Week-end Gratitudes

It has been a great week-end.  Let me capture some highlights:

--It was good to have time to get the house back in order:  sheets washed, floors vacuumed, kitchen counters cleaned.  We also did some cooking.  I baked 4 loaves of quick bread to use up some cranberry sauce that was more than we would ever use as a condiment.  I slice it and put it 2 slices to a baggie, and then put the baggies in a freezer bag--easy to take to the office.

--My friend and spin class instructor had shoulder surgery, so I've been making food for her, including lentil soup on Saturday.  On Sunday, I took the food to her.  Although she has more recovery to go, she looks great, for someone who just had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago.

--I got some grocery shopping done.  It was Sunday, just before the Super Bowl, so it wasn't crowded, like it usually would be.

--We continued to talk about what we want for the cottage.  Should we move the large, orange sofa out there?  Could we find some fabric for table coverings that would tie together the orange in the sofa with the lavender and purple walls?

--I got work done for my online classes.  And I was able to balance that with the writing that I wanted to get done.  I'm very close to being done with my story about the corporate exec coming to evaluate the school.  It's taken me in interesting and unexpected directions, and I'm happy.

--I preached at church yesterday.  For more on that topic, see this post on my theology blog.

--I didn't get the reading done that I had planned to do.  On Friday, I took library books back, hoping to renew 2 of them.  Sadly, someone else wanted them, and to find that out, the librarian had checked them back in.  So, although they weren't actually due until Saturday, I had to surrender them.  But that freed me up to read not one, but 2 volumes of poetry:  Ice Mountain:  An Elegy by Dave Bonta and Dark Fields of the Republic by Adrienne Rich.  I read them both on Friday, straight through, back to back.  And then I wrote a poem.

In short, it was a great week-end, as most of our week-ends are.  I did many of these things against a backdrop of hearing about a judge putting a stay on Trump's travel ban, which meant a window opened for refugees, who were trying to take advantage of it.  I can't imagine what that must feel like, being stranded and then the urgency.

I know I'm a lucky woman, and hearing about refugees reminds me to be grateful.  And this morning, I'm grateful for the kind of week-end we've just had.