The weekend

I only have one week to get this place in order. OMG! I feel I wasted last week, but really it was very warm and humid, and difficult to get anything done. I do have some accomplishments under my belt, but not specifically housework related.

The greatest accomplishment was getting some of my dishes prepared for the freezer. My food is more difficult to prepare because it is mostly vegetable based. I need to shred, chop or grate and then saute slowly so that the vegetables are not browned. It is time consuming and is not second nature. I cannot just have a slice of bread when I'm hungry. Everything has to be thought out and planned. I will have enough other meals to prepare once company arrives, both vegetarian and the usual fare for children who only like to eat certain things. I can deal with that. So not having to worry about what I am going to eat, will be a life saver.

My son removed two van loads of his cactus from this house to his apartment yesterday. That allows me two rooms I can now clean up and prepare for company. One of those rooms is a bedroom, so now I can fix up some sleeping quarters.

 I got three pairs of draperies hung yesterday morning.....I changed out the drapes in my living room to white ones that my SIL gave me in the spring. They are heavy good-quality drapes. I know you shouldn't be able to see the top of the window frame, but the window goes up as far as the ceiling. The drapery brackets are as high as they can go. I could buy draperies that don't have tabs, but these work just fine for me. I still love them.

 My friend (whose birthday falls on Canada Day) gave me two sets of off-white cotton draperies, which I put on the windows of the bedrooms at the front of the house. I like that the street side of the house will all have matching white drapes. One of those windows isn't actually a bedroom. It is the top of the stairs that you find in an older house, from which all other doors lead off from. But my husband and I put a bed in one of the cubbies, which we refer to as the loft bed. I hung curtains in front like sleeping in a train berth. . It has its own light fixture and a shelf for holding items like a bedside table would. The grandchildren have always loved to sleep here.

Top of the stairs room. Sorry it is so dark in the photo. That is because I am looking right into the light. This room is very light and bright. We have made this into a little sitting and reading nook. Behind the wicker loveseat is the back wall of the new closet we built for the room next to it. It made sense at the time to borrow space from this essentially "wasted space" at the top of the stairs. I didn't want to close in my staircase to make a separate room (although someone else might have no qualms about doing that), but I wanted to keep this area as a separate seating area. When we built the closet to jut out into this area, we created another recessed area beside it. It made sense to make this into our "loft bed" with storage areas above and below the bed.

The loft bed made private by pulling the curtains closed. It has its own light fixture.

I may show you my other bedrooms once I have cleaned them up and made up beds. So I still have my long To-Do list with very few items scratched off the list because as I have already offered as an excuse, it has been very muggy here this week. I still have two bathrooms to clean up well and all the floors I vacuumed a week ago do not look like they have been touched in a month. My BIL and SIL (Rick's brother from Florida) were here twice this week, and are planning a work party to clean out the shed either Wednesday or Thursday of this week. They are going back to Tampa this coming weekend, so will miss my son's visit. That day obviously I will be spending outdoors, so I will miss one day's opportunity to work inside on my To-Do list. But it is all good, because this is a big job I have been putting off. He will tell me what I may be able to sell and how much the items are worth. I don't have a clue. He will also transport the garbage items to the Transfer Station in the trailer for me, and take the riding lawn mower and roto tiller down to the mechanic for servicing. These are all jobs that need to be done but I haven't had any help in accomplishing. So I am very grateful for that.

Cards made with scraps from a scrap booking project. One of my goals for 2017 was to use up more scraps in my cards.

I made eleven birthday cards and one Thinking of You card for our family friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. That card has already been mailed out , so no photo.

After my grocery shopping on Tuesday morning, I spent two days cooking up my freezer meals. On Thursday (the hottest day) I couldn't stand the thought of spending more time in the kitchen in the heat, so I spent the whole day working under the ceiling fan of my dining room, making cards. Maybe not the best use of my time, but certainly not a waste of time. I made a dozen masculine cards for birthdays coming up soon in the late summer and Fall. I stayed relatively cool and got work done..... sort of like Nathalie doing chores on  her To-Do list from the comfort of her couch. *laugh*  Tomorrow is supposed to be cool, so I will attempt a marathon cleaning and hopefully get most of everything done. Hope your weekend was grand.