I've been embedded in the Civil War, slavery - both from the slave-owner and the slave point of view and state's rights vs. centralized government. Suffice it to say it is very serious reading and my pondering has become quite intense, as I analyze what I've read and compare it with my faith, what I've seen in my own lifetime and other matter that I've read over the years.
I think I need to come up for air, so..... I've been cleaning up a storm. I've managed to clean out my clothes closets and my husband's clothes closet, all our bureaus and I've rearranged the kitchen counters. We have lots and lots of bags of clothes for the Salvation Army - as well as shoes, knick-knacks, old appliances - you name it. I think we just shoved things in closets for years - and now they have been cleaned out and put in order. I can actually open my bureau drawers!! Most of my shopping is done at second hand stores anyway - and sometimes I've been known to go a little nuts with buying things at such cheap prices - things I really don't need and don't end up using. Now I have truly pared down to a workable group of clothes - and there is still plenty. My rule was if I never wear it - out it goes. It feels so good to look in those closets and drawers now - and I know I can keep them that way. I cleaned out the living room closet and all my Christmas stuff this past Holiday Season and it has stayed in order. I actually feel like I'm getting somewhere in the goal of keeping control of my home!!
Outdoors, it has been unseasonably cold for South Florida, but we have had rain every 4 days or so, so we haven't had to water (which saves money as we don't have a well or sprinkler system and must use city water to water our lawn and flowers). Last weekend I did some weeding and there are some significant areas that need lots of TLC. Perhaps this upcoming weekend I'll get out there and clean up some of the areas that need it.
And of course, there is the Morning Glory vine from hell. That sucker has been growing here since the day we moved in. Our neighbors poisoned and killed it once, but it came back from the dead. I've pulled out every vestige of it on the left side of the back yard and last spring, when we cut down the bushes in the center of the back yard, the man who did the cutting pulled out ALL the morning glory at the back of the yard. It is staging a comeback in that area and it is growing all over the bushes on the right side of the back yard now. I have to crawl in amonst the bougainvillea, get scratched up as if I've fought with 8 cats, and rip it out by it's prodigious roots once again. I can hardly wait. I'll need to stock up on Neosporin. That Morning Glory vine WILL NOT DIE. Ever. Not ever. Sigh. I will never conquer it, I fear. Long after I am dust and my house is dust and it is maybe 3 or 400 years in the future, that Morning Glory vine will be somewhere in the vicinity - even if it's covered in concrete. It will MAKE a crack in the concrete and then grow up through it.