How not to clean house until 2014

 With all that has been going on back at home, my sister and I text most nights, and she sends pictures of Dad and I send pictures of whatever is in front of me at the moment.  Sometimes, my brother gets in on the conversation, depending on where he is and if he is stopped for the night or still driving.  It's a fun way to recap our days and keep that sense of family going that we all need right now.  Bro and I are dog lovers, so a photo of one of the dogs is generally included.

 On the evening I had my first chimenea fire of the season, we were comparing our evening meals and I said I won hands down.  I had intended to grill the steaks outside, but what with Mississippi being so far east and the season change, it got dark too quickly. 

 

I enjoined them not to tell Bobby Flay that I was grilling indoors.  My nieces were at Mom and Dad's and making his favorite--sugar cookies from my mom's recipe.  There are no sugar cookies in the entire world that can beat her recipe.  One year when they first married as he was leaving for the fields, he asked her to make sugar cookies..."a whole dishpan full of them."  When he got home that night, she had a dishpan full of sugar cookies sitting on the table.

 I discovered a beautiful gem from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration this past week, and have noted it as "a festival of fall colours."  I follow an Irish blog, and the writer is featuring that this month as we head into winter and darker days and shorter days.  I loved how the light plays across the texture of the stone on this building, and the way the shadows cause the flora to pop in surprising ways.

 It's hard to say right now whether my house is worse inside or outside.  The yard needs mowing, the leaves need raking, the windows need washing.  Inside, the floor needs raking, the shower needs mowing, and the windows need washing.  I have enough dust on the top of the bookcase to plant potatoes.  I told my sister I thought I would be able to make it to 2014 without having to clean house, though.

 I leave early in the a.m. for another trip to Texas--sort of a last minute, unplanned, in order to give her some time off to go see her grandson's solo concert.  What with being gone for 5 days, I couldn't see much reason to clean house, since it would look about the same by the time I returned.  Then it will be Thanksgiving and I will be gone for 9 days, so no reason to do it.  Then in another week, it will be semester break and I will be in Texas for anywhere from 3-6 weeks, so I am fairly certain I can avoid cleaning house until mid-January.  At that point, I hopefully will have at least 2 months here before returning for spring break, so I might be willing to clean house in exchange for a pleasant place to stay a few weeks...but I am not ruling out the possibility that I can put it off until summer.

The story of the teapot from Amsterdam will have to wait for another time.  I need to go to work.  As Rand said on his way out the door this morning, "Another day, another beating."  Our usual good humor and cheerfulness has taken a beating these last few weeks...or maybe that was the good humor, because it made me smile and think about no matter how tough it gets, we are still here, making it work.