I did not forget to write a Thankful Friday post. I just ran out of time last week. Michael has returned to work and the Cabbage schedule is back to an every other weekend schedule. This also means that I am back to a weekly evening chore schedule and every evening last week, after dinner, I would do some sort of activity. One evening activity was bike riding to ice cream, but the other evenings were devoted to cleaning out the chicken coop or cleaning the bathroom. One chore an evening to keep me from spending all of Sunday doing all of the things.

The back-to-school schedule also means a return to getting up early on Saturdays to do the grocery shopping. This part of the routine begins with a breakfast sandwich, coffee and some writing, while sitting in a quiet corner of one of my favorite bakeries. For the past two years or so, all of my Saturday morning writing has been done in my Fortune Cookie journal. I have to admit that I have not opened that journal in many months, but this was not the journal I took along with me on this particular Saturday morning. Instead, I took a journal that I started writing in during our last camping trip. I started a story there that I just keep adding bits to when ever I get a chance to sit down and write. I know this sounds antiquated. I am potentially writing something that could be a book and instead of sitting at my desk and typing it out, I’m writing it down with pen and ink and paper. There’s two reasons for writing a story this way: no distractions and no commitment. Paper journals do not have access to online distractions like Facebook or Google searches about Ben and J.Lo. It also means that I am under no obligation to do something with this writing. Maybe I’ll do something with it some day, but for now, it’s something just for me.

Today, I’m cooking a large pot of brothy beans. I’ll sauté some cabbage and Italian soysage to serve on top of the beans along with some good crusty bread. Our friend, Heather, is coming over for Sunday dinner and because I did most of my chores before Sunday, I can spend the day leisurely cooking beans and putting together a simple meal filled with heart. I might also spend some more time with my journal. I don’t know, but even though back-to-school scheduling tends to mean more work for me, I am grateful for a return to something a bit more structured. The structured part of my time keeps me anchored, which keeps me from spinning out during my unstructured time. The gratitude comes in finding a balance between structured and unstructured time.

So, my Thankful Friday post may be a little late. I just like to think that I needed to marinate a little bit longer on my thoughts of gratitude. That’s part of that unstructured time.