So, my favorite season of the year is here. Labor Day may be the unofficial end to summer for most folks; for me, it’s the kick-off to fall. And straight up, I am so, so ready for it!
Mostly, I’m ready for life to slow down a bit. Summer, as always, blows our doors off. Every day is filled with both opportunity and obligation. The double-O’s. The opportunity is that it’s beautiful outside and lots of stuff to be done. Plus, there’s a little pressure in that “opportunity” as it’s such a short season that it feels like so much needs to be experienced in such a short period of time. It’s also obligation filled. Particularly with how we live, there’s always work to be done during summer.
In fall, it generally gets a little bit easier. We typically aren’t starting new projects, but winding projects down. Work also seems to settle into a little bit better of a rhythm and the whole world just seems to take a big collective sigh and everyone starts to calm down.
So, it’s Fall, y’all. My bestest, favoritest, most awesomest time of the year. This weekend, we managed to process about 25 pounds of tomatoes using the handy-dandy new attachment to my KitchenAid mixer. What would have taken hours and hours got accomplished in less than three. I’ve got 32 cups of tomatoes frozen for future marinara or for additions in items such as chili and a huge pot of 15 lbs. of San Marzano tomatoes on the stove cooking down into tomato paste. We’ve been working to introduce Twister and Meadow over the last few hours and while not going exactly as we had intended, it’s still going well. Candidly, Twister is a little afraid to leave his safe “home base” (re: my office) to explore the rest of the house. So now he and I are hanging out in his room with the door open while his big sister Meadow naps outside in the sunshine. He’s currently napping away, just like his sister.
The other thing I’m focusing on this weekend is slowing my life down. It’s gotten too stressful and chaotic again and I realize that the more I crave simple peace the less tolerant I am when I don’t get it. So, these days, I am all about attempting to simplify. Currently, I’ve got three stressors: the laundry/bath renovation, introducing two kitties and being overwhelmed with work. Since, work is how I finance my life outside of work, that stress needs to stay. The other two? It’s time they went away. Over the next two weeks, I hope they each wind down in turn. We need to get Meadow and Twister (or M&T, as we call them) to at least be roommates, if not friends. And we need to finish the laundry/bath project. Most of that is out of my hands but Darryl has made good progress on it. We should be able to paint soon and when we do, we turn the corner. So, here’s hoping I can paint by next weekend.
Outside of that, the Mayeaux’s are hanging up their toolbelts and their kitty adoption services for a year. Once we finish this renovation and get M&T to a comfortable place, we are cleaning up and kicking back. Yep, we still need to install new flooring throughout the house. Yep, to do that, we need to have a contractor come in and rip out our staircases and put in new and to tear down two load-bearing walls so I get my open concept house. Yep, I still need a three-stall garage built and a new driveway put in. And yep, all of that means construction and renovation again. But for a full year, we’re not doing it. Once I clean up this house this time, it’s going to stay that way until at least next summer. We genuinely need a break. We’ve been doing this non-stop for seven years. It’s time to hang up our hammers for a little while.
This is one of those rare times that I realize that simple peace – as much as it’s designed to come from within – is sometimes environmental. I’d love to go to my Zen place. But right now? My Zen place is Twister’s home base and he takes priority. And I’d love to be at peace but it’s hard to be at peace when there are tent poles and plastic up in the laundry room and cabinets sitting in your foyer. We’ll get there – I know that much about us – but it doesn’t do much for my simple peace until we get there.
Still, it’s fall. I’ve picked up a couple of little things for my fall decorating but I’m holding off until I can clean the house once and for all and then put them out. There’s the wooden carved pumpkin, the burnt orange-and-white gingham table runner and the oversized acorns. The new chunky gold throw for the couch and the brown pillows. The pumpkin spice candle, the harvest dish towels and the pumpkin growing in the garden. They’re just waiting to get pressed into service and they will. I just need to be patient – never my strong suit – and help M&T and Darryl bring our last two projects to a close.
And at that, the small, white fuzzy thing by my left hip just gave a long sigh in his sleep. Evidently, he will not be leaving home base to go explore his new surroundings. That’s the down side. The good side? He’s obviously starting to forgive me.
The Yuppie Homesteader 