A day in the life of...

I was thinking today about how sometimes I have an insatiable curiosity about how different women spend their day. I mean like burning curiosity about the little details, like meal preparation or the best cleaner to use for floors or something. One of the things I miss most about my friend Leia who passed away almost two years ago, is that we would speak on the phone regularly for about an hour at a time and sometimes we would discuss meals we'd made recently or even the recent acquisition of a steam cleaner. One of the last conversations I had with her was about the Christmas dinner she had managed to make for her family even though she was at that time very ill. She told me step by step what she'd done, (and how putting bay leaves in 'pigs in blankets' had been a disaster!)  I so enjoyed that conversation...

I was chatting to a friend on the phone today who I hadn't spoken to in a while and everything in me wanted to ask her what soups she'd made recently and I desperately wanted her to talk me through her day, but I feared that the urgency with which I would inevitably ask would cause her to think I was a bit strange, so I made small talk instead.

So where does this curiosity/hunger in me come from? I think it is borne of a desire to be in community. It is a childlike curiosity about the mundane things, the way we were as children when we would watch our mothers apply makeup or cook a meal. My daughters do the same now. We as women learn from each other and I think we are affirmed and reassured by watching and learning from each other.

So here is what I did today in all its glorious mundanity:

Woke up and got kids ready for school.
After the school run, (which hubby did because I am still recovering from the flu), I tidied the flat which took ages, and I put away the last remnants of the Christmassy stuff. I was too ill to do that last week.
I rearranged the lounge by asking hubby to move the sofa and we created a workspace by the window using a large folding table.  Although this now means that now we can hardly come in through the door to the lounge, you almost have to come in sideways (the joys of city centre box living), and we had to move the piano keyboard into our bedroom, I am so glad to have this lovely new workspace. It means that I can have continuity with a project and not have to clear everything up so we can have dinner. I used to previously do art at the kitchen table, which was really frustrating. I am currently working on illustrating a story that I wrote for the son of a friend of mine. It was really lovely to get back to doing art today, especially as I was feeling low this morning due to the disappointment of having to cancel my involvement in a new schools music project starting today. (I have had a relapse of a chronic kidney condition as a result of the flu, so I need to put my health first, though I really could have done with the money! So for the moment, it's back to taking one day at a time, which is no bad thing at all.)

 (Apologies for the dark photos, the weather was really gloomy and there wasn't much light.)
 

I've been persuaded by the girls not to get rid of our Christmas branches this year. They want to keep them up throughout the year and decorate them with each changing season. In the spring we will make blossom from tissue paper to decorate the branches with.  In the meantime the branches are home to our new clock and my pink flower lights.

 

 

My daughter came home from school and was thrilled with this new workspace, because it means she can do art too!

I made a coffee and walnut cake to celebrate both girls' return to school. They were off all last week with the flu too. This is their favourite cake. The rather large wodge of cake was eaten by my daughter when she got in from school.

For dinner, we had Carrot and Coriander soup which I made yesterday, along with this bread brick, courtesy of my bread maker.  It tastes really good though, I used Spelt flour with a little bit of strong white bread flour.

Today I've been drinking Cinnamon and honey tea, with grated ginger and squeezed lemon. I figure that a bug this nasty needs all known remedies thrown at it.

At bedtime, I have started reading stories to the girls again. Even though they are 11 and 9 years old, I figured it's still lovely to be read to, and they really like it. In a world where children grow up way too fast, I am happy to keep this routine going for as long as possible. We are currently reading 'The Magic Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton, and "Anne of Green Gables", by L.M Montgomery.

Well that's about it. 

I wonder what would happen if we started saying to our friends, "How do you do life?", "Can I come and hang out with you one day, to learn from you and see how you do life?"

Would that be strange? It might be I suppose, but it also might lead to a greater sense of community with each other.

xxx