Celebrating Clean Rooms and Lighting Candles......

I was on a roll writing my journal entries every night in a row for several days but then I would come to the end of a day and start to climb into bed and think - I forgot to journal!

Truth was for those couple of days, I didn't even take photos like I normally do.

I do like to document my days.

I suppose it't normal to fall into a bit of a slump in these trying days of quarantine and Covid-19 news on TV and hearing so much of what is going on.....of which we have limited control.....

but we DO have some! 

After a couple of quiet days where I continued to clean house like that would solve all the problems of the world......I came to grips with the fact that God is still in control. We just have to do the next right thing and keep on keeping on.....

I am making sure we are not wasting any food and that we are eating healthy!

Both of us love salads and I made a big one which has lasted us all week.

Thursday morning I noticed this post it note on my mirror  when I woke up.

Trystan had put it there last Wednesday when the kids were all here to spend the night.

I love seeing reminders that they were here even after they are gone.

They like to leave things behind to surprise me......

Yesterday I discovered a way to help.......

Making face masks.....both for health care workers as well as for my family.

There are several groups on Facebook with instructions and directions on who and where to send them. I haven't started making them yet - that's because the sewing room is one of the three rooms I haven't cleaned yet - but I will!

It's always good to find a way to help.

This morning - or really early afternoon - I am slow to get going - I celebrated the clean rooms by lighting candles. Now I did not clean all these rooms today! It's taken a week and more to get this much done. And then every morning I have to clean the 'clean' rooms to keep them that way.

So the more rooms I clean - the longer it takes to add another one to the list.

The dining room.....

Louis Dean's bathroom.....

The hall......it counts as a room because I cleaned the closet and baseboards and anything that could be wiped down with Pine Sol.

Our bedroom.....

My bathroom.....with the mirror I get two candles out of one.

The living room.....

I lit two in there!

That's to make up for the guest room where Louis Dean was taking a nap so I didn't light that one.

That comfy chair is my favorite spot to sit and just be.

If I can't sleep in the middle of the night, this is where I go.

If I get up early, this is where I sit while I wait for the coffee to get ready.

When I get tired in the afternoon, this is where I sit with a glass of tea.

I still have not been out to the storage building to get down the spring and summer decorations.

However, I managed to collect enough things from inside the house to 'spring' up the foyer.

My main accomplishment today was the foyer closet.

There is now room in there to store my Rainbow vacuum cleaner away.

Haven't been able to do that since the 1990's!

I found all of Benjamin's Tae Kwon Do things ....photos, certificates, his first uniform...

he started martial arts when he was 4 years old and went on to become a black belt in his early teens.

And I have a ton of albums of our homeschooling days.

 I started homeschooling in 1989 shortly after I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

It was an aggressive type - actually three strains of different aggressive cancers - and yet within 13 days it was all over. Thyroid removed and a happy ending.

Thankfully my thyroid medication dosage - which I have taken every day since August of 1989 - has not changed much over the years. I am so grateful.

Back to the albums.....I have proof of all that we did in home school from 1989 to 2004 when Benjamin started college. I am so proud of their education.

They don't say much about being homeschooled but it was my greatest accomplishment.

I only have a 7th grade education myself and the fact that Amber started college at 15 years old and graduated at 20 with a four year degree from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas with a major in journalism and a minor in criminal justice makes me so proud. Of Amber and of myself.

And I have to brag about Amber a little bit more. I was going through a divorce and had next to no money at all. The best I could do was buy her a laptop - on credit at Best Buy - and co sign her student loans. Amber wasted no time in college. She knew exactly what she needed to do to graduate in the two years she was there and she did it! Plus she paid off her student loans within a few short years after graduation. Yes, I am very proud of her.....as I am of all my children!

I'll have to give equal time to my other three in the next few posts......they are all such wonderful people.

Louis Dean hung our American flag up this afternoon - another thing I found in the foyer closet!

I went out today.

Louis Dean had 5 prescriptions ready at Walgreen's.

It was a pretty safe outing with express pay and no touching.

Tonight I finished my painting of Ella.

She will dry and then glazed and then dry again before being sent to her home in San Antonio.

I will close tonight's journal entry with the steak dinner I made......

Louis Dean bought steaks at greatly reduced prices from Krogers a month or so ago.

We froze them and are cooking them one at a time....dividing it 'unevenly'between us.

He gets the larger share as I am not as big a meat eater as he is.

However, I was the one with a glass of wine!

Don't worry. He had one, too, only his was from a box while I had a nice bottle.

Let's bring out the best in ourselves and each other!