Music for these Christmassy days

A good music to listen while wrapping presents. But if you are already tired after wrapping for one hour or two maybe it's better to listen to White Christmas.

But if you are in a funny mood maybe you would prefer to listen this version - very good to wrap and to prepare the house for Christmas. Or maybe while you bake.
But if you can watch it while you listen, still better.

I'm late, I'm late

Yes, as always. What about the good intentions of being on time this year? I am again late but I will not despair because it's not Christmas Eve yet so there is still hope.

What I still must do ?

• to buy presents - yes, I have a lot bought already but not all
• to wrap  - I haven't all presents wrapped, but I do have all the supplies: paper (a lot), ribbons,  Scotch tape (plenty)... I think I have everything.
• to buy baking things - to say the truth, I even didn't see, for sure, what is really missing. I must do it today.
• to finish all the cleaning and tidying I want to do before Christmas

Well, I must run and I'm so decided that on the 24 I will have all things wrapped (or almost all) Tat I will come here and tell the truth after Christmas.

Progress report will follow everyday - or almost.

The First Thanksgiving

More than a half-century before the Pilgrims broke bread with the Wampanoags, Spanish colonists landing in St. Augustine, Florida, feasted with indigenous Timucua tribesmen in what some historians contend was America’s first Thanksgiving.

http://www.history.com/news/did-florida-host-the-first-thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving !

Christmas Pudding

Do you know what it is? In England is an institution, everybody knows about it but maybe in the US nobody does. Well in my home we must have it every Christmas.

I never made it, I always buy it so I don't know if this recipe I found on BBC is good but I bet it is. 

Classic Christmas pudding

Maybe you would like to try it - maybe I will one of these years. For now I will have the ones already bought and which I can hardly wait to eat. But I will, on Christmas Day we must eat them. At last !

It's wrapping time

Talking about Christmas ! Yey !! I'm organising my wrapping supplies.

I know I have a lot of wrapping paper from last year because I like it so much I always buy more than I need but I know that as soon shops here begin selling it, I'm going running buying for more as if I had any or as if there was the danger of the shops be running out of paper.

It's that time of the year again and, you may think I'm crazy, but I like it. I do like wrap presents, choosing the paper, the bow, the tag, all that make me happy. Just one problem. I wonder why in spite of the several sessions I always end up having to do last wrapping on Christmas Eve. 

I'm so decided: this year I will have all my wrapping work done before that. 

After Christmas I will come here with an open heart and confess myself. If I failed I will tell you the truth.

Maybe I can wrap just one...or three...but not more than that !

On Christmas Eve I like to only concentrate on kitchen work: no cleaning, only the dailies, no wrapping, no worries of any kind, only cooking and baking for Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas Lunch.

It's nice to freely think about Christmas when, to say the truth, December didn't arrive yet. But why not ? Why must we be allowed to only think and talk about it in some given date ?

Let's be free and talk away about Christmas. I like it and I will do it all the time till it arrives !

The then little girls always liked so much the Disney papers. As I still have one young girl I will try to find some to wrap her presents this year too.

But what is funny is that last Christmas the big ones said they like child papers too for their presents.

Ok, I will do that for them also.

Oh, I can't wait to begin wrapping.

Almost there !

Christmas Countdowns at WiddlyTinks.com

Is it Autumn or Summer ?

So here I am again.

Every year I begin dreaming of Christmas in September. In a very shy way, without telling anybody.

Then it comes October. I then feel I can think of all that a little freely. In the beginning still a bit in the way I think when it's September and then...there it comes the last week of October ! Then I feel absolutely free to think about Christmas all I want. And I feel happy about it.

But now...as I am free to think all I can about it, suddenly I stopped in my tracks.

We have here a meteorological phenomenon which we call St. Martin's Summer. I wonder if that happens in other parts of the world. Around St. Martin's day (11 November) the weather stops getting colder and temperatures rise again.

Can you believe we have now 24ºC ? In November ? Whatever next ? Not Christmassy at all.

So I'm waiting for next week hopping it will be colder again and then I will be in Christmas mode again.

I need to do a lot of lists - I do like lists.

I will tell you when I get in the wagon again and have my lists ready.

Many people is happy about this little Summer but not me, I can't wait for real Autumn again.

I have already some presents bought, wrapping paper, decorations and we are having 24º ?!

I want the cold back !

Good, not perfect

I always like to see all those magazine perfect pictures in those perfect blogs. I wonder how those ladies are able to have the ideas they have, the good taste and then the ability to transform ideas and dreams in those magnificent rooms.

And I stare...and wonder how they can do it because I can't. I could dream all I wanted that, I think, I could never be able to do the same.

I used to be sad with it even if at the same time I liked to look at all that beauty. Now I decided that I will carry on looking to those blogs and delight myself with the beauty, with the ideas they have but calmly, without feeling frustrated. I will carry on getting inspiration from them but living my life my own way, with my own taste in my own possibilities - and here I don't mean economic possibilities, I mean the psychological ones.

So my aim is not to have a picture perfect house with picture perfect rooms - I never had that dream. I only will carry on with my dream of having a home where I feel good, which I have, but making it better in my own possibilities, a home which is good even if it's not perfect.

Good, not perfect. Ah, that feels good.

---

Going to this Parties:
 This Is How We Roll @ Organized31
Treasure Hunt Thursday @ From My Front Porch To Yours

Is it Christmas yet ?

I know, I know, a lot of you are now saying to yourselves that I am a crazy woman.

What? talking already about Christmas ? Is she crazy ? Aren't we all happy decorating our houses for Fall and showing them to the world, now comes this woman talking about Christmas ? What ever next ? Children are still going back to school !

Yes, Yes, I am. Call me what you feel like but I am truly talking about Christmas, yes.

I used to really think about it in the end of October, last year I started in mid October and now I'm thinking of it in September.

Why not ?!

So I went already through some sites who delightfully talk about it, either this year already ( yes ! I'm not the only one) or from last year.

And I saw a lot of lists, planners, Santas, holly, present ideas, tags for presents...You name it.

As in previous years I will not hope to be in the top decorated houses for Christmas, or to have the prettiest blog posts, I will not have the most delicious cakes and bakes  - or the ones who look like it.

My dream is to have a peaceful Christmas, with health, for me and to all my extended family and not only Christmas but also the days before it, beginning now. 

I pray that Our Lord will grant us this gift and His blessing will be always upon us.

My shelves

Some days ago I was delighting myself in a blog I recently found called  Fox Hollow Cottage.

She was talking about her apothecary cabinet and I was seeing those well cleaned shelves with nice things.

In the end of the post there were links to other girl's shelves.

I thought I could too do a post on my shelves but then I saw in my mind what I had in them: books ! Books, books and more books all over the place.

Ok, then, I thought, I will make a post on my shelves, never mind if most of them have only books and they are not tidy and even if...(embarrasment here) there are always things that don't belong there  !

See for yourselves.

----
Partying here:

Amaze Me Monday @ Dwelings - The Heart of Your Home
Inspiration Monday @ Our Southern Home
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Sroll Thru Life
The Scoop @ Worthing Court 
Wow Us Wednesdays@ Savy Southern Style
Home and Garden Thursday @ A Delightsome Life
This Is How We Roll @ Organized31
Share Your Style @ Common Ground
Treasure Hunt Thursday @ From My Front Porch To Yours

On being a busy Mom

I was thinking how my life now is so much more easier than some years ago.

Yes, I had the pleasure of having everybody at home and the delight of having small children but the exhaustion I had in that time ... It amazes me how I could cope but I think mothers are super women. Yes, they are.

In the year 2010 I wrote a post here that was triggered by an article I read about busy moms.

The author was complaining how she woudl go to bed always late and had not pacience to her husband after a whole day of work - at home.

So I discribed how was a day in my life with children of different ages. Even so I would never go to bed late.

Here is the article:  Too Busy for Family? 

and here is what I wrote than in my post in this blog.

I wake up at 6 am. I wash and dress and then I wake up my big girl. Then I empty the wahing machine (the dishes washing machine, not the clothes) and iron two shirts or any similar amount of clothes while I wait that my girl is ready. When she is I take her by car to the station so she can take the train to the universty. She does that everyday and everybody in the several universities here do the same. I take her by car because I don’t want she goes on foot alone in the dark at that early hour in an empty street to take the bus to the station. We live in a very good and safe place but even so, we never know.

I come back home. Wake up the other 3 girls. While they wash,dress and have breakfast, I prepare their mid morning and mid afternoon snacks – lunch is made by the school.

We enter the car and after droping each one in each school and taking my husband to his work, I go to work and there I stay till the end of the afternoon, some times till the evening.

Because the two middle girls haven’t the same class time everyday, some days they don’t go in the morning so, because I must have a compulsive hour rest around 1 pm, I run home and take them to their respective school.

When it’s only the nº2 that needs a lift, being a tenager, I let her go by bus.

Usualy, she cames back home by bus and so does the older one – in the end of the day. It’s very safe at that hour with lots of cars and people of several ages going around. Meanwhile I went to pick girl nº3 and 4.

If there is a day that the big ones come home ealier, they pick the little one.

Twice a week, after ending my work day – outside working day, I mean – and after picking the younger ones, and taking my husband from his work and taking him home, I go to my mother to stay a bit with her and, on the way, to do some shopping.

Arriving home, exauted, I put the shopping in places – sometimes the big ones help me, if they arrived already, and I put the laundry to wash. Later on I need to put the clothes on the line and on the day after take it out of the line, fold and put away - in the morning or in the afternoon, depending on the season and weather.

All the other chores? Hoovering, dusting, washing the floors, cleaning, etc. ? I find some little spaces between arriving home and going out again in the next morning. Most things are made on Saturday. Some little things on Sunday, not much, because it’s the Lord’s Day. We go to Mass.

Meals? My husband makes them to ease my load.

I never go to bed late, otherwise I would be crazy.

Now you are asking: why this woman works outside her home? Why doesn’t she stays at home as she should ? For the money, quite a nice income to a big family.

But I dream about staying at home. One day, God willing, I will be a stay at home woman!

-

It was the year 2010.

Now I have two grown up girls who already work. I have a little girl who even if she is eleven for me she is always my little girl and another who is sixteen.

Life is so much easier now.

Image from http://www.millan.net/

The fresh air of Autumn

I don't like the Summer.

Yes, I like some things in the Summer as going on holidays, being able to stay with my children all day long for several days in a row, visiting beautiful places, specially churches - and taking pictures of them till exhaustion.

But other than the aforementioned reasons, I don't like it.

The heat, the sweat, the sun too strong, the tiredness...

I don't like nothing of that.

Anyway, we are getting free of all that as the days are getting much cooler. 

It feels so good.

Leaves are falling, there are more oxygen in the air, gentle breezes, people look nicer.

I feel the urge to snuggle in the sofa with a cover, drinking hot chocolate or tea and watching a movie or reading.

I also feel more comfortable cleaning and tidying, no sweat and more energy. 

And what is nice is that I don't feel only more physical energy, it's the soul that feels better, I have the feel of wanting to live and to live fully. 

To take care of my house, of myself, like a new beginning.

Should I finish another post saying again: oh, life is good ?!

I think I must.

On Kitchens

One thing I am sure, I know what I want and I like about kitchens. Each person has his own style and likes so this is not a critic to anybody. At all. Each person has the right to like what they like and want what they want. It's their house and it's their kitchen. But today I will talk about mine. The kitchen, I mean, the one I have and the one I dream about, the one I want to have.

First. I don't like soft lines in the kitchen, you know those floating lines like someone in a painting of Chagal, as if they were a kind of ghost or smoke. I like sturdy kitchens. I like a kitchen that we look at and feel safe, we feel strong - the kitchen and us. Well, that doesn't mean I must have a farm, a country kitchen, those really sturdy, I just don't want cupboards and countertops with soft lines, I want to look at them and feel strength. 

Then I need life in the kitchen. I keep seeing wonderful, beautiful kitchens all over the internet who are so nice and tidy they look they are in display in a shop to be sold. No one lives there. No, my kitchen has to be lived in, with signs of people, even if they are not absolutely tidy. I don't mean messy, just lived.

So I like strong lines on the doors of the cupboards, granite or marble countertops. I like wooden colour doors but I accept that a white kitchen lights up my soul and makes me feel well, wanting to live.

I need some strong colours to complement the white: greens, oranges and yellows. Or maybe red and yellow - even more lively, a kind of vintage even. Or blue and pink. Colours.

And wood accents, no doubt.

I do like my kitchen but it needs some improvement, I don't want to change it, just to make it better.
As I'm getting more and more out of my depression, I feel the need and the strength to live, to really live and my house is my world where I want to live fully.

Oh, life is good, let's live it !

...

I'm at this Parties:
Tweak It Tuesday @ Cozy Little House
Share Your Style @ Northern Nesting
The Scoop @ Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Cleaning fridges

Oh, well, my fridges were in good and overdue need of a good cleaning and the freezer of defrosting.

Yes, I have two because when we bought this house there was already a big, for European standards, fridge in the house but I had bough one, in the previous house, some time before.

What to do, I thought and asked my husband, very sad with the idea of getting rid of my new fridge. Oh, we will keep both , he said, as we are a big family - again, for European standards, mainly for this corner of Europe.

So we kept them both.

I like that idea very much because it's so good to have plenty of room for everything. The problem is when the time to defrost arrives. So I delay it. Procrastinator as I am I always find a good way to procrastinate about it the most I can - till the days when we can hardly close it because we have so much ice in it that is more a box of ice than a freezer and it's difficult to keep things in and close the door.

So...we abstained to buy fridge food the most we could so it was possible to move everything from one to the other and clean it.

So I did it and also the fridge. Everything clean.

But then... I though, oh, no, it's not at all like so many people in those blogs I see where fridges are so neat and beautiful with everything so well organised in pretty containers.

Ok, never mind, it's clean and nice with some containers I had previously.

I will not give my fridges as an example on how to keep a perfectly organised fridge and freezer. But mine are clean and tidy and that is good enough.

Did I say I cleaned both fridges and both freezers? Well, I did and I am very happy about it.

I know my blog will never be an inspiration for people who want to have a perfect home but it will be good enough to inspire people to cope with a non perfect home.

Still, it's my home and for me it's the best place on earth !

...

And now I'm going to this Party:

Amaze Me Monday@Dwellings The Heart of Your Home

Back - again

I'm still here and full of plans !

So many things in life, some very good but which make me stay away of posting even if I am not away of blogland where I find inspiration to carry on.

Even if life is hectic  and sometimes I don't know where to turn my attention, I think now I am balanced enough to take more care of my home and myself and that will reflect in my blog.

So, I'm coming back to my blog ! - with baby steps.

The bliss of Saturdays

There's a thing on Saturdays that make me feel happy.

I work full time and even if it's a good, peaceful job, it doesn't compare to being at home. To be a stay at home woman is the dream of my life - well, one of them.

Most of my dreams have come true: to grow up and being a wife and mother, to have my own grown up home (being married) are some of my dreams and truly the most important ones.
But living here it means to work full time and I did.Not because what the others would say if I didn't, it's just a normal thing that grows with us and it's so normal as going to school.

But  don't want it anymore. I had enough. So I dream on having an earlier retirement. This moment it looks like to wanting the moon but I will not despair because one of these days ( years) it will  come a law that will allow me to retire before the extreme date of retirement. It must be !

Meanwhile I play the full time housewife on Saturdays and Sundays and on holidays. I even can have a free day each month providing I do those hours through the month. Ah, on those days I do play house.

Today is Saturday and I can't stop dreaming about all those chores I will do in the house.
I can already feel the smell of those clothes freshly ironed, the light of the morning sun through the kitchen window and the voice of my children waking up happy because it's not school day and they can stay at home - like their mother, they like to stay at home.

The blessing of having a house and being able of giving thanks for it.
Thanks God for everything He gives us.

All clean and tidy

I wish...(sigh)

All clean and tidy is the title of this picture and the dream I have for my home.

I work all day long, all week so I keep dreaming about Saturday, the wonder day when I will, at last, clean and tidy.
In the week days, as I arrive so tired of body and mind, I just do the bare things and look for inspiration for that wonderful day when I will be a stay at home wife and mom... And that day is Saturday.

So, to keep my spirit up, in the week I look for inspiration in those beautiful blogs written by amazing homemakers who can have their houses so clean and tidy, organized and beautiful.

I add blogs and blog to my ever growing list and when I am reading them I feel happy because I feel encouraged. I feel that even if I can't be as god as them, for sure I can be better than now.

I was thinking on add here a tiny list of my favourites on homemaking and organizing, but I can't. There are so many good ones.

If someone knows about a really good blog on organizing and/ or homemaking - one that is not in my list, that is - please tell me.

A site I follow, not a blog, is Flylady, I wonder if someone here knows her.
I found her years ago and things were going pretty well but I fell of the wagon twice and the second time it was a very big fall. First time it was when we moved, years ago. I recovered quite well after that and everything was getting better and better. Then...I had a depression and only now I'm having the strenght to go back to normality. It has been a slow wagon but each year has been better than the previous one. Last October I felt I really should try harder - and I am.
Some days are just a big fall, others go better.

I think now I'm ready to go (almost) in full steam.

On Rainy Days and Laundry

I wonder why, I like very much to do the laundry. I think it's  one of my favourites homemaking chores, or should I say, Missions.

I don't know about you, but I have a Laundry Plan, which makes all the work much easier.It's scheduled and I haven't to think about  it.

But  then, there it came a problem: the rain.

Now you are thinking why is the rain a problem.

First I must say that I like so much the rain and I can't stay longer without it but, on  the other side, being a homemaker makes me long for a whole week of sun.

And now you are thinking why this woman doesn't just put the washed clothes in the dryer? Or can it be that in her corner of the world there is no dryers? Yes, there are and, in fact, I have one and it works perfectly. Why the problem, then?

Oh, well, this woman who has a dryer likes to put her clothes in the line to dry. The little pleasure to see the cloths all in a row in the line and the pegs, the sun on them, the smell of washed clothes bathed by the sun...Pure poetry !

We are having unstoppable days of rain. Should I stay happy with it or should I go sad because I can't put my clothes on the line?

Well, better to find a compromise. I have a place to put small things to dry inside so I will wash just the little ones.

Oh, how life is easy after all, why we make a problem of it ?

Laundry, laundry, here I go.