As it turned out, there was no Youth Group for my age group tonight - the older ones (18, 19 year olds) were at a friend's wedding out of town and got delayed coming back, and the two younger ones (brothers) both had migraines (they are 15 and 17, I think - which is about the age where my brother and I started having migraines, so I think that's not an uncommon age for them. I'm actually surprised I didn't get one as the weather here is supposed to undergo a large change overnight).

So anyway, I took advantage of the extra hour or so after dinner and the praise band played I went home and finished cleaning house. I scrubbed the bathroom and also the kitchen floor and vacuumed/swept floors. (Really, cleaning-cleaning goes a LOT faster - and is a lot easier, because you can go on autopilot - than decluttering-cleaning). I hope I didn't "rev" myself up to the point where it's hard to sleep (it's happened in the past), but I think taking a shower with lavender soap and playing the piano for a while before bed should help.

Even though this weekend was mostly devoted to life-maintenance tasks of the sort I normally gripe about, I actually feel pretty happy. It's a load off my mind to have the window-replacement process beginning, and also a huge relief to have the place cleaned up - I think my bleating about the house looking like a pigsty is partly mainly my own perfectionism; I would like my house to look like the ones in magazines, though of course I know the magazine sets involve the family that lives there moving out for a week while the "stagers" come in and remove everything that doesn't fit their "vision." And you can't actually live in a house like that.

(I also wonder if there's a difference in attitude between different people - the idea of "house as showplace" vs. "house as cave" - as in, the showplace is there largely to bring other people in, maybe to impress them, whereas the "cave" - which is what I lean to - is the place you go to escape the outside world. The place where you have your books and stuff and you can close the door on everything else "out there." And that you only rarely invite other people in to your cave, because a cave is a very private and personal thing...)

I still would like a self-cleaning kitchen though. Or at least one with a sealed floor that slopes to a drain, and a spigot close to floor level, so I could just close off the drain, turn the water on, add some soap, let it soak, open the drain, and then run fresh water through, instead of the laborious scrubbing. (And yes, despite all the Swiffer "Wet Jet" commercials, I think you DO have to really scrub at least once in a while to get the floor clean).

Despite doing all the life-maintenance stuff this weekend, I did finish the current "simple socks":

Well, it looks like Flickr needs a "massage." Darn it. No photo tonight, will see if I can upload one tomorrow.

Oh, wait, I still can, via Blogger:



I really like them. I'm always glad when I make the effort to make socks "match" - this involves starting at a recognizable place and then, if necessary, winding off yarn before starting the second sock so you get to that same "place."

As I said, they make me think a bit of roller derby - both the broad stripes and the acid green/grey color combination. (As I also said: Maybe I will feel tougher on the days when I wear them).

I like the "just simple" socks; there is something satisfying about them and they are easy to wear. I still like making the more complex lace or cabled socks, but there's also pleasure in just making something simple.