Spring is here

Spring is here, we can see flowers everywhere, in the fields, in the trees, such a delightful time.

The problem is that after Spring it comes Summer, which I don't like at all.

St. Joseph Feast day - 19 March

 

The Church celebrates and honours St. Joseph on the 19 of March.

I can't tell enough how this Saint has helped me in all my life, he whom the Son of God called (and calls) father.

In praise of chocolate

I read in so many blogs the praise of coffee and how important it is in the life of most people. Now I have to  tell you: I can't stand it!! I don't like the taste and even the smell I don't like at all. But if it's a chocolate with some taste of coffee, it's ok.

I've liking chocolate since I remember to exist and I like it in every form: hot chocolate, or cold in the Summer, bars of chocolate and in every shape and form.

I like it in cakes and over them, puddings, biscuits...You name it.

I've always received chocolates and books as presents, being it my birthday, Christmas and Easter. I have the memory of being a chilld, seated, reading a book and eating chocolate, mainly at Easter time, breaking the chocolate eggs and rabbits and everything, and eating it while reading.

Those were the times! Just a child and reading all the time - which, to say the truth, never ended, either the reading or the chocolate eating which have been a constant all my life.

I found this here

Everybody can see how much I'm craving Chocolate now...but I must wait till Easter.

Just some weeks more.

Spring is coming

Spring is about to come. We can see it already in the light and the flowers in the fields: yellow clovers and periwinkles everywhere.

I like very much the Winter, I like the rain and the cold and those sharp cold days with sun but this year we had too much rain, even catastrophic in some places, so to see the end of it is good news.

Every year I like the beginning of the Spring, it gives me strenght in the body and in the soul, I feel a will to do things, to get better, to take care of me and my house, of my life.

I don't like at all the end of the Spring when Summer begins giving its signs. I don't like the Summer because I can't stand the heat, sometimes it looks like I can't even think and I don't want to do anything. I don't even like the beach, a place where I never go. And the sweating and all, I find it so unpleasent. 

And the way some people dress, almost naked. What a dreadful sight.

Anyway, we don't think about those nasty things now, we have a nice temperature, we just think on the nice weather, good to wash the clothes and put them to dry on the line - which I do all year round but now it's more pleasent to do.

And I think about my dreams and goals and projects and I feel I want to do all that. The beginning of the Spring, as the Autumn, always brings me hope and the belief that I can do all those things I want.

So, it's ok Spring, you can come and bring good times with you.

Technical problems

I just want to say sorry to my readers for not commenting back when they make nice comments here, I don't know what's the problem, I try and it says that it failed and to try  later, which I do but for no avail.

The same way on other blogs, I see such nice posts where I want to comment and I can't.

So, it's not that I'm ignoring you, it's that I have a problem that I hope will be solved soon.

It's some Blogger problem.

Making the bed

I wonder what is special about making the bed that makes me feel so well.

I feel acomplished, I feel whole, balanced, normal, powerful.

I feel that I can do all things.

I've been reading about it and I found this, taken from a video, about the benefits of making the bed:

• Boosts Mental Well-being & Productivity: Starting the day with a completed task provides a "small win" that can trigger a domino effect of other productive behaviors.
• Reduces Stress & Creates Calm: An unmade bed can feel chaotic; making it creates a sense of order and calm, improving your mood and reducing anxiety.
• Improves Sleep Quality: A neat, organized bedroom environment promotes better sleep hygiene.
• Encourages Better Habits: Making the bed acts as a "keystone habit," often leading to higher self-discipline and better organization in other areas of life.
• Hygiene & Maintenance: It allows bedding to air out and, by covering sheets, reduces the amount of dust that settles on them. 
• Making the bed is viewed as a foundational act of self-care, demonstrating to oneself that they are worth the effort of creating a calm, orderly space.

 Also:

• Starts Your Day with Discipline- we all fight the uphill battle of being disciplined. When you do something simple like make your bed every day it bolsters your ability to make the tough decisions in other areas you are trying to being disciplined. It says to yourself, “I am and will be a disciplined person today.”
• Sends a Message to Your Life- Nothing sends a signal to your life that you are an orderly person that leaves things better than they were before like making your bed. I’ve even become so convinced of the power in this that I make my bed when staying at hotels (which I do quite too often).
• Kickstarts a Sense of Accomplishment- By making your bed you will feel as if you already crossed something off your to-do list before you even get dressed! Can’t beat that! For those compulsive to-do listers (like myself) you can always write it down and then cross off at the top your list when making your list for the day. Score one for me! (told you I was a sick man)
• Helps Initiate Your Bedtime Routine- The final thought is in regards to your evening bedtime routine. Pulling down the sheets does something powerful to your mind and body by sending the vibe that bedtime has come. There is a reason they pull down the sheets at a luxury hotel. Build your own luxury feel and prepare yourself for bed by putting down the sheets and getting into an organized and comfy bed.(https://medium.com/@joelstockstill/6-reasons-why-making-your-bed-is-so-important-a1cd22b0c005)

And now all this takes us to an important detail: 

• to make the bed as soon as our feet touch the floor, as Flylady says, or to wait a bit so tha bed can be aired?

As for me it's impossible to make it when it's still hot, I must air it and only after that I make it, unless I'm going to travel and there's no time to wait.

I found an article defending my point of view and I was very pleased with that.

What's your take on that ? Immediately or minutes later?

And is it important to you to make the bed in the morning? Why?

Partying at

Homestead Blog Hop at Ridge Haven Homestead

TFT Blog Hop at Katherines Corner

Tuesday Turn About #344 at My Wee Abode

Talking About It Tuesdays at Slices of Life

Home Matters Linky Party at Modern on Monticello

On being a lady: feminine and sober

I was never a tomboy but I was never a Barbie girl either. I  mean, it's not that I didn't like dolls, including Barbies, I did a lot and I had so many (dolls, I mean) but I was never that kind of too girlish girl, but I was always feminine, that I was, because my exemples were my grandmother and mother. My mother was a girl quite modern but without overdoing it, she liked the last trends and all but she was always so nice dressed and elegant. I remember seeing films by my father's super8 camera. There we can see how my mother was like a model, so beautiful and elegant.

My grandmother was quite young for a gradmother but she was sober and elegant, always prefering navy blue. What a lady she was.

She had a very firm influence in me, in everything, and some days ago my eldest daughter was telling me how I am so much like my grandmother in so  many ways, even the hair, dark and slightely waved.

The same way I use so much of her vocabulary and I have the same tastes, as to sew in the sewing machine, to make crochet and embroidery (my mother was wonderful in embroidery too), and how I like so much the home.

It's for me a great comfort to be so much like my grandmother but, even reaching  this age I am, I still long to be like my mother and her and I struggle to be not as good as she was, which looks unattainable for me, but closer to what she was.

And that is to be a lady: feminine and sober. To be delicate, feminine, inclined to all things home, to dress and talk with sobriety, using delicate words, (never, ever being corse in the language) and in the way we walk, seat and get up, the way we laugh, and liking all things feminine and knowing how to do works with our hands like crochet and so, knowing to work in the kitchen and to keep our homes clean and tidy. Being groomed, us and our home.

What a blessing it is to be a woman and being it, to be ladylike.

Thanks be to God for everything I received from my mother and grandmother.

Partying at:

Talking About It Tuesdays at Slices of Life

Tuesday Turn About #344 at My Wee Abode

A new week

I hope that every dad goes to church. 😄

I know that many people take the Sunday to program the week but I don't do that. Sunday I give to Our Lord and, after that, to the family.

We just rest, after Mass, and have a good lunch, we gather around and talk and watch films and series, we eat cakes and good deserts.

Sunday is the blessed day to rest and be happy.

And on Monday I plan my week and, having rested on the Lord's Day, I feel full of confidence and hope. I want to do things and I make plans.

Have a good week full of good plans.

Ash Wednesday

 

Fasting and Abstinence today.

Lent begins.

About colours

What about your colours? What do you like?

I must say that I am not the kind of person that chooses bright colours.

Don't think now that I am against those colours or people who prefer them, I'm only talking about what I like.

Let me tell you first that I follow my own path. I like when people agree with me but I don't mind at all when they disagree and that doesn't make me change my way and my opinions.

So, anyway, don't feel that I'm criticizing somebody by writing what I will.

 So, having that in mind, I will say that I prefer the pastel colours. Cream, beige.

 

 Very light pink and green. 

And navy blue. And dark green. And very dark red, the colour of dark wine.

Brown too. Never black.

I don't wear bright colours not for lack of confidence but for a lot of it, I dare to wear what I find elegant and nice, what is related to me, with the way I am, with what I am.

In the kitchen I like to have orange and yellow and green. And brown. White also.

I must say that I don't like at all grey in the house. At all !

I like this:

No, my house is not that grand 😄, I'm just posting it because I find it soo beautiful. (credits clicking on each picture)

I do wear grey mixed with bordeaux or navy blue, but in the house, like the sofas and such, no, at all, I can't stand that foggy feeling that it gives me just for looking at pictures of houses with that colour.

Well, each person has her own tastes and it's related with the soul of each of us.

So, keep doing what you want and what you like and don't mind at all what other people think of that - that's what I do.

PS: I don't care about fashion, I do what I want.

Partying at

Talking About It Tuesdays at Slices of Life

Homestead Blog Hop at Ridge Haven Homestead