ORDINARY TIME

In this Ordinary Time, things have been...well...ordinary. Around these parts, August has been cooler than normal. There is the sweet corn bumper crop with all the rain we had this spring/summer. Indeed, even our lawns and the meadow are still pretty green. Highly unusual for this time of year. I haven't even had to water the garden much at all. The tomatoes are ripening and I have a bowlful on the kitchen counter. Not quite enough to cook up into sauce, but too many to eat between two people. Since they are still getting a bit more ripe, I have some time to think about it.
LH and I have enjoyed the many visits from Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and Black Swallowtail butterflies, as well as a couple Viceroys and Hummingbird moths to the butterfly bush. The Dr. Seuss flowers are all spent and the hummingbirds have to go back to using the nectar feeder.
I have been busy with the ordinary - cleaning house, getting an oil change, and doing laundry. The ordinary and mundane tasks that need to be done. With my more regular cleaning - as opposed to LH's whenever he gets around it - it has become much easier and quicker, even the shower stays cleaner longer!!! That's all it takes - regular cleaning and tending. The dust, however, still settles in and on more quickly than it ought - at least in my opinion!
I still have closets to go through and pack up clothing that has grown too big. I have a hard time parting with some items, even though they no longer fit. I just need to bite the bullet and let these items have a next life with someone else.
I am missing my niece who is over in Africa working on her doctoral project. We have had some great conversations on the phone while she was still in Med School in IL. Now she's gone for 6 months, living rather austerely in some very humble lodgings. Fortunately, she has warm water with an outside shower, a now working toilet and she purchased a two burner stove to heat soup and eggs. She's hoping to partake of the bananas outside of her residence, but fears the monkeys might beat her to them when they ripen! I don't believe my niece has much ordinary in her days so far.
Ordinary is ok. It is comfortable. It just lacks a bit of pizazz. I have enough to keep busy with the church, even though part-time and as ever, more than enough to keep me busy at home. It is good. It is grace-filled. I can savor the quiet and the busy and the mundane. It is all grace just to receive a day and give thanks and be thankful for it.
Hail, Ordinary Time - thou art still a teacher of me.