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.

Entertaining Out of Town Friends

 What do you do when you have company for a week? You have to find something for them to do right?
Even best friends can't sit around all day every day and just jaw, eat, and drink beer. Where we live there are a few attractions that guys would like. One day we decided to go check out this place.

 I have to admit I was impressed. I even tried on a back pack. The real kind. I immediately took it off too.

 Out here they have some fun slogans....

don't get me wrong I am not insinuating anything.

I had a blast taking pictures here.

This is a toy shop for grown up kids.

 Like
WOW.
 OK I would not want all the animal heads in my house but I am so into this fireplace and the SCREEN!

 This couch, I want this couch. Who knows what a couch trimmed in real cowhide costs. The cushions were buttery soft and the color perfect. I love country. I didn't know that until I came into this place. When I saw the couch it was love at first sit. Looking at that gorgeous fireplace and that sculptured fireplace screen.

 This is a closeup of the detailed metal sculptures on the screen. Amazing.

 The top corner talk about 3D,how about some gorgeous leaves and branches?

 He's your little Huckleberry, such great artwork. The day was coming up roses and then this!!!! They had my truck! The first vehicle I ever bought for myself and paid $200 for it. Those really were good old days.
I LOVED my Chevy truck. It was this color too, and it was a 3 speed on the column just like this.

 So I posed in front of it.

 and got some sass goin on....

 Hey baby wanta ride?

 I tried to get in it but the door was locked.
I woulda just borrowed it.

 They had a lot of exhibits, like this coyote.

 live fish

 The store has so many lights it was impossible not get reflections from the lights on the glass. These fish were huge. They are intended to make guys who like fish go for the gusto and buy out the fishing gear department.

 They make it look good.

 This is my toy of choice. These are FUN. They just are. Yeah I know they are dangerous but they are also fun.

 Meeting him would be dangerous.

This was on the wall a very cool display.

Made me want to go find a lake and paddle around.

Seriously this place can inspire you to go somewhere and get busy.

 

 Nice boats.

and my guy. What a sport he jumped up on this boat to put the SIZE of this motor in perspective. Seriously I feel like a part of the dark ages. When did this size motor come out and wow you should have seen this $22,000 boat! The seats looked awesome like you could sit in them comfortably all day long. It had a hard deck for people to stand on while fishing.  Me? I loved the motor I gotta need for speed. I wish we could have taken this baby out onto the reservoir and just borrowed it.

Like I said they gotta great store motto.

Fixins Projects, Progress & Experiments.

 Today started out really lazy for everybody. We just could not get started! Mercy was in sync with me. Let's just lie down mom. Yeah Merc let's just sit here, my arms feel like lead pipes. Move over that dog bed is lookin real good to me.

 I din't fit on her bed so eventually I at least started walking around and checking the areas where I am fighting rain water erosion. What looks like a foot print here is actually soil loss. I still have some work to do here. You can see how there is an edge about an inch high or low depending on how you would describe this.

 This is a lousy picture. This is supposed to show you that I worked this area and planted my tomato seedlings. I see a big fat weed smack dab in front of a rock. HOW did I miss THAT?

 This one looks bizarre! Look at the optical illusion created by the angles. Photography intrigues and surprises me. One of these days I'll take a class.

 Trim is happening people. The man on the ladder can paint! Just a little FYI it rained before it dried. He will most likely have to paint some more.
While inspecting and walking I meandered out front.

 I love the light in the afternoon before sunset. I decided to experiment and photograph my house from a bunch of different angles.  I started on the far right of the lawn and worked my way over to the driveway.  The sun is coming over the far left corner of the house.

 I also changed how far away I was standing.  Here there are more angle illusions, weird huh? The arbor has an odd effect from this position. This isn't a place I would usually select to take a shot. I am experimenting.

 Hmmmm this one is pretty good.  Still weird angles and not great light.

 I like this one the best. I am so grateful for digital photos so you can shoot a lot and pick one or two.  This one does it for me. I wish I had a picture to show you of the house before we painted and made new shutters. All those pictures were lost with the last computer blow up. There are some in old posts, somewhere. I am too lazy to go looking. HA!

 This one focuses more on the beds. It doesn't capture the light as well. What do you think? Some of you have learned a lot about photography.

My rock work here is a success the driveway is clean and my neighbor did not receive a cubic foot of topsoil. YEAH!  This made me so happy I went and painted some doors and made a salad for dinner.
Life is good. Everything that has been transplanted is uber happy too. I need a plan for this bare patch. It was solidly filled with ajuga which obviously did not make it threw the winter. My husband will veto rocks even though that would look good because of weed whacking. Any ideas?

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.
I hope you are blessed. Everyone has a mother, some of us are mother's, some want to be and aren't, and some have lost their mother's either recently or a long time ago. I pray that God bless, comfort, and encourage each of you wherever you are in that journey. My mom is smiling and hugging her twin who just recently joined her in heaven. That is the best place to be. One day I'll be there and missing my mom will be forgotten. In the mean time I get to fully embrace and enjoy being a mother and a Nannie; and I LOVE IT!
I have 12 grands and counting one of these days there will be the great grands. Like I said life is good I am abundantly BLESSED.