Letting the Sun Shine in

Many homes in Arizona are dark in an effort to keep the home cool during hot summers. It is nice for cooling the home, but hard for living. I love having sunshine stream through the windows. I like awakening with the sun and following its natural rhythms. Our previous houses have been dark. Our new home has many windows, most of the which are shaded with porch or patio. This house is nice and bright, which is fantastic for me.

For the first week we lived here, we had no window coverings on most of the windows. There were room darkening shades on the kiddos' rooms to help them sleep, but the rest were wide open. I hesitated to cover the windows and block the beautiful sunshine. Of course, at night I felt like we lived on stage. As we unpacked boxes and moved furniture, I imagined the neighbors watching and making up their own stories about our lives. In one of the boxes, I found two long sheer panels that we had used on Aine's canopy bed. Since her canopy is defunct after too many slides down the corner poles, I decided to repurpose the sheers.

I was able to fashion four cafe curtains from the two panels. The curtains begin partway down our paned windows and allow sunshine through them. The house is still nice and bright, but we don't feel quite so much on display! We still need curtains on a few more windows, but those will be finished soon.

As I sewed and hemmed the curtains, I listened to my current audiobook, Girl in Translation. I really enjoy listen to a book while I am doing another task. I am glad my kiddos have inherited this love of the spoken word as well.

* joining in with Dawn for a bit of Making and Listening this week.