Coffee Chat: That's All Folks

 

Hello dears,

Come in, come in!  Let's have coffee and a quick talk, shall we?

I've heard from so many of you how much you enjoyed my Summer's Pleasures posts this month.  I have so enjoyed doing this and plan to do one for Fall, Winter and Spring.  I will NOT be taking a whole month off from writing as I did this month, but the time was well spent.  I rested, puttered and gained inspiration for more writings and that was my purpose.  I'm ready to move into this next season of the year.

I've had a lovely time off. I didn't get to half the things I'd planned out that we might do and I'm mighty sorry I didn't but it's really okay.  I found my pleasures all the same. I read a lot and didn't write beyond doing the daily diary entry.  I started a Bible study of Acts and instead of reading this and that and ten guides and four other parts of the Bible, I've read nothing but a section of a chapter, studied whatever part I felt was not as clear in my understanding, or looked at maps of travels, etc.   I'm also enjoying the history of the time period of Acts.  Rulers, ruling classes, what each man's biography was, etc.   I've written out my thoughts as I go through each section and told John the other morning, "I feel like I'm really understanding how wonderfully the Word spread in those post Pentecost days."  I have been awed.  

That's something I think we are all a bit too quick to let slip from us these days, a sense of awe.  It's so easy to get jaded and hardened.  Awe is the response of a heart that is softened and pliable, a spirit that is ready to be opened to further instruction.  I can tell you all that isn't what I've been in the past few months.  Instead, I've been busy.   Bored.  All too willing to allow distractions to get between me and what time I ought to have been allotting to God, a tithe portion of my daily hours, so to speak.   

I was reading an article about a year ago that the trend of the open floor plan in homes is coming to an end. People are wanting to return to rooms designated for a specific purpose, not an all-in-one room.  I confess that is something I have honestly missed in this home. Our previous home semi-embraced the open floor plan.  The living room and kitchen were separated by a wall and only the Dining Room space, which was at one end of the kitchen was visible from the living room.  It gave a sense of spaciousness but allowed me the privilege of having the messy kitchen hidden from sight.  Here our front entry, dining area and living room are all in one.  The opening into the kitchen runs from floor to ceiling and is 12 feet wide.  Anyone sitting in the dining area or living room can easily see into the kitchen space and the kitchen sitting area.  The only parts of the kitchen not visible are the back entry/laundry and the counter space I have designated as the baking center.   The baking center is visible only from the dining table. 

What's nice about the open floor plan is the amount of light we have in the main living space.  If you're moving furniture in or out the space and ease of moving is very helpful.  If you're claustrophobic it would be a perfect plan for you.  For living day to day though I'd much prefer a little less of an open plan.   

I've said before that our home is small.  It's not a tiny house and by the standard of others it might not be terribly small, but in a day and era where a typical family home is more than 2200 square feet, our home is just under 1200.  There is not one space where one might walk away from cooking aromas, guitar, television, appliance noises, conversations being held in other 'rooms', etc.  There is no privacy, really.  You might be in a bedroom with the door shut, but you're not going to miss a thing happening outside that closed door.  By the same token, if the house is full of people we don't dare so much as whisper a conversation in our bedroom with the door shut for fear that everyone will hear us.  So yes, the idea of a closed floor plan doesn't bother me in the least.   My home now is about the size of a mid-60's ranch style home, I think.  And no one complained of a lack of room in those houses!

I was reading our town newspaper's editorial column this past week.  Valori had acquired two chairs that had belonged to her mother and was having them recovered.  She pointed out that they were older chairs but 'like new' as no one had ever sat in them!  She said her mother had hired a decorator in the 1970's who had done their living room and that her mother had stood in the open doorway admiring the finished product.  And then she shut the door and the door stayed shut.  Valorie reported that when they moved the furniture went into every home into the living room where the door stayed shut.

I could so identify!  You see Mama also kept a 'living room' into which we dared not enter except on Christmas morning after Santa had come.  The tree was set up in there and much as we might want to admire the tree, we weren't allowed.  Guests weren't invited into the room, either.  I did get married to my first husband in that room.  And now that I'm thinking about it, I recall that Mama kept the decorated Christmas tree in the far corner of the room...was it there the night of my first wedding?! lol

Never mind...

The idea that the living room would be off limits wasn't foreign to me.  It was often done I think in most homes.  Those who had an 'extra' room often had it set aside for so called company.  I say that loosely because usually company was treated like family, and everyone sat altogether in the kitchen or the den. 

It didn't seem odd to me because even the books I read generally spoke of a 'front parlor' or 'best room' and everyone I knew had one except Granny and my great grandmothers.  Even Grandmother had a proper living room that remained largely unused as she and Grandaddy tended to sit in the kitchen together of an evening, in old rocking chairs in their last three homes that I knew.  In her last home she turned the dining room into a sitting area, crammed a table along an empty wall in the kitchen and had a front living room that was for company and Christmas.  

Well, there's a lot to be said for a 'best' room.  In my own home, we tend to try and keep the open area spaces quite nice, so that on the rare occasion when we have any company, there is a pleasant space to sit.  Laine (Laine's Letters) often mentioned tidying up her front room and bathroom first thing each morning, so that if they had any guests, she had a pleasant place to take them.  I took that message to heart and that's why I keep our living room nice.  Not to mention that it is so much more pleasant when we get up each morning to come into a room that is tidy and ready for the day. 

Because school starts at the beginning of August here, it often feels like we sort of miss out on the old back to school/new season sort of thrill.  It's hard to be thrilled over autumn in August and it does seem the new school year should be part of the autumn season.  With our school year starting as it does, there is a complete disconnect from autumn.   I remember we started school after Labor Day.  You had one last summer holiday and then boom!  It was autumn and we were in school.  Not really physically autumn, but a whole lot nearer than August 1.  

This year, I haven't bought a single school supply.  I didn't need any but in the past that never mattered.  I'd buy one or two items, anyway, just to say I'd done so.  And honestly, I kinda feel I've missed out!

I've made plans for September.  I sat down last Saturday and wrote out a list of goals for the month.  That's all the work part of my plan.  I want to make some play plans as well.  I want...something more this next month.  After a month of taking things easy and not working quite so hard but not getting to play as much as I'd thought I'd might either, I want to change things up this month.  I've been very restive lately.  It's time to learn something new, go somewhere I haven't been albeit within a few hours of the house, get out of the house on my own again.

There's also the feeling that I could be doing something MORE.  When I said that I didn't care to work any harder it's the honest truth.  But it does make a difference to take a bit of time off from the hamster wheel of 'have to, must do' and relax to make you aware that there are ways you might work smarter by learning a new phase of an old skill, or learning to somehow better manage my tasks.  And yes, to think you could work a little harder, too.  As an adult, I was always driven to do something more and then I decided that would be to improve my housekeeping instead of focusing my attention on community duties.  Well...I always knew I could do more at home, but I had no idea that after 30 years I'd still be finding still more that I could do right in my own home!

One other thing I keep butting my head against is that I cannot seem to make room in the freezer.  It's full.  I take things out to use and put as much or more back in after I've made a meal.  I've determined that I need more ways to preserve food.  I've saved about 1/3 of what I need towards the upright freezer and frankly that would go a long way towards more equipment, like a pressure canner and a dehydrator but John is very insistent that I have the upright freezer.   So much so, that he refuses to buy a mower until I've gotten my freezer!   Now you all know how much he needs a mower, so I've had extra incentive to really push to save for that freezer.  

As well, he has promised the chest freezer to Sam and Bess for their family needs.  With their venison each year, they struggle to find room for the groceries they require for their family of five.  They eat all their meals at home same as we do here.  So, I have still more incentive to push to save towards that freezer.  I'd like to have it ready for them when hunting season opens in two months.

In the meantime, I am working on making room in our freezer so that I am not so limited in what I can store.  I'd really like room enough to put a small deer in our meat supplies.   I long ago emptied out a load of things that I'd stored and we seldom to never wanted to eat.  Now I have only a very small basket of fruit (two packets of peaches for winter cobblers) and blueberries.   I have a vegetable basket I mean to go through this week.  I have some things in there that I know I could use.  For instance, a small portion each of sweet potato, acorn and butternut squash.  I'm thinking of making a pie from those things.   I know there are likely other things I need to use, like turkey broth that I'd saved to make puppy pops for Maddie.  There's no need to save such now that she's gone.   However, it's not going to be dumped but used.  I'm sticking hard to my promise to not waste any foods in my home if I can avoid it. 

And this is where I think, "If I only had a pressure canner I could thaw and can that broth and have it out of my way, not taking up freezer space."  

I've also been eyeing my pantry and trying to figure out if I can store some items elsewhere (mostly non-food items).  I've determined if John would build the overhead cabinet in the guest bathroom, I could move toilet paper and toiletries to that space.  If he'd add a lower shelf in the laundry area, I could store canning jars and such on the upper shelf and then have room as well for paper plates, paper towels and such.

Thinking about all of that makes me feel that it's time to take my house space by space and do a good heavy decluttering once again.   The chifforobe in the guest room is so full I have no room for guest clothing.  Not that guests who come here should ever require a load of space, but they do need some place to put things.  I see these areas about my home that seem to be full to the brim and I'm pretty sure the things there are not 100% necessary.  I've always been one for saving something 'just in case' or holding on to things I don't use because of reasons that might be sentimental but upon examination are NOT.  It's time to let some things go, sell them or donate them or give them away and let them move into homes where they will be loved.

I was outside earlier this week and planted some mums and asters along with that coleus I purchased in spring and have rooted copious amounts of new plants from and the last of the dusty miller I'd bought in early summer.  It looks really nice and is sitting by our front steps.  

I allotted myself 30 minutes on Sunday to 'DO SOMETHING', and I decided to tackle a mess on the front patio.  It was what Annabel referred to a few weeks ago in her post "Get the Ball Rolling".   I knew I wanted to work on that patio this week and try to spruce things up a little bit, so I got the ball rolling and started with clearing up one mess and then deciding I'd plant that pot of flowers.

I'd hoped to have a vegetable garden of sorts on that patio, or at least about the edges of it but I've met more obstacles both in my own head and in fact than I can name.  The tomatoes I'd planted really suffered.  I ripped out two and have two more that may be looking better if you squint your eyes just right.  Even the basil planted in pots are struggling to gain any size at all.  I've heard loads of people saying they had a poor Basil harvest this year and I can say assuredly that mine is disappointing.  Last year by this time I was saving seeds.  No sign of enough growth that these plants might ever start to bloom.  I think we've actually had too much rain on them, but I'm not complaining.  We went years without any idea of how or when we'd ever get rain and were in what was termed severe drought here so I'll take rain.   I will say it's meant the crops in the fields are looking really lush.  I'd say we should have a good crop of cotton, soybeans, corn and peanuts this year.  

Admittedly when I got that pretty pot of flowers planted up, I felt inspired all over again.  Sometimes it's worthwhile to do the pretty part first and let the harder dirtier parts fall into place behind that task.  I was truly incentivized to go out there and clean the patio and determine how to arrange gardening containers and paint the patio table and chairs, etc.  If I'd said I could only have the pretty pot AFTER all that work was done, I might well have continued to procrastinate on that project.  Sometimes you really should start with the reward and then make the rest of the space live up to it!

Sometimes it works better to start at the right end of the project and do all the grunt work first and then make it pretty.  But for me this week it worked to do just the opposite.

Working outdoors Monday, yesterday and again today has convinced me that whatever the calendar date may be, Autumn has arrived.  There's a shift of sunlight, the color of the trees, goldenrod starting to bloom here on the property, the grass has slowed it's growing.  The birds sound different, too.  They are chirping and calling as always but the volume has been toned down.  The excited flight from nest to surrounding landscapes, the mating calls, have ceased.  

Yesterday afternoon, as I was coming up the back steps a breeze blew that made me turn and look hard to the west.  There'd been a hint of something, an unexpected coolness that hadn't been there before.  I'm glad I took the time to enjoy a few of summer's pleasures before it came to an end.

I sat on the porch this morning with coffee.  It was so lovely.  John came to sit with me a moment, then put on his shoes and moved the doghouse off the porch.  We're still missing Maddie and having her house sitting right there is like a jab at the heart each time we come out the back door.  I'm glad we were both ready to move it out of sight for now.  One day there will be another dog, because Charley Rufus is an older doggy.   After he did that, he stacked the bricks we'd put around Baby tree which has flourished these past two years.  

As we sat and talked, I couldn't help but sigh.  I've worked hard outdoors this week albeit for short periods and it's barely the tip of the iceberg.  There are so many things to be done, all of which it seems are on my plate if they are to be done at all. Not complaining.  John is content with everything just as it is.  It's I who want the flower beds planted out and the vegetable garden.  It's I who notices the dirt on the porches and wants them cleaned. 

It's I who wants the kitchen redone and the walls painted and the rooms pretty.  And since I know John truly has no interest and will only grouse and spoil my happy creative moods, I do it myself. I must confess I do miss having a teen aged boy to boss about and get things done for me, lol.

But it's also I who pays the price lying awake with aching hip and knee...I'm just going to stick to the small bites method of getting things done and keep refusing to help John with his projects because if I ever start helping him, mine will never ever get done.  Really all the help he wants is someone to stand around listening to him.

I shall end here, as summer is seemingly ending. It was good to rest.  It's good to be back.

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