On Chocolate Chips, Weekends, and Other Things That Concern Me Greatly

It’s going to take a lot of strength to not eat my way through that packet of chocolate chips on the counter today.

Thank Frigg it’s Friday (in case you were wondering, Frigg is an actual Norse goddess – look her up, she’s pretty amazing, you can trace her name back to the Sanskrit feminine noun Priya, I am not making words up again).
Last week’s three day week has spoilt me. This week feels unbearably long, and has been marked by an annoying lack of productivity. I like the three days work/four days rest ratio, or at the very least a four day work week/three day weekend?? Our current week seems terribly unbalanced and a little mean, who’s bright idea was it anyway?

Three chocolate chips and a few clicks later

Okay, according to this article in the Atlantic, the five day work week is a relatively new, twentieth century phenomenon, albeit an outdated one according to yours truly. I think it’s time for a change, or at least a little pull back when it comes to working hours. I think we could actually afford to work less hours, and I’m not the only one. Apparently back in 1928, John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advances would lead to a 15 hour work week within 100 years! Why hasn’t this happened? Well, one reason is that we just can’t get enough money, enough stuff, enough to keep up with the Joneses.  This snappy article got me thinking (and eating more chocolate chips).  It also raised a lot of questions in my mind about time travel, the future, and the upcoming election, but more of that some other time, I digress…

Boy, did I take a long diversion to get to what I actually wanted to show you.

We have had workmen at our house all week, fixing our insulation, popping into view suddenly to ask questions like “Is it okay that we made this hole in your bedroom ceiling?” and “Would you like us to fix this switch plate that we broke?”. This, combined with a number of school and medical appointments vying for attention, and an Iphone that died (do not venture near the Apple store in December, just don’t), has meant that I have not been able to get as much done as I wanted to this week. Oops, a few more chocolate chips found their way to my mouth.
However, this is what I have done: I have been working very slowly on a picture book, or maybe I should say reworking a book that I started years ago. The book is my labor of love, and I’m pretty sure that it will be a long while before I am satisfied with it enough to send it to a publisher. I have also been working on another canvas, with the hope that I will have a series ready by next summer.  All of this has been happening while I listen to The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman , which  the workmen seemed to enjoy as much as I do (it’s a great read). Next week, I go back to getting ready for a holiday market, but here is some visual evidence of this week’s work:

Happy weekend, my lovelies!