In My Home This Week: We Go On

In my home this week:

...Sometimes the hardest thing is to go on.  We had a tragic loss in our family last week.  My niece's husband died.  He turned 26 the same day and leaves a 3 and 4 year old daughter.  The disbelief melted into shock, the shock into grief for such a young life lost and as the weekend went on, acceptance slowly sank in.  This morning, I woke with gratitude that I'd been allowed to be a tiny part of a brief life.  It will be a longer time before his mother and dad, his brother and sister in law, his wife and family, can come to that place.  

I don't normally share this sort of thing but if you're on Facebook there is a Go Fund Me set up for Ashley and the girls.  This I is a young mom and the family had no insurance for final expenses, nothing set aside for the future.  Katie set up the fund to benefit the little girls really and I would so appreciate it if you'd contribute to it.  Just message me on Facebook (Terri Cheney) and I'll send you the information link, if you'd like to contribute. 

It was a sober weekend on the one hand, as you might well imagine and on the other, we had a quick trip to see Josh and Isaac which was good medicine for us, especially when Josh's face lit up all over and he said "Gramma!  You DID come back!"   To see Taylor last weekend and the two boys this weekend did me a world of good.

This week pretty much looks like any other week in my home.  Because heartache or no, life continues.  Bills must be paid, meals must be cooked, work must be done.  We go on a little emptier, a little more weary, grateful for the having, sadder for the missing.

...I plan work:

As of this morning, John trimmed those branches there that poke up.  They were higher up on the tree than it looks but I pleaded esthetics and so he trimmed them closer to the tree.

I've worked on bills already, taking a free day last week to get that task out of the way while I was uninterrupted.  I will run errands and get groceries.

If the rain holds off...I shall try to finish the one flower bed that I'd started weeding as I waited to get mulch.  I know Maddie has been using the holes to keep cool.  The trouble is she has about nine different holes about the yard and I have to reclaim the abandoned ones.  Lots of work and it shall be early morning work because the days are HOT, as they ought to be for August.

I have finally made out a list of things I need to purchase.  The list is longer than my funds to purchase but I will get the real necessities and I think I can swing frames for the artwork above my desk.  The rest can wait another couple of weeks or so.

I am trying to plan my fall wardrobe.  Naturally the bulk of what I have IS my fall wardrobe but I'd like to add a nice blazer and I'm planning to look for one hard.  I never find blazers or jackets that fit me top and bottom.  I'm perfectly willing to plan to alter a blazer if I find anything that suits me. This week I will begin to look for one.  It will be a process.  I don't mean to buy the first thing I find but to try on and try on and try on.

I have promised myself a cake this week.  I am intrigued by Annabel's Armenian Nutmeg Cake and I think that is the one I want to prepare.  I'd also like to put a couple of batches of cookie dough in the freezer and possibly make a couple of pound cakes which are always nice to have in the freezer, too.

Finish a book that I need to review.

The usual routine cleaning and meals and such.  That part never ends.

...I plan meals:

Beef Fajitas, Yellow Rice, Refried Beans, Salad

Cubed Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli and the BEST chocolate cake 

This is the meal Sam made for us on Sunday.  The cake was a store bought grocery bakery cake and it truly was awesome.

Roast Chicken, Dressing, Green Beans, Cranberry Sauce

on my own x2

Club Sandwiches, Tomato Soup

Planned meal out

...I plan leisure

I am being leisurely really, not pushing myself too hard and not expecting a whole lot extra of myself so I'm not planning leisure this week per se.  I did start and finish a book last week and spend quite a bit of time with my journal jotting down thoughts which was enlightening as it usually is for me.  I plan to put in a mix of work and leisure this week, too.  I am trying to be balanced...

All that said, here we are mid-August as of this week and I'm seeing signs of a changing season outdoors.  Leaves starting to change on trees, more and more golden rod standing tall and more of it blooming, a sudden growth and soaring of the grasses we see most in autumn.    These despite the steamy sauna outdoors.  It's nice to know that there is a new season just ahead, and not so terribly far off as it seemed.