Ahhhh, Sunday. Lazy, quiet Sunday. It's... not quiet at all. It's busy as can be and isn't going to let up.
Just household chores and cooking - roasting Brussels sprouts with garlic and quartered mushrooms. Baking my chicken and cooking my rice and sauteing my bell peppers and mushrooms. None of it's hard, it's just time consuming and rather boring between the waiting for it to finish and the clearing up. The good news is that I do this just once a week. It's not like I do this every day or every few days, so that's not bad.
What I make today will feed me for at least a week. Although the sprouts might not last that long. They come out of the oven so sweet and so savory that I have a hard time not eating all of them in a sitting. It's amazing what just a little olive oil, a few sprouts (trimmed) and some balsamic vinegar can do. So yummy. My mouth is watering.
Before getting downstairs this morning, though, the first thing I did was strip my bed and turn my mattress. It's a good thing it's only a full-size. In my next phase I'm thinking of getting a queen set but when I get to the store to pick it out, I'm going to see if I can woman-handle it by myself - spin it laterally and turn it over. If I can't, I'll stick to the smaller mattress. After all, just how much acreage does one person need? A queen set would be nice because, honestly, the full is just a little too short - my feet stick over the end (and I'm not that tall!) when I stretch out and it's not wide enough for me to sleep diagonally all stretched out and not have my toes poke out over the end.
The sheets are in the dryer after being washed with my new pants - hot water because by the time I left the store yesterday my hands were stained with dye from the pants. I also hope they shrink a little. They were just a little too big but the size smaller was just a little too small. I want a happy medium, something that fits perfectly and comfortably. That's another reason I hate shopping - it's an impossible task to find the "perfect" fit which is why there are seamstresses out there. But I don't have the money, or the talent or skill, to refit the "one-size-fits-all" stuff I get from the store.
Compromise, all of life is compromise and this is another one.
It's raining today - which is lovely. We've been getting days upon days of rain interspersed with dry spells, and I'm still not tired of it. I'm still not to the point where I'm turning my back to the mirror, checking over my shoulder to see if the duck feathers are starting to sprout down my spine. That might be the case in another month or so, if the rain keeps up, but I've always liked rain.
I dug around in the garage this morning, too, looking for the old silverware we've kept from our early days of marriage. Sam, our cat, has his own set of utensils and dishes. We keep them in the bathroom drawer upstairs, in the same bathroom where we use the medicine cabinet as his pantry - full of cans of cat food. I prefer using a fork to break up the food while hubby prefers using a spoon. I win. Since I do the majority of the feeding, and since I ran out of forks day before yesterday, I went out into the garage, got some more forks and now the mix will be heavy on the forks. Fascinating stuff, huh?
It's all a part of life and living here, though, and it's a little opening into my world for you to peek through and see how this speck of the other half lives.
Hubby's coffee is set up. MIL's pills are sorted for another week. The kitchen counters are cleaned. The dishwasher has been emptied and the dishes from last night that wouldn't fit are tucked inside. Just little things, normal things we all do. So, no. Not fascinating, really. And this afternoon I'll roast my Brussels sprouts and saute my mushrooms and bell peppers and cook the rice and bake the chicken.
I may even make another batch of my berry syrup since I finished what I made last week. It is so good with yogurt or oatmeal or even over a banana as dessert. Yum.
Well, enough of this. I have hours of cooking ahead so I should get going and stop procrastinating.
Have a wonderful day doing what you choose and like!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Showing posts with label Quiet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quiet. Show all posts
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Sunday, October 4, 2015
The Best Part of Sunday Morning
I don't know what's different about Sundays, but they are different. Is it because I'm more relaxed after Saturday? Or is it that I know that the errands are done and I have all morning ahead of me? I don't know, for sure, but they are and they are wonderful.
My favorite part is getting up around six-thirty or seven o'clock and going downstairs. Hubby and MIL are still asleep, Sam is still bedded down. It feels as if I have the entire house to myself. The only sounds are the quiet ones of the refrigerator humming and the little noises I make as I go about setting up the coffee and getting MIL's pills done for the week.
If I choose, I can turn on KDFC and play it quietly in the background. They have two wonderful programs on Sunday mornings. The first is baroque and romantic period church music that runs from seven o'clock to nine. It's a mix of hymns and lyric pieces that set the mood for a Sunday morning. The second, starting at nine o'clock is Baroque By The Bay - two hours of baroque period music (15th to late 18th century music). Turn it low and have it strictly in the background. Or not.
This morning I listened to the quiet symphony of the house, and it was almost perfect. I had the whole day ahead of me, a few tasks to complete, which were done by eight-thirty, and then... nothing I didn't want to do.
Until hubby came upstairs and said, 'we need to get the sap off the deck.'
Rats.
We had the cypress trees taken out. The backyard looks wide open and bare now, actually better than before, but the trees left behind a lot of sap. Guess it's what they do when they get sick because there are blotches and splotches all over the deck. Not my idea of fun, but it had to happen because otherwise we couldn't walk across the deck without getting sticky stuff all over the bottom of our shoes.
Two hours and it's pretty well done. Not perfect because the day began to warm and the sap began to melt, but pretty good. Good enough to leave.
Next week, hubby will power wash the deck to get the mold and algae that grew in the shade of the trees, then we'll start looking at removing whatever else is left. It shouldn't be much.
What's more exciting is that he seems to have gotten kick-started into Getting Things Done.
Preparatory to the tree guys coming we cleared the backyard of everything - and it looks sooo much better than before! Almost as if the Beverly Hillbillies have left.
I still have my re-purposed deck swing. The one from which we cut away the rotted seat, leaving a sturdy frame which we then strung with clothesline. It's my solar powered clothes dryer during the warm days - and it's packed full as I write this. Everything else, though, is still stacked on the side deck and hubby is still talking about getting a bin.
Next weekend he's promised to start going through the house so we can clear stuff out - which will be wonderful! It'll still look like a hellacious dump because of stains on the carpet and desperate need of paint, but it will be better than it is.
I suspect most of it will end up in a debris bin, but a lot of it will be given away. No matter. The house will feel lighter, less cluttered and heavy around my shoulders when I walk through it. Maybe I'll even feel like giving it a good cleaning since I won't have to move and replace half the contents just to dust it.
Even if we only get rid of half the stuff, I'll be thrilled. Then I'll start holding my breath for the next stage - new paint, new window coverings (no more God Damned Plantation Blinds! - GOD I hate those things for being a pain in the ass to clean properly), and new carpet.
What do I want instead of blinds? How about either vinyl shutters that I can take down, take outside, spray with Windex or an ammonia solution and hose off, leaving them to dry, or drapes and sheers that I can take down and throw in the washer. Either one and I'll be happy. I just do not like having dust-catching blinds at my windows that require a lot of muscle to clean - one louver at a time across a three or four-foot width and four foot height. Sixteen square feet of blinds is sixteen square feet too many, as I'm sure you'd agree if you have ever cleaned one of those bloody things, yourself.
So, that's in the future, and will be an matter of "discussion" no doubt. Since hubby has never cleaned a louvered blind in his life, he has no idea what a pain it is, so I'm sure he'll want to replace like with like - which I will not have unless I get a document, signed in blood, that either he will do it or he will willingly pay a service to do it.
Can you tell I have strong feelings on the subject?
But that's a battle for another day. Right now, I'm just thrilled to have gotten the chores done and am able to take time for this.
Now - I'm going to put my feet up and I may even take a nap.
I hope your Sunday is lovely, too!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
My favorite part is getting up around six-thirty or seven o'clock and going downstairs. Hubby and MIL are still asleep, Sam is still bedded down. It feels as if I have the entire house to myself. The only sounds are the quiet ones of the refrigerator humming and the little noises I make as I go about setting up the coffee and getting MIL's pills done for the week.
If I choose, I can turn on KDFC and play it quietly in the background. They have two wonderful programs on Sunday mornings. The first is baroque and romantic period church music that runs from seven o'clock to nine. It's a mix of hymns and lyric pieces that set the mood for a Sunday morning. The second, starting at nine o'clock is Baroque By The Bay - two hours of baroque period music (15th to late 18th century music). Turn it low and have it strictly in the background. Or not.
This morning I listened to the quiet symphony of the house, and it was almost perfect. I had the whole day ahead of me, a few tasks to complete, which were done by eight-thirty, and then... nothing I didn't want to do.
Until hubby came upstairs and said, 'we need to get the sap off the deck.'
Rats.
We had the cypress trees taken out. The backyard looks wide open and bare now, actually better than before, but the trees left behind a lot of sap. Guess it's what they do when they get sick because there are blotches and splotches all over the deck. Not my idea of fun, but it had to happen because otherwise we couldn't walk across the deck without getting sticky stuff all over the bottom of our shoes.
Two hours and it's pretty well done. Not perfect because the day began to warm and the sap began to melt, but pretty good. Good enough to leave.
Next week, hubby will power wash the deck to get the mold and algae that grew in the shade of the trees, then we'll start looking at removing whatever else is left. It shouldn't be much.
What's more exciting is that he seems to have gotten kick-started into Getting Things Done.
Preparatory to the tree guys coming we cleared the backyard of everything - and it looks sooo much better than before! Almost as if the Beverly Hillbillies have left.
I still have my re-purposed deck swing. The one from which we cut away the rotted seat, leaving a sturdy frame which we then strung with clothesline. It's my solar powered clothes dryer during the warm days - and it's packed full as I write this. Everything else, though, is still stacked on the side deck and hubby is still talking about getting a bin.
Next weekend he's promised to start going through the house so we can clear stuff out - which will be wonderful! It'll still look like a hellacious dump because of stains on the carpet and desperate need of paint, but it will be better than it is.
I suspect most of it will end up in a debris bin, but a lot of it will be given away. No matter. The house will feel lighter, less cluttered and heavy around my shoulders when I walk through it. Maybe I'll even feel like giving it a good cleaning since I won't have to move and replace half the contents just to dust it.
Even if we only get rid of half the stuff, I'll be thrilled. Then I'll start holding my breath for the next stage - new paint, new window coverings (no more God Damned Plantation Blinds! - GOD I hate those things for being a pain in the ass to clean properly), and new carpet.
What do I want instead of blinds? How about either vinyl shutters that I can take down, take outside, spray with Windex or an ammonia solution and hose off, leaving them to dry, or drapes and sheers that I can take down and throw in the washer. Either one and I'll be happy. I just do not like having dust-catching blinds at my windows that require a lot of muscle to clean - one louver at a time across a three or four-foot width and four foot height. Sixteen square feet of blinds is sixteen square feet too many, as I'm sure you'd agree if you have ever cleaned one of those bloody things, yourself.
So, that's in the future, and will be an matter of "discussion" no doubt. Since hubby has never cleaned a louvered blind in his life, he has no idea what a pain it is, so I'm sure he'll want to replace like with like - which I will not have unless I get a document, signed in blood, that either he will do it or he will willingly pay a service to do it.
Can you tell I have strong feelings on the subject?
But that's a battle for another day. Right now, I'm just thrilled to have gotten the chores done and am able to take time for this.
Now - I'm going to put my feet up and I may even take a nap.
I hope your Sunday is lovely, too!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
And the Point Is...
I was chatting with a friend at work yesterday. He reads my blog and we were talking about the post I did on Sunday - about the transient nature of things and my little side trip to serendipitously visit the cows. We talked and laughed and were having a fine ol' time. Along the way, though, an interesting question crept in and took up residence.
It wasn't from anything said, implied or suggested. It was more from an insecure flutter in me, the little girl resident at my core who sometimes is afraid of things and of what people will think. Basically, the question was: what's the point of writing a blog?
There are thousands if not millions of people who blog. Some do it occasionally, as the mood strikes. Others have a more rigorous routine - like me they have a desire and determination to write regularly. Many who blog do so for personal reasons - a means of keeping friends and family up-to-date with what's happening in their world. Others do it because of ill health, a means of expressing themselves while they deal with dire consequence. Blogging is, in the modern day, a public diary.
Some people do it because they have a standard or a torch they want to advance. Social justice, inequality, politics, finances, all are blog fodder and all are valuable, if you happen to think and feel the same as the person doing the blogging.
The fact is, though, there are lots of people waving their banners about this or that or the other, but are they really changing minds?
Over on Authonomy I see it all the time. Someone will start a thread on Subject A. Someone else comes along and introduces Subject B. Eventually they will get to Subject C or D and it becomes controversial, or at least heated.
That devolves into a circular argument where two or three people are forcefully expressing their differing opinion and defending their polar positions, but no one is receiving a changed mind.
Person One isn't going to change because they expressed the thought or opinion that set the thing on its ear in the first place. Person Two, who picks the argument or fight with Person One isn't going to change. That's why they declared as they did, countering or disputing Person One's opinion or position. They'll grapple and kick and hiss like two kids on a playground while everyone else there stands around rooting for their favorite, or against the person they dislike most.
In the meantime, most of the other Persons who drop by to see what's happening are either going to side with One or Two, or they'll sit on the sidelines, chomp some popcorn, and watch the fur fly. Some will just shake their head in disgust and leave.
Enough already! I don't want to wave a standard or a torch. I don't want to stand on a soapbox and stridently expound upon my profound thoughts and beliefs. There are plenty of other places where that's happening, and that's fine. If it floats the boat of the person writing and the people reading, cool - go for it. Knock yourself out, but don't expect me to march alongside because I'm not interested in joining that parade.
In my daily living I have enough controversy and frustration and anger and irritation and all the rest of it. I don't need or want more.
This is a place where I can sit down, express myself quietly, and hope to bring a little pleasure to someone else's day.
Is it profound? No. It's not intended to be.
Is it controversial? Probably not, unless my knickers get twisted about something I deem interesting or important. Then I reserve the right to express my views and you, of course, have the right to think "Geez, what a moron!"
Is it a place where you can set yourself down for a couple of minutes, relax and just have a look in on the workings of someone else's mind and into their world? I hope so.
That's the point of it. Quiet and simple pleasure, a peaceful morning place, or an evening or afternoon place. A place where you can set aside your day, your situation and go somewhere else for a few moments. I hope that's how you find it, because that's all it's intended to be.
Have a lovely day!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
It wasn't from anything said, implied or suggested. It was more from an insecure flutter in me, the little girl resident at my core who sometimes is afraid of things and of what people will think. Basically, the question was: what's the point of writing a blog?
There are thousands if not millions of people who blog. Some do it occasionally, as the mood strikes. Others have a more rigorous routine - like me they have a desire and determination to write regularly. Many who blog do so for personal reasons - a means of keeping friends and family up-to-date with what's happening in their world. Others do it because of ill health, a means of expressing themselves while they deal with dire consequence. Blogging is, in the modern day, a public diary.
Some people do it because they have a standard or a torch they want to advance. Social justice, inequality, politics, finances, all are blog fodder and all are valuable, if you happen to think and feel the same as the person doing the blogging.
The fact is, though, there are lots of people waving their banners about this or that or the other, but are they really changing minds?
Over on Authonomy I see it all the time. Someone will start a thread on Subject A. Someone else comes along and introduces Subject B. Eventually they will get to Subject C or D and it becomes controversial, or at least heated.
That devolves into a circular argument where two or three people are forcefully expressing their differing opinion and defending their polar positions, but no one is receiving a changed mind.
Person One isn't going to change because they expressed the thought or opinion that set the thing on its ear in the first place. Person Two, who picks the argument or fight with Person One isn't going to change. That's why they declared as they did, countering or disputing Person One's opinion or position. They'll grapple and kick and hiss like two kids on a playground while everyone else there stands around rooting for their favorite, or against the person they dislike most.
In the meantime, most of the other Persons who drop by to see what's happening are either going to side with One or Two, or they'll sit on the sidelines, chomp some popcorn, and watch the fur fly. Some will just shake their head in disgust and leave.
Enough already! I don't want to wave a standard or a torch. I don't want to stand on a soapbox and stridently expound upon my profound thoughts and beliefs. There are plenty of other places where that's happening, and that's fine. If it floats the boat of the person writing and the people reading, cool - go for it. Knock yourself out, but don't expect me to march alongside because I'm not interested in joining that parade.
In my daily living I have enough controversy and frustration and anger and irritation and all the rest of it. I don't need or want more.
This is a place where I can sit down, express myself quietly, and hope to bring a little pleasure to someone else's day.
Is it profound? No. It's not intended to be.
Is it controversial? Probably not, unless my knickers get twisted about something I deem interesting or important. Then I reserve the right to express my views and you, of course, have the right to think "Geez, what a moron!"
Is it a place where you can set yourself down for a couple of minutes, relax and just have a look in on the workings of someone else's mind and into their world? I hope so.
That's the point of it. Quiet and simple pleasure, a peaceful morning place, or an evening or afternoon place. A place where you can set aside your day, your situation and go somewhere else for a few moments. I hope that's how you find it, because that's all it's intended to be.
Have a lovely day!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
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