Despite being at home surrounded by what should be my housework, lately I've slipped out of my daily rhythm and life has become a disorganised and frazzled. My good friend Bernadette is gravely ill now, I've been visiting her in hospital and my sister Tricia, is visiting us so we've been talking, knitting, sewing and socialising and apart from a bit of cooking and washing, not much has been done here. Everything is upside down. Right now, Tricia and Hanno are awake and watching TV! Usually when I rise to write, the house is as quiet as a mouse, but can I hear the sounds of the world cup on TV and I know if Australia scores a goal there will be cheering and clapping. Uh oh, Germany scored.
It's a public holiday here today - we have this ridiculous holiday for the Queen's birthday, it's not her birthday and even in the UK they don't celebrate this. I'm not working today so I'll try to get back into the rhythm of my normal day. It's easy working to a rhythm - you start with one familiar thing, others follow in a flow one after the other, you don't need to think about much and the work is done. But as easy as it is, it doesn't take much to stop that flow, just one thing needs to be out and I'm lost.
Today's plan is to make the bed (I changed and washed the sheets yesterday), make breaksfast, get bread on to rise, clean up the kitchen, sweep the floor, water the garden and the plants at the front of the house. Funnily enough, bread seems to be the stabilising influence in my routine. When bread is rising, all the other chores just fall into place. Later this morning, I'll visit Bernadette, who is now at home. It was her wish so her son took her back home yesterday. Later in the week the rest of her family will arrive so if I go today, I'll have some quiet time with her without getting in the way of family things. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye yet.
When I come home, I'll clean up the bathroom. It's a bit of a disaster at the moment because Hanno did a major repair in there. There had been an unseen leak which seeped into the wall cavity, rotting the timbers in the door frame. Hanno took them all out, replacing the rotting timbers, and then covered it all in again. Cost of the repair was $19. He had spare timber in the shed, got the gyprock free from the supplier (they were offcuts) and just had to buy sealer and anti-mould. It was a big job, it took a week to complete, but now the bathroom is operational again - it just needs a good clean.
I haven't had time to take photos lately but hope to do a few this afternoon. Apart from that, all I have to do is cook dinner and things will be back to normal - at least for today. I wrote a post a few years ago call The Familiar Rhythm of the Unremarkable and that's exactly how I feel about my daily routine. It's like an anchor. It holds me firm when I get pushed this way and that and it shows me that while life has many changes and ups and downs, much of my home life remains the same; small moments, ever constant and a safe haven from the unspeakable.
