The humdrum of housework, brings me joy

I have spent the past two days, fully immersed in housework, rearranging and getting ready for the 4th of July.

When you have been a homemaker for decades, it can become a tedious and often overlooked job.

You do the same things, day in and day out, nothing really changes and so it's easy to fall into a trap of thinking "why even bother?". You sometimes become resentful or lazy and just let things slide by.

I'm not perfect, and a lot of you often tell me how much you admire me or how my love for homemaking inspires you, but here's the thing, I have once upon a time felt exactly like that.  I couldn't be bothered to put in any extra effort.

I did the minimum that I had to do and everything else would just wait.

But the minute I took on the housework head on and began thinking of it as my pride and joy, something shifted  inside me.

You're probably sick of hearing me talk about housework and homemaking, I talk about it ad nauseum, so apologies for that.

So I will just say, try to shift your way of thinking and you will soon fall into the same state of contentment I am in, when pottering around my house.

I've given the house a good cleaning, top to bottom.  Rearranged some things, moved a shelf here, an antique sewing table there.

Planted a lemon tree in the yard, did some weeding, cleaned, hosed down a patio, cooked yummy food and hung copious amounts of laundry out on the clothesline.

While cleaning out my bookshelves, I came across an old book that I purchased at a local book sale, about 2 years ago.

I absolutely adore old books and I've been slowly.....very slowly.....building my collection.

Published in 1891.  This is Obras de Manuel Acuna, a book of poetry in Spanish.

I also have a few well known books like Hamlet and Macbeth, and one of my favorites, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

It's quite amazing paging through these books and imagining just how many people looked through them, read them, treasured them.  How many hands touched these pages, who they were and where they lived.  It's fascinating.

While I moved around, dusted and vacuumed and cleaned, mister here lay quietly on the couch, his eyes following my every move.  If I left the room, he left the room.  He is literally my little shadow :)

The hours tend to go by very quickly when you're busy.  I often find that the days I have nothing to really do, are the ones that drag by the longest, and when I'm fluttering around the house, before I know it, it is dinner time.

There's also a wonderful sense of achievement when you finally sit down and the house is tidy, smells clean and everything looks fresh and sparkly.  It's at this time of the day that I'll sometimes get a chance to sit down with a good book.

My book of choice right now is Susan Mallery's "The Summer of Sunshine and Margot".

I had quite a busy day with housework, driving Jasmine to and from work, making some phone calls and paying bills.  On the days like today, where I pick her up right around dinner time, or rather, the time when I would be making dinner, I always rush home and throw something together real quick.

Actually when I meal plan, I make sure to take note of the days that I will be needing quicker or easier meals to get on the table, since I know I won't be back until after Curt is home from work.

So, for tonight's dinner, I quickly whipped up some sausages, mash and gravy with a Greek salad.  It was divine, totally my kind of meal.  I think I'll always be a meat and potatoes kinda gal.

I am not just going to sit on the computer and work on some blog post ideas.  I've been feeling the pull, no doubt from God, to do a Bible Study of the women in the Bible.  I don't know why, but it's just been a nagging thought in my mind and so I must comply.

I'll be looking for some good plans to follow, some free bible studies or books to read and so on.  If you know of any good plans that you think I would enjoy, please let me know down below.

I do want to share the bible study with you and I plan on doing just that, but first I need to get it all on paper and out of my brain, it's at that stage where it's all just an idea and tons of little thoughts are popping up here and there but I haven't quite organized it all, so it's quite overwhelming.  It's very similar to when I have a creative thought about something I want to do or make, it drives me crazy until I finally get it done.

Well my sweet friends, I am off for now.   Have yourselves a wonderful Tuesday night and a great Wednesday too :)