May 30: Sunshine, Glorious Sun

Let it be known there is a call for rain today and that may well happen, but we woke this morning to the lovely sunlight.  I for one was more than happy to see it.  Truth, I need that daily sunlight dose to stay energetic.  Otherwise, I tend to slip and slide down the hill of despond and linger there until I can get a nice sunny dose.  I've lived in a few homes with dark carpet, dark walls and pitifully small windows that had to be curtained for privacy's sake and let me tell you, I much appreciate the large multiple windows we have in this house.  In the two bedrooms that have single windows one is much longer than the others and the other is much wider than all the others.   

I also had a relatively good night's rest.  I've stopped pushing the idea that I am an early to bed person.  These days I tend to be ready for sleep around 12:30-1:00 a.m.  I am reminded that my grandmother and dad and all his family were of that ilk.  Unlike Granny who did go to bed rather early and rise very early.  There was much to admire in both of my grandmother's.  They were productive, hard-working women, who enjoyed their tasks and thrived in keeping home, family and garden in good shape.  Granny wasn't above trailing off to the fields to look for limbs to cut, and fences to repair.  Grandmother left those tasks to the men folk, but she was a dab hand at refinishing and recovering furniture, so there was the trade-off.

I have been making it a habit to dress for the day when I rise.  I think I'm going to move my Bible to the bedroom as well and get that reading done before I appear.  There is something about John seeing a book in hand, Bible or otherwise, or an earbud in my ear where I'm obviously listening to one of my own favorite vloggers that makes him very chatty indeed.  I recall that way back in the long-ago days when we had phones with cords, it never failed that if I was on the phone my children appeared out of nowhere to have long conversations with me and persisted until I was off the phone.  I called it the umbilical cord syndrome, a reminder of the lifeline that once attached their very life to mine.  

Not to say that John is seeking a maternal fix. I think he's just ready to chatter and it matters not that I am obviously busy.  He's given me a quiet good morning when I came out of the room.  He's allowed me to have about half a cup of coffee.  Therefore, it is then his time to share what he's watched, what he dreamed, what he thought, what he read for that vast half hour to hour before I appeared from the room and his own rising.  

It's not that I don't care to talk.  The truth is I was told so often to hush, shut up, stop talking, etc. that I just naturally stopped saying aloud all the things on my heart and mind.  I internalized it and wrote it out instead in a journal, a poem, a school report.   Then when I married the first time, I spent a great deal of time alone.  My first husband was always working or away from home.  We had one car and lived in the country, so I was truly alone.  There was no one to talk to except a cat and later a wee babe and none of them were great conversationalists so I turned to writing more and more.

That habit of taking alone time to sort out my thoughts on paper translated easily to screens, first in a newsletter and now in a blog.  These days I simply feel a bit more comfortable with my conversations written out, edited to make sense and stay on point.  

However, it's been to my detriment as well.  I love my family deeply, but I am awkward and uncomfortable vocalizing that love to them in words.  I am far more comfortable with acts of service and when those are not accepted, I feel a bit lost as to how to express my deeper emotions.  I never did learn the art of writing of love and loving without being sappy or dry.  But it would be an error to believe that because I find that my more difficult part of communication I do not care deeply.  I will fight to the end for any of them, regardless of the danger and threat to my own life, regardless of the cost of pain to myself.  If it's sacrificial love that is required, they'll have it.  But I might well complain a bit about the sacrifice because I've not learned giving gracefully very well yet.  I am hopeful that one day I might.

None of that is what I came to write about this morning!  I meant only to sit down and write out the House Blessing work done today.  I wanted to share what meals we ate this week and a few simple work plans and menus for next week.  

As I said, today is House Blessing Day, our day to clean bathrooms, strip the bed and towels and napkins and put out fresh, floors are vacuumed or swept (seldom mopped on a Friday).  I generally sort out the fridge to see what leftovers we might have from the week behind, plan simple weekend meals, go over the checkbook to see where I am with various budgets, that sort of thing.  The day is plenty full of things to do.  I also bake bread and often will make a sweet (lower carb these days) of some sort to have as a treat.   By mid-afternoon we are all done and tired enough to stop.  I can look about me and see the clean house and feel that I am ready for a rest day on Saturday.

So this morning I noted that the back entry was incredibly sandy.  Exactly what I expect with people walking in out of the wet yard.  No matter how much grass grows here, the coarse country sand still comes in on wet shoes.  It is helped along by the pets who trek it all across the porches, too, so it's constantly coming in the house.

I went to sweep out bathroom and since I made a mess yesterday un-jamming my paper shredder, thought I'd vacuum the bedroom floor as well.  I was picking things up when I noticed how dusty the blinds were...One of those, 'while I'm at it, I might as well...", so I dusted the blinds and the ceiling fan and since I had the vacuum out to do the floor, I vacuumed the closet and then shifted the antique dome topped trunk where I've stored all my winter clothes into the empty floor space inside the closet.  It all has a ripple effect.  Moving the trunk left me room at the closet end of the dresser to move the big bin full of genealogy files so the view into our room is now free of clutter.  Then I made the beds and vacuumed that room.  John will vacuum the living and dining room this afternoon.  He's finished laundry and got it all folded and put away, too.  

I still need to see what is in the fridge, though I can pretty well tell you.  There are steaks that I thawed and thought I might make shish kebab with at first but now I'm thinking I'll just pan fry the two pieces along with some mushrooms and onions.  I have about a cup of tomato, cucumber and feta salad.  We have a big container of leftover Chicken fried rice.  So that will do us for a second meal.  I have about a cup of taco meat left from yesterday.  That might turn into taco nachos for a lunch.   It seems I don't really need to worry about meals for today or the weekend.

later:   I still need to vacuum the living/dining room.  I thought John was going to do it, but he's hoping he can mow over at The Manor before we get more rain.  I cannot argue with the need to cut grass.  We are all looking very shaggy at the moment.  I also want to start a loaf of bread. I need to water plants.  I missed that earlier in the week.

When we were out running errands earlier, I noted that lots of people were out mowing.  We had just enough sunshine and wind to dry lawns out enough to cut.  But there were far more yards looking as shabby as ours.  Good news from the weather man is that next week is to be sunshine all the way.  

Errands we made while out: we banked a check that came in.  And mailed out a bill that took all of that check.  In/Out.  That's the way it goes.  We stopped at the hardware/parts store and picked up air filters for the heat pump.  We usually keep these in stock and change them out monthly but for some reason we haven't bought any replacements this year.  I told John to get at least two unless they had a multi-pack.  We stopped to get mower gas and then dropped books off at the library.  All in all, it took us almost an hour to go from here to the county seat and back, doing all those errands.  

Meals for the weekend (which includes Friday evening):

Steak with Mushrooms and Onions, Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus

Beef and Broccoli, Fried Rice, Egg Rolls.  I'm assuming we will have a bit of leftover steak, we'll see.  If not, I'll make Sweet and Sour Chicken from frozen nuggets.

Gramma's Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Green Beans, Mac n Cheese.  Caleb wanted green beans last time and Katie realized too late she had none in her pantry.  I'll bring along a couple of cans this week.  I've got plenty on hand.  It's Taylor's birthday celebration.  She turned 10 on Tuesday of this week.

Any other meals we eat (Saturday and Sunday supper) will be Taco Nachos, and then whatever we might one of the single serve entrees we've got stashed in the freezer or hot dogs, etc.  

Work for next week:  I never intended to do such a deep cleaning job on my bedroom this week but in the end, I did.  Cleaning those dusty blinds in the bedroom made me realize that I probably need to do the same task in the living room.  Since it will be the first week of the month, I'll focus on the living/dining/entryway as zone work.  

There's a little rearranging of furniture I want to try in this room as well that I've had in mind.  I'm not big on rearranging furniture but every now and then I do make a change.  It's always a lot of work and sometimes things look nicer and sometimes it all gets undone and put right back to where it started.  

If it's going to be dry this coming week, I hope to get the rest of the mulch spread out.  The ants love wet mulch and likely have started their farms in the bags.  The sooner I spread it the sooner I can be sure they move on.  

I also have some gladioli that have gotten quite large.  Once they are done blooming, I'm going to dig them up and move them to another spot.  

The gardenia is pretty much finished blooming so I can prune that a bit.  I'll try to get some of the cuttings to root.   

And finally, I think the figs that are going to 'take' have done so and the rest can be removed and done away with.  I have soil and pots, so I'll try to pot up those that did root.

Along with all the usual work, that should keep me plenty busy!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.  

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