This morning I got up at the usual time, and headed off to meet my mom at Curves - except that somehow she had gotten it into her head that we were flying out yesterday evening, so had made other plans. I suppose, since I was sitting in the parking lot right in front of Curves, I could have gone in and worked out anyway, but the will power just wasn't strong enough. So instead I swung by a coffee shop and picked up coffee and pastries for breakfast, and returned home to share them with Richard before he left for work.

After this past week's hectic schedule it was almost sheer relief to have nothing more pressing to do than putter aimlessly around the house. I sorted and put away a few stacks of miscellaneous mail that had been piling on the kitchen counters over the past few days. I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher. I did a few loads of laundry, and tidied the breakfast nook table, and packed my little weekend bag. I even went outside and picked all the peaches that were ripe and had yet to be attacked by the birds. I had to leave two on the tree that hadn't yet reached prime ripeness, but did manage to rescue four peaches from the birds. They've torn more than that to bits, however, and I am telling myself that in a few years we will be glad of a little help from the birds to take care of the sheer volume of fruit this tree is so desperate to produce. But still, it's a little disappointing, since for a brief moment there I thought we might possibly get enough peaches off our tree to make a pie. How fun it would have been to have been able to serve a white peach pie on July 4th when all our family is here. Ah well.

Because we've been working at the church every night this week I haven't gotten in much, if any knitting time at all since Sunday, and so one of the things I was very much looking forward to doing today was getting some knitting done. I am bringing the lace shawl with me on the plane, since it's on bamboo needles, and the yarn is so light and thin that it easily rolls into a tiny little bag and fits into my purse. So instead of focusing on the shawl, I decided to focus all my extra time on the afghan I'm making for Richard - thicker yarn means faster knitting, which was just what I needed this morning.

My older sister has called to say she is on her way now, which means it's time to take care of all the last minute details, like zipping off to the bank to get some cash for the trip, dropping off some library books, and giving all the cats one final scritch or pet before I leave them behind for two whole days. I'd pondered going in to work for half the day today and having my sister pick me up at the office, but after this past week, I'm glad I decided to take the day off instead. Just a little peaceful, quiet downtime to prepare myself for what promises to be a very busy, very fun weekend.