Diary of a Homemaker's Week: All The Things

Friday:  We had an unexpected day off.  Katie didn't know until she was leaving work on Thursday that she had the day off on Friday.  I thought we'd all be home together that day but John said immediately when he heard, "What are we going to do tomorrow?"  Knowing that it was supposed to rain tomorrow, I suggested we could go get haircuts.  My own had held fairly well, since it was cut so very short this last time, but he looked a bit beyond fuzzy duck stage with his hair.  "But I thought you were going to see your mom this week?"  "Yes, I had planned to do so...I guess we could part ways and you go get a haircut while I go see Mama..."   No, that wouldn't do.  In the end, as late as this morning, he suddenly determined that we could both visit Mama and then we could both get a haircut.

I fed the pets this morning and checked that all was well with them.  Misu's legs looked worse than they had all week long.  I watched her eat and felt that she must not be in too much discomfort.  I stripped bed and bath, remade our bed and put on our spring/summer spread. I then got ready to go out.  I told John that laundry could just wait.

We had a very nice time out with Mama.  It's different having John along, different in a good way, and so the visit was pleasant.  Mama was her usual negative self, but I was very pleased to hear that she'd finally got an appointment to get her eyes checked.  Honestly, I've no clue how she's managed to see a thing.  She was meant to get a checkup about ten years ago and has stubbornly refused to go ever since though she brings it up every single visit that she is having trouble seeing.

We left her place and went on to get haircuts.  It was so very hot outdoors, nearly 90F at that point and the air felt heavy.  It was unpleasant.  

We had a nice long ride through the back side of the country to the salon, since I know my way around that area fairly well.  Fortunately, the hair salon we go to was not busy.  

It was on the way home that we were unsettled entirely.  Sam had found Misu in a sad state.  We drove home knowing we had no option but to have her put down.  It wasn't a pleasant finish to the day to say the least.  I won't write more about it.  I've already written about it.  I shall miss Misu with her tail that curved up and over her back.  My brother once called her the 'proudest cat I've ever seen', based on her habit of keeping her tail curved up as she walked.

Perhaps it was the atmosphere of the house, but Caleb was having a horrible afternoon.   Katie had volunteered to cook our supper, (right from the menu plan.  That's what we ate all week long!) so I took Caleb and put him in the tub, which I thought would be calming.  Ha.  It worked well enough.

Saturday:  John did the laundry yesterday evening.  He was a bit skeptical about hanging the winter bedding on the line.  "What if it rains?"  "It will rain.  The spread will be fine."  I know that rain softens laundry, and they will be lovely and fresh when dry.  No harm can come of it.

And it's a good thing I know this because what started as a mere cold and weary drizzle has turned into a downpour that is cold.  John told me that the egg hunt at church that was scheduled for today will be held tomorrow after the 11am service is over.  

We've had a rocky morning with misunderstandings and family issues.  I was knee deep in prepping food for tomorrow's family day.  That isn't really going to happen as planned but the three children from across the field will be here as will Katie and Caleb. The children count most, though I'd rather others had been able to come, as well.  It is what it is.  

I have been emotional and responded emotionally to most things which isn't good, but that too is what it is.  

Katie had bought Caleb a water table to play with outdoors, but the weather definitely is not water table weather.  I told Kate to just bring it inside and he could play with it dry, which he has done quite happily.  We've had all sorts of potty successes today which is a great wonder given the rain.  It's my experience with littles that rain is always a wet day.

Sunday:  I spent part of the day yesterday in the kitchen.  I made a big pot of chili to simmer all day long and prepped foods for today.  

The weather was supposed to warm up, but it didn't.  It was supposed to clear up but until noon it was drizzly and damp.  When Katie went to get the other children, Caleb insisted on going out on the porch.  He came right back in and said, "I'm FROZEN!" which made us laugh but it really was quite cold.

The sun finally came out as we ate lunch and then ironically it got a little colder.  Spring, where art thou?

The children had fun with the Easter egg hunt that Aunt Katie organized.  She herded the kids here and herded them through lunch and herded them through the egg hunt and herded them through opening the eggs and herded them through cupcakes and then herded them home.    I felt as I always do, that it just went too darn fast.  I appreciated Katie taking charge.  Easter has always been one holiday she enjoys and she made it fun for the children today.

After everyone was home, she and Caleb went to take quiet time and I sat down in my chair with my computer on my lap and went right to sleep.  

The afternoon has been sunny as could be, if not warmer.  We've eaten leftovers and too many treats and are now ready to get back to normal.

I realized this afternoon as I saw the children off that I am avoiding going to the front porch, which was Misu's domain.  That means that I'm not thinking of Rufus who eats his meals there. I told John I might just for the convenience of feeding him and Bean together.  I wonder if they'll declare a truce now that the Queen has passed?

I expect Rufus feels a bit lost as well.  In less than a year he's said goodbye to Maddie, River and now Misu.  Misu was ridiculously foolish over Rufus.   She embarrassed him with the excess of affection that she poured out on him, but they were companions and good ones for five years.  

Monday:  I've just finished fighting the tv...It's getting temperamental lately.  Considering the number of hours this machine is on, it may well need to be replaced soon, but for the moment, John can usually get it to work once more.  I was getting mighty frustrated with it and Caleb was fussing because he wasn't getting what he wanted.  When I fussed back, he said quietly, "Calm down...calm down."  I explained to him that while his quiet time is necessary for his good health, it's also very necessary for Gramma's mental health and if he didn't have quiet time, which he didn't, then everyone was likely to end up on the rough side of Gramma's temper.  Sad but very true all the same.

Well Grampa to the rescue.  He came in to tell he was off to go buy lawnmower gas and I handed him the remote.  He got it all squared away and we've now got Paw Patrol on and I am going to write this day's log as quickly as I can and then take up my book once more.

I had a productive day this morning.  My room was a disaster.  Things had been piled on my dresser: leftovers from stuffing Easter eggs, emptied plastic eggs, clothes I'd worn and aired and folded, laundry that was fresh from the wash, jewelry I'd worn over the weekend, toys that were removed for safety concerns...You get the idea.  It really bothered me to have the dresser looking so full of stuff.

The irony is that for years that's how my dresser looked all of the time.  It was truly pretty bad.  What changed my habits?  A challenge of sorts that John stated one day when I'd cleared it off.  He simply made a quiet comment that I'd soon have it piled up again...and for whatever reason that bothered me and made me determined I would NOT do so.  And I haven't done except for the odd weekend that overwhelms such as this past weekend, for the past 29 years.  Yes, 29 years I've kept that dresser top clean and nice.

Well, it's back to its pretty state once more, but it took a few minutes to figure out how to get it all squared away.  My whole room was something of a disaster after this weekend.  The desk was piled up.  The trunk was piled up.  The side tables had stuff on them...I found room for many things, but I still have some quilts that won't fit anywhere including a big, zippered storage bag of them sitting against the desk.  I'd intended to haul a bunch of things out to the shed this afternoon but that quiet time missing tossed that onto the list for later.

I had to clear the snack cupboard and then the fridge needed tidying.  Dishes were put away and then dishes were loaded up.  John vacuumed and did laundry.  I cleaned our bathroom and watered plants.  Now the house feels tidy once more.  Supper is in the slow cooker.  

It's sunny as can be outdoors but it's chilly, too.  I'm thought for sure if I were outdoors working it would feel just right, but it's definitely not porch weather just yet.  We'll get there quickly enough though.  

John went off to mow the lawn yard across the field and I stayed home with Caleb.  He had a complete meltdown over a toy that simply does not work quite as the manufacturer shows it might. It frustrates me and you can well imagine how much more it frustrates a 3-year old child, especially one who has had insufficient quiet time.  He tossed the toy, hit the remote which cut the tv off and there we were...I opted not to fight the tv and settled to playing with him until it was time to start finishing up supper.

After supper, instead of going outdoors as I'd thought I might, I tackled the wicked bins under the kitchen sink.  There two, one containing plastic containers and one containing glass jars and containers.  I sorted out the pieces, matching lids to things and tossing everything that had no lid or no bottom.  I always rue this later because one or the other of the missing pieces turns up but just at the moment, I'm enjoying the idea that I've accomplished something.

Tuesday:  I feel I am only giving half an effort to most everything these days.  My grooming, my home, my cookery, my writing, my child rearing, my gardening...I'm not sure some of it is even getting half an effort.

Facts: right now, at 2pm, I have no thawed food...It's been out for hours but it's not thawing.  

My eyebrows need to be tweezed, my fingernails are broken and ragged, my cuticles torn and rough, and I'm pretty sure I need to shave.  I haven't worn makeup but once in the past four days.

I keep forgetting Caleb's potty training.  And he's doing so well at it but maybe it's because I'm hounding him less?  Still...I should be a little more vigilant about it.

No gardening has ensued.  Housework is basic routine stuff with the occasional clearing out of a problematic area.  I have done NO zone work and we're three days into this week.  And it's not happening tomorrow either as I will have four children here all day long.

And while I'm getting out a few posts a week, I would love to sit down and just have a good heart to heart session of writing...

I can't do it all.  There's not enough of me to get it all done.  That's fact.  

It's unlikely anyone is going to notice my unshaven state. I need to use the small bites approach to my grooming care.   I should put an emery board by my bedside and use that on my nails nightly before I apply hand cream.  Ditto for cuticle oil. 

I need to go back to thawing out all the meat required for three days at a time.  In the meantime, I have an alternate (Plan C) for today's meal and I'll prep the meat meant to be today for tomorrow.  With the kids here it will pay me to have it ready to go into the slow cooker so that supper will be easy peasy tomorrow evening.  Mostly I'm trying to just not think and stress over what might happen and just let the day unfold.

I should set my timer for Caleb's training.  But keep that relaxed attitude, too.

I'm not sure how to manage the gardening part nor further writing.  But obviously the approach on my side has to be a gentle, do what you can, don't fret over what you can't.  I'm too tired to stress myself out over all these things.

Later:  Fingers look nice and neat, eyebrows tweezed...John gave me a lovely peptalk on the way home, so I feel better overall than I did earlier today.   I got back on a set routine with Caleb.  I just needed to sort out all the things I felt was wrong and get them right.

I still have three days left in this week in which to accomplish things, so I'm going to just relax and skip worrying over it all.

We went to the dump and what was meant to be a short ride turned into a longer one because Caleb went to sleep.  I knew he was going to be an absolute bear when he woke if he didn't get at least 20 minutes, so the drive was extended.

As it happened, he was a bear anyway.  He roared finally that he was hungry, but he sobbed and wailed and carried on like no one's business.  John took him up and babied him, truly babied him, patting his back and shushing him and I put applesauce on the table for him.  I said to John later, no more rides without supper being ready to serve when we get back!  And I mean it.  I got terribly flustered trying to cook and handle the screaming upset that went on and I didn't act so well myself!  John was the harbor in the storm tonight, no doubt about that.

Wednesday:  I felt much better today.  No clue because I was so very tired yesterday.  I slept well the previous night; I didn't have a stressful day the day before.  But I did make up my mind that I'd rather do things in small bites than not do them at all.

I made a point to tend to my own care first this morning.  I showered, shaved, put on a smidge of makeup, enough to make me feel less haggard and then came out to attend to the needs of others.  I made an easy breakfast and then I got our supper started for tonight.

The kids came over about 10am.  It was a bit hairy there for a bit.  Caleb feeds off Josh's energy and Josh is energetic.  He also feeds off Isaac's curiosity and the two together are a force to be reckoned with. I caught the two of them at my desk, both balanced on the chair and found they'd removed my bluebird chime from the bulletin board.  Apparently they played with the oscillating fan as well. Millie is also three, so the drama is real when she and Caleb are together.  John kept having to take sanity breaks.

About lunch time, we picked up toys, had our meal and good conversation which is something we've always enjoyed with the boys.  They like dinner conversation and we all had a grand time.  Josh and I had worked on a dessert and it was out of the ordinary for us.  (Love auto correct but seriously it insists that the end of that sentence should read it 'were'...)

I insisted on quiet time, two hours of it with all of us lying down.  Well, I sat in my chair with my feet up, but John actually did lie down on the floor near Caleb.  Millie complained that she didn't want to do quiet time and I explained that in our house we do quiet time because Gramma gets too loud and upset if she hasn't got a quiet space in her day.  Oddly enough that shut down her complaints, lol.

At 3pm we all got up and the boys asked for a snack.  Then they played.  Toys were flying everywhere and at one point Caleb got hit.  He was outraged that he'd been hit so he hit back.  There ensued a mini me fight and then he picked up a sip and toss cup and clocked Millie on the head with it.  She screamed, he got spanked, he cried, she cried, the boys yelled, John came and hauled Caleb from the room, and I soothed Millie.  Finally, I was able to explain that Caleb was upset because she hit him first.  "Was it an accident?"  She said, "Yes."  "Well don't you think if you apologized, and he apologized the two of you could play together again?"  She marched right to the bedroom to apologize, and Caleb immediately said "I'm sorry" when he saw her.  Sweetest thing ever to see the two of them apologize so nicely.

They went home about 4:30. 0I told Caleb he could have tv on in his room and we'd leave the door open.  He'd been so good about potty training and all the necessary sharing of his things, etc., all day long, but I could see he was done.   Five minutes later, I went to the back to get something from the pantry closet and there he was on the bed snoring his little head off.  He was ill as a hornet when he woke, but he went to sleep pretty quickly tonight.

John and I watched Wednesday service on tv, then went to take off trash and run our necessary payday errands.  There is an advantage to ATMs and drop mailboxes.  I'll say it's nice to leave home at 8 and arrive back at 8:45 and still have some semblance of daylight to see by.

News tonight is that Sam will be going into the office one day a week starting in May and 2-3 times a week by September.  I told Bess, I guessed today was a 'soft opening' of Gramma's Day Care.

Thursday:  A rainy day for us today.  It's been all scattered showers, but the temperatures have dropped a bit.  You can see the effect of the weather on us today.  Caleb has wanted to lay about and watch his Kindle.  

I polished the solid wood pieces in the living room, dusted all the rest and did some very minor rearrangements.  I put the 'punkin' (a blue and white onion shaped jar but Caleb calls it the Punkin) back in the middle of the dining room table.  After a year of nothing there, I'm hoping that certain little hands have learned not to touch.  We shall see.  It looks very nice there with the new navy blue and white napkins on the table.

The Judaica items went atop the gun case.  Isaac prompted this yesterday when he snatched up the Challah platter from the plate stand on the buffet and said he'd found a plate...Boys! 

I don't really care to dust but I do try to keep up with it (at least once a month).  Yet today, I found as I removed and handled items, wiping them down or polishing them, that I had a lot of fond memories attached to many items.  I recalled the startling discovery of the Menorah in a thrift store, a Christian church thrift store.  I admired the pretty pattern on the Challah platter, a gift from Katie and Sam some years ago.  I admired the little box Katie made for our Tzedakah donations.  I noticed the dings and dents on the wooden boxes stacked under the table.  These wood boxes were made by John's dad many years ago to use as toolboxes for his trade work as a carpenter.  Every one of the current lot of grandchildren have enjoyed playing with those boxes and I wonder if Mr. Harry had any idea at the time he made them that one day his great grandchildren would consider them 'treasure boxes' as they call them?

There's the old shoe anvil my great-great-great grandfather used to repair soles.  He made shoes at one point in his life, a fact I learned in my genealogy research...And there is the vase that John's stepmother made and a milk glass top hat that John purchased simply because his mom used to have one.  There is a bluebird I bought when I was 18.  And a dough bowl that my grandfather picked up for a song that had split down the middle.  He gave it to my mom who made a clumsy repair.  John stripped her work and fixed it properly.  I love the hand cut notches at either end just large enough for a thumb.

Even that 'punkin' jar is something special, a long-ago gift from Granny, as is a smaller ginger jar that I have on the mantel.  

It made me realize that perhaps dusting wasn't quite the chore I thought it, but an opportunity to recall the pleasures of family connection and just fun memories with each object as I went about my task.

Friday:  Bread is in the oven.  I have leftover stew reheating for our lunch.  

Caleb declined his lunch but he'd just eaten a granola bar and had a late breakfast, so no harm there.  He will usually eat when he gets up from quiet time.  I guess he's ready for that quiet time because he volunteered himself for it already and I complied.

Sometime in the next hour or so we have the contractor coming out to measure and work up a quote on our home renovation projects.  

We've done all our Friday chores.  I have no idea what might be for supper tonight and nothing thawed.

We have a shopping list for Walmart tomorrow: flour, sugar, larger sliders to go under a very heavy piece of furniture that has small ones, a drain cover to prevent hair from going down the back shower drain, and something else I can't recall at the moment.  John has a list and I have a list.  Neither one are very long.

The morning has been full of activity.  I'm afraid my patience has been missing but I hope this after-noon, I improve that.  I don't like hearing myself being snippy at others.  And it's not that others are particularly frustrating or troublesome today.  It's just me.  

Obviously, I'd better be thinking about supper.  

I hope you have a lovely weekend and have had a good productive week.  Come tell us all about it...

Amazon Associate Affiliate Link: