Thursday, August 27, 2015

Spark

Not lost. Internet and electric troubles..old, old, old fuse box... Time plus water equals...Just a mess. Our electrician was here twice in 24 hours and once last week. I'm still waiting for internet repair. Posting this with my phone.

And Tuesday morning I spilled my morning coffee on my entire stack of afghan blocks. They are fine after a rinse in ice cold water and an air  dry...   down in the STUDIO!!!  Hugs.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Just a bit of this 'n that....










Today was so pretty! I can't believe how much like fall it is. I really didn't go out in it, but I could tell! 


Mom and I shared a little frozen yogurt in my grandmother's Fostoria crystal sherbet glass... Mama said a pink plastic bowl would do, but I just didn't think so. I told her it was uplifting! "Uplifting? You either eat it and like it, or you don't!" She stated... Ha ha ha... But she liked it! Strawberry Supreme from Schwan.... Part of Lance Armstrong's LiveSmart collection...



Have a good Tuesday!




Photos from the dark...

Hey there! I went off the grid a whole week, didn't I? Sometimes the days just run jumbling and laughing smack into each other. I look around and I have lost time. Had a lot going on but little of it was blog worthy.

One highlight of my week was a tiny road trip with my sister/cousin in her new car. What a dream boat! It's just like a super cloud of sleekness.. She has one of those cameras to see behind, a moon roof, all kinds of goodies. We turned on her Sirius radio and heard 60's music the whole time. "Ten.twenty.thirty. Forty. Fifty or more. The bloody Red Baron had wrote on his score!" Yes! It was! Snoopy vs. The Red Baron! Love that song. We drove around the beautiful lake. We stopped at Casey's and bought Taco pizza and some sandwiches, brought them home and ate with Mama. Then she put my Daybed together in the studio! Awesome!


My son and two friends came for lunch today. Had an easy favorite, a recipe from a dear friend. It's called oriental cabbage and it couldn't be more simple. Brown and crumble one pound hamburger. Drain. Add a little water to skillet, some soy sauce, and cut up cabbage. I love using a coleslaw mix because it's easy, perfectly cut, and it has a little carrots in there. Steam the cabbage and adjust the soy sauce seasoning. My friend serves it over rice, but we are Paleo so we don't.

Sorting through some Autumn totes. Too early for anything Halloween. I'm loving the way my bed feels and looks upstairs. Have a lovely week. These shots are kind of dark. Guess it was nearly twilight when I took them!


Monday, August 17, 2015

Monday Morning Ambition

It strikes me that I'm full of ambition late at night, which is actually early morning. Then when dawn creeps in rosy-fingered, as Homer puts it... I'm tired. Does anyone ever change up a sleep schedule? I actually went to bed at four a.m. A retiree's dream, I guess. I always forced myself to bed at two when I taught school. But I digress! I'm blogging about projects today.

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I have started Autumnal touches, changing out wreaths and garlands, sorting and pitching. My current philosophy, which should have been obvious but is quite a Personal revelation... If it's too ugly to set out? Ummm. Pitch it!?!?! Every year as I decorate for the holidays there's an ever growing little stash of scruffy junk I pile back in the boxes. Doh! That's crap, honey! I even sent my decrepit old head and footboard out with the furniture men who finally brought my bed frame. I love having the window as my headboard. Moonlight, blue hour, lightning, and watching the beautifully-lit semi trucks go by at night... Window to my world, I guess.
I have had the brainchild idea to sort china, having a cabinet bottom for each season... Or color? However, as I write this, my good sense yells at me to leave it alone! Think I'll listen today. Sorting china sounds like a solid Winter project AFTER the holidays.

Mom's feeling better. I take her blood pressure every day, and it has obediently inched downward to a good level. We are postponing the follow up visit to the doc a few days. Nobody realizes the exhaustion created in the elderly simply by altering their routine and struggling out to the car and back. ... And then there's Mama to think about, too! Ha ha ha... Gotcha!

It promises to temper down a bit with a cooler week. My ambition, elusive lover, has rallied me for a busy day, which I believe I'll start with a nap! Have a good week, dear Friends.

 

 

 

Friday, August 14, 2015

Not lost... Just under water

In military terms, I've gone dark. I have been reading most of your blogs super late at night, but haven't even commented. Not complaining, but upsetting two rooms in a house this crammed... Mistake. Big mistake. (As she said in Pretty Woman.)

My sister/cousin helped me work in the Studio (that's what I'm calling my ex-bedroom downstairs.)  The dream is to have a room prepared for crafting, sewing, watching a video and doing the work... The actuality is so far from that...

Mom's blood pressure is doing amazing. My son is starting another group through his computer programming boot camp. Cicadas are singing that it's back to school time. My former colleagues started back today. I miss that, but I know I'm in the right job ... taking care of Mom.

Eight years ago today my dad passed away. Long, lost years of stumbling, sad denial, and disbelief. Eight long years of not living in my own home.

Little touches of Autumn are knocking at our door. On Saturday, tomorrow, I unleash the Crackon... Harvest decorating begins. Happy Dance.


Monday, August 10, 2015

Can she bake a cherry pie, Billie Boy?

Well, yes she can! Today was our first day to feel pretty good! I had a lot of spiffing to do in the kitchen, so I decided to throw in Mom's fave, cherry pie. I also made her a little crumbly burger kind of like Maid Rites, if you know what they are. She was pleasantly happy to discover her favorites waiting for her.

 

Mid Missouri is so hot and sultry right now. I'm so happy our AC is running like a little dream. My bed"s upstairs, and I'm waiting on the frame I ordered. Love the changes I'm making to the dining room turned bedroom.

 

Have a lovely Tuesday...

 

 

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Daily

We have been in the hospital... Mom's blood pressure spiked to astonishing numbers for some unknown reason. I thought to check it when she complained of pain behind her eye. So we took her to ER. And they admitted her, increased her dosage of Labetalol, and dismissed her today. A new glitch in Medicare says patients need two nights to be covered. I think she needed two nights anyway.

She feels better, but the Meds make her so tired. Thanks for any good thoughts you send.

 

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Happy Dance

Did it. Yes, I did. Monday night. Me, myself, and I... Moved TV. MOVED dining room TABLE. Moved red painted cabinet. Moved TV cabinet. Cleaned. Arranged. Crawled into bed at 3. Power went out and Mom called for me at 3:20. Ugh. My gramma always said, "No rest for the wicked."
Power was out 4 hours...
My son moved my bed last night, and today I'm feeling soooo much better already. Yes, that bed is a pile of junk, but... It's not half bad. Doing laundry and arranging...
Air conditioner man is here fixing the cool. Another round of storms predicted for tonight. 
Woo woo... We are on a roll. Now, if I only had a cat. Lol... My mom said I'm never satisfied. But I am. Very.

Monday, August 3, 2015

It's all Fun and Games Until Somebody....


Have I told you guys before what my son believes equipped him to help me redecorate? No? Well, remember those little plastic games of the sixties that had the number squares to slide around until you got them to say one through eight or nine or whatever..  only one space to play with...  He thinks my definition of furniture moving is kinda like that. Move this to move that. Move that to move that over there. It's time consuming, and I sometimes don't like the finished product and we have to move
it again. Sometimes even back to where it was! eek!



I used to move things every time I cleaned...  Maybe that's why I don't love to clean like I used to?



I definitely fit into one of those categories, should I call me scattergories? I am fickle to the core. My dear one who reads astrology charts once shrieked, "No wonder you are like you are. You are two-thirds air!" Now, I'm not too certain that was considered a good thing. I was raised, I'm sure by a three-thirds earth mother. Nobody could possibly be more grounded than my mama. When it comes to furniture placement, she thought it said PLACEMENT.



I'm laughing to recall a wonderful student in my school at New Cambria who was just like me. He helped me move my classroom completely all around five times in six days. Cleverly they painted a mural on one wall that only looked in proportion from one vantage, so from that day forward, I wanted to see my mural in the best light, so I stayed in one spot. In Bevier, my superintendent once screwed my desk to the floor. Oh, yes, he did. I removed those bad boy screws the very first day. But alas! They wisely hooked me up to a very short SmartBoard cord, and I was stuck again.



If I flip through blog posts, I see I've lamented long and hard about the state of our furniture. Mom doesn't like it moved. I do. I've tried negotiating. I've tried just moving stuff. Neither one is exactly a good plan. I'm currently looking at a mantle that was mostly in place since April, and I could scream! I'm trying to rework the dining room, half-heartedly. That's the way I approach everything anyway. Lick and a promise. When I turned into THAT person, I'll never know. But I read all these blogs that gush and goo over new projects, and I think, "Yep. That was me. Where did she go? WHERE DID she go?"


Let me chat about my conundrum. I love the dining room as a dining room. I love decorating the big table, rearranging the hutches, polishing the silver and china. It's something I always thought I'd have here. Enter my silly/incredibly brilliant idea to insert a day bed. Originally, stupid girl, I planned for Mama to sleep on it. She would be closer to my bed downstairs, so I could hear her. Well, that lasted for.... guess how many nights? Yep. ZERO. She wanted to come home from her 25 day ordeal at the hospital and go to her own little bed in her own little room next to her own little bathroom. And I'm glad we did that because she is able to function and be almost independent. That is something that makes her happy. And when Mama is happy....  well, you know. Plus, praise her little socks, she knows what she wants, and that makes a total of one person in this house who does.



Besides the obvious, Where do I keep my clothes? I have lots of issues with sleeping in the dining room, as I have since December. The daybed  in the dining room is pretty, I think, but it isn't all that comfy. Those of you who have ever slept on a daybed know that. I bought a nice four-inch latex topper. That helps, except about three times a night, I have to get out of bed and shove it back against the back of the wrought iron bed. I'm a wiggler, I assume. I fidget and flop, wobble, and toss...  and suddenly, Voila! My butt is cold because it's almost on the ground... haha..  Well, ha ha only in the sense that it makes a funny image. Let me assure you after night after night after night, it ain't all that "ha ha"...  So I had the brainstorm to bring up my other bed, which is okay. I had it at home. It's not one of those sleep number bed. It's more of a bed that has your number, if you know what I mean. Creaky. Can't hang on to the foot board or the slats fall down..  lol...  Kinda lumpy, but if I remember from last December when I slept in it last, one of those lumps fits my behind kinda good. It wasn't something that I remember loving, but I sure don't remember plotting to light it on fire like I do every morning about dark-thirty o'clock when I'm cursing out a poor little daybed who looks so innocent and pretty in my window shots...


So I did the HGTV thing, and I plotted out the move on paper. Just now I've dumped the tops of several things to move. Then little nasty images of cool ways to use these tables pop into my brain. Do I want to sleep in a room that's visible from the front door most of the time? Do I want to sleep here with all the china and hutches. No, Tessa..  lol...  I can't move this stuff to my dad's room because it's the fullest room in the house. I need to down size, but that isn't happening because ...
Um...  well...  Maybe one day soon it will, but not this month.


You know. I think I'll give sleeping downstairs another shot. I mean, who wouldn't want to tromp up five stairs fifty five times a night to go to the restroom? I loved being so far away from the action. I loved a lot about that room. Right now, we robbed it of its air conditioner, so we are at the mercy of the company who promised we were first on the list over a week ago. Have I mentioned how much I hate adulting? I don't like to adult. Who let me adult anyway?


Have you ever watched Fixer Upper on HGTV? I love that show. Did you see the episode of Chip's 40th birthday surprise? I loved that. For one thing, it would be fun to have someone to surprise like that. For another, to not be pretty dang sure he'd die in a helicopter ride if I planned it? Yeah, pretty sure that's my problem because of Mom...  but Fear Factor is more my mantra than I'd like to have it. Then to get a party together out side with all those lights and with the tables and candles...  a band...  and to have pie with little labels on chalk...  and one of those pies was called Wicked Pie...  I want to have an outdoor picnic with lights and candles, kind of like that or like Cassie's from The Good Witch. I want to have my desserts labeled. I want to have one called Wicked Pie...



and I kinda just want a good night's sleep...  or a big nap.

See. This is why I don't know where to put anything...  Sensory overload? Imagination overburn? Frustration....  haha..  I asked my son sincerely if he ever thought how difficult it was for me to live here. "Huh?" he said. I laughed and repeated the question. He just made his sweet smile into a straight line mouth like he used to as a little boy...  "Um... No, Mama. Never think about it."  haha..
Then he added. "You shouldn't either." Wow. Why didn't I think of that?

THE BEST CAT EVER...  My Sally.

Whimsy and Hugs!