{ Getting things done }

I woke up this morning, not feeling like doing anything.  I dragged myself through coffee, hubby's lunch preparations, and then breakfast for myself at 8am.  I just wanted to lay in bed and do absolutely nothing.  

 

Ever since I started perimenopause, the first two days of my cycle are brutal.  I feel so drained, crampy and get hormonal headaches.  But, things need to be done, so as slow as I may move that day, I get up and honestly, after I'm up and about, I start feeling better.

Days like these, I find comfort in the menial homemaking tasks I need to do.....like standing at the kitchen sink, washing dishes and listening to the birds outside. 

 

 

 

I stripped my bed, and put on fresh bedding.  I usually do it on Monday's but didn't get around to it, and I didn't want to wait a whole other week, so got it done this morning.  There is just something about fresh linens and a freshly made bed.  I think I've said it before, but for me, if my bed is made and my room is clean and tidy, it makes it feel like the rest of the house is in order.  

Next I moved into the kitchen and got the dishwasher unloaded, then hand washed the few breakfast dishes in the sink, wiped down the counters, opened the window and took out the meat to defrost for dinner.

Oh and I wanted to show you a quick tip for washing your dishes too.  I have this cute brown jar that I keep near my sink.  In it I have dish soap.  When I start running of dish soap, I buy a new one, but before I run out completely, I pour the remaining soap into the jar, and keep adding my leftover liquid dish soap.  

When I wash dishes by hand, I just dip my sponge into the jar, and voila.  I try to use that soap up before starting a new bottle.  It makes washing the dishes easier, because I just have to dip the sponge in, and keep going.

When the kitchen was in order, I got busy with the dining room/den area.  I started moving things around, trying to get it not so cluttered while the old couches are still waiting to be taken to the donation place.  

Is there anything worse than that moment you are right in the middle of cleaning, and you look around and there is just a mess everywhere?  Makes you feel like abandoning ship and running for the hills, but you gotta press on and finish.

And for some reason, I'm the type of person who starts working on one thing, and sees something else along the way, so gets that going as well, then sees something else and adds that to the list.

 

Example.....moved the couch from the wall, next to the other couches.  It is crowded and crazy but it's only until Saturday morning, and it's out of the way.  Then I moved my sideboard/dresser where I store my table linens, placemats, runners etc., to the wall where the couch was at.  But instead of stopping there, I opened every drawer and refolded, looked through, and organized the drawers again.

While I was doing that, I was eyeing the antique table up that is in the picture above, next to the couches.  It belonged to my husband's uncle's mother.  That was a mouthful.  Hahahah

His aunt gave us the table last year.  It is a beautiful wood parlor table, and though it's big and kinda clunky, I love antiques and especially family treasures, so want to use it in the house.  I

One thing I like doing while I'm working around the house, is to put a video on my laptop, and play it in the background.  It's usually a podcast, or some sort of video that I don't need to watch per say, but can listen to instead.

Once I was happy with the dining room, I moved back into the kitchen, to start some of my seeds.  Today, I planted some more lavender.  Jasmine gave me these a few weeks ago, and they've been sitting, patiently waiting for the weather to warm up.

While in there, I also changed the water on the philodendron I'm propagating.  It's always thrilling when you start seeing rooting on some of the cuttings.  As always, not all the cuttings will take, some will root, some will die. 

 

I gave the living room a quick tidy, nothing was really out of place, except for Elliott's toys all over the floor, which I picked up and placed on his tower and his basket.  

In the picture below you can see the new (to us) couches I mentioned.  They are beautiful and so comfy.

Now this picture may seem odd, and no I wasn't building Elliott a fort, although he did treat it like one, and slept under it for hours.  Actually, if you look on the bottom of the rack closest to the couch, you can see Elliot's shadow.  LOL

But I washed my bed linens, and didn't want to use the dryer.  Since the temperatures around here have been so nice and warm, I wanted to hang them on the clothesline to dry, but it has been super windy and I didn't want them to end up flying away.  

I opted to open my back porch door, leave the screen door closed and let that wonderful wind in.  I just pushed my two dryer racks closer to the door, and in no time, my sheets and pillow cases were dry.

After the housework was done, I finally got to sit down, give my lower back and cramps a rest, and just relax before it was time to start dinner.

I have set my current book aside, it is taking too long to read, and I have just 1 day left in March to reach my goal.  So, I've decided that I am going to grab the two smallest books I have on my pile, and try to cram them in before Friday morning.  

Then I can start April fresh, finish The Sugar Camp Quilt and grab the next book on the list, to reach my monthly goal of two books.

I think if I just stick to reading the books I feel like at the time, it will make it easier to actually stick to the 24 books for 2022 goal that I set in the beginning of the year.  If I keep forcing books on myself, I will quickly give up.  Anyone else like me?

I managed to get everything done that I wanted to, and I even crocheted.  Oh that brought me so much joy.  

I confess, I didn't crochet anything major, but just two faux wasp/hornet nests to hang out on my back patio and porch.  I've heard that they work really well to keep wasps away, because they will not build their nests if there is a big colony (nest) already in place.

Besides, I figure if for some reason these don't do the trick, at least they will look cute hanging outside the house, right?

I thought I had taken a picture of the crocheted nests, but I guess I didn't.  I did share it over on my Instagram stories, but I'll take a picture with my camera tomorrow and post it here too.  I want to make a few more, because our house is quite big, and I need a few all around the house where the wasps like to make their nests.  I'll also let you know if they actually work or not.

Well friends, I am going to take a motrin, drink a cup of tea, watch a little tv, and call it a night.