This &That Thanks

 Flash from the past. This was when I graduated from nursing school in 1994. I pulled these pictures out for Father's Day. That's me with my Dad when I was a baby.

 It has been the BEST year so far. These pictures are of my daughter and her daughter together!!!

 I am so loving this.

 They had these made for mothers day.  Heather and I sat for a picture at her church they were free, a gift on Mother's day :)

A quick change of subjects let's go from family portraits to the front yard! how is that for this and that random?
 I did use rocks around the front of the bed and as you can see I need to be doing some weedin again!!

 We have had so much rain, and HOT sun!

 Which makes everything grow double time. One of my most favorite flowers is in this pot. Want to guess?

 

 Do you remember that I said I wanted to make a sign for my shed that said, "Garden of Weedin"?

 Heather painted it for me

 I love it. This "shed" just looks adorable! Inside there is nothing but junk, haha.

This kitchen is done. The smell of paint is gone the doors closed and the floor is not mopped. Got ya. I took a day off today. My back is really tired and threatening to have a hissy fit. Once in awhile I need to listen.
I boxed up packages and went to the post office & UPS.  I spent $60 shipping stuff around the globe how crazy is that? Did you ever see a 5cent stamp? I remember them they were blue and a head on them. I think it was George Washington. I also remember gas for 21 cents a gallon. Now that I have completely dated myself I can move on to another topic.....

Which is why we do all this house keeping and gardening in the first place. We make homes for family and friends. We make homes for people to gather together and sit around the table and rejoice. I love having a home and keeping a home; it is a privilege that  all of us can at times take for-granted. I think there was more meaning in the words housewife or homemaker back in the day. It seems now it's more like buying the biggest house making it look like a magazine and then eating out because everyone works. It's fine if that's the life you chose, I am not dissing anyone personally. It's just that as I get older and think more about what kind of example I leave to my family and friends I want them to remember my home, not my house.
I want them to remember meals around my table.
Evenings on the patio. Dancing to the boombox outside or picking vegetables from the garden. I hope they remember the work of my hands and the love in my heart.

Getting There Making Progress

 All of the cabinets are clean now. I am very grateful that I do not have a ginormous kitchen. This much kitchen wore me out!!!

 But it was so worth it.

 The bottom ones needed paint badly, in and out. Amazingly the wall paper that I took off had protected the paint and those with paper in them were just fine with a good scrubbing.

See these were just washed not painted. Are you wondering how I matched the paint? I wondered if I was going to get into trouble with that. I had a quart of semi gloss exterior cream color paint from the outside of the house. I figured it would work for the inside of the cabinets. I used it and as it dried I realized I really had a match!!!! I must love this color white. I couldn't have matched it this well if I tried!

 The amount of stuff I have purged from this place makes me wonder if I am getting hoarder tendencies. All of this junk came out of the little bitty store room.

 I organized it too. You could hardly walk in there. How much junk does it take to maintain two people?

How many cups? All of this did NOT go back in. I am proud to claim some empty spaces and my intentions are to leave them that way.

 Seriously? All of this is going to the garage sale.

 And the room is so much better for it.

Pantry organized. Nothing to throw away from there except for 2 snack bars that got lost in the shuffle.

Sometimes my consumerism just slaps me upside the head! I get a lot of stuff for free but that doesn't mean I have to keep it. A couple of weeks ago I found a rusty Schwinn bike in the trash. It's not as bad as it sounds I am not jumping into dumpsters. YET! Out here people set things out on the curb.
I brought it home and checked ebay. Nice and clean they sell for about $90 it looked like a 70's model. So I put it on craigslist for $20. It sold asap not bad for a little trash recycling.  I think I need to do more recycling and less keeping. I have such a hard time leaving perfectly good things on the curb for trash day.

In-spite of my dumpster inclinations and my cupboards getting over stuffed, I think my ability to toss and recycle may yet keep my kids from going through an awful ordeal when I leave this earth.  They wouldn't have to much trouble right now should I awhhhh suddenly expire for some reason; just sayin.

Like I said cleaning out Bob's place has made me think. The way I was saving up by the time I hit my nineties I'd have as much for my family to do. It's been a good experience and given me a fresh picture about accumulating. It takes everything I have to keep up with my place. Two buckets of weedin a day, vaccuming, washing, filling in the holes the dawgs dig.....and on and on. I used to do this and work full time!!!!
How did I do that? I don't know really, I marvel when I think. It's incomprehensible to me that I worked 12 hours a day and kept house.

The good news is that I am moving around well enough to take care of my home and have not been able to do that for a long time. I am so grateful! Grateful for health and grateful to this guy.

He has stayed through the good and bad, sickness and health, pack rat or minimalist; he is mine; and I love him more than I can say.  I get mushy like that when he wears a pretty shirt :)

Tomorrow I will close the cupboard doors (they have been airing still) mop the floor and move up into the attic! Then it will be back to the yard because I am behind on weedin.....

MOVING OMG

 I am always talking about moving. I really don't know why. I just get ideas and talk about going other places. It really drives my family nuts especially since the one time I actually made a move; it was huge like from California to Mississippi.

 Recently I have been working on moving. For the last month I have been packing, boxing, organizing and wearing myself out.

 It has come to this. The last of the stuff for sale.  HIS stuff!!

Because we moved him to be closer to his family. It's the best thing for him and he moves into an assisted living apartment near his sons this weekend. You would think that would be enough to do right?

But noooooooo. Actually it freaked me out about stuff. You would not believe how much stuff people accumulate A lot of it was just trash too;sooooooooo.....I decided to start CLEANING.

When we first got here wall paper was so IN. It was also cheap and I thought I was so brilliant using wallpaper for shelf paper in my kitchen cabinets.It was a lot less than contact paper which is so retro now.
She says tongue in cheek.

 It has stayed right where I put it because I glued it on. Yes indeedy! Brains I tell ya!!!

 I have a lot of cupboards to clean and remove the paper. The only thing good about it is the paint is in pretty decent shape underneath. I thought about painting but then where would I stop? Everything needs paint.All the paint is the same age if I repaint the cabinets I'll repaint the trim and then the moldings and the doors and....you SEE? It would end up with me doing all the woodwork in the whole house!  I want to live so I decided not to paint.

 So no on the painting. Yes, to the cleaning and yes to some purging. We all collect stuff. It's scary when you move to see how much there is to do. Just in case I really decide to go somewhere else it won't be so bad when I finish this.

 This entire side is finished including the drawers. It looks so clean and nice. I am worn out. But I have the rest of the kitchen to finish. Then the laundry room and the pantry.

 If I am still alive I will just stay put and enjoy it.

Pretty impressive right? Or maybe just crazy.

Truthfully I am really grateful to be able to clean my house again. It really needs it. I won't tell you how many years it's been since it's had a good, "going over". Spring is for cleaning, gardening and basically working yourself to death right?
I hope I can move tomorrow morning.