The week slipped by as mildly as the cool weather, punctuated by a heavy rain that made some of the tomatoes split in their greedy rush to ripen. I harvested the first Delicious tomato along with a big bowlful of Roma tomatoes. The plants reached the tops of their stakes some time ago and have toppled over above the highest ties, turning their bed into a riotous tangle of layered vines. I'll have to get tomato cages next year to restrain their compost-fueled growth.

Baby's load enriched another section of the garden, only to be replaced by a modest amount of torn paper among big armfuls of old plants and weeds. There are new spinach and Swiss chard plants coming up from my last planting, a final hurrah of new life defying the coming frosts. They seem far away with the weather so balmy, but the return of morning fogs is clear warning that frost is not too far away.

With ripe tomatoes and some plump green beans on the menu today, summer still reigned in the kitchen. The last of the green beans will be picked in the next few days, their lush green plants added to the tumblers hungry for nitrogen. The garden is beginning to look like a desert again with so many cleared areas, only to be clothed with tiny weeds seizing the sunlight and rain with determined triumph now that the vegetable interlopers have been removed from their places. Baby and Rapunzel are going to be eating well until frost finally declares the yearly truce between the weeds and the gardener.

I've been working diligently on the star block quilt whose picture appeared in the last chapter. That led to sore fingers and a search for another craft to do to give my quilting fingers a rest. I dug among my crafting supplies, marveling at the heaps of quilting fabric that reappeared among various embroidery, crocheting, knitting, and other assorted goodies.

The painting lesson that I had worked in had once again shown that painting is not one of my reasonably useful talents, unless I am gifted as a modern art painter whose works must be appreciated through their emotional appeal instead of a recognizable subject. I was looking for something else that would look productive enough that I wouldn't be addressed with remarks about the costs of my latest trip to fabric.com and its wonderland of good stuff. I did point out that Steve's favorite fast food prize-winning game was starting again, so he would soon be splurging there to get game tickets. That didn't impress him too much as his splurges could be eaten and mine were burying each other in glorious heaps of inedible beauty.

The solution came in Guideposts magazine, a respectable Christian publication long one of Mom's favorites. Among its fine articles was an update of the Guideposts Sweater Project, a program in which the readers were encouraged to hand knit or crochet children's sweaters and send them to the magazine for distribution to children in need of warm winter clothing around the world. I can knit quite well, but I already had quite a few sweaters in good enough shape that I didn't need to make more for me. Mom's closet was quite stuffed, and Steve refuses to wear sweaters. A knitting project where the final results could be put to good use was just the thing, and wasn't it fortunate that fabric.com was having a yarn sale along with a cotton prints sale which was rapidly shrinking in inventory. I had a few skeins of some dark navy yarn that had somehow gotten sidetracked, but they weren't really bright enough to make a cheerful child's sweater. The appropriate order for some yarn along with a discreet set of cotton prints soon slipped along the phone line to fabric.com.

Today was the promised delivery date for the package. I got up early and made a bountiful batch of pancakes to start the day, then busied myself diligently feeding the tumblers and crowing about the latest bowl of ripe tomatoes from the garden. The washer, dryer, and dishwasher hummed along with helpful sounds of housework being done. Steve went to the library with two bags of recyclable but non-compostable paper for their recycling program that helped raise funds for the library system. Mom was busy with her planning for the beaded ornament lesson that she was going to give to the women's group instead of diva night at the pottery studio.

I slipped to the computer for quick peeks at the package's progress as I gave Mom updates on how many people were signing up for the ornament lesson. Sure enough, it was put out for delivery today, so it would be showing up at any time. I was hoping that it would arrive while Steve was still out, but the hours dragged on and still the UPS truck hadn't arrived.

Steve finally came home with the paper bags and the news that the library no longer had a recycling bin beside it. He was going to have to check to see if the program had been discontinued. He settled into the living room right where he would clearly hear the truck drive up with its distinctive rumble and played his favorite computer card games. I decided that perhaps I could still catch the UPS man before he rang the doorbell, but he arrived while I was serving supper. Steve lurched out of his chair to answer the door even as I made a quick dash for it. He followed behind and waited while I signed for the package, then suspiciously read the label on it. It was far too large to be either of the packages of splurges for Mom or him that were also coming, which I hadn't known about.

"Fabric.com," he muttered to himself, and then pronounced me evil. He also pronounced fabric.com evil, and then informed Mom that yet another package from fabric.com had arrived. By then I had it in my room opening it to see what kind of yarn had arrived, and to my delight it turned out to be a high quality yarn that was just what I needed for the knitting project. Mom came in to see what evil had befallen the family this time, and I showed her the printout of the Guideposts Sweater Project and crowed about what a wonderful bargain I had gotten on the yarn necessary to make the patterns printed from the site. She smiled and approved of the project, much to Steve's dismay.

I got out my knitting needles and started knitting a sweater. It really was splendid soft yarn in beautiful colors. My thimble finger was quite sore from all the quilting I had done this week and did need a rest for a while. The cats were even fairly cooperative and only swatted at the dancing ends of the knitting needles briefly before settling down for their naps.

Steve will have his fast food game pieces to console him, especially if he wins some food prizes. I decided not to bring that up, nor the splurge he had coming that I hadn't known about. After all, fabric.com has sales quite often, and I might need more yarn pretty soon.