Saturday – A Day to regroup.

Hi there.

Thanks for checking in with me. Glad you’re here. Saturdays are my Regroup-and-Consider-the-Week-ahead-Day. Saturdays are my Laundry-and Clean-the-Kitchen-Floor-Day. Saturdays are my Switch-off-from-the-World-Day. What about you? What are Saturdays in your world? Or have all your days rolled into a chain of 24-hour episodes? Having had our routines wiped away, I’m hearing plenty of “what day is it?”!

I have always worked from home a lot. Especially any art-related tasks. They ALL get done here in what has now become the Daily Doodle SHAC-Shack. And I usually work every day – including weekends. If this blog is construed as work, then for sure I work every single day. Just checked. 2,653 blogs, One day at a time. Our Paul has helped in places though!

When we all went to Hawaii last year, for example. God, I am glad we did that trip when we did. The whole family together. At the time I was wincing at the expense. New Mexico, California, Maui. Blimey. Now I am so very grateful we were able to do it when we did. I haven’t seen my son Mark since. He’s in San Fran you see. Couldn’t come home at Christmas because of his new job and no accrued holiday. And now he can’t. So his planned trip home in July has been postponed. Postponed though. Not cancelled, eh. That’s almost a year. Thank goodness for Facetime !! Can’t do a damned thing about it, so I have to turn it round. Be glad he is ok. Be glad he has a loving girlfriend, be glad he is super smart, has a roof over his head and some good friends. And Grace too, in New York of all places! Shit!!! The other side of the States! But again, she’s super smart and safe, working for Clarity from her home. She has a loving partner, Mark, who even went out and bought a car, so he could drive to and from his workplace in NY, to reduce contact. Here’s a pic of all 3 of them, last time they were in our kitchen here. Mark, Grace and Mark. Check out the arms and shoulders on Grace’s fella! And we thought our Mark was a giant!!

Even before the Pandemic sent us home, I spent a great deal of time alone actually. And whilst I might say I’m fine with that and I actually enjoy my own company, that’s easy to say when you know you’ve got a loving husband coming home every evening, kids Facetiming you almost daily from the States, parents to call every evening. That’s not really alone, now is it. I’m sure many of you reading this are properly alone. Not just till somebody gets in. That’s for real. I imagine that takes a whole helluvalot of discipline to do daily – especially now. I hope you are coping. I wish there were more I could do. Our daily doodle sessions might help, you know, just give you somewhere to be and something to do every day if you are feeling a little rudderless. Just a thought.

Back to work tomorrow. Paul and I pick n pack orders together on Sundays. And then it TV HOCHANDA at 2-4pm with our lovely new and reworked clever corner stamps.

Then at 6pm the One Day Special. We’ve added a last minute set of fantastic stamps to that show. Brand new, fresh out the oven. We do what we can, and this we can !! Didn’t even have time to get them to the ever clever Design Team, to make samples for the show – but hey ho! Trust me! They’re blimming fabulous! Smaller than usual 2×2 inch and 2-way overlay printing stamps. Looky looky!!! Here’s a little play with just ONE pair out of the four!! Superb.

I have to stay busy. It stops the mind from wandering. There’s an old Beatles song with that line in it, I‘m sure. Fixing a hole….Let me find it for you …

I just listened carefully to the lyrics. Wow. How interesting. Especially the verse about taking the time for a number of things that weren’t important yesterday…

Ironically, Dave is painting the dining room in a colourful way as I write. We are cut from the same cloth, he and I.

Fixing a Hole

The Beatles

Stay safe.

Love and hugs

Barb xxx