A Housewife's Life - August

This brought to mind Jenny Wren's "A Day in My Life" from awhile back. That was always fun to write, and it's fun to look back at now and then and be reminded of all the little ordinary things that make up a lifetime.

I was out of the house by 6:15 this morning for Mom Duty. C has been having some health issues for the last month or so, and today I took her to her fluoroscopy appointment ~ basically a 2-and-a-half-hour x-ray. Good thing I remembered my book!

After the appointment we stopped briefly at the bookstore, and by then it was well into lunchtime, so we drove through our favorite drive-thru, Chick-Fil-A, on our way home.

When we got home we found the other grandma watching Mickey Mouse with the little kids while the big kids played a round of football against a team of stuffed animals.

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what to do next. We moved recently and still have piles and piles of boxes all over the house waiting to be unpacked and put away, or better yet, donated. Gotta get busy on that!

After dinner I watched NCIS. I usually have a date to watch it with M on IM, but he had better things to do tonight, so I just caught up folding the laundry while I watched the rerun, and later I shopped for an airline ticket for a trip to California to visit my mom and her sister, and my brother and his family who will be there from Japan for a couple of weeks.

Now it's bedtime, and it's still HOT! Nothing like going to bed and sweating all night under the fan.

Bah Humbug/Merry Christmas!

This morning found my Man and me cooling our heels at the post office in possession of a little orange slip informing us that we had something to pick up at the window. The line was long and slow, affording lots of time for endless speculation, but the little paper gave us not a clue, and we could not imagine what it might be or whom it might be from.

We eventually were next, and we handed it over to our Favorite Postal Clerk who scurried off to look for it. He was back right away with the news that we had a postage-due letter.

Did we want it? he inquired.

Well, we don't know...Who is it from? we asked.

He showed it to us, and we were no better off than we were before. There was no return address, but it was quite obviously a Xmas card. Having received only a dozen or so cards so far this season, and since my Man (quite out of the ordinary) had a $ in his pocket, we decided to spring for another one. AHA! Light bulb moment!

Xmas cards are/is? one of my favorite traditions of the season. They are sometimes our only communication all year with a faraway loved one, so I love getting and sending them, but the price of postage, higher every year, is frankly starting to suck the joy out of it. I hate spending untold $$$ on postage, but I also hate not sending the cards, so in recent years I have resorted to cost-saving measures such as spending a few cents less to mail postcards instead of regular cards with envelopes.

But this!!!! This is waaaaay better! If you send the cards with no return address, the post office cannot return them to you, and if you send them with no stamp, your victims friends will have to pay to get them! How can you beat that? Well, I do have one other idea for you: instead of spending $ to buy postcards, cut the fronts off the cards you receive and use those for postcards. Voila'!!! Free cards, free postage. Now, that you can't beat!!!

My Man forked over the $, and we were on our way. Back in the car we could not wait to see who it was from, so we opened it right away, and TA-DA! Nobel Prize for Economics, Holiday Hints Division, goes to none other than T&E!!!! T&E are two of our very favorite friends, so we were just the happier.

Bah Humbug no more! Given the state of the economy, in any economy at all, 44c for good wishes from good friends is a bargain indeed, and a tip like that...PRICELESS! Merry Christmas!

Awesome Autumn!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

The air is crisp and snappy this morning. The sky is clear and brilliant beyond blue. I'm not a big fan of the sun, but the sunshine this morning is positively inspiring. It's not the heavy sun of summer. It is thin and airy and yellow and it promises a perfect day. A perfectly warm day. Not one of those hot summer days. This day is going to be perfectly pleasant! Warm enough ~and cool enough ~ to sit outside on the swing and enjoy it. No bugs buzzing around. No sweat running down my skin inside my clothes.

Today makes me want to DO!!! Forget about spring cleaning. Something about spring cleaning, besides the work factor, just doesn't appeal to me. But fall cleaning...that's a whole 'nother thing. Mow the yard one last time; put the outside things in the shed; winterize the cars; get out the winter clothes; harvest the last of the summer garden; plan holiday family times. Close down the work of this year and begin regrouping and preparing for the next one.

Well, not really. We don't live that way anymore, and it's our loss. But it's what we're wired for. To live by the calendar. To savor and enjoy every thing in its own turn. To take the time to make each thing special. Year-around, all-season living has taken something from us. We no longer recognize the uniqueness of any given thing. Something along the lines of "a feast every day is no feast."

Sure, it's great that anything that we want, we can have, any time we want it. Sorta. But it dulls our appreciation for the thing. It turns it into one more piece of clutter in a sea of too many choices.

So, I am for the simplicity of living for the day, one season at a time. And especially I am for simple living at this time of the year, when Nature gives her accounting and shows off her best.

What could be better than Fall? My deFinite Favorite!

Finally! Fabulous! Fall!

Beginning with last May's triple-digit temperatures, we have just lived through one of the longest, hottest, driest summers on record.

Several days ago it began to rain with a vengeance. Flash floods. Washed out roads. Roaring-river streets. Closed schools. Canceled jobs.

Now the rain has stopped, but the clouds linger. We are having one dreary, grey, dark, cloudy day after another ~ my very favorite weather! We haven't seen the sun in about a week now, but I'd say we've had our share, and more, of the sun and summer ~ enough to last the rest of the year if you ask me ~ so it is definitely time for a break.

I've lived in Texas long enough to know it's not going to last. Any day now, I expect the sun will break through for a blazing round of Indian Summer. But for now it is Fabulous Fall. Time to live again!

Stunning September

Today is September in every way:

• School traffic running up and down the street,
• Dove hunting season,
• Cool temperatures,
  
• Cloudy skies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So who needs all the extra traffic jamming up the road.

What in the world am I going to do with the doves besides clog up the freezer.

And "cool" is sorta relative, isn't it. The best I can say about that is this is still summer in Texas, so any temperature that falls short of three digits is a temperature to celebrate.

But the cloudy sky really is something to write home about at this point.

So, one out of four...Ok, not really stunning. Not yet, anyway. But, it has potential: It is September, even in Texas, and after one of the hottest, longest summers on record, we are on the home stretch!

Senses Of Summer

A feast for the senses! The scents and sights and sounds from deep in the heart of summer...

• Newly mown grass
• Petrichor after a welcome, surprise thunderstorm
  
• Cool mint, mowed down right along with the grass
• Fresh dirt clinging to garden bounty
  
• BBQ grills fired up all over the neighborhood
• Fresh air and sunshine on line-dried laundry

• Sheet lightning in the distant nighttime sky
• Rainbows in the spray of the hose
• Neighborhood kids running through the shimmer of the lawn sprinkler
• Red and white striped tents at the farmers' market
• Piles of fresh veggies straight from the earth
• Fresh laundry billowing in the breeze
• Fireflies blinking their presence in the evening

• The crackle and sizzle of summer lightning
• The rumble of thunder early in the morning
• The plop of heavy drops on the sidewalk when the rain finally comes
• The trill of crickets and cicadas in the heat of the day
• Marching band music wafting up the hill from the high school
  
• The whirring of window fans, tower fans, box fans, ceiling fans...
• Kids splashing in the pool next door l-a-t-e into the night
• The snapping of sheets on the clothesline
• And did I mention the wind chimes on the front porch? Great in any season!
  

Ok, it looks like I'm enjoying summer a little too much. Don't forget, it is still August in Texas. It is still Africa-hot. It is too hot to escape the sweat running down inside your clothes. It is too hot to cook anything in the oven. It is too hot to sleep under a cover, even just a light sheet. So, on the other side...

• A hot dog, languishing in the sun
• The overpowering scent stench emanating from the too-infrequently-picked-up dumpster
• The rotting of the compost pile (although eventually this changes to rich chocolate-brown dirt, see #3 above)
• Mildew odors on wet towels
• Chlorine smells evaporating from swimming pools
• Sweaty clothes
• The acrid smoke from a grass fire

• Overweight women in if-this-size-fits-you-have-no-business-wearing-it bikinis at the public pool
  
• In any public place, the skimpiest of clothing leaving bra straps hanging out on the top, butt cheeks hanging out on the bottom, and nothing to the imagination
• Old men in short shorts exposing their hairy white legs and knobby knees
  
• Yards full of sad yellow grass
• Parched, wilted, saggy, droopy gardens

• LOUD crap rap music blaring from passing cars with their windows rolled down
• Air conditioners working overtime
• The ice cream truck coming down the street (The Princess calls it "the music truck.")
• The increased traffic of the comings and goings gearing up to start school (We live in a Bermuda Triangle amid three schools.)
• The screeched protest of an overworked fan
• Crispy, dead grass crackling underfoot
• Gangs of motorcycles revving up to hit the road
  

So. For better or for worse: Summer. In all its glory/misery.

Summer Morning

It's a cool cool summer morning. Every cool morning is cool in Texas, especially in the summertime. But today... :-D

• The air is pleasantly cool and clean.
  
• The sun is peeping up over the horizon. That is, the house across the street...cool horizon, huh? But, for better or for worse, it's my horizon...
• My windows are open wide, and there is a cool breeze blowing in!
• The birds are still happily chirping out there. Later in the day comes only silence.
  
• Today, unbelievably, I have been a grandmother for ten years! Happy Birthday, BB1!
• I get to stay home today. That is a cherished rarity. Could only be better if the phone would stop ringing.
• No updates on MJ's funeral yet this morning! That's a biggie.
  
• Temperature-wise, this morning was so cool, my Man put on a jacket when he went off to work at 5:30. I know it isn't going to last, but for right now...can't beat it. Well, I take that back, because
• I hear the phone beeping now. It's a text message from M, off in the wilds of Camp Buckner, with the latest land nav report.
  

Can't get any better now. This morning is maxed out. Cool on so many levels!

It's Slingtime!

...as the Blue-Eyed Boy would say.

You know it's springtime outside when:

• the world is turning green;
• the grass goes from freshly mowed to ankle-deep overnight;
• the birds are chirping and twittering incessantly (outside the window, fortunately, at my house; but in other houses the chirps come from inside the chimney);
• dense fog at dawn; raging, roaring, rolling thunderstorms in the morning; a steaming sauna by mid-afternoon;
• sweat happens :-(
  

You know it's springtime inside when:

• the table is served with fresh green food;
• the refrigerator and the pantry get a cleanout in the same week;
• the windows stay open day and night;
• the closets go from flannel and long sleeves to shorts and t-shirts;
• the two-shower day is making a comeback.

Definitely Sling!

I Corinthians 13 Christmas

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family. I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata, but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, through harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust... but giving the gift of love will endure.

~Author Unknown~

A December Day

Sundays follow a sort of pattern around here. Generally pretty monotonous, but... thanks to my upbringing in the 50's and 60's, when the objective of parenting was training children, rather than entertaining them, I am pretty good at it ;-)

Since it is just my Man and I, Sunday mornings are no longer the frantic exercises they once were. Nowadays we get up and ready and then have time to do what we want until it is time to go to church.

The Blue-Eyed Boy spent the night with us last night, but his mom picked him up dark and early, just after 7:00am, so we barely noticed his presence this morning.

We left early, in order to have time to run off the bulletin before Bible study started. We have some new two-sided bulletin covers, the copying of which we had mastered, we thought, but we ended up doing a fierce battle with them and the machine before our eventual triumph, so it was good that we were there early. Our preacher is the best, and this morning his study and sermon were up to his usual standard.

Afterward we decided to try out a new Mexican restaurant for lunch. In the words of a friend who went with us, the place was "too upscale for a Mexican restaurant to last," specifically too clean and too light/bright. ;-/ The menu was very like the one at another place we occasionally go, only a bit spendier, and I ordered a chicken chimichanga, which was served with rice and beans. If you overlook that there was nothing green on that plate, the food was good enough, but too much to finish, and I hate wasting food!

Most of the afternoon was spent with the luxury of a three-hour nap. I have found that the most satisfying pleasures of life are the simplest: a shower, a good stretch, and, yes, a nap. By the time I woke up it was late afternoon, and we were off for the evening assembly.

We ordinarily go out and eat with friends on Sunday night, but tonight we were still full of chimichanga and things, so we skipped dinner and came home to our empty nest. Tonight we are getting things ready for a full day of appointments tomorrow, including a filming date with Emily, who is doing a segment on chimney sweeping.

At the end of the day, I am thankful for my family and my church and my friends, and I am excited that my Man has been blessed with a fine, though probably only temporary, helper. All simple things, all the best.

A Day of Simple Pleasures

• An early morning shower,
• Cafe' con leche,
  
• Getting to church on time,
• Running off the bulletin on a copier that works!
• Sharing the toy soldier's picture with friends that love him,
  
• A nice lunch with my Man at a nice restaurant for $1.07, courtesy of the CC Chamber of Commerce,
• A phone call from a friend,
• A sunny~but not hot~afternoon,
• A cup of chocolate-swirled vanilla ice cream,
• Navigating the converter box/VCR/DVD player/TV maze all by ourselves!
• A cat purring in my lap,
• Computer word games,
• Time to read,
• Time to write
• Cinnamon-scented pinecones

Almost Autumn

Summer doesn't fool me. I know it'll stick around waaaay past time for it to go, like a naughty kid that will do anything to stall around and postpone bedtime just a l-i-t-t-l-e bit longer. But, sooner or later, the inevitable always happens and it will have to go. I can wait. Having survived another round of summer's worst, I can afford to be a gracious winner.

Now, blessed with the ever-so-faintest hint of cool autumn ahead in the air, I may actually sleep under the covers tonight. Well, at least under the sheet...

YES!!!! It is Almost Autumn...and I am ready!

See You in September!

August is breathing its very last. The hottest, awful-lest part of the year is past, and the very best is at hand.

September! September has everything to recommend it. It's the month of my birthday, so there is that. But even better: it's the month that begins FALL! My hands-down, no-contest, totally favorite time of the year, fall is as good as it ever gets. Nothing else even comes close. Well, Heaven maybe, but still.

I love the crisp snap in the air, the blue, blue sky, the smell of wood smoke, crinkly leaves crackling underfoot, the colors of the leaves. Even in Texas. But fall isn't only a feast for the physical senses. It is a gala for the emotions.

Fall makes me homesick for someplace I have never been. It is the time of harvest and plenty. The intense work of the year is finished, and now it's time to slow down and savor. Fall is the time to gather in and reflect and take stock. It is the hint and the promise of home-centered life to come, when the world takes a break . . . or so it was before we determined to change the order of nature with our techno-superiority. Aaaahh....to live by the seasons....

There is still plenty of summer to come in this part of the world, and I wouldn't even mention it, except, well...I am as always, ecstatic that the calendar of summer is joining history. Its days are numbered, even in Texas, and it will eventually have to cede to the better season...

Autumn...absolutely worth living for.

Simple/Things

I love things. Big things, little things, novel things, obscure things, old things, new things, borrowed things, blue things...I loved them all. And somewhere in my muddled mind, "loving" equated with "having," until the day I was enlightened in a little backwater town in nowhere Texas.

We don't ordinarily stop when passing through these little towns unless we need gas, but whyever, this quaint little antique "General Store" caught our attention enough and we actually went in, only to be instantly overwhelmed with treasure upon treasure. This one and that one and the one over there~beautiful, perfectly splendid things.

Just look at this one here! If only I could have this thing, I could, I would... and here dawned the epiphany: I could and would have to pay for it, cram it into the overloaded car or arrange (and pay) to have it delivered, find a place to put it in the house, dust it, polish it, pay to insure it, move it to clean around/under, keep the kidlets away from it... Losing its luster by the minute...

Do I really want to have this thing? Do I really want this thing to have me? Nope. Not so much. We walked around the store a bit longer, greatly enjoying every little thing, and then we left. Unburdened. My life and my thinking changed in the moment when I realized that I can thoroughly enjoy a thing without having the responsibility of owning it.

Now, many years later, I still love things. Only now...I love them freely.

Enter Edoard

There's nothing quite like waking up in the wee, dark hours of the morning with the feel of raindrops on your face and the smell of petrichor in the air. It's what happens when you sleep with the windows open, and Edoard comes along to break the drought! ...unlike Hurricane Dolly, who was just a lot of, literally, hot air...

I'm going to be sorry when I'm trying to stay awake after lunch, but I was soooo excited that, even though it was only 4:30am, I got up and went outside to reacquaint myself with real RAIN! I almost didn't recognize it after the weeks and weeks without.

It isn't going to last. The sun isn't even up yet, and already the rain is down to a trickle. But the cool-ness of the washed air remains, and after weeks of crackly crinkling underfoot like autumn leaves, I think the grass is going to be a lot happier today. I know I am!

Contentment

Are we somehow something less than we should be if we like our lives the way they are? It certainly seems that way, according to the general consensus, but not according to the apostle Paul, who learned to be content "whatever state he was in." Is there some kind of universal standard for contentment? One might think so, based on how many people are dissatisfied with lives that aren't even their own.

Last night as I talked to my friend, she commented on how content she was with her imperfect life, yet how unhappy her mother was with it, and we wondered...Why should her mother care about all the quirks and glitches in her life if she was happy with it herself? Does contentment make her some kind of underachiever? Not ambitious enough? Not that she is problem-free, but contentment, cliche as it may be, is a choice, and perhaps it is more an indicator of maturity than of ambition or the lack thereof.

My friend is happy in her home. She is happy in her life as a wife and a mother and a grandmother. A gardener and a crafter, a teacher of her children, a hospitable friend. And what might be better contentment than family life at home?

Pleasant Labor

Ok, you can think me odd, but I confess: Laundry holds no terror for me. None whatever. Not even a shred of distaste. I might even go so far as to say I find laundry to be pleasant labor. Well, maybe not the sorting part, but after that... Sign me up!

What is there not to like? All I have to do (once the sorting is done) is stuff it into my state-of-the-art front loader, add some soap nuts, push a few buttons, and voilà. When I hear the buzzer, I remove the clothes, put them into my piece-of-junk drier, push another button, and go on to other business. I could have had a nifty new drier to match my snazzy front loader, but I'm not really a drier fan. I use mine under duress.

If I had my druthers, as they say in Texas, I would definitely hang my laundry outside on the clothesline, as I did for years after years of pre-puppy years. Alas, no more, at least until Chudleigh outgrows his puppy-ness... During the first few months we had him I got really, really tired of refereeing between him and the clothesline; hence the enlistment of the drier into service. I just did not have the time to sit outside and babysit the laundry until it was dry. More my style is to leave it hanging out there until I am good and ready to bring it in, kinda like I do with the drier now. But Chudleigh is approaching adulthood, and I will be expecting a higher standard of behavior.

When Chudleigh learns to "Leave the Laundry Alone, You Little Twit!!!" (oh, how I hope he does!), I guarantee I will go back to my pre-Chudleigh practice of using my clothesline, because the best bonus of all: the smell of fresh air and sunshine! Luxuriate in the matchless pleasure of the scent of outdoors when you go to bed on clean sheets at night. That (along with the smell of petrichor) is absolutely as good as it gets. Come to think of it... Haven't I noticed detergents with "Clothesline Fresh" scent for sale in the grocery store aisles? Not that it bears even a slight resemblance; but doesn't it prove that somewhere underneath our modern penchant for the fabulous fakes we yearn for the real thing?

Folding the laundry can be a pleasure of another kind, particularly when there are little clothes to be taken care of. I no longer have small kidlets of my own, but I do enough of the Blue-Eyed Boy's laundry to stay in practice. And, of course, I have my Man. Every piece of clothing, big or little, that passes through my hands evokes awareness of people and family and relationships in my life, and what can top that? And don't forget, a couple of baskets of laundry to fold make a perfectly legitimate reason/excuse to sit down and watch that movie you don't have time to sit down and watch. And if you do happen to have kidlets hanging around your ankles, sorting socks and folding small, flat items will entertain them while teaching them math skills and spatial relationships and hand-eye coordination. That is a whole lot more than anyone has a right to expect from one simple household chore.

Compared to the practices of my childhood~pounding the laundry on the big rocks sticking up out of the river deep in the Amazon rainforest, later graduating to an old-fashioned wringer washer~laundry today is unmistakably pleasant; though, come to think of it, watching piles of suds floating away down the river while tropical fishes nibble on your toes is pure pleasure. And adventure. Well, at least for a child... ;-)

And the old-fashioned wringer? Well, it certainly has charms of its own. What child does not thrill with suspense when feeding socks and sheets into the maws of the wringer! Will you be able to yank your fingers away in time? Or will the wringer eat your hand up to your elbow before your excitement attracts the attention of your mother who will drop whatever she is doing to hurry over and hit the red *release* button to extricate your throbbing arm? Of course, if you do manage to withdraw your hand in time, there is still fun to be had playing a "what is it?" sort of game when you see familiar colors and textures coming out the other side in an unrecognizable context.

Pleasant indeed, but all in all, past and present, I think I am going to have to upgrade laundry from merely pleasant labor to a most pleasant labor.

A Two-Shower Day

It may only be "slingtime" on the calendar, as the Blue-Eyed Boy would say, but deep in the heart of Texas it is already hotter than Phoenix. The day was full of car washing, yard mowing, fence building, garden hoeing, prompting the second shower of the day.

One of the glitches I have observed over the years of growing Empty-Nested-ness is that life continues. I once had delusions that when there were no more children to take care of, there would be little to no work to be done. Wrong assumption. What has happened instead is that the daily care keeps on.

Out of the mouths of babes as C once observed, "Mom, life is just one big maintenance job." The only things that have noticeably declined are laundry and kitchen work, neither of which has ever been a problem for me. Those two chores do themselves. But, oh, the others...! Dust still accumulates, grass still grows, paperwork still multiplies, spiders still spin their webs, errands still must be done in vehicles that still need every manner of attention.

Dailiness goes on...only now there is no one to delegate to...