Easing Into This Week

 

Our hectic weekend took a toll.  But so did canning last week.  I hurt my back at some point on Thursday when I had the water bath and electric canners going.  I've been struggling along ever since.

Even though I'd gone through my home on Sunday and tried to pick up, it was still in need of a lot of loving care come Monday morning.  I decided to just take the day off of from canning and kitchen work in general and continue to rest my back which is a good deal better but still twinging. 

John got up at 7am Monday morning, and I seriously contemplated getting up as well, but I thought I'd see if I might sleep just a little bit longer and I did, another two hours!  I think sleep after our busy weekend was just what I needed and that's another reason why I'm taking it easy (relatively).  

When I did get up, the first thing I did was tackle cleaning up the kitchen, even before coffee, because I left it a big mess Sunday night.  It didn't take long to straighten but it most definitely needed work.  I am not done in there yet, but I will tell you that I made a solemn promise to myself not to leave it in such a mess again.  It's not worth facing right away in the morning!

After breakfast I went into the master bath and gave it a good cleaning.  I'm happy to say that while it's not completely gone, the 12% Hydrogen Peroxide has killed a good bit of the mildew issue in our shower.  I use it two or three times a week, just spraying it along the grout lines.  I haven't found scrubbing the area to help much, but dousing with the heavier duty Peroxide has made a difference.

We are still waiting for the man to come repair our leak under the bathroom sink.  Fortunately, it's still very minor, but yes, it's still leaking.  In another week or so I'll get John to call the man again or text him and ask if he can get to it.  Or I'll see if possibly Sam can help us with it.

I went outdoors to take the cardboard boxes from Friday and to feed the pets and when I peeked around the corner, I noted that the Balsam was just loaded with ripening seed pods.  I am saving all I can harvest of these because they are so pretty and don't seem to mind heat, humidity, dry weather or rain. I stepped out into the yard and harvested a handful of the seed pods, but it was too hot to stay out there to do any real work.  I hope to plant a lot of these next year and to share some with gardening friends that I think will appreciate them.

The rest of the week and all of next is meant to be cooler.  The night temperatures are meant to be down in the 60's and days won't go higher than the 80's which is still plenty warm enough especially if there's humidity but it's very mild for our usual August heat. 

It was hot and humid and that made me more irritable than I should have been.  Contemplating the rough state of the back porch didn't help a bit but it did incentivize me to walk right indoors and order more Wet and Forget from Amazon.  This is something Juls recommended quite some time back and I'd ordered it but didn't use it until early summer on the front porch.  It worked quite well.  I ordered more for the back porch because I know it works well and has held up well through our wet summer.  Now I'll tackle the back porch rails and ceiling rafters with it and that should look a heap better as well. 

I wish I could say it was heat that made me so irritable yesterday, and irritable to the point that I tried to be even more irritable.  But no, it wasn't that.  It was partly being tired from the weekend and the week that went before it and partly due to not getting my way about several things and partly due to being very uncomfortable with backpain and unwilling to take anything for it because I found Ibuprofen had played up with my blood sugar and made me feel miserable as well as irritated.  

I went out later in the evening to get the mail that John left outdoors and failed to notice he'd done a task that I'd been fussing over all weekend long... which made him irritable, so he stomped outdoors and went to mow the yard saying he'd had enough of my attitude.  Well, who could blame him?  Not even I could.  I was rather sick of my own nasty temper.  

While I'd been out earlier, I admired my green beans that are now standing tall and proud in the planter.  And the tiniest little parsley (apparently the sole seed that took).  Everything else is just the same blank soil that it was before despite being carefully planted. 

I harvested marigold seeds and more of the seed pods from the white Balsam that is growing out front.  

We didn't eat supper until 8pm last night.  Yes, it was late, but John had been mowing, and I figured I ought to wait on him since I'd been such a pain all day long.  We barely spoke last night but it was peaceable, not irritated, silence.  

I felt much better this morning. I realized two things yesterday, I need rest just now, not work and I need to let my muscles heal.  I do feel less pain today and I am sure that doing nothing strenuous for a few more days will only help.  

So what am I doing?  Thinking about Fall.  Yes, I am.  Not ready to decorate, not ready to rush summer away, but I was watching Jennifer L. Scott of The Daily Connoisseur yesterday and she was planning her Fall wardrobe.  I saw the wisdom of it when she announced what she was bringing back from last Fall's wardrobe and then stated what she needed to add to this Fall's wardrobe.  She was planning ahead for the next season.

Just as I've been looking ahead to the next season with my household goods and food storage, I need to be looking at what I might need for Fall in my wardrobe.  I'm good for shoes this year because I bought those last year.  I think I've got all the lightweight sweaters I'll need for Fall as well.  But I also know I have things that must be replaced.

I know I need new jeans.  The ones I have fit very well but one pair is very faded which I don't care for and the other, which were 'distressed', are tearing.  I'm too old to wear that sort of jeans.  I could use a pair of trousers.  I want pants to wear for nicer occasions, even though I do mostly wear jeans.   I find black or brown is usually all I really need for pants.  I have a nice pair of brown pants that fit well but...they are the ankle length sort and I prefer something a bit longer.  There's less than an inch of hem.  So I will hold onto them until I find something more suitable.  

I know I need these things without even going to look through what I have.  

I'll move the old jeans into my home clothing drawer once I've replaced them.  

I don't know how I am fixed for blouses, nor how they fit now that I'm down a size.  So, this week I'll be going through my closet and drawer and see what I have and determine if there's any other need beyond jeans and pants.  Went through the drawer to see what I had in the line of blouses.  I had four in the drawer and am keeping only two of them.  One I didn't like last year but it fit.  Poor excuse for keeping anything because I only wore it twice if that much since I didn't like it.  

Then I went through those in my closet and got rid of five more!  One is too sheer for comfort and boxy in shape, one is too garish in color, one is cute and fits but is a bit too short.  One I won't wear because it's black and that's a color I just don't really care for.  And the last one I've held onto to see if I liked it better when I'd lost weight and I don't. So, there we are.  

I do see the point of thinking of the season before you get to it.  How many times in years past did I cry that January was too early to buy a bathing suit and besides I was going to lose weight only to arrive in June at the same weight with no bathing suits available?  The stores have fall clothing in right now.  Now is the time to choose not when autumn is here and everything has been picked over.

I also would like to get a different black leather bag.  I feel guilty over that one though.  John bought me a perfectly nice one, well-made but so heavy.  That's the killer right there.  It weighs about four pounds empty.  Even though I don't put much in my purse as a rule, I find myself struggling with the weight of it.   If I recall correctly both the leather bags I have were bought around Labor Day.  So, I'll keep my eye out for sales. 

I also took time today to water plants, get supper started in the slow cooker.  Oh! I want to thank whoever suggested I could use the slow cooker liner bags!  I have used them several times without any issues, and I do not have to worry about the flaking non-stick coating on the pan.  One day, perhaps they will make a stainless-steel pan to use on this model.  Many customers have asked for one.  But until they do, or until the base of this one quits, I'll keep using the slow cooker bags.  And thank which ever one of you it was for the suggestion!

I also hung up my platter on the kitchen wall once more.  I brought back the framed Psalm I'd had in the kitchen sitting area which I think I might like to put on the baking wall along with more pretty old platters and soft floral prints.  I'm waiting on hanging that while I contemplate and look around a bit.  I brought out the Acacia cutting boards I got last year, too and those are propped up on the wall.  I have been very reluctant to put things back on the wall because I wasn't quite happy with what I had up before we painted and so I've lived with blank walls for months now.  I just knew the platter was right and I had John hang it up today, right where I had it between the stove and the sink.  This time it will be only piece I hang on that section of wall.

I've been thinking about slow decorating. And slow purchases in clothing.  About making slower decisions period.  It's not just to try to avoid mistakes, which I've made quite enough of (evidence seven blouses going into the donation basket), but the desire to be really thoughtful about what I'm doing and why.  I want to love my home and my wardrobe and even my garden areas.  I want to feel comfortable and at home and as though it's an extension of myself, not something that just got shoved in somewhere.

I recall a line from "The Crown" where Phillip said to Elizabeth, "Something's different.  You're different.  Clothes used to wear you, now you wear them."  This was after she'd gone through a sort of mini makeover, changing her hair, losing weight and taking time to get comfortable in her own sense of style.  And at the time she was incredibly attractive because she was finally happy with her personal choices reflecting who she was.

Well, that's quite enough chatter.  I'm off to peruse Stitch Fix and Cato to see if I find anything attractive, but I am not purchasing anything today.  I'm only getting an idea in mind of what I might want to choose.  I've got time because I'm planning ahead.

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