Friday noon

Going through my library books last night, which included the newest decorating/design book from Kinfolk, called The Kinfolk Home.  I follow their FB page, and Kinfolk always has homey photos---but maybe more minimalistic than I prefer.  I enjoy spare rooms, but only in other people's homes.  The book has homes with lots of grey, black/white, and beige.  Very light on the eyes.  

But it's not cluttery enough for me.  I do like, what I call, eye clutter.  Lots of stuff.  Rooms loaded down with things to look at.  Maybe it's a security issue, but it's me.

Anyway, the photo is from the photo spread on pages 126-127 of the book.  Following page after page of clean and efficiently-designed areas, I was in the mood for more.  Here's what I saw:

I found it stunning.  Still monochromatic, as much of the book is, but so rich in textures and wonderful things.  Do find the book at the library and turn here.  I just stared and stared at these pages last night.  

* * *

Which got me on to thinking on who I am, and who I want to be for the rest of my life.  At the library bookstore yesterday, the woman who checked me out (who could've been about ten years older) commented on my braid.  (...follow along...i do have a point to make!)  She said she'd always wanted to grow her hair out like I have (it's still to my waist), but never figured her hair would be thick enough to weave a braid.  I told her that growing my hair out had been on my bucket list, and she laughed when I said it took about 15 years of not cutting it to get it this long---said she might not have that long left.  We both laughed at that.  Not likely.

So, I'm thinking....while I do still have children at home, my thinking can turn to *me* more often.  Hard to manage after years of putting them first.  I don't know.  There are things I do that are for my pleasure only, but I have a hard time fitting them in.  

And, oddly enough, letting the grey come out in my hair has been wonderful.  I'm liking to see who I am under the darker hair color.  Surprised at how quickly the grey is coming out, thinking the home color I've used is, more or less, fading and not so much having to grow out.  How 'bout that?  The least one was braiding it the other day and she commented on the silver weaving in the braid, said she thought it was pretty, and off we went.  Yes, I'm incapable of doing my own hair, not having long-enough arms to do it myself.  I need ape arms.

So, who am I when the children aren't so much in the picture?  What place do I want to fill when they've all left our nest?  My loves are design and decorating (with my Interior Design degree this is normal), an unnatural love of books (very excessive), writing, the Anglican church, and herbal studies.  That's, pretty much, who I am.  Oh, and I have all this hair.

You didn't want a bio, but you got one anyway!  The hard part is being that person more, not just as an aside.  And I think women my age suffer with this, and not sure if children cause the largest hiccup or if it's just part of the growing older syndrome.  

Just thinking about stuff.  My mind got to wandering, spurred on by those two pages, and this is what I had in my head.  My goodness.

Enjoy the day.

'The Five Times I Met Myself' by James L. Rubart

It's rare for me to receive a book to review and finish it

 in practically one sitting.  But I did.  James L. Rubart is a favorite author in our house, and he never disappoints.  I was a bit of a glutton, however, in reading The Five Times I Met Myself so quickly, actually in one gulp.

The premise of the book deals with 53-year old Brock Matthews, who's facing financial ruin.  With a successful coffee business providing for his family and brother who he's partners with, hardship comes unexpectedly.  In a strange twist, Brock goes into, what he calls lucid dreaming, where he can consciously be aware of the fact that he's dreaming while he's dreaming.

As the title says, he meets himself, but as a young man about 25-30 years younger.  The point of his dreaming is to change the future.  With the book being one part It's a Wonderful Life and part Inception, the reader is kept on his/her toes.  The book flows, might not always make sense, but it comes together beautifully in the end.

Loved it.  Our teenaged daughter is reading it now.  She's loving it as well.

(i received this book free to review from booklookbloggers)

Thursday evening

Well, here it is a week later and we finally got the new hot water heater.  I've been praying for days, that it'd be an easy (and painless) installation.  It was.  My husband and youngest son went to the hardware store this morning and got it.  And yesterday they'd man-handled the old one out of the attic, down the pull-down stairs and out on street.  The sanitation department here is wonderful about picking up just about anything you put on the street.  Didn't have to wait for them, though, since someone else got it before dark.

A bath later will be WONDERFUL.

Got out a bit by myself this afternoon, which was way overdue.  Got some library books and went to the library bookstore too.  Found some Faulkners I didn't have and one treasure, a Charlotte Bronte dated around 1897.  The book is called The Professor and includes Emma and some poetry. Beautiful book.  Three dollars, which you can't beat.

* * *

Going to have a quiet day tomorrow.  Have been, as they say, all sixes and sevens, this week.  Can't account for it.  Reading, yes.

Saturday holds middle daughter's seventeenth birthday, which she wants to be Star Wars themed, and it'll be a fun day.  Unfortunately, an old friend of the family, my mom's next door neighbor died yesterday.  I'll likely go to his funeral on Saturday afternoon.  We took Mom her groceries today, and I was able to see the children of the neighbor. We're about the same age, grew up together and hadn't seen one another in about forty years. Sweet to be called by my nickname (Missy) by folks who knew me ages ago. Very comforting, for some reason.

Anyway, we'll still have a birthday, with a pause in the middle.  Had planned on baking her pies for her day, but our oven ignitor is out and I'll have to order the part and fix it.  I'm volunteering, since fixing appliances gives me a rush.  Stuff breaks, but thankfully we're clever.

Enjoy your Fridays. :)

Rainy Monday night

Woke up a bit later than usual, with needing more sleep after yesterday's busyness.  I forget how important a good night's sleep really is to me.  So easy to stay up too late, and get up before necessary.  Seems the whole weekend was spent with one activity after another.

Today's been so sweet, though.  Got up at ten (gasp), had my tea with the Pugs in my lap.  Talk about jockeying for position.  Cleaned the kitchen of all the dishes that had piled up with baking for the dinner at church and just being lazy.  Sinks clogged.  Poured boiling water in them followed by baking soda and white vinegar, and more boiling water.  One good glug with the rubber whatchamacallit and the clog was gone.  Sometimes this requires a male figure to get on the roof to run the garden hose into the water access pipe that sticks out the roof.  Do-it-yourselfers.  That's us, like it or not.

Dusted, vacuumed, generally tidied up the main rooms.  Beat the least one to it, and she's amazing at being tidy, but sometimes I want to re-arrange and straighten.  I find it mentally settling.  Gives me focus.

Had a brief school session with the girls and then went grocery shopping for Mom and us.   Had heard that Tropical Storm Patricia would impact our weather this evening and wanted to get a jump on it.  Well.  It's raining as it has been for a couple of days.  Glorious.  But while we've had hurricane rain before (it just looks different), this seems ordinary.  Still, I find it wild that a hurricane that began in the Pacific Ocean and traveled clear across Mexico could end up in Tennessee.  Loving the rain though.  The trees are going, "Ahhhhh.  Delicious."

Anyway, I say all that to say:  This has been a wonderful day.  Have made it a practice to read our morning selection of Psalms from the Book of Common Prayer out loud. I think that the words need to be heard by our house.  And by any spirits that lurk and aren't welcome.  Since the Bible is living, it sheds life over everything that hears it.  I feel blessed afterward, and I think our home does as well.  

After we got home from the store, I burned some incense from church too.  Just trying to keep on top of it.

Sunday night

Glad to be at home.  Busy day at church.  Luncheon after services, a brief nap and then the kids and I went back to help with the Fall Festival.  Neighborhood children decorated cookies, there was a costume competition for their dogs (yes, held inside out of the rain) and while the teenagers managed the little ones, the adults visited.  Very nice for me.

Still raining.  Bliss.  The earth is soaking in the wet, which is wonderful.  It's been so dry here.

Deeply tired, but in a good way. I'm reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor called Learning to Walk in the Dark and just finished a part where she talks about how we fret late in the day, at night, when we're powerless to do anything to fix things.  She said she'd made a list one time of things she thought of during one of those times...doctor's appointments, making a will, cleaning the refrigerator...irritating chores.  And that's the way of it.  For me today it's about my children's spiritual welfare (out of my hands), getting groceries (under my control), shopping for middle daughter's birthday on Saturday (also okay to manage), making more money magically appear in my mom's bank account (nope, not going there).  The things that drive us nuts and keep us awake, generally speaking, are those things we can't do a darn thing about.  I'll steer clear.

Will need to focus on my quiet later on tonight.  Too much time spent today with others.  Need my own company.  Began looking at The Book of Common Worship, the Presbyterian prayer book I bought, alongside Elizabeth Goudge's Towers in the Mist, which is charming.  Loving the Anglican and Catholic references.

Must go now.  Ready to put it to bed after this hectic day.  But even bathing with having to heat up kettles of water is soothing.  Washing my hair in the kitchen sink....my husband pouring warm water over my hair, is very contenting.  Quiet.  You're forced to be present and attentive in a different sort of way.  And while I'd prefer to not have a garden hose hanging out the attic stairs in the hallway, I'm not really minding.  Perspective.  It's all about that.

Saturday afternoon

In the bedroom being quiet.  Oldest daughter's at work at the bookstore, and husband is at church doing some things to prepare for the Fish Fry that's tomorrow.  We'll go in a minute to buy flowers for the altar.  Cloudy day, sort of drizzly, not near as rainy as I'd prefer.  Just mostly damp.  There's rain in Texas which I hope will swing up here, not as boisterous as they've had, but we need it so badly.

That's my story.  Oh, but here's more.

Got up at seven to let out the chickens and oldest daughter said the hot water heater was leaking again through the hall ceiling.  Went up in the attic and bailed water from the drip pan.  Why is it those pans always leak?  It's the darndest thing.  What they're made to do, they don't do.  I guess when we replace the hot water heater, we should invest in a new pan.  Or fix the leak in it.

Problem for another day.

Seems everyone in this house has more energy than I do.  Youngest son is probably the most laid-back of all my offspring.  He'll be quiet in his room drawing for hours, just enjoying the silence.  Loves being alone, but fortunately with our church involvement, he adjusts to being with people.  He's almost painfully shy, which I totally understand.  Baby steps getting him out in the world.  Or maybe not steps at all.  He should be allowed his introvert status.  I know I wasn't allowed that growing up.  Have a mom who's an extrovert and try to not do stuff yourself with things to do.  Impossible!

Now will pause, get dressed (finally) and get the flowers done.  Probably will take them by the church and go ahead and arrange them.  A restful evening ahead.  I like that.

Yes, I needed more books. Whaddaya think?

Library booksale.  The top book is a little Presbyterian Prayer Book, very much like our Book of Common Prayer.  Very sweet.  And the tan book in the middle is called The School for Wives by Andre Gide.  1929 with rough-cut pages   Not sure about it, but I stuck my face in the middle of it and the wonderful old book smell sold me.  Most excited about two hardback copies of Peter Marshall's (A Man Called Peter and Mr.Jones, Meet the Master) for oldest daughter and the Betty Crocker cookbook, 1950, which looks in perfect condition.  Over sixty years old.  How can that possibly be?  Guess the owner didn't cook.

Got the least one the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, which she's about to read, after she's finished The Hobbit.  Son got some Tolkien and middle daughter a few Ted Dekker's.

* * *

Our only snafu in life is the hot water heater that began to leak on Wednesday night.  We'll have to wait until sometime next week to replace it, so we're roughing it with heated up bowls of hot water to wash with.  Actually, it reminds me of when the power is out.  There's something about simplifying, even in an inconvenient way that is restful to me.  Go figure.

Sadly our hot water heater is in the attic, so the light fixture in the hall was full of water (I know, I know), and oldest daughter's closet got wet.  All is well now, however.  At least no lasting water damage.  The real challenge will be my husband and various boys being called to help him put in a new one, when the time comes.  Those things are heavy as sin.

But today is good.  Rain is coming, and we've not had a decent shower in over a month.  It's time.  And the weekend.  A restful one, I hope.  Can't replace the busted hot water heater yet, which is fine, and what you can't fix, don't worry about.  In time.  It'll all get done in time.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your day. :)