Back to normal ...

We had company over the holiday weekend. Helen and Jay came down from St. Paul, and Peter, Jennifer and Parker Joy came up from Evergreen Park. This was the first time we met Jennifer's daughter, a lively and easy six-year-old. She is bright and can pretty much take care of entertaining herself. They went to a water park, but I think she may have enjoyed roaming around our woods on a nature scavenger hunt as much as anything.

Helen and Jay went home Sunday afternoon and Peter and family headed back about lunchtime on Monday. The house is about back to normal, the cats are settling down to their routine and I am trying to get back into mine today while Tom is over at the railroad training a new conductor. There are no basement workers here today, which is unfortunate as far as progress on that  project goes. But it means I have a bit of quiet to get back to my regular morning readings, reflections, meditation and exercise. So that is all good.

I had a nice message from one of the UK Discalced Carmelites about my Gratian/Gracian translation. It is always encouraging to hear from someone who knows about Gracian (he has been translating a biography) and who likes what I did. There were tricky bits and I was not always sure I was making the best choices in my translation. But that is the translator's burden!