You know it is getting bad when your wanna-be title of  "Catching up.." is already used.  That is what I feel like though--like I am constantly trying to catch up, or like I am chasing my tail.

We had a lovely time on our little vacation.  The weather was beautiful, and I got everything on my shopping list.  We tend to stop at factory outlet stores whenever we can to shop, and there are two sets on the way to Rhode Island from here.  Unfortunately I discovered when I checked the credit card balance that the Canadian dollar took a dive while we were away, so the deals we got don't seem so great after all.  Now we get to pay the piper...ugh!

Belle had her tenth birthday while we were away--it was great to share the time with friends.  I can hardly believe she is ten already.  My does time fly!

One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Newport.  I haven't been to Newport town since my first ever trip there.  On that trip, I had just been married a year and it was my first introduction to folk in other churches in our denomination, as it was the time of our annual meetings.  The women and children (I didn't have any of my own yet) spent a day in Newport and I bought my husband a scrimshaw knife in a little shop.  It has a sailing ship on it--and if you've been to my house you will know how much I like sailing ships.  The same shop is still there--more than 11 years later, but unfortunately it was closed when we found it after dinner.  I am still the proud owner of a new magnet of one of the Newport mansions to put on my fridge, and a little blue and white pitcher--in the tradition of my Grandmother.

(My Grandmother collected pitchers from places she had been, and was also given many by others from places they had visited.  I still remember sleeping in her little house by the railway track, and hearing the pitchers rattle every time the train went by.  I still remember the pitcher made from a walnut shell--or was it an acorn?  It was so tiny!  I am now the proud owner of several of her pitchers, and am adding to them my own collection.  I also have Grandma's little book in which she described all her pitchers, and I need to start my own journal as well.  What memories!)

On the way home I managed to pick up a cold.  Fortunately, apart from being congested and tired, it isn't too bad.

We arrived home on Friday and unpacked.  Saturday I cleaned house and did my usual budgeting stuff, plus the monthly stuff.  Sunday I went to church, and rested.  I was so glad I was able to go in spite of my cold.

Today we did laundry and worked in the yard, as well as our lessons.  Those were happily interrupted by a surprise visit from my sister-in-law's parents!  We had a lovely time with them, and I got to see photos of my brother and SIL repacking their suitcases in the airport!  (They had had to do some rearranging due to weight issues....has anyone else had that problem?  I certainly have.)

Tonight my feet are crying with pain.  Can feet cry??  Maybe it is me that is crying...I think (with some support from different quarters) that I probably have plantar fasciitis.  If you've had that, you will know what I am talking about.  I am probably guilty of causing it myself....see, those good shoes I bought six years ago still look good and still fit...right?  And I have several pairs of very OLD good shoes.  So I gave in and bought myself a good new pair of shoes on vacation, and they helped, and I wasn't running up and downstairs fourteen times a day, or wearing Wellies to work in the garden, and I stopped having to take anti-inflammatories.  Then I came home, and walked two and from church in church shoes 3 times yesterday (one more than normal because dear husband forgot his glasses--it is difficult to preach when the congregation is a muddled blur), and wore Wellies, and traipsed up and downstairs and to the basement doing laundry, and in spite of the good shoes I am again in pain.

Oh the other thing I did today....researched how to de-lump white sugar and did it.  I made the unfortunate blunder of thinking a tote in the basement (which tends to be very damp) was a good place for a pantry for dry goods, like sugar.  Well, my bag of sugar became a brick!  A very large brick!  So I had to break it up and run it through the food processor to break down the lumps.  I think my hands may complain tomorrow about all the pounding.

Fall is definitely here, although it has been unseasonably warm for these parts.   I do see the temperatures forecasted to fall at the end of the week.  We still don't have quite all our wood for the winter stacked--a job for husband, as I don't need to add sore back to the litany of pain.