Early Evening Coffee Chat: March Showers

Come in, dears, come in.  March is nearly away from us and I wanted one last visit with you this month.  It's nice enough outdoors I suppose but the pollen is rather heavy at the moment so we'll take our coffee in the kitchen sitting area and admire the views from the windows, all right? We are due thunderstorms this evening, but thus far we've only cloudy skies.

There are few flowers to see but the world is certainly green and blue these days...or green and gray as the day may be at the time.  We've had plenty of showers of late.  Not great puddle makers, just showers, but sometimes they've lasted very nearly all the day.  In Georgia, March seldom roars, but it certainly does sprinkle us liberally, a baptism into a new season.

I've been busy...did you notice?  I've had the fun of working hard on my home, both cleaning and what I call playing, which is the part where I decorate and refresh and such.  I tend to over do but gracious, a  good day's work does usually make for a really good night's rest I've noticed so it sorts itself out.  I'll confess we had a few worrisome days as well and housework is always good for what worries me.  It takes my mind off things...or if it's repetitive work it sometimes allows me to mull over the troubles and get some insight and clarity.



Well it all comes out the way it's meant to and usually I've done nothing in the world but waste my time worrying and getting a lot of ticky sorts of jobs done.  At least I don't lose sleep over it because I'm far too tired to stay awake!

It's hard to fathom it's been almost a month since  I last stopped to have a chat...And what a long and quick month March has been.  I mean it just that way, too.  Worry, work, busyness, hurry.

We went to Athens this past weekend.  I so wanted to spend time with my children, but truth is that I got only a very little time with them.  There was a baby shower for Katie, and logistics of trying to get people from here to there alone was something.  And John worked a 24 hour shift Friday.  Things went very well for us.  John didn't get called out Friday night and got a full night's sleep.  That is highly unusual.  I was so happy he'd been able to rest.  It's a good drive from here to Athens.

We arrived with no time to spare for lunch or coffee.  We had to load up the car and head from Sam's to the home where the shower was held.  Katie looked lovely...and very pregnant.  She still has seven weeks to go.  The fun part of the shower?  Putting babies on the floor and comparing them at their different stages.  Bess had just had Josh and there were three others pregnant at the time Katie got married.  My niece was unable to go to the shower but had she been able we'd have had four babies just two months apart so that the stages were blatantly evident.  I was much amused by the only little girl, who was 7 months old,  determined she'd take Josh's pacifier. Josh is 9 months old.   My grand niece is 5 months old.  The other little boy was just 3 months but it was obvious he wanted to be moving about on the floor like the other two babies that were there.

I held Josh during the opening of gifts and put his little self right to sleep.  After gifts were done, everyone began to drift home.  We drove back to Sam's and after a cup of coffee we left.  We made it home just as full darkness fell.  The whole day was a blur, which seems to be the way it goes these days when I see my children either in their homes or here.

Changes come with new seasons and I think every one of my children has some big change coming up in the next few months.  Their changes will affect us in one way or another.   Sometimes it feels John and I are the axle and the children are the wheel that turns.

Sunday I was just plain exhausted.  We made a real effort to go to church and I'm glad that we did.  It was so uplifting but we did nothing at all after that except eat and we ate poor meals.  I'd be upset if I didn't make such an effort to see to it  that we eat healthy most every day.  I figure one off day isn't going to do us much harm.  We lolled all Sunday afternoon. I took a nap.  By evening I was starting to feel energetic and hammered out three solid posts and started two more and I'd planned the work I'd do on Monday.  Feeling restless at the end of a day of rest is a sure sign of recovery for me.

I worked hard yesterday, too.  I wanted to get my kitchen done and photographed for the blog.  I love the light colors and the contrast of the black accents which are needed, I think, to keep the place from looking too pale.

I asked myself as I worked why I'd even bother to show my home to you all.  It's the nicest home  I've lived in most of my adult life, but it's not the nicest home.  I love my house but I see it's faults and know it's high and low points.  It's not a gorgeous home.  I have passable skills at best as an interior decorator.

My home is a double wide/mobile home.  It's valued in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.   It's not large.  The finishes are kind of shoddy to be honest and the low end carpet and tile flooring and cabinetry and such are almost 20 years old.  The bulk of my furnishings were bought second hand and those that were new are now well used.  Very well used.  We are slowly making improvements, but very slowly, and what improvements we make aren't big money to some but dear to us.

I don't show my home because I think it's the finest thing or because I've poured loads of money into it.  I show it because I want to encourage others who might not have the best house on the block but want it to be cute, cozy, livable and done on a budget.  I think mine qualifies on those scores.  I want to show how to use what you have or can find for pennies to make things pretty.   Creatively, this is one of the ways I choose to express myself.  I show my home because I'm proud of my efforts to make it MY home, so that it says something about who lives here.  

Remember when I said that I find housework soothing when I've worries?  When I have changes coming in my life that I find concerning or frightening, and I have no control whatsoever over them?  I'll decorate, organize and rearrange.  Those are changes I can control and have a say over and it helps me to settle my soul about the changes I can do nothing about.  And yes, this month has been full of such things, some of which came to nothing, some of which are in waiting mode.    I think this year is just going to be unsettled and I might as well make up my mind to it.  And since I'm out of money and I've worked on pretty much every room except John's music room (which I won't be touching!), I need to find a new spot to focus my energies.  I'm thinking the porches and patio are next up.  Plants and paint are usually fairly affordable in small doses.  Soap and water help loads and cost nothing much at all.  Using what you have is free.  With three spaces I might be able to stay busy for a month or two.

I've picked up a book to read by Margery Sharp, Brittania Mews, but I'm terribly torn at the moment.  It isn't really the sort you pick up and read two or three more at the same time.  I was inspired to read it again after seeing a portion of the MGM movie with Maureen O'Hara in the female lead role and recalling I had the book.  Well Sunday, I saw a bit of Green Dolphin Street which we watched prior to leaving for church.  Another grand book by Elizabeth Goudge, also an intensive sort of read and not one to read along with others.  I know where I'll spend my time for at least the next two books, which means setting aside Anne Tyler's The Beginner's Goodbye.  I'll come back to it.

I've barely touched the genealogy stuff since January when I worked on my notebook...or was that last month?  Never mind when, but I noted that someone I knew rather well at one point might well be a cousin.  I found it absolutely interesting that a daughter used the middle name of the great great great grandfather as her child's middle name.  And I can't help but wonder at how often these names pop up in families even without any interest at all in genealogy or knowledge of ancestors' names.  Just so did Bess tell me the name she and Sam have chosen should they have another boy.  And lo and behold the name has two of his great great grandfather's names.  Even more interesting is the fact that Josh's middle name is also one of that same great great grandfather's names (he had four).  

I have had a month of small frustrations.  Nothing big.  But nothing has gone smoothly for me.  If I'm cleaning, I'm bound to make a bigger mess somehow.  If I start to do one thing it some how multiplies into a domino of jobs.  If I need something I can't acquire it so I'm stalled.  If I plan it, it falls through multiple times, not  just once.  I've gone as far as plan G and H.  That's just the way March has been and this last day has been no different.  I had the figures to work up the bills this morning and in trying to save something else, I lost needed information and couldn't retrieve it.  Stalled.  I texted John to request that he get me info again but he's apparently been too busy.  At 5pm I realized the ship had sailed.  The bank and post office were both closed.  It will wait until tomorrow...but it's just one more little bit of frustration, one more resetting of plans.

I know this is all too brief and not nearly as chatty as I wanted to be.  But the hours have fled and it's truly evening.  There's thunder outdoors so I suppose we'll get more of the promised thunder storms.  So be it.

Hurry home, won't you, so you don't get wet...and hurry back again soon!