Today...I'm home-keeping and I'm happy and blissful.

It seems my life works around blocks of time.  For instance, last week, it was focused on getting my shop ready for the weekend sale I was having.  This week, it's blocked out for home-keeping and preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

There are many things that make me happy...and blissfully so.  Nothing compares to having the grand-kids here.  It's always lovely when all my kids are spending some time with us.  Traveling with my hubs is at the top of my blissfully happy list. There's plenty to make me happy and blissfully so, but, I must say, there is something about home-keeping for me that satisfies my soul; that touches me in a way that is comforting.peaceful.reassuring. 

As I sat down to write, Louis Armstrong is singing in the background.  And, the song is one of my favorites:  What a Wonderful World. How perfect.  How blissfully good for my soul.  I'm in my happy place.  

Whether I'm hanging new curtains, wiping down walls and base-board or just doing mundane laundry, at times, it's just pleasant and something I really love to do.  And, music in the background allows me to put a little hand pump, swish and sway and a bit of groove to my duties. If you knew me, on a personal level (and some readers do) you'd get a vivid picture, I'm sure.  

Not everyone feels this way.  The thought of being at home doing the mundane home-keeping chores drives them insane.  Me, too, at times.  About four times a year though, I really get into it.  

Maybe it's the changing of the season, maybe because company is coming.  Or, maybe it's just an inane need that I can't really put a "reason" too.  All I know is that I'm doing it and loving it.  

I've always loved being at home; never really tire of being here.  I've always known I wanted to be a home-maker.  I enjoy keeping my home relatively clean (minus the daunting and excessive dust and areas of creating).  I don't really mind cooking and baking. My interests have a home & family basis.  I like the ebb and flow of it all.  I need it, for my soul, about four times a year.

Today it's the upper level that's getting a good clean.  Bedding laundered, a new look to some of the rooms by changing out the top covers.  I love this warm and cozy time of year and want the bedrooms to convey this.  Vintage quilts, coverlets, and old wool blankets are coming out of the closet.  Flannel sheets have been on for quite some time.  In Iowa, we've only needed the furnace and warm blankets on this past week.  It's been unseasonably warm...hot, actually, for this time of year.  A picture perfect fall, as far as I'm concerned.

The lower level will get tackled tomorrow along with roasting the turkey and a fire going in the wood-burning fireplace.  I haven't gotten any fall decorations out at all, so, for this year, I'm forgoing them and going straight to the Christmas/winter holiday decor.  That'll come out after Thanksgiving though. I'm more of a seasonal decorator, rather than specific holidays. I find I'm too busy to change everything out so often.  Seasonal it is for me.  How do you decorate?

Today...I'm home-keeping and I'm happy and blissful.  I want to make my home warm and inviting for those I love most, because, as the sign says, "What is most important almost always involves the people around us".  Happy Thanksgiving from my home to yours.

So, just what can one man or woman do?

I decided to get up this morning and do something I've not done for awhile.  I didn't turn on the t.v., I didn't get on Facebook or email, other than to check for important or timely messages.  No, I made coffee, gathered some reading material and came to my porch.

It's such and amazingly beautiful day. A perfect early summer morning.  To sit in silence and really listen is remarkable.  The variety of bird song, cars in the distance humming along, and the rustle of leaves from the nearby birch tree make me happy.  Three little sheep are enjoying a patch of clover...outside of their designated confines, but they aren't hurting a thing.

I picked up my non-ceasing pile of home decor magazines.  Seems I don't ever take the time to enjoy looking through them much anymore, either.  As I was grabbing and heading out the door, I picked up the book, Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul.  I bought it at a garage sale some time ago; read a couple stories and there it has sat.  Good intentions.

Today is different.  I read a story from the book first.  Barnaby Conrad was telling the story of how he came to know the now famous, Alex Haley.  You know him, or should if you don't.  Alex wrote the award winning book, Roots, which subsequently became a movie.

At one time, Alex told Barnaby the story of his dad, Simon Haley, who had dreams of going to college.  He was a hard worker and was burning the candle at both ends, trying to work and go to school, concerned he'd have to give up his dream.  He took a job as a Pullman porter and it was there that he met, R.S.M. Boyce.  Mr. Boyce had retired as an executive of the Curtis Publishing Company.

Mr. Boyce took an interest in the young Mr. Haley and they spent some time chatting.  He found out about Simon's life, his dreams and ambitions.  It wasn't too long after the chance encounter that Simon received a check in the mail from Mr. Boyce in the amount of $500.00.  It was enough for a full year's tuition and living expenses for a year.  That amount enabled Simon to graduate, first in his class.  He then won a scholarship to Cornell University for a master's degree.

A chance meeting, where being a polite and alive young man, collided with an inquisitive, discerning and generous man, changed, most likely, both of their lives.  One in an overwhelming way and the other, in a quietly proud way.

What can one man or woman do?  This story speaks volumes to me.  The ripple effect of this good deed goes on for years, centuries, millenia.  Changing Mr. Haley's life's course of continuing in the sharecroppers livelihood and poverty was halted because of one man.  Mr. Haley went on to have four children.  Alex, a famous writer and play write; George, chairman of the U.S. Postal Rate Commission, Julius an architect and one girl, Lois, a music teacher.  This all happened in 1918.

So, just what can one man or woman do?  Don't you find this inspiring?  One man, meeting another man changed the course of life for all those who's lives have been changed by this one act for generations.