sweet september

if a month has to begin on a monday, i think a monday holiday is only fair. i spent the day in the kind of personal reflection achieved while accomplishing - not too many things - but enough to give me a sense of personal satisfaction and justified reward while my homemade rice pudding, redolent with cinnamon - made from leftovers, even - steams and thickens on the stove.

i corralled meg into cleaning up her room enough so that any damage done by the workmen tomorrow when they install her new window should be minimal. i induced libby to spend half as much as she wanted to on a new comforter for her new full-sized bed. i sweet-talked Beloved into hanging up his clothes and sorting out his laundry. i found the prettiest curtains for the new kitchen - a fabric called Laura's Garden - which certainly answers why i've been hearing that. (i was beginning to think i was supposed to go see my dear friend laura and her garden.)

i did two loads of laundry (dark and white towels), vacuumed, changed the sheets and pulled a few weeds. then i checked on the baby hollies and congratulated them on being so brave and hanging in so well. i sorted through the pots Beloved cleaned for me, and filled in the first layer with pebbles. i found a beautiful piece of yellow quartz that almost gleams like citrine.

i ate like an Angel ALL DAY today - beginning with a delicious raspberry-vanilla yogurt smoothie before my three and a half mile hike up the mountain. lunch was another smoothie - this one peach-banana, and dinner was rainbow-roasted pot roast... a pot roast simmered all day long in a positively heavenly melange of garlic, basil, oregano, tomatoes, carrots, purple onions, green beans, wax beans and celery, with red mashed potatoes on the side. i added dried wild blueberries to the rice pudding i made because i thought i deserved it.

i gave some thought to taking some radically new directions for my writing - into the realms of nonfiction, a place i never thought to go. i think the Angel Eating Way would make a good book, as my dear friend patrice suggested. (im calling the massage lady tomorrow.) i think there's other topics i could write reasonably intelligently about. goddess knows i've decided to devote a whole blog to things i write intentionally unreasonable about. and my father - of all people - encouraged me to query Real Simple - of all magazines - because he thinks their readers would enjoy my blog.

but then, my daddy loves me.

and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.