Laboring

     What do you call it when one labors, but it's a labor of love and enjoyment? Amusement perhaps? Anyway, we amused ourselves with labor over Labor Day weekend. I wanted to hike Apple Orchard Falls but, the weather forecast showed temperatures too high for my hiking pleasure so we postponed that for a cooler weekend. Speaking of weekends, Steve is around on the weekends these days! It's so uncommon that we almost don't know what to do first with such a normal schedule. After twenty-six years employed in the same industry, he made a career change this summer. He has a much longer commute to work now, but workplace stress levels are greatly reduced and the number of hours he works each week are within a normal range. It is truly a blessing.
     We enjoyed three long days off from work for the Labor Day weekend and used the time to begin building a long overdue project for a garden shed. We also repaired the lawnmower that a mouse damaged ($160 worth!), brewed beer, planted some new shrubs, watched Stranger Things in back-to-back episodes, sat on the porch in the evenings, and enjoyed some good meals. I also baked some apple turnovers with apples from our pastor's trees, read The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, and I started a new hooked rug. I think we managed to fit in most of our favorite things. The only other thing that could have made it perfect would have been to have the children all here, in which case none of the above would have gotten done. We hope to see everyone pretty soon!
     After I baked some apple turnovers Saturday afternoon, I walked over to Mrs. C.'s with a couple of them to share with her. Have I mentioned that her home is an old schoolhouse? It was built sometime early in the last century. Mrs. C. tells me that she was born in it in 1932, but she doesn't recall when her parents moved in and made the schoolhouse their home. It's an amazing building with the interior still perfectly intact as it was originally built. The walls are covered in wainscoting and the ceilings must be twelve feet high. It's a pleasure to visit with Mrs. C. and to sit in the time capsule that is her home.
     

Beautiful wool cut into strips and ready to hook

Latest rug which will become the upholstered top on a bench.

During our evening walk, I looked back and snapped this picture of the shed being built.