Have you ever noticed that most songs about Monday disparage the day? I have been humming two songs alternatively all day: Rainy Days and Mondays by the Carpenters and I Don't Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats. Different decades? Yes. Different genres? Yes. But both complain about that day of the week when we get back to the workday routine.
Once upon a time when we were a homeschooling family, I loved Mondays. Though weekends were less structured and more varied, I loved the rhythm of our homeschooling days. Mondays were music days. For a while, when my daughters were in early elementary, we had violin and flute lessons on Monday. When they decided that formal instruction was no longer their "thing" we still had music on Mondays. When morning read alouds were done, and all of our table work and computer tasks completed, we would put some (usually classical) music on the CD player and learn about the composer and his or her time in history. Or we would have an art appreciation hour, full of sketching and daydreaming, while artful music played.
Now that we are not homeschooling, Mondays are more hurried, more filled with the pressure of being somewhere on time with all of the right gear on hand. Today I substituted for a secretary in the elementary school office and we had to be on the road a little earlier than we are on the days when I volunteer in the school library. We managed to be there in plenty time, despite fog... despite it being Monday. I actually really enjoyed myself. The atmosphere in the school is very cheerful... there only a few more days before summer vacation, after all!
As I write this, rain is falling. Like me humming two different songs about Monday, the day has vacillated between two different genres of wet and gray: rain, then mist, then back to rain again. I'm putting on some music as I finish posting this, to chase away the last remnants of the Monday Blues. Now if only I can decide between Classic Stressbusters or The Clash!
These are photos of some of the blues in my butterfly garden taken today, between the rains: 1) Skywings Iris, after which my butterfly garden is named (yes, I name everything!) 2)Lilac and Violet Iris from a friend, cultivar unknown 3)Deep Purple Viola's that were hiding in a pot of aquilegia I purchased last month. All photos by Aisling, June 4, 2007