Monday begins with a call to my favorite appliance guy. A something or other has gone wrong with the washing machine and a mound of sopping sheets are piled in a bin. My schedule is off already, so I head upstairs to put on a pot of chocolate/raspberry coffee. Looking over the to-do list are things I just did on Friday that really don't need re-doing. Pouring a cup of freshly brewed coffee into a lovely china cup, I decide a break is in order while pondering my morning.
With children no longer living at home the house stays clean. I don't have to clean constantly the way I did when it seemed that the housework never ended from 1981 to 2011. So nice to clean and polish things and still have them look lovely days later.
I head outside to begin the watering. Today being an odd numbered day I can turn on the sprinklers and let them do most of the work. I look forward to rain, this drought and the extreme temperatures have been rough this year. Usually for me it's so hard to let go of summer, but somehow this time round I'm looking forward to pulling out the sweaters and boots, sorting through the basket of gloves and mittens.
My garden has suffered even with twice daily watering. I haven't written it off, but am making plans for next year. Wonderful plants with huge blossoms that I will be able to see as well as smell. This year too many were chosen for looks alone. One of my gardens is referred to as "the rescue mission". It has hd the roughest time surviving. Next year will be better for it.
After a couple of hours of watering things start to perk up outside, the birds and the squirrels play in the sprinklers. I can no longer watch them playing, but can hear them splashing and making noise.
Our elderly cat waits in the bushes, hoping to catch one of them unawares. She weighs less than 5 pounds, is 12 years old and has no claws, but she is a tiger in a tiny tuxedo. I don't have the heart to discourage her, she tries so hard to be a great huntress.
Heading back inside, I pause to turn on some music, and decide to tackle the Christmas closet..
Part of simplifying my life is weeding through the floor to ceiling closet full of trees and decor. I really don't need 3 trees for the living room alone and trees for every room of the house, do I? Such a huge job, and one I prefer to do before it's time to put up the decorations the day after thanksgiving. If I wait until then I'll feel too sentimental to get rid of anything. There are so many memories though in every box. Ornaments going back 4 generations on each side of the family. Then, there are my daughter's ornaments, collected from the time she was born and added to until Christmas 2005, the last Christmas before she died. Those are the ones that hurt my heart, and yet, after giving many of them to her friends and our relatives in her memory, there are still so many of them that still go on the tree every year.. I miss her so much, that after all of this time it still hurts so much to not have her here.
Those ornaments stay, and I begin weeding through the garlands, the extra trees and wreaths. Pulling out old Christmas wrapping paper to cover the books on the living room shelves this holiday season. Perhaps I can weed out at least a third of the decor, ideally half, but that may wait another year.......
Back to cleaning while listening to a show on Greek building techniques, I wish that I could see it, relying on my memories of photos of Greek architecture. They talked of ways of building in a manner that made the buildings appear perfect. In my mind I picture the ways in which the columns were shaped. Greece has always been on my wish list of places to visit, perhaps someday....
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