Speed it up just a little, though.

My postings usually contain happy musings, random, rambling, recreational thoughts.  Oh, occasionally I have dabbled in opinion, but, rarely advice.  I’ve talked about personal experiences and how they made me feel, or maybe my reaction to an event, the importance of home and family.

 

I’m struggling here, folks.  I have strong thoughts as I know many of you do, too. Please know I am struggling with pain, hurt, disappointment, confusion, even fear.  However, my blog is about the less controversial, less negative, less confrontational and way, way less political.  I do not want anyone to believe I have buried my head in the sand for I most certainly have not, my focus here is on home, lakes, families, humor.  Come to rest here, to laugh here.  Look out my window with me. Some are staying off facebook these days…I get that.  You don’t have to go to facebook to find me..save my link, cindiswindow.blogspot.com/ and become a follower of the page, check back often (I typically post once a week), relax here with me.  I play nice.

Our son is home for a few days as we prepare for a family wedding, our nephew, his childhood best friend.  I always enjoy having him around.   The girls will be coming in over the weekend and while it’s hectic, and the house will be full and there will be a line for the bathrooms, I am excited for everyone to be here for a couple days.  My daughter-in-law flies in for a quick stop but for a brief time, they will all be here. Our soon to be nine-year-old granddaughter has a part in the Nutcracker performance in Indianapolis this year.  Oh, she is excited to be a toy soldier! She and her daddy will be late arrivals to the wedding as she has rehearsal on Saturday afternoon, followed by a two-and-a-half-hour drive. I remind myself to stay in the moment, that it doesn’t happen nearly often enough, to enjoy every second.

 

So this week I am concentrating on getting a few small things around the house in order.  There are some missing switch or outlet covers, for example.  Some touch up paint, a light fixture to hang.  I don’t guess I will be seeing my cabinet hardware installed or the stone put on the fireplace quite yet.   Yes, that’s right.  The fireplace is not yet done.  I can have a fire and by golly, I am decorating for Halloween this year…cement board and all.

Except for two boards, both front and kitchen porches are done.  I have pots of mums and decorations on the doors, have swept down spiders and cobwebs, and sawdust.  The lights are hung and the result of the soft glow is exactly what I hoped.  I washed windows yesterday, and moved a couple of plants.  My son and I moved ladders and scaffolding, and carried an old piece of furniture up for the garbage (or anyone else) men to take. Slowly but surely, things are finishing up.  

Sometimes I forget what the house looked like before we started and well, that’s okay!  There is still so much to do, small things, and a few bigger things, but, we are nearing the end and who said it was a race. 

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The annual slow down.

This is one of those rare, quiet weeks, following Labor Day, still warm but beginning to feel that chill in the evening breeze.  Not a lot going on around the homestead and the lake calm, settled.  Our boats are not yet out so we have taken a few lazy, slow cruises in the early evening.  We’ve built fires and sat around watching the sky darken, said our good nights to the day over a glass of wine, a hunk of cheese.  It’s rained a bit and the flowers are tossing their goodbyes, petal by petal, into the wind.

 

Up early on Saturday, hubs and I went down to the courthouse area and strolled through vendor booths, at an annual festival.  I then asked if we could go to the greenhouse and pick up a large mum, and maybe a couple smaller ones, for some pots around the house that I haven't yet filled.  Now, this was an amazing feat…an arts and crafts festival AND a trip to the greenhouse? To buy stuff? Rare in this house for him to go along, but go along he did as I walked up and down the aisles at the greenhouse trying to make a size and color choice.  It’s only one dang pot of mums for crying out loud, just pick one.  I could hear it as clearly as if it were spoken out loud.  Only it wasn’t from him, it was me.

 

I don’t want that orangey bronze…too close in color to the millions of leaves we will soon have fluttering into the yard.  I don’t want yellow, again, too close in color, but, we also have so many yellow daffodils in the spring I want something different, and the pots are yellow, so no.   No to white for no particular reason, just no.  Lavender pink? No, not vivid enough. Red? Sure, red! Of course, red.  My favorite color, duh.  Now, which one? Perhaps a hundred pots of red mums to pick from.  Not enough buds, too many buds.  I can’t tell, how do I know for sure this one is red? Is it round? Does that look a little caved in to you?

We settled on a nice fully rounded, deep crimson, with about half and half blooms and buds, and two smaller pots to combine into one planter ... one of them yellow. Cause yellow mums, hello.  We talked about future boxes for the deck, once the railing is complete, so not this year but next year, look out.  Loaded the mums in the back of his car, talked of the work he has planned for the rest of the day but, hey, let’s take a ride first.  I don't know if I have ever been down this road.

We’ve got nowhere to be and no one coming in for the weekend, yes, let's take a ride.

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Mums the word.

Last week I wrote of the summer season coming to a close, the lake houses are beginning to shut down, the boats coming out of the water and headed back to a driveway, garage or pole barn.  It’s sad to see the bright colors of summer leave the lake, for sure, but I am an autumn girl, an October birthday.  I love the colors that are just around the corner for us. The way the sun hits the yard…I’m looking forward to a beautiful fall.

Mums.  That’s my big project this month. I think it’s a bit early but I am watching for mums.  Last year, I was drawn to mums at my favorite place to shop in Indianapolis, Sullivan Hardware, and thought “Oh, those are so fancy, so expensive.  I am going to pass.” And, I did, maybe even against my better judgement,  and regretted it the rest of the fall.  I’ll be going to Indianapolis next week and will stop in at Sullivan’s to check out the mums.  Truth is, the mums were only one or two dollars more than others I saw closer to home, but, those mums were different.  More vibrant, more lush.  I may be imagining their specialness,  but, I want mums from Sullivan’s this year.

Some progress made this past week on the exterior of the house…only a few pieces of siding left to hang once an outdoor faucet is moved. There's still a long list but,except for two boards, the porch overhang is complete, the lights are hung, the skirting is almost done and I have shrubs to plant.  It is the most complete this side of the house has been since we moved in and there was no door, and certainly not a porch, on the roadside, just a lot of overgrown shrubs.  I am way excited, and yes, already have fall and Halloween decorations for this new porch – just no mums.  Yet. 

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