Coffee Chat: Snow Days and Sunshine

Come on in dears.  There's coffee and hot tea.  Take your choice, with a piece of fruit cake perhaps, and have a seat. I'm ready for a neighborly chat, aren't you?  

It's so nice to have nice weather once again though it is a bit cloudy.  Yesterday we might have sat on the porch it was such a pleasant day.   I threw open the windows all over the house and let it air.  It seemed a fine thing to do when the weather  once again became rather mild.  I confess that I was happy to have snow and happy to watch it melt right away.  I loved the cold weather and hope we are going to have more of it...but a nice mild day is equally as nice and I took full advantage of the fresh air to get the winter doldrums out of the house.



I feel a bit like I've been running behind a wagon and never quite catching up to it and then discovered I'd run myself all the way home about the time I was ready to give up.    There's much to be done about the house and yet John quietly commented Friday afternoon that he was surprised at how nice the house looked considering how busy I'd been.  I took that as the high sort of compliment it was meant to be.  I guess I have finally gotten the hang of this housekeeping thing at long last.  I had time Friday afternoon to sort out the bathroom cabinet and the one cabinet that stores the bulk of our food in the kitchen.  The guest room still needed a bit of work but all in all the house did look quite nice and this despite a constant stream of visitors and most especially two little boys who do love to empty the toy box.  I tackled bedrooms and baths yesterday.  Today I've spent time sewing and cleaning the living and dining rooms.  I'm determined to bite off a little every day and get it done.  I shall finish up the dusting and then vacuum and the whole great room will be finished.

 I expect that the busy start to this year is very indicative of how busy the year shall be overall.  I might well end up being a marathon runner before this year is over just because I'm having to hurry along right along with it!

I took on Jamberry and I've spent the month getting to know direct sales and at the same time started a housekeeping job which I quickly got laid off from.  Why?  Because Bess didn't need help as much as she thought she did.  I gave her my daily five list of things to do and the girl has done them and is finding her house is easy enough to maintain even with two little boys running about playing.  Her biggest issue was truly just not knowing how to break down the tasks needed into daily bites  She was trying to cope with a weeks worth of laundry at once.  Well I did the same myself when I was young.  Wait all week to run laundry and then you spend all day long doing nothing but washing, drying and folding.  I cared nothing at all about putting things away by the fourth load and neither has Bess.  And because the laundry basket was full of clean clothes she had no place to put the dirty clothes so they went onto the floor into a pile that soon became three or four piles.

I assured her that the laundry police were not going to beat her door down if she did a mixed load of clothes every single day.  Wash, dry, fold, put away, done.  I told her to do the same with dishes.  Load it up, run the load and put the dishes away. Making the beds, emptying the trash and straightening the baths each day was on that list and then to spend one day in each room tending to whatever she saw that needed to be done.  My final bit of advice was to put dishes into the kitchen each night as they head to bed.  Simple, and easily done.  She was so pleased her first morning to find that she'd done all tasks in under two hours time and that the house looked rather nice for it. 

And then this week, when they came up to visit she  said to me rather shyly, "You needn't come next week unless you'd just like to visit.  I've managed really well on my own since your last visit."   I was proud of her and said so.  I told her that while I didn't mind cleaning I sure wasn't going to complain over losing the job!  After all, it's that much less on me to deal with just now.

My Katie went back to work last week.  I think getting out of the house will be good for her, though I did feel a bit sorry for Taylor who has had mom and nothing but mom to go off to daycare.  However, I think in the end it will be the very best thing for her and her Mama.  Like myself Katie tends to be a bit reclusive and unlike myself she's not prone to pushing herself to get out of the house as often as she should.

So it's running in the family this month, this starting things new...Amie got a job as a stylist after finishing up her cosmetology course.  Bess has ranked up in Jamberry and is in a leader position and of course, she has a move ahead of her along about summer.  I have my new job and Katie has hers.  It seems like the women in this family are going places!  And no, not one of us needed more to do but there you are, we're obviously on an upward incline and all of us are excited at the possibilities before us.

I had a grand time earlier this month.  The theme of my Jamberry Launch party was "Promises To Keep to Myself in 2018".   That might sound like a fancy resolution but no, it's not.  These had a lot more to do with mental and emotional health than with physical/material things which is where we tend to focus our resolutions.  I talked about promises to do things like not let another's negativity and divisiveness determine my outlook.  I wrote down several more though I didn't post them all online in the party.  Things like "Stop letting a season determine my view of my prosperity."  Everyone has a span of time that is a little tighter (ours usually comes up just after February when the spate of holiday pays is over and we're hit with five birthdays at once.)  I need to take time to count my blessings when those leaner days creep in.  They never do last, but I sure can get down over what I see as lack while I'm living in my land of plenty.   "Actively look for a reason to laugh every single day" was another one  You might not believe it but I can be awfully dour at times.  John is always saying something punny and is often quite funny but I can scowl at him in half minute for those very  things if I happen to be busy or am trying to concentrate on something other than him at the time.  I realized I'm missing a lot of opportunities to lift my own spirits by not relaxing and giving in to that laugh.   "I promise in 2018 not to be so intense I get out of balance."  I do that readily, too.  Just like at the start of this whole Jamberry venture, I spent hours online listening to pep talks and instructional videos and realized  one afternoon that in a full  two week's time I'd not read a magazine, listened to a bit of praise music, or written a line other than notes ton Jamberry.  Ugh. NOT in balance.

I read blogs this past weekend, for the first time in nearly a month and Mrs. Lydia at Home Living had some interesting posts about self-care.  Most specifically about sleeping.  She had quite a bit to say on the subject and you know sleep is one area where I really struggle.  No use telling me about bedtime routines and room temperature and consistent bedtime rituals etc.  I DO all those things and follow them almost religiously, simply because I've had such poor sleep quality since my childhood.  I determined that one promise I should keep in 2018 is to go back to bed on these early mornings when John is off to work and I've slept badly.  I often can't nap during the day though I do attempt to have quiet work for a time every afternoon and occasionally (very rarely) I do nod off.  I find that quite often I sleep far better once I've broken that cycle of ill sleeping up by a nice long nap.  Well I can, quite frequently pop back to bed after John leaves but I don't.  No, my mind says, "Oh well you'll sleep better tonight if you're really really tired and you could get quite a lot done today if you'd start now."   The truth is, as I've said often enough, "Housework always waits upon me.  I never have to wait for it."  Sleep however, can often be had in those early morning hours but seldom comes in a nap and an extra hour or three makes a huge difference in how I feel and how well I work all through the rest of the day.

So yesterday morning, having just read her post on sleep on Saturday, I slipped back to bed.  John woke me with a call about 8 and I told him he had and then I got off the phone, rolled over and went right back to sleep for another hour or so. I was awfully late in getting to church but you know what?  It was worth it, though I'd not like to miss the praise session every Sunday.  I sailed through the service, through the grocery store, through housework and paper work yesterday.  At 6pm, when I started feeling a tad tired, I stopped work altogether and just let myself enjoy the two extra long episodes of the new season of "Victoria".  I went to bed about 10:45, read one chapter of my book and went right off to sleep.  I don't think I really woke up fully until around 6:30 this morning, and that's saying quite a lot for me!  I often get a good solid hour and half of sleep and then I am awake most of the night after that.  To sleep 7 hours without really waking is beyond awesome.

Now I've no doubt that I shall have sleepless nights in the future, but unless there is something that is horribly pressing, from now on I mean to sleep in of a morning or actively plan to lie down and nap if I've missed a night's sleep.  It's so much nicer to walk about with a clear mind and not feel dragged down by pain and a sort of icky feeling that comes of not sleeping enough.

Because I have had so many problems with sleeping in my life, I read most any article to do with sleeping.   Years ago the theory was that sleep missed was sleep forever lost but scientists have since actually discovered that while you cannot make up ALL the sleep you might miss, doing as I did and going back to bed, or planning to go to bed extra early or even taking a nap DOES help you make up some of the deficit and it is truly beneficial to the brain and the body both.

Naps were for babies and old folks I was always told and old folks got a pass only because they couldn't help falling to sleep.  Years ago I met a grown woman who told me that every single day after she'd had lunch she undressed, put on her pajamas and went to bed and slept.  Every day.  I couldn't imagine it, even at 18 and I admit even today at 58 I am still a bit flabbergasted at the idea of it.  In our family it simply wasn't done.  Napping earned you the title of being lazy and it was said in such a scathing tone that no one in our family dared lie down to rest during the day.

John is forever urging me to 'take a nap!' especially when he's watched me working hard and I'm getting snippy with him.  I have held out except when I was sick.  I readily enough capitulate and take a nap if I've a cold or virus.  Often I find that napping while sick makes me recover a great deal more quickly.

We've the house to ourselves this week.  Well, mostly.  Sam must attend a class or something in Macon and his company is paying hotel expenses for him.  He's been here for the most of the past three weeks.  He's not a hard guest to have in the house, as he tends to retire early and leaves early and so little of our time is actually spent with him.  Bess has been here two or three times as well with the boys over the last three weeks. I'm glad that I like them all quite well because it would be beyond difficult to have them here so much otherwise.

It was while I was mixing up Challah that Sam called and asked if he might stop here to have supper.  I knew that he was to have the meeting this week.  He explained his need to stop and pick up his suitcase and clothes that he leaves here each week.  They've all been here so often that they are leaving clothes here to save having to pack for every visit.  But I was bit amused when he finished up and said "And besides if I don't stop I won't get to see you guys this week."  I'm glad we've become such a habit with him already!  Bess, too, amused me this past week when they found a floor plan and it was for a three bedroom house instead of four as talked of earlier.  "After all, y'all will walk across to your own home instead of staying the night at our place."  It seems to be a given that they will expect to see us often.

I took advantage of having the guest room open this week and have sewn up a storm this morning.  I made a cover for my sewing table chair that I'd meant to do for months now.  I used a remnant of that material to make a pillow cover for a pillow form I had lying about.  I made a nicer cover for an ottoman though I'm sort of displeased with the way it turned out.  I was just finishing up all that when John arrived in the room with two pairs of jeans in his hands that he wants me to hem.  And then I realized I have four new pairs of pants/jeans in my closet some of which also need to be hemmed.  I plan to go back there again in  a few minutes, as soon as I set Challah for the second rising and tend to his jeans.  Today was one of those blessed sewing days where everything works just right and the only thing I might fuss about was not having a second bobbin filled of the thread used, so I had to stop and wind up another one.

Have you had the decluttering bug this year?  It seems to catch most everyone come January.  I have not tossed so very much this year as in years past. I think I am at the point of maintenance now rather than actually needing to actively declutter.  Organization however is an ongoing thing with me.  I sorted out my Jamberry stuff and found various ways to stash those items in one spot so they are handy to work with without being in my way every day.  I cleared out our master bath cabinets...well two of them.  I still have two more cabinets to sort out but neither is a big task.  I sorted out the main food storage cupboard in my kitchen.  I sat down in a chair yesterday in front of the toy box and cleared out those things the children seldom play with and organized a few things they play with often so they could easily get to them.  I worked on a dresser drawer in the guest room that was a mass of unrelated things and broken glass.  Today I straightened the living room bookshelves which had gotten messy over the past few weeks as we'd purchased new books over the holiday period and had simply stashed them and just read older books on the shelves willy nilly.  I'm truly at the stage of stacking books two deep on some shelves once more despite culling hard over the past year and half.

I've also gone out to do some shopping.  I had a bottom sheet rip clean down the middle not too long ago which left me one to share between two sets of sheets. I had a lovely pair of sheets (lovely in looks) that I loathed because they turned out to be microfiber which I find very unpleasant to touch.  I put those in a donation stack and went out and bought a new set of sheets.  I was disappointed to find no single sheets to purchase.  I came home and ordered one from Target and I'm rather pleased with it.  So now I have three full sets of cotton sheets to use on the bed once more.  Next up is to purchase two new sets for the guest bed.  I have one nice set and one extra bottom and a very threadbare top sheet.  Happily I often come across nice full sized cotton sheets that are vintage in thrift stores.  Lovely sheets those are!  I'm going to look at thrift stores first and then I shall move on to the conventional stores if I find nothing suitable.

I also bought some new pants though I was looking for jeans.  My own had gotten worn looking but I chuckled to myself as I searched high and low in the store.  Even though mine are worn they are very dark compared to the super faded and often torn ones sold currently.   I shall probably end ordering what I want online once again though I do dislike to not try them on before hand.  However, for classic jeans I've one other real source and then it's to the online stores or go without.

And finally I walked into a bookstore this past week.  I seldom go in but I was beyond hungry that morning and I recalled they had a coffee shop at the front of the store and I needed to eat something before trying to shop.  I wandered back to the business section, or so I meant to do, but stopped at the Bible section.  I was absolutely astounded at the number of translations available, far more than in the Christian bookstore where we'd been looking in vain for new Bibles a few months ago.  I decided it was worth my while to look.  I will share a bit of peevishness at how many Bibles are bound in plastic or in boxes wrapped in plastic and you can't even look at them to see how the translation reads or what study guides are offered, etc. I was grateful for those manufacturers who seem to have some clue that patrons might like to look at what they are buying and leave them open like any other book.
I settled upon a Holman Christian Standard Bible for myself.  It has word study guides and offers the original Hebrew of many words and the root meanings, something that I really enjoy when reading each morning.   I was pleased also to find a new The Message bible for John.  We'd looked all over for new copies of that and were told it wasn't possible to buy them any longer.  Well there are some in print and since his own copy was from the 1970's and was falling apart, I was really pleased to find him a new one and a very nice copy at that.

So you see, between guests and jobs and house I've really been quite busy.  However, I am glad for the current slowing trend.  I feel very much that I could use some time at home!