walked straight to their front porch and sat down. Callum, who had finished his homework at school, started throwing the football, and when Neel got home, he walked across to join us too. As I sat there I could feel, kink, kink, kink, my muscles relaxing. Okay, so this is how I need to do it.

So here's my day today. Nothing more taxing than grafting the toe on my monkey sock, doing some planning for Christmas gifts, finally, finally flipping through Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts which I've carried from work to home and back again for days with the hopes of actually getting a chance to look through, browsing some catalogs and a movie or two. If I'm lucky I'll do it again over the weekend.