300 Words: Thoughts of a pretired French Teacher

It is approaching two o’clock and I am sitting down, quiet for the first time in the day, listening to the dishwasher and the Grandfather clock.

We picked up the youngest two grandkids at 8:30 AM and brought them home. I had a doctor’s appointment at 10:00 so I went there, stopped for a few necessities at the grocery store, and came home.

By the time I came home, the two older grandkids had just arrived.

All the kids were home from school. Our youngest, who would have had pre-school, stayed with all of us, as it would have been hard for him to accept the others all being together without him.

We have done many a thing this morning. First, we were all outside, with the oldest grandchild organizing the games. Then inside, to do some projects Grandma had come up with from a visit to Joann Fabrics. That lasted a long time.

Lunch came and the infamous ‘soupy woopy’ from Uncle Mikey. Great chicken stock with some Italian noodles. We are out of the Hungarian favorites and need to get there for some more. While everyone was doing crafts, I was working on making the crêpes, having made the batter yesterday. It took a while and although I though I had made way too many, we ended up with one left (there is still a small amount of batter in the refrigerator). Luckily, MK and I managed to each have one (lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar).

I just finished cleaning up the kitchen and although the dishwasher was empty, we somehow managed to fill it, which is why the dishwasher is being used.

Just another day in the Koerner household.

The hibiscus is blooming…

I seized the day.

It was cold and sunny. Unseasonably cold, the heat had gone on right before dawn. The wind was unbelievably strong.

I went outside and began to straighten up the garage and then I started pulling things in: the outdoor bar where we store our dishes and silverware, the chairs, the cushions, the watering cans I store outside, bringing them all in for the winter.

Before pulling everything in, I rearranged the children’s vehicles and cleaned while doing so. I brought in the small table and chairs, cleaned them up and covered them. I vacuumed all the nooks and crannies of the rattan chairs and set them up in the garage so that although they were there that there would be room for movement and to allow me to find things.

Sometimes, you just have to do that.

I am glad, I hate waiting until it is so cold that it is an extremely unpleasant experience. It is also hard because we so enjoy the time we spend outside. Normally we have from late May until early October, a good amount of time.

As I write this, I can see the hibiscus that seemed to take forever to recover from my having allowed it to be outside all too early. It has buds all over and has one bloom today and shows evidence of several from the day before. The passion flower bloomed yesterday when I brought it in and has at least one other bud that should hopefully bloom.

The grapefruit tree, from a seed I found in a grapefruit our son’s family brought for us two years ago, shows massive growth from its time outside. I enjoy seeing it since the plant itself is pretty and I can always hope that someday I shall get a bloom that will bring a fragrance that I find totally intoxicating.

Again, I am happy that I finished this, especially since on Thursday I shall be flying to Florida for a weekend of hiking. I can put my mind at rest as my major pre-winter tasks are done!