What We Do All Day

This is where I sit down to make my plans for the day, although, as you will see in this story, it is sometimes useless...

Our daughter and her husband and children have moved nearer to us, and I thought it might be fun to see why it is we can't get anything done all day, even though we are on our feet and always busy.

I think young women do something very important for society and their families just by being home and doing all the ordinary things that help make people function. If they didn't do it, they would have to pay someone else to do it, and lose the opportunity to develop relationships with their families at home.

In any given day, though, we feel we have accomplished something if all we do is get three meals and have the children safely cared for. Her little apartment is looking so cute. We hope to have pictures soon!

Here are some pictures of the mountains facing me today. Funny, I thought at my age I'd finally be organized enough to sit and knit.

What a dump!

I think this requires a professional approach. I'm headed for the bath with my bar of soap and towel. I'm going to pretend I'm going out and get ready for the big event! The cute crochet on the towels was from my mother in law, whose mother made it for her.

I still can't face it. Maybe I better make a list, first. It will help me feel more organized:

Looks like there are about 15 things that need urgent attention--besides the meals, washing dishes and ironing shirts!

But I really should have a scone and a cup of tea first, and do some inspirational reading to get my courage up..

Scones:

1 cube cold butter (1/2 cup)

2 cups unbleached flour
4 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder (you can make your own using the cream of tarter recipe* or buy a brand called Rumford)

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

*for one teaspoon baking powder, mix:

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1/4 teaspon baking soda

1/4 teasp. cornstarch

Grease a baking pan. Heat oven to 350. Mix the baking powder and flour thoroughly with a slotted spoon. Cut the butter with a serrated steak knife into tiny pieces into the dough and then knead it in with a plastry cutter (one of those things with wires on it). It should be a small as blueberries in texture. Then mix in another small container the liquids (milk and egg) till well blended. Add it to the flour mixture and quickly mix it into a ball. Pat it out on floured surface to about an inch thick and cut with round cutter or divide the dough in half, pat into circle, and cut 6 ways into wedges, as I did in the picture here. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve with marmalade or butter or anything you like!

Okay now I really should get busy! But wait, here is a little boy that came with a hurt. He needs a bandaid. His mother is changing the baby so I guess I better do it:

It is still morning. I might get something done yet, if I make a dash for it and no one interrupts me. Sometimes I feel like Basil Fawlty in the British comedy "Fawlty Towers." He was a hotel proprietor that was always trying to get the place cleaned up or repaired or the gardening done or meals, etc. and he was so frustrated once he said, "I could manage this hotel perfectly, if it weren't for the customers!"

Now I see the mail is here. I better go and get it:

It is a nice day to hang laundry. Everything is drying instantly.

I'm keeping an eye on Miss Lillian, too, and she seems to like work. She sits and watches it for hours!

I had to go to the farmer's market before it closed. This isn't the usual way I allow people to take photos of me but I wanted to show you why I don't wear pants or shorts. In this position, which I find myself in the kind of work I do, a skirt or dress is much more modest and I feel more confident (and feminine). Loose clothes are actually cooler (in hot weather or hot flashes!) I've had to change clothes already after holding Miss Lillian through several spit-ups and diaper changes.

Okay now, where was I? Where is that list?

Remember the picture of the guest room where everything was piled high? I'm only just starting to get it cleaned up! Here's what to do with the bare corner.

It is after dinner already and finally, no one needs me so I'm going to sneak away and finish that guest room! But oh, I forgot to water the garden, and it is still light outside and getting cooler so I have to go, before everything dies.

Yay...I got the bed made. That's a start! I think I can tackle the rest, even though I'm about to fall off my feet! That little bit of beauty makes me want to keep going.

Yes I know I'm doing more than necessary but it makes me so happy and it is a great way to store things that end up in boxes.

Here is another corner of that room with the bear corner.

I must admit I'm doing more than is required, but it keeps me motivated!

Another corner of that room.

It isn't a dump anymore.

And now for the kitchen. The flash didn't work in the "before" picture so you can just imagine what it was like. I can still see improvements that need to be made in the "after picture." I had to clean the kitchen so we could find something to eat on, and make a space to prepare lunch.

Here is the kitchen table, which I use when I don't have company. I've kept a child's drawing on the wall all these years, over there on the far right. Be sure to read my Lily's take on this modern art here: http://thepleasanttimes.blogspot.com/2007/08/letters-to-editor.html because she owns some similar artwork.

The main dining room is still a mess...

...but I think I'll quit. Remember that list? I only got ONE THING on it completed: the guest room. Maybe I am making the wrong kind of list.

Gal 6:9 But we should not lose heart in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not faint.