Friday.....

Today in NOTL:  Sunny, cool, and clear, with a high today of 61/16.  Gorgeous!

Sometimes you really need a weekend...and this is the weekend to have.  Goodness, it's just beautiful outside!

Today we'll be working on angels and pendants, I think.  We keep promising ourselves a day off, but there always seems to be more to do.  I think that's everyone's life, though!

The all-knowing 'THEY' say that our ancestors had more leisure time than we do, despite all the labor and time saving devices we use.  I can believe that.  We just heard someone speaking about the time it takes to check in each day - between email and instant messages and texts and social networks and so on, 'checking in' was a major time commitment!

When I get a call while a visitor is here or while I'm on the phone, I normally ignore it to continue with the visit or call, saying, 'That's why God made voicemail....' or whatever.  Folks usually chuckle and urge me to take the call but I rarely do.  My feeling is that, hello, I'm BUSY.  I'm not available, so leave a message.

From my observation, though, that's not the case with most people.  A text or phone call gets their instant attention, and I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard people say, "We can talk about this later..."  to a caller who has interrupted our visit or reading.  Clearly, the call wasn't urgent - so why the call, at all?

What happened to the ability to wait?  The ability to delay gratification - that is, to wait for what you want - is one of the strongest predictors for future success.   Maybe instead of being so available, we would help our loved ones more by stepping back, turning off the cellphone, and letting them wait a bit.  Who knows, perhaps they'll do more for themselves if we do - and maybe we'd get a little more leisure!