Sue's World

Industrious

I've had a cold (or something) since Tuesday.  I took it easy Wednesday & Thursday, barely speaking and keeping things quiet.  I had a fun work project and made a lot of progress on it but today I decided to spend the bulk of my time away from the computer.

For the past 3 hours I have been tearing apart the kitchen, pulling stuff out of the pantry and reorganizing.  I'm switching over to Spring/Summer cooking which means the Food Pantry at church is getting donations.  It's amazing how much room there is in the cupboards just with some reorganizing.  I start off keeping like things together but over the months it becomes a giant mess of stuff.  Yes, I do this every 6 months or so and there are no big, rude surprises. 

So now it's a quarter to one.  I can feel the energy has been zapped out of me and notice I'm not my normal self.  It's time to take a little break, get some lunch in me and sit for a bit then get back to it. 

When I start a project like this, I tend to be very gungho about purging the cupboards of rarely used things, but when push comes to shove, most of it goes back into the cupboards because there's room, like the 20+ year old food dehydrator that's been used maybe once in the last 10 years.  But I did part with some old cookie cutters and pieces of a cookie press that was long-ago tossed.  I was about to give away my waffle iron but then I thought waffles might be a nice breakfast for tomorrow.  <sigh>

Note to self: you do not need capers or pimentos or specialty peppers just in case you suddenly want to make something exotic.  The grocery store is 1/2 a mile away.  And you won't need cinnamon or salt for the next 20 years.

Happiness is...

...new sheets on the bed and putting the electric blanket back on.  I love waking up curled up with cold air on my face and kitties snuggled on the bed.

Simple Satisfaction

I haven't been in the garden much lately but today I did a little bit of tidying up.  There is hardly anything more satisfying than cleaning and filling the fountain and bird feeders.  As soon as the former was filled, there were birds in it.  Later today the yard will be chock full of chirping and vying for the best spot.  And then the cats will have something to entertain them while they're lounging ina  sunny spot in the house.

Swimming Solo

For the first time this Summer, I went swimming yesterday.  A couple of times a year I plan a swim date with Traci and the girls.  I got to the pool before they did and for that time I had the pool to myself.  In a neighborhood of about 140 homes, no other soul was swimming on a near-100 degree afternoon.  What bliss it was to swim laps and float around and enjoy the beautiful day. 

Swimming always brings back happy memories of my childhood, spending countless hours in our pool.  We did handstands on the pool bottom and "walked".  We did flips under the diving board.  There was Marco Polo and cannonballs and floating around.  There was tricking people into looking at a little hole in the pool and then turning on the water so they got blasted.  There was swimming to the bottom of the deep end and on and on and on.  Those were such simple, happy times.

Watching Keri and her friends swim at her birthday party made me think of that and watching Mikayla yesterday did as well.  She delighted in doing belly flops and doing forward and backward somersaults underwater. 

Only 4 more hours and we'll be back in the water.  Yay!

Bible Study and Volunteering

Yesterday I was gone for much of the day and loved it.  I joined a bi-weekly women's bible study that meets at church.  I have always wanted to join but it meets on weekday mornings and I was never able to do that when I worked. It started in September and I didn't sign up then since I knew I'd be gone for the first sessions but when the bulletin stated they were recruiting, I jumped at the chance.  I'm guessing there are at least 75 women there.  We're in tables of 8. 

After that finished I went over to work with my friend Fiona.  I am enjoying that and want to help as much as I can.  It's a blessing to have the time and opportunity to do some volunteer work.  Helping her helps her help others!

Getting It All Together

I work best under pressure.  I work best with a plan.  I finally got it together yesterday and wrote down what needs to be done and left off the stuff that I want to get done.  I assigned tasks to days and life seems simple again.

We had a lovely dinner at mom and dad's last night to celebrate the birthdays of my two favorite guys:  hubby, and dad.  Today I've leisurely started cleaning, did most of the laundry, cleaned/stocked fridge and freezer and assembled things in an organized and non-stressed way.  I went out in the middle of the day to exchange a gift and was pleasantly surprised at the breeze and noticeably cooler weather.  Nice!

I'm excited for tomorrow:  sign-ups for the Fall Ceramics class.  YAY!  Now I think I'm going to do a bit of stitching and then make BBQ chicken for dinner, by request of the King of the castle.

Oh To Be A Kid Again!

I discovered something really delightful this past week.  I called my sis-in-law Traci last Thursday to see if she and the kids wanted to swim.  The answer was "YES!".  That spawned a conversation about a little trip they were taking and I got invited to join them.  We swam Sunday afternoon, Monday afternoon, Monday night, and Tuesday morning.  The Tuesday session was several hours long and it just reminded me of the summers we used to spend as kids in the pool every day without a care in the world.  We came home Tuesday evening but again yesterday afternoon they met me at our community pool for another delightful swim session.  I love it!  That's what summer should be about - carefree fun!  I am so thankful for this time off and the chance to enjoy the one season I usually can do without.  What a different attitude I have when I can enjoy the heat instead of avoiding it.  It was 117 in Palm Desert on Monday.  117!  I usually have trouble at home once we hit 100 and there I was splashing around in the pool, practically living in my nearly-worn-out swimsuit. 

(See the "Palm Desert" photo album for a few of the 147 pics I took from the trip.)

Today it's time to do some chores but on my agenda is shopping for another swimsuit.  It would be nice to have 2 or 3 so I never have to get into a wet suit.  Ahhh...I'm actually enjoying the hot days of summer now!

A Big Change Today

Today was my last work-at-home day.  At the end of the day, I tucked my laptop's network cable and power supply into the bag with my laptop.  They've been in my home office for the past 20+ months.  They need to be returned.

Then I realized I no longer needed 2 keyboards and mice so I put the USB versions away.  Wow.  I have room on my computer desk!  And man is it ever dusty.  Maybe later this evening I'll clear off the top and do a proper dusting job.  I also sent out my "I'm leaving" email to co-workers.  I don't want to deal with that on my last day...I will want to slip out quietly.  Ah...it feels good.

Scratching The Surface...And Then Some

If you walked into our house today, you'd wonder why you didn't hear about the tornado that hit.  The living room is full of stuff and the kitchen table is half covered.  Despite outward appearances, I've done a lot of cleaning and organizing.  I obviously haven't gotten to the "make it pretty" stuff, but....

I deep-cleaned the kitchen today, including going through the pantry and fridge.  I feel better.  I still need to mop; that will come tomorrow.  I tore into the laundry closet where I keep candles and smaller seasonal decor.  I think I boxed the last of the Christmas goodies.  Everything is organized by season/holiday.  I also put away the Christmas china and decided to pack up the good china that's been in the buffet.  Having it in the china protectors makes more sense than just having it in a piece of furniture.  I'm ordering stemware protectors so I can do the same with the bulk of our glasses that we use for company.  I culled a couple of things from the decorating storehouse; I decided no more santas.  I only had a few, but they're being packed up for the trip to Goodwill. 

I spent a few minutes outside.  This was going to be my backyard gardening day but it's so damp and chilly that I decided against it.  I cut up the soft fruit that we had and put it out for the birds.  I filled up the hummingbird feeders after seeing one bird go from one empty to another.  I planted sweet peas and then came inside.

Slowly but surely I am getting things in order.  If nothing else, I should be happy the Christmas decorations are safely and neatly stored, ready for re-discovery in about 11 months.  It's always fun to open the boxes and be happily surprised to see things I'd forgotten I had.  I think I'll go take a shower while I still have the inclination and then decide if I want to start another project or take a little break.  If I were a betting woman, I'd put money on the latter. 

Going Natural

I started chatting with a co-worker late last Fall about natural cleaning products.  I sometimes think about how many chemicals we have in the house for scrubbing showers, toilets and so on.  So I asked for a book on natural cleaning and one on natural beauty products.

I'm sitting here with a shower cap on (for 45 minutes now) because I have honey all over my hair.  I guess I didn't write about my mayonnaise adventure, but I tried that about a month ago.  The texture of my hair has changed and it's plain and simply over-worked and under-conditioned.  I remember the mayo thing from growing up but don't recall ever trying it.  It actually worked okay, but the smell of it made me want to barf.

So next on the "to try" list is honey.  Have you ever had a handful of honey in your hand?  It's amazingly thick.  I had a bit of a comedy routine in getting it all over my hair, but we'll wait and see.  I just want to try something natural.

Next up will be a natural recipe for cleaning the shower.  The brand I was using changed formulas...no more harsh fumes!  But man, it did something weird on the glass and I wasn't happy at all.  Sure, no fumes, but I probably wasted tens of gallons of water to try and get whatever residue or film off.  The recipe I'm trying is baking soda, liquid soap, and a couple of drops of essential oil.  Maybe I'll try that in a few days.