In My Home This Week: Radio Silence

In my home...

This week, I shall be going quiet.  I've worked hard all this year and I am determined now autumn has finally arrived to enjoy it a bit.  No worries.  There is work to be done.  I am tired.  There are multiple worries I must face, and little griefs I must experience due to current life situations with family.  I hadn't quite realized all that I have been holding in a reserved corner of my mind until it began to filter out on Friday and again on Saturday.  There is nothing for it but to experience my personal grief and wait yet again for a bad situation to come to a head.



It does seem of late that the hard things are harder than they have ever been.  It is all part and parcel of a season of life I'd as soon would pass me by but alas it is one of those things I must just go through.  This afternoon as I stood at the kitchen window thinking over one of these hard things, I felt helpless and asked "God, what do I need to do?!"  "You could try prayer..."  That's twice in a few days time now that the answer has been to pray.  Not a coincidence.  I'll lay odds I hear it a third time this week, a sure sign that indeed it is God I hear.

I will not be idle this week of silence.  There will be zone work but no project work.  My project work for the moment is stalled due to time/energy constraints.  I plan this week to be in balance.  Some work, some leisure.  I plan  to find a good book and lose myself.  I just feel in need of that luxurious sort of respite.

Work:  

This week  bed and baths will be my work zone.  The guest room requires a small amount of work.  I have a few things out of place there.  Our bedroom mostly requires dusting and cleaning of windows.  With the current cool nights I need to consider bringing out the winter spread which is heavier and larger and air it on the line so that it can be ready for those nights when we really do want more cover than we have at the moment.  I noted that the doorways to the bedrooms are looking pretty dirty and tattered.  I don't know if just cleaning will help enough but it's all that I shall attempt this time around.  Next month perhaps I'll see about a fresh coat of paint...another project to go on the projects page.

I have some errands to run outside the home in the week ahead and they will require time and a little effort and some clear thinking as I try to cram them all into one single morning.  I have some mending that must be attended to as well.

And there are plants outdoors that really should be coming indoors.  Orchids and ivy and Marantha should already be spending the nights indoors, not to mention the tiny coleus I've rooted and started hoping to get an early start on next summer's planters.  I need to make a place for them to rest through the winter and the kitchen is the only room that is sunny enough to suit them but the orchids and the violets  loathe the blast of cold air that hits them when the back door is opened.  The violets stayed there this summer because they don't mind blasts of warm air at all, but it's not summer all year round, even here in Georgia.   The master bath is the next brightest room in the house and the coldest as winter comes on, so that is out. Figuring out how where my plants shall go has me scratching my head...but it must be done.  And then I must determine what surface will best work.

With routine work and meals and errands and mending to do this week, that will be all the 'extra' I plan to do.

Meals:  

All my plans are just that: Plans!  Truth is that I need to sort out my fridge and discover what hasn't been used in the last two weeks and what might be salvaged and what won't be.  Meals crossed out are the ones we've had since the weekend began...


Beefy Pasta, (leftover) Italian Green Beans, Crusty Bread

Braised Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Salad, Apple Cake (thawed from freezer)

on my own

Oven Baked Chicken Breasts, Wild Rice, Broccoli

Picnic

Steak, Baked potato, Salad

Fried Chicken, Sliced Tomatoes, Macaroni Salad

breakfasts: Scrambled eggs with sausage (leftover) and cheese, Toast 
Croissants and Yogurt for me, Cereal for John
Pancakes and Sausage
Oatmeal
Cold Cereals for us both, I'll have granola as mine
Western Omelets, Toast
Bagels and Cream Cheese

suppers:  Chicken noodle soup (leftovers)
Fried Chicken, (leftovers)
Toasted Cheese Sandwiches
Philly Cheesesteaks (using leftover roast beef)
Chicken Salad (baking an extra breast the day we have baked chicken)
Tomato Soup, PBJ
Hamburgers, Fries

Books and leisure:  

I have the Eleanor Roosevelt, Autobiography that I continue to read but I am going to search over my bookcases and add a ficitional work and switch the two back and forth.  I just need that fiction work to have quiet hideaway time.  I may take a mix of fiction.   I've been reading Emilie Loring books in sequential publishing date order and I've many Grace Livingston Hill books that I mean to read through and determine which to cull out.   But those books generally go quickly as reading material.  I feel the need for something a little deeper and more absorbing than a 24 hour read...so maybe some D.E. Stevenson or Elizabeth Goudge.

Looked over the bookcases and these are my chosen companions for the week ahead: 
Emilie Loring Hilltops Clear unless it proves I've read it then whatever book is next in publication order.
Grace Livingston Hill, The Man of the Desert
Elizabeth Goudge, City of Bells

I'll also be journaling throughout this week.  I've a desire to really consider what I want to see change in my life, at least those portions over which I have the ability to render change.  Like buying more bulbs to plant in the yard for spring blooms and figuring out how I can incorporate some more annuals and perennials in my life.

I can be as stringent as I like with my budget but my soul requires beauty and creative work and I need to explore where savings can manifest and where I need to invest in future lovelies that I can afford now.

The there's a plethora of lists to be made: purchases to be made in the coming months, for instance and wardrobe needs, skills I want to add to my skillset or old ones I want to refresh, etc.  I typically do this sort of thing in November each year but I am ready to assess my Roman Calendar new year now...and what better time to do so than when I'm choosing to take leisure time anyway?

At least that's my plan.  I've had many and many a plan altered from my thinking but we shall see how it goes.  What's on your calendar for the week ahead?