The earth moved...
We had an earthquake last night! About 1 am Martin and I woke up to some serious shaking. I found out on the news this morning that it was a 5.3 on the Richter scale and the epicenter of the quake was Market Rasen, which is a small town about 30 miles south of Barton. The quake lasted about 10 or 12 seconds, but it felt like longer. It is the first earthquake I've ever been in that I was awake for. There were a few small ones when I was living in Utah, but I always slept through them. Anyway, there was no damage to our house. Amazing, when you consider that our house is about 180 years old.
No news really. Life just continues plodding on. Martin still hasn't heard anything about the job he applied for. Not a big surprise, to be perfectly honest. We're waiting patiently, and I think he's planning on calling them tomorrow.
I got a fantastic book at the British Red Cross shop on Saturday. It's called "Home Comforts--The Art and Science of Keeping House," by Cheryl Mendelson. Oddly enough, it's about keeping house. I'm learning so much! Not that my mom was a lousy housekeeper and didn't teach me anything--quite the opposite. It's just that I never cleaned the whole house on a regular basis by myself. Velecia, Angie, and I all did chores. So I know how to clean a house properly--I just didn't know how to organize myself to get it all done by myself. I also didn't know how often things need to get done. This book gives you lists of things that need to be done daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
This book is really making a difference to me. Ms. Mendelson says that the reason most people don't enjoy cleaning their houses is that they feel like the job is never done. She says that the key is to do specific jobs on specific days so that you actually finish the housework every day. So I sat down and wrote out a schedule of when things need to be done. I've only been doing it since Monday, but already the house is cleaner and I don't feel like I'm working that much harder than I was before. My clothes laundry is caught up, the entire house has been dusted and vacuumed, and my bathrooms are sparkling. Tomorrow I will clean the kitchen from top to bottom, and then on Friday I will be laundering my linens. I've left Saturday for odd jobs (it'll probably be my gardening day in a few months' time) and I've already got a head start on the kitchen for tomorrow. I highly recommend this book to all full time stay at home moms. After all, our job is to keep house so we might as well be trained in it!
I went to an enrichment mini class in Grimsby today. It was on interior design, and it was a lot of fun. I brought Charlotte with me, and she had a good time, too. The babies weren't that good, but it was fun anyway. I left the house at 9:15 this morning, and didn't get home until nearly 5. Everyone was really nice to Charlotte and Beth, and I think the church ladies made a good impression. I know it was nice for me to have some company on the drive in and back. That's over an hour when I had a grown up to talk to!
Anyway, I'm exhausted so I'm going to get an early night. Pictures on the next post!
2 comments:
your house is really that old. Stupid question--is it haunted or have you witness weird things becuz jeremy and i lived in a home that was about a 100 years old and honestly weird things would happen nothing ghostly or such just weird thing that would seem ochard is youre a neat freak like jeremy is :). Like doors open or the tv would turn off randomly needless to say we didnt live there very long
not haunted, though somebody did die here in the 80's. if there are any spirits hanging aroundthey're not malicious. i've never been creeped out in our house!
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