In My Home This Week: Glory Days of Summer

This week in my home....



...I am writing this a little early.  Typically I would take my time on Saturday as I relax and read to write a bit here and a bit there.  This weekend we are heading down to Sam and Bess' new home for a housewarming party, so I started this on Thursday evening.   There will be family members from both sides filling their new home.  There will be a cook out and gifts.  I am taking a group of potted plants culled from my own plants here, in pots that I painted earlier this week, as well as a vintage kitchen step stool. 

Already the front door of this house has been painted a lovely shade of green

Home is such a sweet thing in my mind.  Over the years it's been my privilege to make home in several places, in some for longer periods of times than others, in nicer houses and poorer ones but always a place of comfort.

I've enjoyed watching my children as they move into and create their own homes.  Katie took possession of her house right away this past Christmas, making it hers, a statement of who she is as a young wife and mom and I've watched over the last few months as she's found new ways to express herself as she's painted and sewn and built.  


Bess is determined to do the same.   She told me that the apartment where Josh was born, which she and Sam shared was more Sam's than hers.  When they moved to Florida it was to a house she didn't see or choose, but to which she moved after Samuel had purchased it.   This house, the one they live in now,  Bess found.  It wasn't on her top list when she returned here that evening, after a very long day of searching.  In fact, she never mentioned it at all, though she showed me several that she'd seen that day and cited the merits and demerits of each.  But something changed during the night of rest.  She came to me the next morning and said "Here.  I didn't show you this one last night but this is the house that will be our home.  I know it."    Katie told me the same  when she found her own home.  "This is the one...I can feel it."    I didn't scoff.  John and I saw this particular floor plan four years before we purchased our home.  We knew immediately it was the right floor plan for us.  We just had to find the right house built around this floor plan.  We saw three.  But this was the one

This week I've been re-inventing my home.  It's a new season in my life,  remember?  And a new season warrants a new beginning, a fresh start of sorts.  The kitchen is underway at present.    The counter tops have been cleared of extras.  The laundry too is in transition, with a removal of mismatched crates formerly used as extra storage.  I won't change every single thing in my home by any means but I will be going through systematically  rearranging, altering, refining several areas, refreshing things and expressing who I am in this new season of life.  Because ultimately our homes do just that: reflect and express who we are.


...I plan meals:




I could do with a lot of inspiration right at the moment...For the past two weeks I've barely cooked a thing.  Every single menu has netted so many leftovers that we've pretty much just been on reheat and eat mode.  However, inspiration or no, John is off for a few days which means meals and planning are going to have to be tended to. 

out of town

Turkey BLT, Macaroni Salad, Grapes
Inspired by a fast food commercial...We'll be stopping after church and will purchase a 1/2 pound of deli turkey to use in these sandwiches.***skipped the macaroni salad

Tuna Pasta Salad, Saltines, Strawberry Short Cake
John will be cutting grass one day...I will make his favorite cool salad meal.  I will make up biscuits and sprinkle two with turbinado sugar for a genuine shortcake.

Chili, Green Salad, Corn Bread
I know it's hot...I know it and I want chili just the same.   I usually do want a heartier meal starting mid-summer, and I wish I knew why.  No clue.  I think it's something to do with seeing yellow stars on the Sweet Gum tree and seeing golden rod standing tall at roadside getting ready to bloom.

Meat Loaf, Beans and potatoes, Coleslaw

running errands

Chicken Enchiladas, Yellow Rice, Pico de Gallo, Salad, Rocky Road ice cream


...I plan work:



Isn't it hard to believe that this is the last week of July?  I know John has planned a day to run errands, planned a day to cut the lawn.  I have to work around his whims and fancies this week, but that's okay. 

Clear out the booth.
This week is my last week at the flea market and there's a load of stuff to be brought out.  I'd like to go in on Thursday or Friday and sort as I pack it up for donation and keep.  I have to find some boxes to pack things up in.  Ideally we'll head straight to donate things.  We'll see...

Last week I took photos in the house and then sat down and listed all the work I want to do.  This week I mean to start working my way through that list.  I've begun in the kitchen and laundry and I will complete all I can in those two areas before I move on to the front entry way and then the living room. 

Move all the petunias to the shade...I know they are meant to be sunlovers but the sun is killing them, bleaching them out.  This means I'll need a new bit of plants or planting to go in several spots.  Not sure what I'll do with those areas just yet.

Sewing:  I have some alterations to make, an ottoman cover to finish, some mending to do.

Work on deep cleaning tasks in the kitchen area.

Continue with Frugal Boot Camp. 

Write a few blog posts and schedule them to go up...I appreciate those of you that commented how pleased you are that I'm posting more right now.  My mind is truly filled with inspiration at the moment and I mean to keep it up as long as I can hold out.  I know too well that sometimes inspiration runs dry. 

...I plan my leisure:


I've been working so hard that I find it quite easy to take leisure moments these days! My plans this week are to read, read and read.  I have two more in the Miss Buncle series to read.  I'll slip in a beauty hour one morning this week as well, simply because I find it so very refreshing and relaxing.  John has the whole of the week off...I hope that one day we can have just for ourselves and go do something special.  We'll see on that one.

6 comments:

Lana said...

I hope you all had a wonderful party at Sam and Bess's new house!

We had a hail storm Thursday night and many of my plants on my deck have shredded leaves. The heat is just frying my plants and they look awful. My tomatoes have tons of green ones but by the time they ripen they seem to have just cooked and are ready to rot. With this heat it is a good thing that water is such an inexpensive beverage.

We have been eating out way too much but I don't know when the end of it will come. There is just so much to get done to sell our house that our energy needs to go to all the work right now and we often have to grab a meal in conjunction with running to Home Depot for supplies, etc. A necessary evil right now.

We will be packing up the bonus room so that new carpet can go in and that will be a room packed. We hired having the outside of our windows cleaned since it is so much ladder work and it scares me silly to have hubby doing all those windows up there. We have to remove all of the storm windows and screens by bedtime tomorrow night so that the window guys can clean Tuesday morning. neighbors who moved in a few months ago offered us their boxes and packing paper. Such a help!

Anonymous said...

Count me with the others that are thrilled to find so many posts up on your blog.

Hearing about Bess knowing this is the house for her brought back memories of the too many years ago that we too had that thought. :-) Now it is time to refresh her and we are in the process of clearing and lightening her now. How did we ever get so much stuff? When we moved in I thought I would never fill these closets and drawers!! LOL

It is for sure that summer is here all over. We are all feeling the heat now. When I buy plants the tag says they need full sun. Yea sure. They die in it you mean!! Here they mostly need semi shade. That is why I am so worried as we have to have our huge shade tree cut down soon. :( I know I am wilting here in this heat..let alone these little plants!

With your booth closing it is time for a new period in your life. It sounds like you are ready for it. Nothing says the same in life and every period has its challenges and triumphs. On to new triumphs!! Sarah

susie @ persimmon moon cottage said...

I've been enjoying reading more posts from you, too.

I remember that feeling of of our house being "the one" when we first saw it. I wonder what it is in us that makes us recognize "the one" when we see it. I'm sure the housewarming party will be wonderful.

I think it reached 100 degrees here today. If it didn't, it sure felt close enough. Even with plenty of watering this extreme heat is taking it's toll on the flowers.

Your craving for chili made me chuckle because I had the same craving just the other day. But changed my mind after I got out in the heat and watered the plants and pulled a few weeds. Knocked that chili craving right out of me. We had cold chicken sandwiches for dinner instead.

We are supposed to be in the high 80's or low 90's around here this coming week. I just hope we can get to that without huge destructive storms between now and then.

I still haven't gotten my fresh peaches from the fruit stand yet this summer. This will be the week for sure.

doe853 said...

Hi Terri,
I love that you are posting more too, thank you. Thanks too for the encouragement of home lately. I have been hot, I really hate summer, so have been letting things slide somewhat. Well I got my annual group of summer company starting yesterday and believe me, I had to make up for that slide Saturday, you should have seen me running around cleaning and polishing, lol! I looked like that great black & white drawing of the exhausted women by end of day. Glad to hear that Sam & Bess are settling in, now how far from you are they? Hope you can get in a visit more often. My son and dil and grands live in LA so rarely see them, but they are planning on being relocated to Boston area within next 6 months, yippee. Only a 3 hrs drive for us. I am sitting on my porch waiting for the house to awaken, my company always sleeps in when they are here, so quiet here in the country I guess. Makes me feel good that i can make them so comfortable.
Have a great week, good luck finishing up the booth, wish I had been able to stop in for a little shopping trip.
Dale

Karla said...

I haven't invested anything in plants for quite some time because they have been messing with our front yard in one way or another for the past year.
First it was replacing the storm shelter last year. Then that didn't get done right so they did more work on it. Then this summer they have torn it up again by replacing our driveway. They always leave a big mess and what was once a fairly decent yard when we first moved in years ago, is now a big rutted, weedy patch of thinly growing nastiness.

Anonymous said...

You made me feel so good when you say you are not doing a lot of cooking this hot Weather! I was raised that no matter how it gets meals must be cooked, do when I suggest sandwiches to Gramps I hear this little voice in my head making me feel guilty. It's nor Gramps, it's me. He loves his sandwiches and doesn't care for heavy meals in the summer. Stay Cool! Gramma D.