Don’t you just love Sundays? There’s even something about the word that sounds good – Sunday. What did you do on Sundays when you were a kid? We visited with family most every Sunday. One Sunday my cousins and their parents would be at our house. The next Sunday we’d go to theirs. We had so much fun. Then when I got married we tended just to go to Mom’s house or my Mom-in-law’s house every Sunday. And my kids got to play with their cousins.
I’m a little sad to say that tradition didn’t carry over with my kids. Two of them moved out of state after they got out of college and can’t very well come spend Sunday afternoon with Mom and Dad. Even a good home-cooked meal can’t entice them to make that kind of trip very often. My youngest lives close enough, but then my husband is in a gospel quartet and is gone most Sundays singing in this or that church. So they come sometimes but Sundays are more family days for them. And that’s good. So I still go to see my mom when I’m not tagging along with the quartet.
Today I had my sisters out for Mom’s birthday dinner. I got up and cooked and cooked all this delicious food. Then they brought some delicious food. We had way too much, but we enjoyed. Maybe the best thing is that having company always motivates me to clear away some of the clutter that accumulates way too fast. My desk is breathing a sigh of relief and so am I. I’m hoping I’ll be able to work better with some of that paperwork filed away. I’m a hundred pages in on my new book and thinking there is no way in my fictional world I’ll ever be able to tell the story I want to tell in the proper number of pages. I’ve even considered coming up with a whole new story, but then I think this one might work. I just need to get it written and then I can worry about the length and cutting out parts of it then.
Of course getting it written is sometimes the hard part. Especially with all the distractions like cleaning off that desk or shopping for a suitable dress to wear to that dinner is Texas. I looked for a red one, but red must not be in this spring. (I tried, Susie.) I did get red earrings, and I don’t even wear earrings. Normally. But somebody said I had to have earrings with my hair short like it is.
And talk about distractions. Now it’s tax time. Yuck! But I can’t put that off much longer. I actually made myself start gathering the bad news yesterday. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s a blessing to have a reason to pay taxes. In this economy that’s to the good. And while I’m hoping the economy improves for everyone, I’m also hoping it’s true that a down economy doesn’t keep people from reading books.
Books are a cheap form of entertainment. They can take you traveling when you can’t afford the gas or the plane fare. They can make you smile when you weren’t sure you could find any reason to smile. They can take you on adventures you would never even consider trying. I’ve climbed mountains, shot rapids, been in the middle of battles, lived through car chases, and any number of other exciting scenes. But the best part is being in that favorite character’s skin throughout the story and living it with him or her.
So enjoy your Sunday. Hope you have a few hours for a good book. And I’ll talk to you again Wednesday before I fly off to Dallas.