It’s Monday morning and I am in my summer Saturday morning writing spot, the deck overlooking the path and the back yard and garden. The lawn crews don’t work our neighborhood on Monday, so it will be peaceful. Ivy joined me earlier, but decided she wanted to go back to sleep, plaintively whining beside the backdoor, so I let her back in. She went inside and laid down curling up on her pad. Later, when I went inside to refill my coffee cup, I asked her if she wanted to come back outside, she lifted her head, and sighed as if to say,

“It’s Monday morning, let me sleep, please.”

I can empathize, the past couple of days have been a blur.

It’s a new week and it’s going to be a great day, a marvelous Monday.

Thursday, I laid low and took a day to relax and rejuvenate and of course, to make a salad.

Friday, I spent working on my desk – it’s a mess and I’ve been avoiding working on it. Granted, when I am at the lake it’s impossible to clean, sort, and recycle the papers on my desk, but I have been home and had the time to direct to sorting, cleaning, and filing.

Saturday, I worked outside with B and W. O was busy with band. We gardened, I trimmed and removed spent vegetation, pulled weeds, and helped move and reposition plants. It’s mid-summer in the garden, the lilies are almost finished and the color in the garden comes mainly from the Black-eyed Susan’s which have exploded in the garden and taken over, crowding out the summer’s early blooms. Under B’s direction, I dug up and removed several large clumps of the Black-eyed Susan’s in the front of the garden. We replanted couple Black-eyed Susan’s in the rear of the garden, along the fences to give the garden texture and height.

Sunday, we attended church and afterwards, I worked downstairs at my desk and keeping an eye on the Astros ballgame. It’s a long season, and lately it’s been a long season for the team. They won Sunday with 4 runs in the final inning. It’s an exciting way to win a ballgame, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

Gardening, like my desk, is satisfying when I get to it. However, it’s the ‘getting to it’ part. I am thankful for five of O’s ‘found’ photos.

photo by O – a Black-eyed Susan is a rest stop for a moth

coneflowers – a photo by O

fast food for a bee, a confelower – a photo by O

zinnia’s a favorite of B’s – – a photo by O

a late blooming lily – a photo by O

Late last night, I was sorting photos into file folders and came across the above photos O captured of the flowers in the back garden Saturday afternoon while I was taking a short break, inspecting my eyelids. She has an eye and can see things I don’t, or can’t. Conversely, there are things I can see she can’t.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Henri Bergson (1859-1941) French writer and philosopher

Like what we see, there is time.

“Every man has only enough strength to complete those assignments that he is fully convinced are important.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German writer and philosopher

It is indeed a Marvelous Monday, I have one more Monday before school begins for me. O has two more Mondays. It’s easy to count the days, much more challenging to make them count. This morning, after I press ‘publish,’ I am headed to school to work on some to dos and unpack boxes and begin the ‘setting up’ part of school the part the students don’t see. I’ll be back Tuesday morning, for a second day, then next week, and the following Monday in thirteen days, I’ll be back full-time.

It’s gonna be a great day, it already is – it’s a Marvelous Monday. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, one Marvelous Monday following a Sensational Sunday, or preceding a Terrific Tuesday.

What day of the week is a favorite of yours? Why?