Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Sweet Things

Saturday:  If a day could go as planned, today was it.  All my work on the food end of things played out perfectly.  There were leftovers but not so many I felt overwhelmed with them.  Everyone showed up and was on time.   We were missing only Bella, whose Mama made plans and asked to have her this weekend. The kids and especially the grandchildren, thoroughly enjoyed their day.   I was relaxed and easy throughout the whole day.  Meals went off without fuss and strain.  Clean-up was easy and done in minutes.  Everyone talked and visited.  And to top it all off, the weather cooperated and was so beautiful and just warm enough without being hot.

Apparently, the egg hunt is Katie's 'thing' and boy did she have it organized.  She divided the children into two groups, easy (for the four-year-olds) and hard as heck for the rest of the kids.  For the second hunting experience, she enlisted every grown-up except John and me and turned them loose to hide wherever they wanted to, giving them the full range of the huge front yard.   

Bless Caleb and Millie who decided to help the older kids find their eggs.  Caleb kept saying, "Someone needs to get the eggs here in my playhouse..." until someone finally listened and came to get those eggs, lol.  

Our weekend isn't over but today is done and I'm tired.  It was a lovely, lovely day.

Sunday:  Jd and the kids stayed until after 8 last night.  The turkey and pulled Barbecue pork for sandwiches went over well.  I made Orange danish and smoked sausage cooked for breakfast but the children didn't want anything.

We were all tired on Sunday.  The kids mostly wanted to keep their noses in their computers which was fine.  Jd said they'd left our house and went to visit Katie at her house last night.  They stayed until nearly midnight.  

After lunch today, they left.

John and I didn't do much of anything after that but sit and rest.  I didn't do the dishes, and he didn't vacuum.  We had an easy supper.  Every now and then we'd share a sweet memory from the weekend.  We looked at shared pictures online of our egg hunting and the grandchildren gathered on the steps for a group photo.  I won't be able to use the steps anymore, sad face.  The kids are getting too big to crowd in on them.

Sweet memories:  Caleb coming into the house crawling right into my lap and hugging me hard for a long time.  Millie looked at me,  smiling so sweetly, with her eyes shining.  She looked so happy.  Zach offered me a Snickers and looked at me intently as I took it. Zach is a hands-off person and not a talker, but it meant the world to have him come to me especially to offer me a piece of his candy.  I read a lot of love in his look and in the offering.  Daniel is nearly fifteen and wants to spend his time away from the kids but I saw him helping hide eggs and encouraging the children as they got near an egg they hadn't seen.  Hailey is quiet and withdrawn but I saw her smile a few times and that was pretty darned nice.  Taylor was her usual lovely happy self.  Josh occupied himself sitting with Zach and commenting the game he was playing. Isaac was all over the place.  

Millie won the junior egg hunt, hands down.  She filled her bag FULL.  Then she helped the big kids find their eggs.  At one point, Caleb sat on the steps watching the big kids do their egg hunt, and each time one would come near, he'd quietly say, "Y'all need to look in my playhouse..."  There was quite a little stash of eggs in that playhouse.  I'm glad someone finally paid attention to him and checked.

My meal plans proved easy enough that I wasn't in the least flustered and we didn't have a load of leftovers.  All in all, it was a lovely Easter weekend.

Monday:  Why, oh why must my mind start clicking along at 90 miles an hour come bedtime?  It did just that.  I found myself planning my day and when I thought of working in the shed, I suddenly saw how I could reorganize it so that it was better, and then I went over and over the weekend behind, planned meals in my head and more.  At 4am, I finally dozed off, after getting up and going to the guest room where my tossing and turning would no longer disturb John.  I was awake again by 7am and lay quietly in bed until John got up.

Today I cleaned one section of the shed and then moved things from another section to the clean bit.  I weeded the shed flower bed, as much as I could.  I was pleasantly surprised to find I had an unusual plant coming up as well as loads of little marigold plants.  The unusual plant proved to be Monardia, or Bee Balm which is up and about to bloom.  I planted those seeds last year and I never saw a bit of them.  All the rain we had this winter has really boosted plant growth.  

Indoors, I sorted out the produce in the fridge, prepped supper, cleaned and finally I pulled some of the older items from the freezer to thaw for meals this week.  

John went out this evening to mow the backyard.  I cleaned up the kitchen, then set the house to rights once again.  We tried to sit on the back porch but mosquitoes were out...I'd forgotten that those came along when it warmed up.  

Tuesday:  I was tired when I got up this morning.  I did not want to work but I pushed onward.  I'm glad I did.  I focused solely on weeding today and got three flower beds fully weeded, and several pots.  I picked up toys from the yard so John could trim and mow today.  John very kindly blew off porches and patio when he was done mowing.  I typically do that but I'd gotten busy indoors after my shower.

I made lunch, and bread, and put the guest room together.  Even without painting the frames or the headboard, the room looks very nice.  I sat in there this afternoon when I was done.  It looks like a guest room once more.  It feels so peaceful and lovely.  I want to add a plant or two.  

I worked on the quarterly budget and rearranged our finances.  We have a mower maintenance fund for the next few months.  I was sobered looking at those figures but wishing won't increase our income or decrease our outflow.  It is what it is and it's up to me to manage things as best I can.

This week is slipping right by me.  Here it is nearly time for bed.  The kids will be here all day tomorrow.  I hope they enjoy their time here.   

Wednesday:  I was shaken from sleep last night by great booms of thunder and bright flashes of lightning that were pretty serious about lighting the house and yard up.  I think the storm might have gone on a little while before it woke me.  I haven't seen so many lightning flashes in years here.  When we first moved here it was not uncommon to have lightning storms and often it was horizontal lightning which is more frightening to me than vertical flashes are.

At any rate, the lightning last night was so bright and frequent that there was hardly a pause between one flash and the next.  I got up and shut the curtains which we rarely use except in the extreme heat of summer days or when it's especially cold and blustery.  It didn't stop the room lighting up but it did help a little.  John snored right through it all.  I was rather glad he did because that sort of weather makes him very nervous and he would have gotten up and sat it out.  Soon great waves of rain poured heavily down on the house, but for all that, we hardly looked like we'd had rain at all. 

The faith tree has new tiny leaves and the pecan trees are budding now.  We are moving quickly through the spring, as I knew we would now that Easter is past.  It doesn't stop it from being a bit cooler today though.  

The children came over bouncing with energy.  They've played indoors and out.   I'm trying to encourage quiet activity since I know they are going to church this evening.  Rest means different things to me and them. Millie has been bouncing in the bedroom and Isaac keeps running from one end of the house to the other, ignoring all suggestions that he rest.

I made pancakes for lunch and offered up a variety of toppings pulled from the freezers.  The kids were a bit leery about pancakes for lunch and said so.  I find this remarkable, since just two years ago pancakes were the only meal they requested and they wanted pancakes for every meal.  However, the charm of choosing and combining toppings won them right over to my pancake luncheon.

I don't know just why I don't feel well.  I felt ill last night and after waking to the storm, I was sure what I'd had going on was the result of a painless migraine.  Today I have a headache and still don't feel terribly well.  Possibly I have a milder case of what's been going around.  It wouldn't be odd, since we've had so much company lately.

Thursday:  I felt puny all day yesterday but no one fussed or complained about my taking it easy.  Funny how much harder we are upon ourselves than others would ever be.  

Today I've been cleaning and carrying on quite normally.  I feel so much better.  It felt good to be about the usual business of my home.  

I found a new to me vlogger and she sounded and looked so familiar.  She is Lisa's (Farmhouse On Boone) and Laura's (Our Oily House) sister.  Our Sweet Sunny Days is the name of the vlog.  It's a fledgling vlog, just started in the last few months but I really enjoyed watching a few of her videos.  These three young women are very home and family-centered and that is a lovely thing to see.   They are very industrious.  

I'll be honest with it, it's the life I chose, but I did so against popular opinion.  Yes, we chose to live on less money and I focused solely on my family and home.  But it also cost me dearly.  There was no community of stay-at-home moms.  I was the odd woman out in my choice to not work outside the house.  I wouldn't trade it for a single penny more.  It's good to remember that when I'm in a whiny mood about money not stretching as far as I'd like.  

I also want to thank whoever recommended Homemaking with Denise.  I've really enjoyed her videos as well.  

Friday: I hope you all have had a lovely week.  I've certainly enjoyed this one and have such sweet lovely memories.  

Did you make lovely memories this week?   Come share them with us.