Everyone seems to have a desire for things to be “just so”. But those things are not all the same. “Just so” things can be anything at all. Some people like their homes to be very clean, some like neat and tidy things, some like their vehicle to be “just so”, the possibilities are endless.
Attila and I are “good enough” people when it comes to home decor, sparkling clean, neat and tidy, stylish dress, well, most things that involve presentation just don’t get that much attention from us.
Our “just so” involves an eye for people who exhibit kindness, compassion, tolerance, and personal integrity. These things are never 100%, no one achieves perfection in these areas of life, but there are people who manage to make it their dominant personality trait. These people please our “just so” sensibilities, by being “good enough”.
Another “just so” area that Attila and I share is our love of healthy and delicious food. Attila loves to eat. I enjoy food, but am challenged by a severe allergy, which makes most of the food sold on Canadian shelves off limits. Over time we have developed a desire for our food to be “just so”, a slow process over a few decades.
Take this evening’s meal for instance. We start our meals with a green salad and homemade organic whole wheat croutons. In the summer months we eat our own organic salad greens and vegetables. But it is late fall, and the garden is tucked up for the winter months, so we purchase our salad ingredients. This is the most expensive grocery item that we purchase, followed by dairy. Our salad dressings are homemade, using our homemade pickle juice (waste not want not), homemade apple cider vinegar, garden herbs, and purchased oils. The green salads are our luxury item, our indulgence.
My dinner consisted of a slice of homemade pizza. It was “just so”, the crust was organic whole wheat, the pizza sauce was organic and made with tomatoes and herbs from Attila’s garden, the sausage topping was sodium free homemade pork sausage, the pineapple topping was home canned organic zucchini pineapple, the purchased toppings were, true lemon powder, nutritional yeast, dehydrated onions, and cheeses. Attila’s dinner consisted of homemade organic pea soup, made in the instant pot, one of his specialties. This is a light meal for Attila, as he will eat at least one more meal during the evening.
Our food is “just so”, as nutritious as possible, as delicious as possible, and as inexpensive as possible. This particular “just so” occupies a great deal of our interest, and time.
Yesterday Attila assembled and decorated our artificial Christmas Tree. Furniture was moved to make room for the tree. The living room, which is also the dining room, has become very close quarters.
Ginger was outraged! He paced the floor, sniffed the floor and baseboards where he felt the sofa should be. He climbed all over the sofa, sniffing the bookcase that is now behind it. He ran around the house a high speed to burn off disapproval. He voiced his opinion, loudly, almost plaintively. Once the Christmas Tree was assemble he lurked beneath its branches, glaring at his errant humans, aghast at the folly.
Today Ginger has adjusted. Right now he is sleeping on the sofa, which is now placed across from my easy chair instead of beside it. He spent his day sprawled on sofa, paws gloriously stretched out before him, hanging slightly over the edge. Every time I looked up from by book, or the computer, he was watching me. He likes to watch me, and as long as I don’t look at him for too long, he likes it when I watch him.
While Attila was getting the tree assemble and decorated, I was fiddling with the computer (our entertainment centre, no TV here). I created a file with a lot of vintage Christmas images, old wrapping papers, cards, and art. Then I configured the screen saver to display the images. I also created a playlist from the Christmas music I have digitized from our old records and cds. Our tastes are rather eclectic, ranging from Burl Ives to Pavarotti and sideways into all kinds of interesting, beautiful, and unusual choices for Christmas. We have listened to the same Christmas music for decades.
This past week we also indulged ourselves with a beautiful potted Poinsettia.
Our final decorative venture for Christmas was to display the Christmas Village ceramic houses gifted to us by Attila’s Mom, many, many years ago.
Soon, we will begin to plan the baking for the holiday season. This is a tough choice, there are so many delicious treats we could have, it is difficult to choose just a few!
Worldly
Weather
0°C
Date: 5:00 PM EST Saturday 7 December 2024
Condition: Light Snow
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: -0.1°C
Dew point: -1.2°C
Humidity: 92%
Wind: SW 30 gusts 47 km/h
Wind Chill: -7
Visibility: 1.6 km
Quote
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Mahatma Gandhi
1869 – 1948
I hope everything about your holiday season is “just so”. It sounds like you’ve got a great start!
Thank you Joan! Wishing you a “just so” holiday season. I sometimes wonder what December feels like in warmer climes, as the climates I’ve inhabited have always been four seasons, with winter weighing in heavily.
Hi, Maggie! We just finished our decorating today. We now have our beloved Santa collection spanning various shelves and a few on the floor. We decided not to do the village this year but to highlight the flameless candles around my poinsettia, instead.
Our dogs are also distressed by the changes because of the tree. Like you, we now have quite the crowded living room, with a chair in a space that usually doesn’t have a chair. Poor Skye always looks like the world is ending when we first reset the room.
Hi Teri! Your decorations sound cheerful, and beautiful. The poinsettia with the flameless candles sounds lovely.
“like the world is ending”, such a good description of pet reactions to change. Then, when Ginger gets used to the Christmas decorations, they all disappear! 🙂