Simple Woman Monday, August 16th

 For Today

Looking out my window... The sun is rising on another beautiful day in the Iowa hills. And, hallelujah! It's beautifully cool so far this morning -- and not terribly humid. I was actually tempted to go out and weed the Mary garden while it's still bearable (because we know, don't we, that this oasis of morning coolness won't last?) --  but you'll be impressed to know I triumphed over the temptation to get my fingernails dirty and stayed in to blog instead. 😉

I am thinking... It's going to be a busy week, preparing for guests this weekend and packing up the boys flotsam and jetsam to send them back to school in Idaho on Saturday. I'm also getting up early tomorrow morning to take Gabriel to the oral surgeon to have his wisdom teeth pulled... I'm hoping we can squeeze some fun things in this week, too, before we lose Things #9 and#10 (Gabe and William).  At least we'll have to squeeze in one last trip to our local ice cream hangout. Gabe ought to be able to handle that after having his teeth pulled...

I am thankful... to get to see the threads of our family culture that find their way into the family cultures of our children's families, tying us together with invisible bonds of tradition and memory and expectations. And of all those legacies carried forward, my very favorite is seeing our grandchildren enjoying the celebration the feast days of family patrons. Melts my heart.

Over at Michelle's house last week (August 11th) celebrating the feast of
St. Philomena -- with Greek foods and good company. Love Ben and Shell's
gorgeous statue of St. Philomena 💓 and the beautiful shrine they prepared.
But I most especially love these three precious granddaughters (Claudia,
Ella, and Daria Philomena) -- and their brother Quinn -- and all their
cousins!).

One of my favorite things... The big walnut tree behind our house is always as eager as I am for the change of seasons. This morning I watched out the kitchen window at the big house as hundreds of little yellow leaves swirled down from the treetops onto the lawn. The remote signs of autumn for impatient Fall-watchers can be found in walnut trees! Next will be the sugar maple tree, then the cottonwoods...  

I am creating... a bit of a renovation of our RV. If you're familiar with the typical RV/Motorhome design, you know they have a tendency to look dated very quickly. Ours is circa 2009 -- and the swirly beige pattern on the couch and valances and wallpaper trim were, no doubt, all the thing at that time... But, well... 😬 Ugh. Sorry, 2009, it's gotta go. Besides the uncomfortable swirly-patterned couch (with a really terrible pull-out bed), the RV came furnished with a wrecked-up side chair and a small black 'tall table' with matching stools -- which were in pretty good shape, but they didn't function well for us. And the "waffle-weave" beige carpet, though it's pretty, uh, neutral... is worn, and we're not in position right now to replace it, so we've had to come up with other solutions -- economical solutions -- that require haunting outlet stores, thrift shops and antique malls. (Darn! 😜 Don't you know what a sacrifice that was!) 

What we found:  in place of the ugly old pull-out sofa, a black klick-klack couch (opens up for a comfy twin bed) on FB Marketplace ($100);  to replace the 'tall table,' a black, antique, solid wood table to use for a desk (MoValley Antique4s $37);  to go with the table/desk a rolly desk chair (thrift store $9.99) in place opf the one wrecked up chair, two mid-century, black and white slipper chairs in amazingly good condition (MoValley $75 for the pair); to go with the slipper chairs, a small, glass-top, lamp table (W-mart  $30); to make up for the lost storage drawer under the old ugly couch, a neat little cubby cabinet with rattan basket drawers (Hobby Lobby $109 -- a bit pricey, but worth it for the much-needed storage!); and three area rugs to cover the ugly beige carpeting (AtHome app $150 all together). The stools from the old 'tall table' work perfectly repurposed as side tables next to the klick-klack couch -- with black bins, tucked under for a little extra storage. ==happy sigh== Satisfying to find stuff we liked at decent prices, especially now that the supply chain problems are making new furniture so expensi! So, anyway -- that's the creative fun from last week.

This week I'm planning to paint the little school chair and the desk I use as a coffee table (and, incidentally, where I almost always work) -- and possibly I'll take out the rest of the swirly-pattern valances (I already removed the bottom halves of them) and make new valances (probably black) and find or sew thermal curtains (probably a light gray tweed) for all the windows -- but I'm not sure yet... or I'll wait until after the boys are back in school to do that and our company has departed -- and just concentrate on weeding this week... Time will tell.

See there? That's the old school desk in front of the couch.
I'll leave the wood top, which matches the nice woodwork
of the RV -- something we really like -- and won't paint over!
But the base of the desk and the little matching chair to the
left of the desk (with a folded blanket on it), we'll paint black.

How it looks now. Those valances are not destined to survive.
But isn't the cubby cabinet in the foreground pretty neat?

I am wearing... my favorite old grey middy skirt, grey flipflops, teal blue polo shirt, red glasses on the top of my head.

I am reading... Gosh... Nothing right now! Not really, anyway. I've been dipping a little bit into the Georgette Heyer short stories, which are fun fluff, but I've been a little busy to really sink my teeth into anything. I have just started work on the next literature project for the Sisters, though, making a study guide for the book Snow Treasure (by Marie McSwigan). 

I am hoping... The thermometer stays below 90 degrees this week! And that Dan and Dominic can figure out how to fix the leak in the RV bathroom -- and the broken dryer over at the house without too much trouble... And before company comes! 

One more picture thought for the day...

I had to share -- because the pieces of this came together so nicely, and I'm so pleased with it; it makes me smile every time I look at it. 😊 I had seen the little statue of Our Lady of Lourdes (a.k.a., Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, my Marian devotion under St. Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration) at an antiques store, but by-passed it, because it was rather small and I couldn't justify the expense, then later in my wanderings this past week, I ran across the beautiful, faux-antique, glass case at Hobby Lobby. I had earlier gotten a couple sprays of flowers for another project and already had some fairy lights in my crafts-stash. When I saw the glass case, all these things, as if drawn together by magnets, found each other in the cluttered craft closet of my brain. I could totally envision this finished project -- and so I laid my case before my dear husband -- who hasn't got the same visual imagination, but trusts mine -- and is very good at balancing the books (Deo gratias!) and he gave me the thumbs up! So now we have a unique little shrine in our RV home. My Dan. He's so good to me! But how could he refuse, right? I mean: it's the Blessed Mother! See, there's the mark of a truly good husband: a man who knows the value of being good to his wife and to the Blessed Mother in one fell swoop.