Early Morning Thoughts

I am sitting in my room, the curtains are open, and the sun is rising. Through the windows, against the backdrop of the blue grey sky, with its touch of red eyeliner, I see houses everywhere and the tops of the Boston skyscrapers. That is life. You know for a city, Boston is remarkably quiet at night. It is actually way quieter than Petaluma, where the sounds of the highway seemed to wake me up every night at 4 a.m., and I did not even live close to the highway! Here it is the rising sun that wakes me up every morning.
This morning, I decided to change my routine a little. From now on, I will get up at 5 a.m. with Rolfe, prepare his lunch, and will have my coffee with him. This way I'll spend one extra hour with him everyday. And then, once he leaves I can get to my writing for an hour, and then take care of the family, and be ready to start our school day at 8 a.m.
Now for the update on the house... I am still not done with the living room. I did take the day off from painting on Saturday, but got right back to it on Sunday. Two walls still need a second coat of paint, as well as the odd pillar that sits in the middle of the room, the mirrored cabinet needs a second coat of semi-gloss, and one door needs everything. Well, what do you think, two more days? Then I have to tackle the covers for the chairs my parents gave me, you know the ones in the picture in the previous post. I have been debating between slipcovers, and upholstering. I found the nicest velvety fabric, in a smashing blue color, covered with my favorite flowers, tulips. I have enough fabric for either solution. If you have any thoughts please leave a comment. Any suggestion on how to make a cover are also welcome! I am starting to chew my nails just thinking about it!
I will not procrastinate. NO, I will tackle the task, and be done, and I will not get side tracked by any other project, like a lovely sock. There, that is said.
Talking about socks, well I am slightly behind schedule on my mother in law's socks. I finished the first one, and am on the gusset decreases on the second one. I know that she will love them, even if I am a few days late. While I was working on the socks, I was thinking about how nice it was to knit gifts. Gifts that you take the time to knit, or crochet, or paint, are so much more meaningful than store bought ones. I don't know if it is just because while you work on the project you think about the person you are making it for, or if it's just that you took the time. I find so much value in not rushing through life, so much that you feel rushed to pick a present. It is so easy to just fall prey to the lure of speed and efficiency.You jump in the car, drive off, drop the kids at their activities, run to the store, grab a present and rush back to pick up the kids, stopping at the grocery store to pick up a quick fix meal. I live at a slower pace. Those of you who know me well, know that I don't know how to drive. I live at the pace of my walk. The children and I walk to the library, the grocery store. We may not "do" as much in a day, but we take the time to breathe, and look around us. We take the time to cook meals, we take the time to study, to read, and of course to knit.
In the time that I have been writing, the sky has turned light blue, the red eyeliner has disappeared, I can see people walking in the street, my day has started.