This past week went by too quickly. I don't think I accomplished much on my list from last week, but I did what I could. Did I even mention John had called the contractor? He told John there were delays on the job he was one, then added "Call back on the 21st..." I'm wondering if this year, my kitchen will be under renovation for Thanksgiving or even Christmas. That would certainly put an end to the endless, "What will we DO for the holiday?" from outside persons with all their incidental demands for this and that as well, wouldn't it? I'm probably being hopeful, lol.
In the meantime, I shall not worry about the future. Doesn't the Bible say that my worries are sufficient for this day? (Matthew 6:34). Not exactly perhaps but very close. I've promised myself that I shall try to be conscious of NOW as much as possible. Of course, that rather negates any planning, doesn't it? I'm not quite there. I do like to have a plan, if only to use as a sort of roadmap that I can at least find detours by.
This weekend cooler air moved in. The AC ran only a bit on Saturday. At one point, Katie and Caleb were on the back porch, John and I on the front and Rufus running back and forth between, all of us enjoying the chill morning air with our coffee. It rained in the night and that prompted the seeds to burst forth with green sprouts. I think everything that has been sort of just sitting went on a growth spurt and I couldn't have been happier.
I had the three from across the field most of the afternoon on Saturday. That was a wild house as they apparently were feeling autumn in their innards the same way Rufus was and the same way Caleb had been before he and Katie left for the weekend. Only the adults seemed to be impervious...
A new blog found this week via someone's recommendation. She's doing a whole series of Cozy Reveries for October. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and caught up with her October series.
On to the week ahead!
Work:
Isn't that a charming and pretty dining room? Honestly the more I see of the 1920's decor the better I like it. It's functional, not fussy, but cozy, too. The rug, the drapes, the plants, the shaded lamp, the chair there by that sunny window...I just plain like it. Goals, people, goals. I'd like to simplify my own home somewhat and have it look artistic and cozy at the same time.
Zone 2: Living/Dining and front entry. Dusting for sure. I need to go through the toybox and pull out the excess then determine what I will store and what needs to go away. I can put Caleb's 'nowears' in his drawer. He only occasionally will put a pair on and the moment he wets himself, he's done with them. Hmmm...I think I'm going to make him wear a pair a day just so he'll associate being wet with being uncomfortable, but we sure don't need to keep them on the bookshelf here in the living room.
I ought to really go over the bookcases, a task I have resisted to say the least. I so hate to have to go over the bookcase and admit I've not read a book in years and likely won't. I feel I've betrayed them somehow or another. On the other hand, I can pull a new stack of books to read over the months ahead. That's a good reason to do the task, right?
Work up my checkbook and get my page written out for pay day this week. Also: pay bills, go to bank, run to post office.
I have a top that shrank. I've only worn the blouse twice so I really want to see if I can salvage it. It's a crinkle type fabric that John put in the dryer, which he is wont to do. Apparently, it's not impossible to unshrink these things.
Kitchen:
Make those apple hand pies. And I think I want to make carrot cake, too, but I'll freeze the layers and bring them out to frost later. My big goal this week is to make soup. I always make too much soup. I simply don't know how to make just enough to go round one meal. On the other hand, it means I have soup for the freezer and really that is not a bad thing at all.
I am going to work on my next pantry stock up list. One item on that list will include some plastic containers to use in the freezer. Why? I've plenty of glass jars and I've used them lots over the past few years, but I'm so doggone prone to dropping things these days and I've broken several jars, and had to toss the contents for fear of tiny bits of glass.
Meals:
Potstickers with Stir Fried Vegetables
Cranberry Braised Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, English Peas, Biscuits or Rolls
Breakfast Casserole, Grits, Fruit Salad
Chicken Parmigiana, Pasta, Italian Green Beans, Salad, Garlic Toast
Vegetable Beef Soup, Cornbread
Brats with Potatoes, Cabbage, Onions, Rye Bread, Baked Apples
Leftovers? There should be plenty this week. If not, then I'll make pizza. My motto on Friday is Keep It Simple Silly, You are Tired!
Personal and Leisure:
I won't say we had the day off Saturday. We had the three children all afternoon and Caleb was here from the time we got up this morning until about an hour before the other children arrived. John demanded (and is getting) a date day on Sunday. I enjoyed having the children on this first day of cooler October weather. But I love that my husband so values our dates that he demands we get one. I think that makes for one lovely weekend.
Why are good habits so easily broken and bad habits so hard to break? I know exactly what started this one but it's time to correct myself. Makeup. I have been going about the house with no makeup, no earrings, no personal care other than brushing hair and getting dressed. Why? Because I was going out to work in the yard and sweating up a storm and then coming in to shower later...but not to put on makeup. So back to square one. I will wash my face, put on my light makeup (mascara, eyebrows, bit of foundation only if required that day, bit of blush) and my earrings and even a spritz of my perfume. I know I will feel a lot better about myself, because I just do.
Work on that wardrobe of mine. I have done nothing towards setting up outfits. And the mornings are cool enough to warrant pulling out the cardigans and light jackets and scarves...Oh yes! I do love getting ready this time of year!
Mani and Pedi.
Mix up that recipe for moisturizing my skin. Use it.
Read. I finished Karon's, In the Company of Others, and am now reading Elizabeth Goudge's Bird In the Tree. I'm also filtering my way through Ben Dailey's book, Captured By Grace and have started working my way slowly through Julia Cameron's classic for creative folks, The Artist's Way.
I am journaling just about every day, five or six days a week, and while my goal is 3 pages daily, I'm hitting something like one and a half or two at best. I think I've managed three pages only once. This is related to reading the last book listed above as one of the 'tools' for priming the creative pump. Hard to do when you are continually being interrupted, let me tell you. I'm giving myself grace and when it's obvious I'm not going to have to manage the full three, If I can get an hour of journaling in then that's good enough. It's truly all I have time for and I'm not going to chastise myself for it.
What I haven't done is touch my Bible, not even once. So, this week I'm going to move that to my bedside and am determined that it shall be the first thing I do each morning before exiting my room.
8 comments:
Renovations are a delightfully guilt-free way of recusing oneself from holiday hosting turmoil. I am using that excuse myself this year.
In fact, you could jettison your "responsibility" ahead of time, due to the contractor's flightiness. Who knows when he will finally show up?
Call it early--let someone else host for a change. If those outside persons deem it important enough, they will offer. If not? That's certainly something to consider. For if they can't be bothered, why should you?
I do very much like that dining room picture. "Not fussy, but cozy, too" is exactly right!
It took me a good three weeks to get the kitchen back in order after our renovation.
Sue, John's dream is to have a catered meal, or at least one of the grocery store feasts...I suppose I might stretch to that this year if it appears we might need to adjust for the holiday we might resort to that.
Slughorn, you mean getting things back in order might encompass TWO holidays? Oh my! lol
I love that dining room...takes me back...in fact, I almost ache for those simpler times (or so they seemed to be to my younger self).
You have another ambitious list for this week. I make lists, but seem to keep them more generalized. I am getting family visitors for 6 days starting Thursday, and am trying to come up with meal plans. One does not eat red meat, so that is another consideration. Why do I fight this planning so much?? I just want to have all groceries in the house so no store trips.
I swear, girlfriend, one of these days you are going to let slip just exactly which day of the week you are baking apple pies, carrot cake and other goodies and you are going to be mystified by a quiet knock on the door. When you open it, your entire fanbase will be standing there with a fork in hand and napkins tied around our necks.
Gosh I love that kitchen! I miss having a kitchen table. Not my decision, nor my choice, but one I have to live with. That's all I'll say. LOL
Anne, I am dying laughing but count me in!
These rooms you post are so much like our house. Old fashioned and cozy and not at all Pinterest worthy! Last time I had the grand piano tuned the young tuner came in and told me our house looks like his grandmother's house. LOL! I wasn't sure if that was good or not in his mind!
lejmom, it would be awfully nice NOT to go to the grocery when your company has arrived...Unless they are the sort that taking a break from makes the grocery trip nice, lol.
Karla, I like a Kitchen table, too but I don't really have room in my kitchen for one. I offered to put one back in the kitchen sitting, but John vetoed the idea. He had the habit of just dropping things on it from his pockets, etc., and didn't want me to create a new place for him to put things.
Anne, You just go ahead and knock...I'll feed you!
Lana, I rather admire the look of the Grandmother's house. A lot of young girls just now are shooting for that aesthetic, but they harken back to the 1970's sort of home...I'm looking thinking of my great grandmother's home which was more suited to the pictures I post. Hers was sparsely furnished but cozy.
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