Monday, October 13, 2008

Birds Fly South; I Nest



Unfortunately, Jana and the kids were unable to make movie night and Hugh was away all weekend, doing security for a private event. So, what did I do with my time alone with the children? Friday night, I banished the Man-Cub to his bedroom with the new Iron Man DVD and allowed The Girl the rare privilege of attending the High School football game with her friends (and minus her father) and I cleaned house like a mad woman.

I seriously got on my hands and knees to clean the wood floors with a rag and Murphy’s wood soap and I have the bruises on my knees to prove it. I cleaned cabinets, sucked the dust bunnies and cobwebs out of the corners with the vacuum and cleaned the French doors until they glistened (for all of one tenth of a second before a pair of Rowdie’s nose prints mysteriously reappeared on them, damn dog). I rearranged my pantry and I even polished my silver (all four pieces of it).

I was looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday but, that was not meant to be as The Girl called from the game to ask if I minded if one of her friends spent the night as her father works nights and wouldn’t be home in time to drive her to the school to catch the bus to the volleyball game-attendance at which, you may recall, The Girl had been denied.

I didn’t mind, terribly, if the friend spent the night and I also didn’t mind terribly getting up with the girls at 5:00 the next morning to get her to the school by 5:30. Once that was accomplished, The Girl and I elected not to go back to bed but stayed awake and watched television together until the Cub woke at his usual early hour of six-thirty.

Getting up early must have messed with my energy level-in a good way-because I spent the rest of the day, and the rest of the weekend for that matter, working on projects around the house. For lack of a better term, I was preparing my nest for the winter-cleaning, reorganizing, putting away the summer items that were lingering on shelves and in corners and generally just preparing for colder weather.

I ripped up the last of my garden-it stopped producing anything a while ago-and bundled the last of the Rosemary for drying. It is hanging in my kitchen windowsill now and the whole kitchen smells heavenly.

I changed the linens on all the beds, from cool cotton to warm flannel and jersey sheets and I placed the feather bed on Hugh and my mattress; it helps keep me warm and I love the feeling of sinking into it at night; like lounging on a cloud.

Once that was done, the Cub and I baked and froze thirty-six Frankenstein-shaped sugar cookies for his classroom Halloween party and I roasted and pureed the six sugar pumpkins that I had intended to do while Jana was over. I now have more than enough pumpkin puree in my freezer to last through the winter.

And, speaking of winter, we got our first hard freeze last night. It was not, as the Man-Cub describes it frostbite on the grass but, a true hard frost. Apparently, my inner-pioneer knew something that my 21st century self did not and I am happy to say; my house was warm and toasty before the freeze.

Not a bad way to spend a weekend, if I do say so myself.

4 comments:

  1. We got a hard freeze last night too, and the freeze warning just expired about a minute ago. We weren't nearly as busy this weekend, but close. I know what you mean, though, about getting the abode ready for the winter. I'm hoping to spend today (a school-less day, no less...pray for me...LOL) finishing up the projects that didn't get finished this weekend. At least Tom pulled the last little bit of produce yesterday. You wouldn't believe the amount of pesto I made! LOL Next year I'll have a better garder; this year's haul was puny. And, speaking of finishing projects, better get going while the natives are entertaining themselves! LOL

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  2. I wish I could get a burst of energy like that. I have so many projects around the house that I need to work on.

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  3. Great job! I love those productive weekends!!

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  4. I cleaned my floor yesterday too. I didn't do quite as much cleaning/nesting as you seemed to have though. :) Good for you!

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