Coming up for Air!

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So much for the ‘freedom’ and ‘peace’ of being an empty nester! 

It seems to me I am swimming in ‘busy’, busier now that my girls are gone than I was the past 2 years of their High School years! One reason is I have my sweet little nugget, Ruger, who is growing like a weed. He went from an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, black ball of fur, to a puppy. And his paws…..Geez Louise, he has lions paws. I can’t begin to even contemplate the repercussions of that not so small observation! 

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While the puppy sleeps during the day, I have been taking the opportunity to dive off the pier in to the gigantic lake called ‘Deep Cleaning and Organizing. I’m by no means a dirty house keeper, but I’m not always tidy, especially in the kitchen. After being at home for 20 years with kids, their friends,  our animals, and family friends coming and going, I stopped fretting the small stuff awhile ago. So what if the dishes don’t get done right away?  So what if the stove isn’t show-house pristine, or the non-perishables are on the counter?  I was cooking up a storm, churning out meals, snacks, canned goods, preserving, crafting, floral arranging, computer work, bill paying, you name it, my kitchen is the hub of life in this house.

That means it’s lived in.

That means, have a nervous breakdown over every single thing out of place, or let 80% of it go and enjoy life. I’m sure hubby wishes I was a little more attentive to the small things, but I always figured once the girls were gone, I’d have loads of time to knuckle down and tackle the things I’ve put off. Even if I was tidier, I don’t ever think I’d want my house to look like a showroom. It’s not a showroom, it’s where we live. Sure, I had my moments in the deep end of ‘ENOUGH OF THE MESS’ and griped, moaned and groaned. But, I think all who have graced my door understood my house was ‘lived in’. 

In between cleaning and errand running, I am trying to take the time to walk my older gal. While I could be swimming laps, Miss Mia needs some TLC time.  Since we have been taking short walks with the puppy, she has been missing out on her 6 mile hikes with me. So today, when puppy took his morning nap, I grabbed her leash and out the door we flew to get 5 miles in as quick as possible.

We were greeted with absolutely glorious weather. We are talking pool lizard, lie by the pool glorious weather. This bi-polar state has decided to cut us all some slack, and the day is just perfect in my book. That makes 3…..3 perfect days so far this spring/summer.

Yes, I count. 

So, now it’s back to the task and I have a monumental one before me. I am going room by room and weeding out everything and anything we don’t need or want. While we are not downsizing immediately, this is a great opportunity to being the mental process in preparation of that stage. Not only is the house calling for my attention, but the garden is long overdue for a good weeding and general tending. And then there is the dinner meal to contemplate and prepare, and those blueberries that need to be processed and preserved. Hmmm, maybe pie. Oh dang, I think I need to make a pie, a Blueberry Pie….

(Deep Breath)

I’m divin’ under!

While I catch my Breath

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Hubby and I rolled in late afternoon yesterday from the Harley Davidson 110th Anniversary party in Milwaukee, WI.

We had beyond an amazing time and both of us agreed we would be back in 5 years. In the meantime, while I catch my breath, run some laundry, and generally catch up on some sleep, I would like to share a fantastic post by Gluten-Free[K] which showed up in my email InBox. I can totally empathize with her concerns about eating gluten free on a budget as I have 2 daughters in college trying to manage their finances and pinch pennies. Her point about having a well stocked pantry will inspire me to put up a post of my own, which will hopefully help people to maintain and refine their own pantry…and if you don’t have one, how to set one up.

I also will be sharing some of our experiences in Milwaukee, which, thank goodness for camera phones and old fashioned memory, because I think we’ve lost our camera. I don’t care about the camera, I just wish we had the data card with all the pictures we took. Bummer.

So, here is the link to Gluten Free on a Budget. Please, take the time to head over and give it a read, especially if you are looking for some ideas! And stay tuned, reports from HOG heaven are on their way!

When it’s Hot, thank the Lord

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Yes, it’s hot and I want to thank you Lord, for air conditioning.

I’m serious. I want to formally and officially thank our Good Lord for air conditioning, because without the ability to escape the heat for a bit and sleep at night, I’d be one crabby, nasty, terribly unpleasant human being to live with.

I have to laugh at myself, because as I sit in my kitchen typing, gratefully at peace with the warm but tolerable temperature, vs the hot and sticky muck outside, I am drawn back to a memory of my youth, living in Oregon.

As I recall, I was about 6 or 8 and we were living on the west side of town, in a brand new sub-division. We had moved from California and I thought it was the coolest thing to be on a cup-de-sac, with acres of hay fields to play in as our back yard. Pause for a moment and let that sink in. New development….fields. Yep, no shade. Gratefully, Oregon is fairly temperate and doesn’t get too hot nor very cold. In fact, being a zone 8 (gardening term) it ranges from 20-90 degrees, but with only a handful of days in those extremes, if it ever got that ‘extreme’.  A typical, average day runs between 50-70  deg most of the year. Thus, many homes do not have a/c there, and when I was growing up, this exposed little house did not.

The sweltering run of hot days this summer brings to my recollection a particular ‘heat wave’ of one summer in that house.  What was probably only days, felt like weeks of 90 degree weather. My brother’s and my little bodies, (children tend to run hot anyway) felt like they were going to instantaneously combust. Poof! I was convinced my mother would wake and we’d be ashes.  It was so hot, this little child refused to sleep in anything other than cotton undies, and I recall my thoughtful mother bringing in a small fan to blow air on the sweating little bodies, in a failed attempt to keep us cool enough to sleep. Despite the near Adam and Eve-like state, the thin sheet over the top of me felt as heavy as a woolen winter blanket.

It’s rather humbling to be reminded of how spoiled I live as an adult. Not everyone has a/c, and with this long stretch of brutal hotness, I am even more grateful for the inspired invention of cooled air. I think of how life has changed due to what is seemingly such a simple idea and product. I marvel at the freedom and power of the American free market to make a once expensive, elusive and desired symbol of wealth and privilege, in to something the everyday common man can attain and afford. Think about it for a moment. We travel, for the most part, in comfort. We work, for the most part, in comfort. There are places for everyone to escape the heat, public buildings, restaurants, coffee shops, libraries, gas stations, malls, community centers. It has become such an everyday, accepted luxury of living in America, I think sometimes it’s good to be humbled and be reminded of how truly blessed we are. It’s easy to get caught up in the difficulties of living, and so pausing for a moment to relish the little things can be a tonic to the life-worn soul.

And so, as I peer through the steamy double pane windows out in to that sauna, called summer in Minnesota,  I turn my face to the heavens and thank my Good Father for, what to Him is a just one of the many ‘simple’ gifts He showers on us in this broken and flawed world of ours…Air Conditioning.