Today’s spinach harvest is the best I have ever had. I am really amazed hat how large and healthy the leaves are! Some of the leaves are 8 inches long!
I could have harvested a lot more today. I’m HOPING that the storm tonight doesn’t batter my sweet plants. I have a gallon bag of spinach and a gallon bag of lettuce that we’ll give to our hairdresser when my husband gets a haircut tomorrow. Meanwhile, we will have a huge chef salad for dinner tonight. :0)
We’re due for possible severe storms this evening, so I went out to get some pictures, just in case, so I could share them with you.
This sweet bunch of flowers tries to bloom each year. Usually, we have a bad storm just at the time these need a bit of protection. I try to get a picture or two, because they don’t usually make it through the storm.
It raises my spirits to walk around the yard, seeing HOPE in the planters.
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature, Seasons
Filed under Art From Found Things
“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” ~ Ann Landers
“Properly trained, a Man can be Dog’s best friend.” ~ Corey Ford
“Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.” ~ Franklin P. Jones
“The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
I’m waiting for my coffee to kick in. It’s overcast and rainy-looking. Severe storms are forecast for this evening, so I’ll need to get out to my garden and do a second harvest in case we get the hail they say we might.
I’m also going to try to finish getting things put back where they belong after our new carpet and flooring project. Even though I’m sleepy, I’m smiling every time I see the carpet and walk on it. It’s nice. And new, And clean. I also love the way the porch floor looks like weathered wood. I have my side of our entertainment center in the living room to straighten out and then things will be done. Hooray!
The garden was looking strong and healthy the last time I checked. I’ll try to share some pictures with you. I have all appendages crossed the the storms this evening won’t break the plants. One year we had bad hail that battered things so much I had to cut everything WAY back. Then the weather turned really warm and the early spring plants gave up the ghost.
If you’re feeling sleepy too, I hope we can both wake up and enjoy the day.
I’m getting ready to do some serious relaxing.
I finally finished getting our office back together after the carpet installation. I went through everything, trying to make it easy to find things. My husband will let me know if I was successful the next time he wants a new highlighter or something. Fingers crossed.
This is the main area in question. If he wants dividers for a notebook or tabs to go inside them, or whatever. I’m hoping he can simply go look for a couple of seconds and see that all the stuff for notebooks, dividers, and files are together on one shelf. Same for pens, pencils, tape of all kinds. etc. We’ll see. You can see that Amber is worn out after helping me organize.
My desk is newly cleaned.
These are things listed on Amazon – used books, and then my Amazon Handmade stuff.
This is the way the office looks as you look in from the foyer.
I absolutely LOVE the way that Szilajka Erzsebet uses mixed media for her stone ‘stories.’ Not only does she show great creativity and skill in telling a story with her stone arrangements, making me react emotionally to each one, but she also makes them look beautiful with the background painting. she has also used cardboard (I think) for the books here. I just can’t say enough about her artistry and talent. I love this one, that I call, “The Reading Tree.”
I am in the middle of a new series by Nora Roberts. called, “Chronicles of the One.” It starts with “Year One.” I’m in the middle of the 2nd book in the series, “Blood and Bone.” I have purchased the third book, “Rise of the Magicks.”
As with all of Nora Roberts’ books, I’m having trouble putting her work down and getting anything else done. :0) I love her strong female characters. She surrounds them with ‘real’ people you want to know. She has created a rich world, ripe with challenges, making you root for her success.
Our new carpet and porch vinyl installation was finished up by Friday mid afternoon. Aside from walking around smiling, we’ve been trying to get things put back where they belong. We had to empty out all the furniture, filing cabinets, etc. to do the install, and all that STUFF had to go SOMEWHERE. That ended up being EVERYWHERE – living room entertainment shelves, dining area floor, garage, my art room and the guest room upstairs, etc.
Friday I concentrated on making sure that we could make our way around the house without falling over anything – clear paths, places to sit down, place to eat, etc. My husband very kindly got my computer working again so I could work on getting over my computer withdrawal. :0) I also brought the drawers to my desk down from the guest room upstairs. There are 15 drawers in my old style roll top desk, so I made a lot of trips up and down stairs – good exercise, but a bit hard on this old woman.
Yesterday we moved all the files back into the office. We have two 4-drawers file cabinets and one 2-drawer cabinet. We got most of them back in. I’m working on one drawer today that was filled with OTHER STUFF – trying to go through it and get it better organized, and give away or throw away things.
Today I’m also concentrating on getting our supplies shelves fixed. Right now, the entertainment shelves in the living room are jam-packed with things from the office. I’m going to try to go slowly here, again trying to get rid of some things, but mainly to organize them so that my husband can find things. He has a harder time as the years pass, so I’m trying to look through things with an eye to where would be the easiest, most straight-forward place to store whatever supply it is – pens, rubber bands, tape, staples, etc. so he can walk up to the shelves and pick it out right away – or at least, that’s the plan. I’ll take my time.
We’re supposed to get rain today with more tomorrow, so yesterday I also took the time to check on my garden a bit. I planted some elephant ear bulbs I received in the mail. I may harvest a bit from the veggie garden this afternoon in case the weather people are correct. That will give me some good breaks from the reorganization of the office.
Have a great Sunday!
And today we welcome Mal, Humphrey the emu, and May, 2021.
The fact that all of these gorgeous Australian firefighters are young enough to be my sons doesn’t diminish my ability to appreciate the ‘view’ in the least as I help them in their fund-raising efforts by buying their calendars each year. :0)
I hope that things will get better and better as we start a new month.
I just walked out to my raised bed, square foot garden to see if the recent storms pounded my sweet veggies into the ground. (We had bad storms particularly Wednesday evening with high winds, lots of close lightning that had me cringing at times with the loud bangs, and some hail. Thankfully, all seems to have come through fine. Pictures to follow, and I will do my second harvest.
Have a happy May Day!
After we moved things off the floors and emptied all of the furniture in our foyer, home office, living room, and porch so it could be moved, the wonderful installers of Carpet Cabin in Fort Smith, Doug and Terry, arrived to install new carpeting and porch flooring.
You will never meet two nicer, hard-working, caring men. They were really great to work with. They did a beautiful job for us. They were here for one and a half days.
Now we are putting all the ‘stuff’ back where it belongs. It’s EVERYWHERE – my art room and the guest room upstairs, the shelves in the living room, the floor in the dining area. I’m hoping to have most of the stuff back in place by the end of the weekend.
To say we’re happy is a vast understatement. I was going for a BLEND between what we have. We still have old carpeting on our stairway, but the two carpets look fine together. The new one is different enough that we have a beautiful contrast to our eyes. We chose a really thick carpet, so it feels good under our feet.
I love the flooring on the porch. The vinyl looks like wood and it nice, clean, and FLAT – where the old vinyl had been eroded by the sun and rain. It had ripples and was almost without pattern any more. I’m delighted with the new look.
I will be trying to keep moving things, slowly and steadily, back to where they belong. Yesterday I moved all 15 drawers from upstairs in the guest room back to the office.
I feel very lucky that we were able to have this work done. It almost feels as if we have a new home. :0)
We haven’t bothered to change our mailbox decoration for several months due to several factors. We had put up my husband’s favorite of the decorations we have made –
Yesterday we were getting the mail really late in the afternoon. I asked if my husband minded changing the mailbox decoration. He agreed, so we put up MY favorite, Calvin & Hobbes. This one makes me smile, and I think that with all we are all going through these days, it’s good to get even a virtual hug.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Lewis projects
I got a call a few minutes ago from the people who are going to lay our new carpet and porch flooring. When I heard who it was, my heart fell. I thought they were calling to say they couldn’t be here Friday and would need to reschedule.
To my delight, they were calling to say they had finished up a job today, earlier than they thought they would. They asked if “it would be all right” if they came tomorrow, rather than Friday. HOOORAAAAY!
We will finish up the last-minute stuff on getting ready and will be here with bells on to welcome them tomorrow morning.
They will start in the office, so I probably won’t be on the computer until at LEAST tomorrow evening, if then, but I wanted to share our good news with you. :0)
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance
Filed under acorn art
Filed under Art From Found Things
I’ve been emptying out moveable shelves and furniture for several days now, trying to get ready for new carpet in our office, foyer, and living room, plus new vinyl for our porch. I’m very aware right now of WHY new flooring is such a big decision around here. Even with my efforts to go through things, donate, throw away, reorganize, we STILL have way too much STUFF.
AND I’m finding out how awful your house can get when you don’t empty things out, move the furniture away from the wall and clean behind it at LEAST every 13 years or so. Now it’s a matter of pride, like a teenage boy or young man washing his car before a date, wanting to show his best face. I’m cleaning like a nut, not wanting the flooring guys to see what a slob I am. :0)
Happily, the company called yesterday to schedule our installation. The guy started with May 10th and 11th. I said, “But we’re ready NOW!” (We’re not actually completely ready, but could be). He got with the others and we compromised. They are now coming this Friday morning, the 30th. If they don’t finish, they will come back on Tuesday, May 4th. I’m hoping that we can get the carpet in Friday, and then I don’t mind waiting until the 4th for them to do the vinyl on the porch.
I had a good chat with our son this morning, so my day started in one of the best possible ways there is. He lives and works in Thailand. He loves it there. Even though I don’t like the fact that he is halfway across the planet from us, he is such a good communicator that I can almost forget that. We talk several times a week, send pics to each other, and even talk with a conference call program from time to time where I can see his face and try to make him smile and laugh.
His newest thing is taking private lessons on reading and writing Thai. He already speaks the language. In fact, he has a phone app where he acts as a translator between people speaking English, Mandarin, and Thai. He has 3 keyboards on the phone and is able to switch between them quickly. Someone will write in to the app, asking, “How do you say ___ in (English, Mandarin/Thai)?” He types in the answer and then goes on to the next question. The last time he was home, I could have watched him do that for hours. He wants to be able to read and write in Thai. He considers this basic courtesy.
Yesterday was DAY 1 on my experiment using Green Tea Extract supplements to try to control my appetite, which has gone through the roof lately. The directions say to take one capsule each day with a meal. I took mine after lunch yesterday. I managed to NOT eat anything between meals while eating a normal amount for lunch and dinner. Most importantly, I did NOT end up downstairs in the middle of the night, eating everything except for the wall.
I don’t know whether the supplement does anything or if I just want it to help so badly I got through Day 1. The mind is a powerful thing, and motivation is such a big part of changing a lifestyle. I don’t know whether this eating binge is due to stress (of which I have more than my share these days) or simply bad habits I have to work harder to break. I am determined to give this an honest shot. This is DAY 2.
Filed under Challenges, DIET!, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance
So far, so good on my garden veggies. We are due for rain this evening-into THURSDAY, with some possibly severe, so fingers are crossed again.
This is the whole garden, except for the two brick planters of tomato plants on the other side of the house and yard.
As you can see here, the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash didn’t like the recent freezes. I’m hoping that the main plants are healthy and that they will put on more leaves now that we have supposedly passed the danger of freezes and frosts.
The spinach is happy.
All appendages are crossed that all my sweet veggies make it through until Thursday afternoon, when the rains are supposed to be over for a bit.
All this activity of going through everything in our office and living room, moving things off the floor and out of furniture and taking it elsewhere for the laying of new carpet and flooring soon has increased my hunger. I feel I could eat the wall, giving a bit of cheese on it or some honey mustard.
I ordered some green tea extract and received it today. I’m supposed to take one capsule a day. I read a lot of reviews and decided that I would try it, hoping for some increased ability to NOT snack between meals, or to be able to choose HEALTHY snacks that will coordinate with my efforts to eat less.
Fingers crossed.
I don’t know why, but when I was growing up, I felt that I ‘should already know how to do things’ before doing them out in public. If my class at school announced that we would have a roller skating party, I would beg my mom to take me to the rink so that I could practice before the party, in a panic about the idea of embarrassing myself in front of other people.
Gradually, over the years, I gave myself ‘permission’ to admit that I had no clue about certain things, that I had never tried something, etc. It still bothers me a bit, but I’ve FINALLY learned to try the new thing to see if I enjoy it, rather than ‘standing back in my own mind’ seeing myself falling in a heap when everyone else seems to be able to do it with no problem.
I don’t know if others share my lack of confidence, but it caused me to miss out on several things when I was young. I still admire people who seem to be fearless, who throw themselves headlong into whatever it the situation is, with a ‘can do’ attitude, or the idea that it will be fun.
One thing I did that helped me deal with this was when I was teaching swimming each summer from the time I was 14 through college. We taught beginning swimming to young children, but we also taught older, experienced swimmers who wanted to work on their technique, stamina, or just wanted the workout.
My favorite thing was our “Mothers Classes.” These ladies sat on the benches in the hot, steamy, indoor pool area so that their kids could learn to swim. What we discovered was that the reason for this many times was that THEY were scared of the water, had never learned to swim, and wished they could. I ended up with some impressive scratches sometimes from women who were petrified, but I felt that the time we spent getting them over their fear was priceless for all of us. We taught them to relax and let the water hold them up. We showed them that they could actually float! Helping women find the confidence to try to overcome years of fear and avoidance helped ME, too. Seeing them learn to swim across the deep end on their own, laughing with joy, made me see my own problems in a different, more healthy light.
Are you with me? Got your T-shirt?
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, empowerment, Encouragement
These wonderful sewn critters were created by Bryony Jennings – MyOwlBarn.com
Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art
My friend Cathy sent me this photo recently of something she thought my husband could make for me.
This would be truly wonderful. I could have it in the living room, the guest room upstairs, our bedroom, my art room….
Just looking at it makes me want to grab my book, snuggle in, and enjoy.
I would make a couple of additions, though. I would want a light attached on one of the back corners, and a place for me to put my coffee on my coffee warmer on the right side. I would also bring my throw so I could really snuggle in, and maybe catch a nap from time to time!
Right now I’m enjoying Book 2, Ashen Winter, in the series by Mike Mullin. It’s about a 16-year-old boy trying to survive after the world is plunged into the unthinkable due to an eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. The series is fascinating. After I finished Book 1 – recommended to me by my husband, I ordered Books 2 and 3 plus an additional smaller book concentrating on one of the main characters, Darla. I love Mike Mullin’s writing. The series is written for teenagers, but the scope of the books engages all ages. The series includes Ashfall, Ashen Winter, the novella – Darla’s Story, and then Sunrise.
Filed under Dreams, Favorite Authors & Books, Reading is FUNdamental
We are continuing to empty furniture little by little – trying to find space ‘elsewhere’ for all the ‘STUFF’ we have in our office, foyer, and living room in our project to get ready for new carpet plus vinyl for the back porch.
We have plenty of time to get this done. The installation will be sometime the first week in May, but I may not have EMPHASIZED enough how much “STUFF” we have. We have built-in shelving on both sides of the doorway in the office and built-in drawers and counter-top around two sides of the rest of the room. We don’t have to do anything with those – just the furniture that needs to be moved. These have to be empty.
We have two 4-drawer file cabinets and one 2-drawer file cabinet. We have movable shelving – one 6-shelf piece, one 4-shelf piece, and two 2-shelf pieces. And the list goes on.
I’m trying to throw things out as I move things elsewhere. I am PROMISING myself, as I take things up and down the stairs to my art room or our guest room – that I will take just as much time putting things back together as I have taking things apart, go through and throw out MORE as I bring things from ‘elsewhere’ to back where they live.
One good thing I’m noticing is that, with all this activity, I’m getting a LOT of exercise, cleaning out, hauling up and down stairs or into another room – and that I’m dropping off to sleep like I’ve been hit with a sledge hammer. I just wish I had this cute little baby elephant with his purple ball to exercise with! :0)
Filed under exercise, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Wonderful acorn ‘elf’ creations plus photography by Dubanci.cz presented by inspiremore.com.
creativeartworksblog 