Three Days of the Housewife

I had three days this week of my "old life" in which I was home for those quiet hours in the mornings -- and I loved every minute. 

I was just thinking last week about what my Occupation is these days.  Normally, I write "Homemaker" on any form that asks to know an official occupation.....but, these days I'm not so much of a homemaker.  Or, at least, I'm not my version of a Homemaker.  :-)  The version I'd come to be over 16 years of being at home with children. 

I'm more of a "family member" these days -- everyone has to pitch in to compensate for my being out of the house. 

Alistair doing dishes & Lars eating food he made himself

Not that this is bad....it's just uncomfortable territory for ME. 

That means I strategically planned to enjoy three days of  über homemaking, as if to give myself an emotional stockpile &  reminder of what I could do with quiet hours.......

I watched the first light, frosty snow come in, and I melted down the frozen outdoor water supply....

....and then made Chocolate Soup for the frosty children coming home from school.

I pulled out the wool and needles and sat in a patch of winter sun to knit.

Then I thought about what I might cast on next, (of COURSE without being finished with the first project - ha ha!)

Plus, I  read from Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity again.  :-) Mmmmmm....

I drank tea, from a nice cup and used a cozy...the cozy always implies there's time for a second cup :-)

I sewed the stacks of fabric off my table....

....and then filled the table up again :-)  This is the beginning of a large "Gumdrop Pillow" floor cushion from Amy Butler's pattern.  The fabric is a rough linen mattress cover [the kind that was filled with hay] from the flea market in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue last spring. 

A normal three-day sampler of my homelife at ANY other given time in my history would never have been so happily productive, (notice the absence of  stories about cleaning the shower....) but I like to imagine it that way.