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.

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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.

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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 !

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And now I'm going to this Party:

Amaze Me Monday@Dwellings The Heart of Your Home