Yesterday we had warm, very warm weather. Occasional bands of clouds skirted across the sky, but no rain on our little space here in London. Today we are being soaked. When summer rolls around, most of my usual routines gets skewed. I still manage to pull the covers up, and smooth our parent bed back into place. Clothes get sorted into hampers, and the dishwasher gets unloaded in the morning.
Now that we are a family with only 2 children at home, I feel a bit out of touch for those with many small tykes. But, the basics still get done the same way. I still pay attention to completing a job to the end. This applies to getting laundry from the hamper to the washer, dryer, folded and put away. Life if simply easier when I take the time to put the already read newspaper right into the recycle bin, or wherever it needs to go, even if it is destined for the compost pile or for mulching.
Our electric company now uses what they term "Smart Meters" and unfortunately it isn't compatible with the way I prefer to keep house. I've discovered the delay wash cycle on the dishwasher, to begin after 10 pm. I now do all laundry except dish cloths and towels on Saturday. We try to stay cool enough at 79F on the thermostat (69F in the winter time). Vacuuming, along with other cleaning chores that require electricity I push to the cheapest rates. Here they don't kick in until after 10 pm, and end at 7 am during the week. Since they are all weekend long, Saturday is now our big cleaning day.
In short, my little ways have altered, not only because of moves into various sized houses, in three different countries, a diminishing family size and varying weather, but also to save money on energy expenditures. Tweaking has always been part of what Marion and I have proposed with our ideas, so if your routines begin to not feel so routine, and your house is beginning to not look as homey (do not think cluttered looks homey) as you'd like, tweak until you get back to where you want it to be. I suggest doing it a little way at a time.
Have a joyful July!
Your Sister in the Trinity,
Yvonne
