Back to Almost Normal

My father in law had surgery last Thursday evening and came home on Saturday.  My in laws live about 1 hour away from us.  I have been driving to their house a lot over the past week.  The joy of being home is that I am available to my family when they need me.  It was the plan all along when I decided to be home that I would have that luxury.

My husband is one of 5 children in his family.  The rest of the siblings live all over the country and are making plans to come and visit their parents and help out.  My in-laws have 2 acres of land on which their house is built on and my father in law is a Master Gardener.  The next two weekends will be work weekends getting their property ready for the winter.  I will also be going to their house at least once a week to visit and see if there is anything they need me to do.

Now it's back to my home and my homemaking goals.

Yesterday the temperature was in the upper 50's so I washed windows on the outside of our house.  I didn't get to all of them, but made it to the ones that really mattered.  I was running out of time so I decided that the windows in the main living areas were my priority.

While I was sitting with my in laws in the hospital, I started to knit on a round loom and turned out some simple knitted caps.  I had never done this before and decided that since I would have a lot of sitting and waiting time, I might as well put my hands to good use.

I have a lot of homemaking odds and ends going on right now.  Reading the vintage home economics books, decluttering my house, keeping up on the normal daily housework AND getting ready for a new puppy.  Yes, as if my life isn't busy enough, we will be getting a golden doodle puppy in December.

Back in September we made the decision to add another dog to our family.  We already have a labra doodle.  I contacted the breeder that we got Molly from and was fortunate to find out that they had a litter of golden doodles on the way.  The puppies were born on October 21st and Decker will come home on December 10th.  Why the name Decker?  Because my husband is a runner and not just a weekend runner, he has been a runner for over 40 years and he runs several miles a day.  He has run 12 marathons and runs many, many races during the year.  Molly runs with my husband at least 2 miles out of his 6 to 7 mile daily runs.

So, nothing like a deadline to get my home keeping act together as when that puppy gets here, I will be spending my time housebreaking and going through obedience training.  Getting a puppy just before Christmas is not the ideal time, but when you have a great, reliable local breeder that has just what you want, you take a puppy when you can get it.

Now, this blog is all about living frugally and homemaking so where does a new puppy fit into this? Over the past 5 years we have paid off some of our debt and can afford another puppy.  A new puppy will also keep me more balanced with my bouts of depression and more importantly, our other dog, Molly, needs a companion.  It is my goal that over time both of our dogs will be able to be trained to be therapy dogs.  BUT -- owning and training a dog is work, work, work.  Dogs don't just behave because you show love to them, you have to have them go through obedience training for a well balanced dog.

Molly and my husband after running a 5K race
They came in second.

Tomorrow's post:  Take Pride in Your Home.