In My Home This Week: Golden Days Begin

In my home this week:

...Now isn't that pretty?  I note that colors in the depression and war years tended to be very saturated which is not typical of today, and bedrooms were often unashamedly feminine.  I think this is just lovely though I'd choose a lighter color for walls and carpet I think.  I've sighed over a dressing table all my years, from earliest girl hood onwards and only recently have determined that I shall have to sigh over them for a long while yet.  There's simply no practical place to put one. 

No crying over what I can't fit.  How blessed I am to have a house full of furnishings!  There was a day and time when we had plenty of empty spaces in our home and I despaired of ever being able to have enough to fully furnish my home.  It took a change of mindset and a willingness to acquire good quality used in place of the new I once longed for but the compromise has worked out well for me.  I am able to look about my home and feel a small amount of pride that it's comfortable, attractive and pleasant.  It makes me feel very thankful.

I've enjoyed this process of making a home from this and that.  I've always enjoyed the creativity involved in making a house a home, whether it was a rental or my own.  I look back over the years and see how each house had it's truly lovely spots that made my heart swell just looking at them, even in the rudest of houses.  In one house it was a simple little dining room which when dressed with a tablecloth and flowers from my yard and the wedding china on the table surely rivaled many finer homes.  In another home it was a bedroom well furnished with a lovely open fireplace by which sat a small rocking chair and a bed placed between the two tall windows.  In another home, it was again a dining room with a quilt hung upon the wall and tall ceilings that made that narrow room in the middle of the house feel cool and lovely even in deep heat of summer and in still another it was a sunny light filled living room where people gathered often.  This weekend I watched with joy as my daughter in law settled in a wing chair and wrapped herself in a lovely blue knit blanket that Amie made for Mother's Day this year.  Another comfy spot for someone to feel at home in...

What I've found over the years is that it's truly not money that is required to make a house feel like home.  It's a little bit of creativity, a little bit of taking whatever lovely thing you can find even if it's a branch from a blooming Dogwood tree arranged in a bean pot, and a lot of being patient and waiting.  It doesn't have to all come together at once...In fact, the process is what I find to be the most charming thing of all.  It gives our homes time to change right along with us.

In the meantime, I can see from my chair in the living room,  a spray of burnt orange leaves on a tree.  I noted the Turkey Foot Oak near the dump area is sporting a bit of fall color and I've actually seen my first bit of blooming golden rod.  The sun slants across the yard at a new angle these days and the shadows stretch long and lean across the lawn...It's the beginning of the golden days of sun ad shadow and leaves.  Lovely time.

...I plan meals:

Some weeks go just as planned and others, like last week, go nothing at all as planned.  I think I made one meal from last week's menu and the rest were fly by the seat of my pants meals because I failed to plan ahead about defrosting meats and such.  This week I hope to do better with planning and executing what I've planned!

BBQ Chicken Sliders, Pickles, Chips, Brownies

Pot Roast with Vegetables and Gravy, Waldorf Salad with Grapes, Buttered Bread

on my own

Hot Beef Sandwiches on Toast, Oven Fries, Salad

Tuna and White Bean Salad  with Lemon Vinaigrette, Crisp Melba Toasts, Apple Tart

Beef Pot Pie, Pear Salad, Green Peas

Oven Fried Chicken, Butter Beans, Creamed Cabbage, Sliced Tomatoes,  Biscuits

...I plan my week's work:

Now that the bulk of the deeper cleaning has been caught up I truly am a little bit at a loss about what to plan for work.  It's still a lot too warm and humid to comfortable spend time working outdoors for long and when I do it leaves me wiped out.  The house indoors is about as nice as it can get for the moment.  Just a small handful of refining tasks to make things look as nice as they might are all that I have.  This week I'll do what I can on those tasks, those finishing touches that are needed.

Mop floors.

Work on the dining room chairs which I utterly ignored last week.

Lay out the landscape blocks I bought for the next flower bed area I mean to work on.  I may, if there is a pleasant early morning, go ahead and lay out landscape cloth and spread some of the mulch as well.  I may find it best just now to actually use some of the landscape blocks to retain the mulch so it doesn't all float downhill and out into the yard...

Load up the last of the donations items so I can deliver when we go out this week.

Plant the asters.

Start washing the back porch railings and rafters.

All these latter things are outdoor jobs as you can see, and I doubt I spent much time at any task unless it turns off truly pleasant this week.

Go over pantry and make up a stock up list.  John's requested I do that in lieu of a meat market stocking up this next month, since freezer room is limited.

Work on a month long menu sheet for September.

Start a mending pile and then work my way through it.  I know I have a pair of pants to hem, a button missing on one blouse, a blouse that needs to altered in order to fit well and that's just off the top of my head.

Inventory what I have on hand for projects.  Start a listing of items needed to work on current projects or to start new projects.

...I plan my leisure:

Call and arrange an appointment for a haircut.

Sit down and make out a comprehensive list of items I want in the line of accessories for my fall wardrobe.

Start transposing the two composition books of notes into my genealogy notebook.

Create a short stack of books to be read in the coming few weeks (and incidentally start my next book since I've just finished two this week).

Coffee on the back porch in the mornings if at all possible.

Start a new Bible study now that I've finished the one on Acts.

Spend time with my journal each day and try to clear my head.

Make aprons, some simple but pretty aprons to wear about the house.  I've an antique one I can use as a pattern.   This will help protect my clothes from stains and grime and help insure I look neat and nice at home every day and give me a little creative outlet as well as I combine fabrics and plan out what I'll make.

I'm longing for a thrift store outing...Shouldn't I just shop my shed, lol?