habit : July 1

Four unintentional days with out coffee. I decided not to make it five.

Handy Man

The replacement part for my oven came! It was a joyful day, for sure. I was so excited to get the package, I think I may have startled the poor mail carrier! Chris got right to work and in no time flat, he had that oven working perfectly, again! First order of business, clean the darn thing! Then I think, perhaps, cookies need to be made.

A is for....

Angelonia

I bought this pot of Angelonia at the garden center and immediately became smitten with it. The little flowers are so sweet and they smell wonderful, too! I decided to plant a couple of mixed pots for the front of my house using the Angelonia as a focal point.

I've added a red Egyptian Starflower and a blue-ish purple Scaévola. I'd like to add something else, but I'm not sure what that should be. The pots look great as they are, though. They really help make the front of the house look homey and inviting.


I'm taking part in this project that I stumbled upon here.

Moving In

My days, lately, are filled with moving boxes. Lots and lots of moving boxes. Somedays are spent unpacking and putting away (often followed by taking those things back out of where ever it is that I have just put them and then putting them someplace else - this happens mostly in the kitchen). Somedays are spent shuffling heavy boxes from one room to another (despite our watchful eye, many boxes ended up in the wrong rooms. Luckily the furniture did not). And then somedays are spent opening boxes, rifling through the contents and then closing the boxes back up again (so many of the boxes packed by the movers are mismarked - drinking glasses marked "garage misc"!?) Despite all of this, there is something rather satisfying about setting up a new home.

Of course, big pitcher of iced tea and reruns of Simon & Simon and Magnum, P.I. make the chore of unpacking go so much faster.

Self Portrait Tuesday - Reflective Surface #1

We are a family of 5 (4 of them males and 3 of those males are under the age of 9!) sharing 1 small bathroom. You will often find wet towels and dirty clothes on the floor, toothpaste smudge across the counter and in the sink, and soap bubbles and water spots on the mirror. The door very rarely closes.

More often than not, I have company in the bathroom. If I do get a chance to be alone with the door closed, someone is usually banging at the door or shouting to me through the crack underneath.

We have one small towel bar. It's just big enough for a bath towel and a facecloth. We have very little counter space and it's often cluttered. The only storage space is is the small cabinet under the sink.

The window is big and lets in a lot of light. It looks out on to our back yard and is high enough that we just have lace curtains so as not to block the light. The mirror is also big. Very big. It reflects the light and makes the bathroom feel more open.

The boys told me that they hope that Santa will bring us another bathroom for Christmas. I think that might be a little hard on the reindeer.

Self Portrait Tuesday - Identity #2

Domestic

I live the life of the (mostly) Happy Housewife. I used to dream of being June Cleaver. In college (and sometimes even now) I was referred to as Donna Reed.

I make weekly dinner menus. I cook from scratch. I bake for my family, for school and for church. I sew. I knit. I needlepoint. (and so much more)

On occasion, I even clean!

I enjoy being domestic. I get a feeling of accomplishment when I make something with my own hands. It's so satisfying to see the kitchen sink shine or the bathroom sparkle.

After 12 years of marriage (8 of them as a mom) I am finally starting to figure it all out. I'm understanding the line that must be maintained to keep a healthy balance. Eventually it will all click.

In the meantime the laundry is piling up but Edmund has new curtains in his room and the cookies are ready to come out of the oven.

Mischief

"Ninja Swords" by Topher (age 4)

This week's theme for is "Mischief". I was working on my own entry when this one sort of fell in to my lap. Topher decided to "make the walls pretty". He is a mischievous little scamp for sure!

The picture quality is not that great. The drawing is done in a light crayon on white walls so it was hard to get enough contrast in the picture to have it show. Next week, a real entry!

Back online!

Our move has gone well for the most part, and as you can see, I am "connected"! I still have some work to do in the old house but it is mostly tossing things in to the dumpster. Ahhh! What a great feeling - letting go of all that clutter! I've learned a lot with this sudden move. Mostly that I hang on to WAY too much nonsense. Pictures of the house to come soon - when it looks a little less 'just moved in' and a little more 'welcome to my home!'

Books and Boxes

I had a store credit for a local book store that I needed to use. SO yesterday while doing errands I stopped to shop for me. They didn't have a tremendous selection of knitting books but I did find one that looked good. There are a lot of fun projects in this book as well as other nifty tidbits (like a list of movies with knitting scenes, a recipe for a dreamy cup of hot chocolate,and tips on decorating with yarn to name a few) I have several projects already planned from this book.

In other news, we are definately moving. We actually started moving on Sunday. I'm spending this week getting packed and we have a mover (provided my the landlord, thank you!) coming to move the big stuff on Friday. I'm so overwhelmed! I guess that is to be expected though. We are staying in town but the boys will have to switch schools. They are not thrilled but they'll be fine. February vacation is in a couple of weeks so they'll make the change then.

Back to the boxes......

Knitting in Public

Our little home on the hill was struck by a disaster today. We awoke to the wretched stench of fuel oil permeating the house. I just figured that I would have to call to have the furnace cleaned. However, when I went down to the basement to do some of that ever present laundry, I discovered that a dirty furnace was not exactly my problem. We had an oil leak. Not quite the Exxon Valdez but equally as devastating (at least in my little world). They estimated about 60 gallons.

Luckily for us, all the appropriate people moved quickly on this and the basement has been cleaned up. Personal property damage is fairly minimal - mostly stuff that was going to be tossed in the next dump run anyway. And the smell is (oh so slowly) starting to dissipate. I think the biggest plus is that we don't actually own the house. There is talk of it costing in the tens of thousands to repair. Not my money though!

We decided that the best thing for us to do after all of this was to get away from the house for a little bit. We went out to dinner. I tossed a small carry along knitting project in to my bag anticipating having to wait for a table. We were going to dinner right about 6 on a Friday night after all. We only had about a 5 minute wait for the table but as we waited for our food, I pulled out my knitting. The tension started to release and I relaxed. I noticed a few people watching me but I knit right along. It was good.

And in case you were wondering, the food was good, the boys were well behaved and I didn't give in to the stress and over eat.

Tomorrow we meet with the landlord to discuss the possibility of moving to a new house. Oh joy!