Homemade Seasonings 3/17/2024

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

I was doing things that I always do. It’s a tradition I’ve done for as long as I have lived in the home that I live in now.  True, I have only lived in this house for six years, but it was upon moving into this house that I really began to take homemaking more seriously since I was in a really nice home, not the tiny boxlike temporary setting that I moved out of my parents’ house into, (which I stayed in far longer than I should have but, it was paid for so, there is that.)  I try to keep up with tradition a fair amount, at least the ones that I find appealing. I was just moseying about my house doing the traditional spring changeover and in doing so I wondered if it was a thing that others do or if I could be discovering a case of me being something of an oddball. If we’re honest, there is a decent amount of likelihood for either.

I first had to decide when it was appropriate to change my house from how I have it in the fall and winter to how I keep it in the spring and summer. I happen to know for a fact that my mother finds these actions perfectly reasonable as she was happy to give advice saying that she always at least waits until the time changes.  So that Sunday that daylight savings time began, when I was feeling less than ideal because I had frankly forgotten about the time change until I had stayed up far too late on Saturday to compensate for the loss of sleep, I began to make small adjustments to my home for it to feel more seasonally appropriate. Now of course, as is the Southern tradition, the weather is not even remotely going to try to humor me and at least pretend to be spring-esque from now on. Oh no, certainly not. Sure, we are getting bathed in heinous clouds of pollen and warm temperatures for the moment but by the time this blog publishes spring will take a hiatus and we will have coolness and frost likely enough to ruin all the beautiful flowers as my mother has so frustratedly bemoaned.

I started the process by changing the wreath on my front door from my winter version filled with lamb’s ear and other silvery toned foliage to my spring one filled with pink and white ranunculus.  Wow. That was a sentence that I cannot decide if I find endearing or a tad on the pretentious side. Does it help that I made these wreaths? Is it in any way improved that I didn’t go out and spend grotesque amounts of money on these? Really, you should see the price of a lovely wreath with quality silk flowers, it is pure insanity.  I’m hoping that these being the crafts of my own hands may not make it sound how it is coming across as I am reading it. Next, I changed my winter curtains which are a heavier fabric and darker color for lighter linen ones.  That seems to be a reasonable thing to do if one takes a notion. Not a necessity but not craziness.  I don’t know why I feel the need to justify that I did all these things. But here we are.

The next step in my procedure is definitely the most logical. I had to change the bedding from thick and heavy comforters good for cold nights to lighter blankets that will allow for more comfortable sleeping when the temps no longer take their evening dips. And yes, as I mentioned earlier, next week I will likely find a touch of dismay in the fact that I did this. However, I suppose I can always wear more clothing to bed, but I digress.  The thing is, changing bed clothes in my house is running a bit of a gauntlet. I have both a canine and a feline, neither of whom are particularly small as both of them rather enjoy the pleasures of food, that feel it is their sworn duty to cause as much complication to the application of bedding as is humanly, or, in this case, animal-y possible. My cat will simply find a spot mid sheet, and plop. No additional sheets, blankets or any such layering on top of him shall inspire him to move. He will lay, tail twitching until you have to forcefully push the giant lump out of your neatly made bed. Said lump will vocally disapprove of your shoves but eventually spill out from under the covers and leave your freshly made bed all askew.  Meanwhile, the canine thinks the whole thing is a very fun game and cannot decide if she would prefer to attack the lump in the bed or chase after all my hand movements with her teeth.  It really doesn’t matter all that much which choice she makes; both are effective at hinderance. This is my adventure every single time I attempt to redress my beds or even simply change the sheets.  It is tedious, but also, as much as I hate to admit it, entertaining.

So now you have had a bit of the goings on of the changing of the seasons on the inside of my house. I have to admit I am a bit proud of myself for discussing the indoors instead of another long ramble about nature and whatnot.  I just casually give my house some seasonal adjustments as I lose an hour of sleep and battle teeth and claws in simply making a bed. As you can clearly see, spring brings some changes, but then again, some things are very much the same.