Happy Home-making Today at Our House. Uncle Ben's and Mine

Dear home-loving friends,

Today was a sunny day with a deep blue sky. Just the kind of a day to spend

outside but I had other things in mind. I've been organizing in the house to make more room in our storate area, and also so that things are easy to find. I didn't spend much time outside except when I took last years' geranium plants outside to harden up so that I can replant them in the front garden beds. I'll fill

their big pots with fresh soil and new plants for this year. Oh yes, and rhubarb was picked again from our seventeen year old patch of the three plants under

the grapes. I've cooked it so that we can enjoy it with yogurt. Yummy!

There were a lot of little birds with white stripes on their heads eagerly searching for seeds from the dandilions in the front grass today so I brought out my

Birds of North America book and identified them as White Crowned Sparrows and then I searched the photographs and marked some other birds we have around.

In the past few days I've been storing winter clothes safe from insect damage and bringing forward spring and summer ones. That calls for washing, ironing, and

sometimes mending or re-vamping. I've also been bringing out stored household

summer items and substituting them for winter ones which go back into their bins

until next year. I've begun to store each season's decorations and household items in its own large, colour-coded, see-through plastic bins with tight lids.

These large bins are also stackable so that they won't topple over. That way they take up a minimum of storage space in my little storage room.

Autumn decorations are in a clear orange bin. Autumn things are warm golden or

orangey colours, like an autumn crow made of straw and dressed like a farmer with his fruits, to hang by the door, and a plastic basket that looks like a big carved orange Jack'o'lantern for the candy for kids who come to the door on Hallowe'en night. Last year Ben brought me a stuffed big orange pumpkin with a crazy

expression on its pretend carved face. That goes in the kitchen on the window-

sill. There is some colourful Indian Corn, some brilliant autumn leaf decorations for the table, a big decorative witch with a purple dress and a big black hat

. She has bright green skin and striped stockings. I named her Esmeralda and gave her an old, long, bright red necklace.

Winter decorations are fittingly stored in white bins. There are are a series of small wooden painted figures such as an elderly elf playing a guitar, a Russian nest of various sized dolls, some big sparkling snowflakes I hang outside the

window to sparkle in the sun when there's snow on the ground, a welcoming snow-man decoration for beside the front door; anything that I use in the house that has hot red colour that would feel too hot during the heat of the summer and isn'

t the kind of orangey red found in the autumn.

Spring stuff's in a bright green bin and summer's in three hot pink ones.

For the summer there is a bin for outdoor things like plastic tablecloths, colourful glasses and pretty plastic plates. Colourful handled tableware. Chair pads

for outdoor chairs.

A second summer bin will be for summer picnics. It has thermoses for cold drinks. Travelling cups and glasses with lids, wicker picnic basket; ice packs to keep things in our cooler, cold. Stuff like that, so if we decide on the spur of the moment to go somewhere we can fill containers with food and drink, (or stop to buy some on the way,) put it in the car, and be off! Camping

items like flashlights, camp lights, tent pegs, dish pan/dish towels/washing detergent, and so on will also be in third summer bin that can be ready for our old

VW camper van. We have a tent and other needed camping equipment.

The fourth summer bin is for cool coloured pictures, glassware, vases, ornaments

, some "Chinese" lanterns that are electrically wired to put up to shine at night, and such things.

I like to change pictures, vases, and other ornaments for each season to give the house a fresh look. It doesn't matter that they're the same things I use every year at that time. Enough time has always passed so that they are fresh and interesting again. Many of these things didn't cost very much. Some were bought

on end of season sales. Some I made myself. Into the proper bin they go, and

add to my many years of gathered stock. Uncle Ben and I will have been married

for fifty years come next year!

It's fun to make a happy haven of rest and peace. Ben likes it. I like it. Our kids and their families do when they can come, and we have a few friends over

now and again of course.

Do you keep good clothes safe waiting for them to come back into style? Well, Ido. It's very worthwhile. Right now I wish I'd held on to a pair of strappy cork soled platform sandal! If you love them and they're good quality its worthwhile to save them.

I hope you enjoyed this post, Sonnet! I hope lots of you enjoyed it and you

got some ideas that you can use.

Warmly, Mary