No Lazy Days of Summer Here

Not enough hours in the day!  I still have so much outside work to do.  I'm still trimming and cleaning out my cotoneaster bushes and it's taking up way too much time.  

Last week Mom and I found our way to this Amish greenhouse that we had heard about and they had the biggest baskets of flowers I have ever seen for $15.00 each.  I asked the cute little Amish girl how they get them so big and she told me in her sweet little Amish accent voice, "They just grow".

This pot of these little yellow flowers was about $1.50!

I hung this huge basket next to my blue and pink seating area.  See my previous post.

Over the weekend, Mom and I took a little road trip to Pittsburgh to help Spring clean my girlfriend's mother's house.  Her mother and my mother were very good friends years ago, and the four of us have reunited recently.  See post about this here.  My friend's mother had a stroke a couple of years ago and just isn't able to keep up with her house by herself.  So my girlfriend arranged for a Spring Cleaning Party with family and friends jumping in with scrub buckets and food.  Mom and I drove the 4 hours to get there Saturday morning and spent the night in a very nice room at a Country Inns and Suites.  We cleaned again on Sunday and got back on the road for the trip home by 3:00.  It was fun!  Really!

I'm cleaning the light fixture in the master bath.  With a smile!

Hubby couldn't quite understand why we would be willing to do this when I keep saying how much work I have to do around here.  We did it because they asked!

We also stopped at an outlet mall before coming home.  I've been looking for a dress for my upcoming 35th year class reunion coming up next weekend in Cincinnati.  I wanted something classy, but sexy, but not too revealing, that fit well but not too tight, oh my!  And I think I found it!  We went into Dress Barn and I wasn't hopeful because I had been to a Dress Barn years and years ago and was not impressed.  Well, this one was a nice store with very nice clothes. 

Here it is.  I'll be sure to get a picture the night of the reunion.

I also found this cute little pink top and had to get it, too.

This weekend we have a wedding to go to on Saturday.  Sunday we'll have the 3 grandkids here and are going to brunch for Father's Day.  On Thursday I leave for Cincinnati to meet up with my best friend that now lives in California and we'll be going to our class reunion get togethers on Friday and Saturday nights.  I'll come home on Monday and then on Saturday the 2nd, we're having a 4th of July party here.  

For someone (me) that likes to just stay home and putz around the house, I don't know why I let myself get so    busy!

Spring to Summer in One Week

Well, I can't believe a week has gone by since I last wrote.  I hate when that happens!  In that week we've gone straight from a few days of Spring right into the hot and humid days of a Northeast summer!  I'm not complaining!  I'm just sayin'!  This is the weather I love.  It's been about 75 degrees first thing in the morning, which makes it so nice to sit out on the deck early in the morning drinking my first cup of coffee.

This is where I sit. My color scheme on my deck, obviously, is red, yellow and black 

This is my view

 I can also tell summer is here because my "rockin pneumonia and boogy woogy flu" has now made way for allergies, complete with sneezing, itchy eyes, stuffy nose and headache.  Oh well - just taking different pills!

Last Memorial weekend was just beautiful!  Hubby (unwillingly) helped me work outside for the weekend to get the yard and gardens in order.  And when I say help, that's what I mean.  He'll do what I ask, but with a little growl! He would never think of what needs done on his own.   Why does he think this is unnecessary work?  Being the organized person I am, I knew with our schedule that we had to get as much done last weekend as we could.  Every weekend up until the 4th of July is booked.  Then the weekend of the 4th we're having a party.  Planning ahead and scheduling is the only way to do all this.  I would prefer to not be quite so busy myself, but that's just the way our life is right now.

I still have quite a bit to do, but I feel much better with this good start.  More flowers will be added, weeds will continually be pulled, and a few more old leaves and sticks need to be picked up.
My little garden in front of and under my deck is coming along.

This garden is mostly white, pink, and some purple.  The green bench back against the wall is going to be painted white.  The purple cat nip is now blooming, along with the chives and some lavender.  My pink roses  and the other pink flowers haven't bloomed yet.  I'm no master gardener and there is a lot of trial and error, but I keep at it every year.  We have such a huge deer population so I need to plant deer resistant perennials. Then just when you think you've only planted what the deer don't like, they come along and eat it!  I have to keep all (or most) annuals up on the top deck or hanging high enough so deer can't get to it.
These "angel wing begonias" I just found at the farm market.  I've never seen them before.

The impatient I just got today.

Then I found this cute little wall hanging at JoAnn's at 50% off today.

My perennial garden beside my shed always looks a little wild.  But I kind of like it like that.  Deer can really flock to this place in the middle of the night, so it's very difficult to grow.

Not too much is blooming here yet.  The purple ajuga ground cover has bloomed and is now about ready to be cut down.  The purple irises are just now blooming.

 I have butterfly bushes that are coming up but won't bloom for a while.  Out growing season comes late and doesn't last long.  The chiminea we had for years on our deck, but after so many years it started to disintegrate, so Hubby stuck it in the garden.  I kind of like it there.  I'll stick some flowers in it later.

My seating area by the lake still needs cleaned up, but I at least got the furniture cleaned off from winter grime.  Fresh coats of pink and blue paint have been applied where needed.  Pink and blue is my color scheme for this area.

I had this old bird cage that was getting very rusty, so I decided to just paint it pink, too.

I love this sitting area in the evening with a glass of wine and when the kids are here we'll roast marchmallows and make smores.  They'll be here Saturday night, so that's exactly what's on the schedule as long as it doesn't rain!

Linking to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday 
and Alison's Fridays Unfolded

Don't Mess With Me, Calli!

I'm off schedule!! Oh No!  I try to stay organized and on a schedule or I don't get everything done.  Sometimes that's hard to do.  It throws me for a day and then I re-group.  Yesterday just wasn't going as planned.

Usually on Tuesdays I do office work all day. This consists of mailings, letters and computer work for our Financial Planning business.  (My real work that actually makes some money, as Hubby reminds me).  I had already figured that office work may not get done this week because we are leaving Sunday for a 7 day cruise to Bermuda.  I'm very excited, especially to get out of this chilly, rainy weather we've been having.  Although I must say, yesterday was beautiful here and today's not bad.  This beautiful blue bird now comes to visit me twice a day.

 I ended up working in my garden all afternoon yesterday.  I had to! It felt so good!  It was too nice to not be outside and the gardens are still a mess from being buried under old Autumn leaves and then snow on top of that all winter. That was my Tuesday afternoon.  My Tuesday morning was a complete disgusting bust.

I walked downstairs first thing Tuesday morning to feed Calli, my cat, and to bring my storage boxes of summer clothes upstairs to decide what to pack.  I've never been on a cruise and I've never been to Bermuda.  I have no idea what to expect in the way of activities, weather (it better be nice!), and comfort.

Yesterday was supposed to be the start of the packing.  But instead, I woke up to a smell in my basement, which is a finished family room.  Hubby and I decided it was cat urine.  Our cat, 16 year old Callie, lives down there since she doesn't get along with the dogs upstairs and she sheds so much. I used to limit her domain to the furnace room, but fairly recently I started letting her occupy the whole downstairs.  She loves to just lay on the  couch, which I have covered with towels and sheets.

 Well, for some reason she had just recently peed behind the furnace. At least it's a concrete floor and not carpeted there.  She's never done that!  What was that about?!  She's an indoor cat and doesn't have claws so I can't just keep her outside all the time.  Anyway, I spent all morning scrubbing, bleaching, and washing the furnace room.  I was mad, in tears and ready to put her down.  I even called the vet and asked her about it.  Then I cried some more.  I know, it sounds like no big deal, but I can't stand the smell of cat urine and it is so hard to eradicate.  Then the cat goes back to the same place to go again if the smell stays there.  I just can't have that!  I got to thinking, though, that we had company over the weekend and my cousin and his son slept down there.  They invaded her new space and she got mad!  Once I decided that may be the issue, she got a reprieve!  She's old but she's healthy and the thought of just making that decision to put her down because I was mad at her made me so depressed.  And I don't think I could find another good home for her because she's a 16 year old cat that maybe pees where she shouldn't and doesn't love a lot of people.  Who wants to take that on?

So that  has been my quandary for a few days and it's just been making me sick.  But after the big clean up and the company has left we seem to be settled down again.  Now, though, we're going to be away for a week and my neighbor is going to come in to feed the cat.  How is she going to react to that?  The neighbor has done this before for us but Calli is getting funny in her old age.  If I come back to a smelly mess I'll need to do something.  Any suggestions?  I know this maybe sounds trivial and dumb, but it's a big deal to a clean freak like me, but yet loves her "babies".

Now in writing all these thoughts down, I think for now anyway, I've maybe answered my own question.  I'll just keep cleaning whenever I have to and let Calli live a happy spoiled life until she dies an easy natural old age death.  If she starts to suffer, versus me suffering, then I'll make that hard decision!.  That's my feeling today!  Yesterday was, and tomorrow possibly could be, a different story!

So - What Do You Do All Day?

I get asked this question quite a bit.   I decided about seven years ago, at the age of 46, to sell my insurance business and stay home to work with my husband at his home office and his financial planning business.  I now work from home part time for him and do his marketing, advertising, and computer work.  So I tease, and when people ask what I do, I tell them I'm just Bob's trophy wife!  Yea, right!!

It has always been a dream of mine to be able to stay home.  I had a stay at home mother and she always encouraged me to work, have a career, and be able to support myself.  So I did.  But deep down I envied those mothers and women that were able to stay home.  I loved my career for many years, but I always wanted to be like June Cleaver.  I love homemaking, decorating, cooking, and just making a house a home.  I guess I've been very fortunate in being able to have both lifestyles.  I'm now a SAHW (Stay At Home Wife) and a SAHG (Stay At Home Grandma), and I love my life.   I'm busier than ever.  That's the part people don't understand.  Just because you don't work outside the home doesn't mean that you're not productive and contributing.  I know Hubby wouldn't be as good at what he does if I didn't do all that I do.  I could go on and on about this point, but I won't right now.

This is what I do.

My little office space in my kitchen, where I work my job for my Hubby two to three days a week.  And see the hand weights sitting there?  I'll do arm curls while I'm sitting and waiting for a download or something to print.  I'm the queen of multi-tasking!

Then there's the laundry

And the ironing.  Yes, I iron.  I still wash and iron all Hubby's work shirts, and I even iron my sheets. 

I clean all the floors



and dust.

Clean the toilets.  I have four of them.

Once a week I clip and print coupons and go through the store's specials and make up my grocery list. I cook dinner usually five or six nights a week.  We try to eat fairly light and healthy, so we don't like to go out to eat too much.   Every Wednesday I keep open for all my errands.  I really hate to have to leave the house any other weekday or I just can't get everything done.

Then there are my babies that go to the door every few hours and need to go out!  Little Fergie doesn't always wait for me to let him out, if you know what I mean!  He's such a little stinker!

This past couple of weeks we've also been remodeling our powder room.  I showed you the progress up to last week here.

Here's an update:

I got the towel ring and toilet paper holder up.  They are oil rubbed bronze and will go well with the decor. and sink and faucet that aren't in yet.

I just hung the new valance this morning.  It goes perfect with the paint and art work.

I found this crackled copper vase and filled it with thiss smell good stuff that I can't think of the name of right now (senior moment).  I love the smell and the colors were perfect.

I haven't even mentioned my hobbies that I keep busy with in the evenings and in my spare time.  I'm going to have to designate a separate post to show you what I've been up to with my knitting and quilting.  I've been pretty busy lately in this area.  I have a lot of new creations to show.  There's also my blogging and Etsy hobby. 

Then, of course, there's a lot of time spent with my family including my parents, my son and his family that live nearby and my precious grandchildren. 

So there.  I'm busy with almost every minute of my day filled but it's filled doing everything I love!  There aren't enough hours in a day for me and I can luckily say that I am never bored! 

Aren't trophy wives supposed to just be pampered all day and sit around eating bon bons?  Not this trophy wife!

Linking this post to Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Spring Cleaning and Decorating

I can't believe it!  The sun is shining and it's 64 degrees outside.  It feels so good for a change.  I was going to start my Easter/Spring decorating today anyway, but now I'm so much more motivated.  Of course, nothing is blooming and the melting snow is leaving everything looking dirty and wet, but a change is on the way.

Here's a little bit of the snow still laying around.

Surely this will be gone by tomorrow.

I brought in the last remnants of Christmas and winter decorations.  The wooden trees and little wooden snowman that were still on the back deck are finally put away.

GONE!!

Now my bunnies are out guarding the back and front doors until Easter.

Oh, the shovel has been put away, hopefully not to be seen again for another 8 months.

That's about it so far.  There's much more to do, but I clean as I go so it takes me a while.  I got all the St. Patrick's things gathered to be put away.

So now the Rubbermaid box labeled St. Patrick's Day can be brought up from the basement and packed and the Easter/Spring Rubbermaid boxes can be carried up.  I always forget what I have and each season it's like opening gift boxes as I sort out my seasonal decorations.  Then, of course, a trip or two always has to be made to JoAnn's to replace and update.  

My other seasonal decorating that needs to be done is my blog!  I love updating it a little each season, too.  Just because it's fun and makes me feel good!  

So you know what I'll be doing over the weekend.  Busy!  Busy!

I'm linking to My Romanic Homes Show and Tell Friday here
and Stuff and Nonsense Friday's Unfolded here

I Tried So Hard Not to be Sick

I thought I got lucky.  I thought I was safe.  I thought the bad, dreaded, stomach flu had passed me up!  I had finally got over the sore throat, then Hubby got the stomach flu, and I was feeling pretty good and doing everything I could to stay clear of him.  I slept in a separate room, washed all his sheets, blankets, towels, toilet, sink, everything he touched.  On Monday he felt better and I was feeling good, and then BAM!  Monday night an invisible truck hit me and my whole body hurt and I couldn't sleep and by Tuesday morning the ugly stuff started.  I don't want to be too graphic, but it's the kind of sick where you just can't get out of bed so you keep a bucket and towel next to you and the pains in my stomach were so bad I thought I was dying.  I think I pretty much proved that no matter what you do, or how clean and sterile you are, if you live in the same house and breath the same air, you're going to catch what the other one has.  This is where I spent my Tuesday.  From here:

 To here:

And back again.  These pictures are after the clean up.  I wouldn't dare have shown the ugly before!

If I could have even sat up a little bit I could have done a little bit of knitting.  If my eyes weren't burning so bad and if my head wasn't pounding, maybe I could have looked through my new "Creative Knitting" magazine that Hubby just brought me from the mail box.  But NO!  NO could do!

Hubby took the babies to the groomer for me.  At least they were clean and smelled good, unlike their Mommy.

I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be able to stay awake long enough or feel well enough to watch the first night of American Idol.

 I wait for that show for eight months to start back up.  I always make sure I don't schedule anything else for the night's that it's on.  I took a nice nap in the afternoon and Hubby brought me some Advil with my Ginger Ale (my one and only meal of the day) and I was able to actually sit up a little bit and knit while I watched American Idol.  It was good!  I wasn't sure what to expect with Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, but I think it's better than ever.  Can't wait for tonight.  It's going to be a good season.

Now today I'm on the mend again.  I'm weak, several pounds lighter, food looks terrible to me, but I'm on my feet.  Back to more cleaning, scrubbing and sterilizing.  I'm just so glad the timing was such that this was the week that the kids aren't here.  If it could have been worse, that would have done it!

A Good Night's Sleep is Priceless

I'm feeling much better!  What a difference a good day's rest and a good night's sleep makes.  I don't necessarily require a lot of hours of sleep, but the hours that I do sleep need to be worth it!  Uninterrupted and deep.  The bad news is that poor hubby is now sick.  His sick (and it better stay "his") was the stomach kind, not the head kind like mine was.  So I slept in the guest room last night since the kids are away for the week.  I think that's only the second time in six years that I've slept up there.  I have to say that I think that is why I slept so well.  I know he would feel terrible if I told him that, so I'll keep it a secret!

Today has been a very quiet day all to myself.  Hubby has been sleeping all day and wants absolutely nothing to eat.  He's still blaming his sickness on bad Chinese food from Friday night, but I feel sure it's a flu bug.  I bet we don't get Chinese again for quite a while, though.
So anyway, I've been putzin' around the house, cleaning and catching up on the computer. Uhhhh!! It feels so good!  I still had the lower level family room to clean up from Christmas.  That's the last room to get done.  Finally, all the Christmas decorations are down and all the boxes and bins are put away.  I just need to dust and run the vacuum down there now.  I thought I'd take a little lunch break first.  Don't want to overdue it!
I keep my girly, lacey Christmas tree up through St. Patrick's Day because I like to decorate it for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day.  I did the Valentine's decorating last weekend right before the kids got here.  As you can see, the tree isn't that much different, except I try to take off anything that looks real Christmasy and put on some red bulbs and hearts, with heart garland.  It's all pink, white, red and lacey.

My mantel is back to normal now with a few little wooden hearts added.

The entrance foyer table is ready to welcome now with a Valentine greeting.

I still might do more with this.  A trip to JoAnn's is needed.

And last night, since I had no interruptions from about 5:00 to 11:00, I was able to almost finish two knitting projects.  This one is a scarf that I made from very good yarn that Hubby got me for Christmas.  I would have never spent this much money on yarn myself!  It's silk and mohair with silver metallic threads in it.  Then I beaded the yarn to make silver beaded fringe.  This looks really pretty with a black turtleneck.

This little white baby hat is one of two.  The second one isn't finished yet.  One will have a pink flower and trim and the other will have a purple flower and trim.  The daughter of a very good friend of mine just adopted 

two twin girls from Africa.  She will be going back to Africa to pick them up next month.  This Saturday I am going to a baby shower for her.

Well, my lunch break is over, so I'll go clean downstairs for about an hour and then I'm done for today.  

Renew With the New Year

I love the Holidays and November and December are my favorite months, BUT --- I'm glad it's over!  I enjoy the decorations, the songs, the snow, the food, all my family, the house filled with five grandchildren,

travelling to Cincinnati to visit the relatives living there, sitting by the blazing fireplace with the Christmas tree lights on in the evenings, the whole nine yards!  BUT --- I'm glad it's over!  When it's over, I'm done.  I don't want to hear one more Christmas carol or look at the big Christmas tree and stockings over the fireplace for one more minute.

I made my favorite New Year's meal of pork, sauerkraut, corn and applesauce on New Year's Eve instead of the customary New Year's Day since Brandon and Dee would be leaving on New Year's Day.

 I just love that meal.  Dee made the best desert, too.  It was an ice cream cake with layers of vanilla ice cream, crushed Oreos and Butterfingers, with caramel sauce.  Oh My! It was so good!

  Once the New Year hits, I'm ready to clean, organize and start new.  I was so tired on Saturday after all the family had left and Hubby was gone for the day to take Brandon and family to Pittsburgh.  Brandon was catching  the plane back to Spokane and Diana and the kids are staying the week with her family in Pittsburgh.  She and the kids will be back here next week.   I was tired and the house was quiet so you would think I would rest or nap all day, but I just couldn't bring myself  to do that.  I could not look at that tree any longer and if I would have tried to take a nap I wouldn't have been able to sleep knowing that tree was still standing.

Here's the before and after.

Awww!  That feels better!  I loved the "before" up until December 31.  Now I sit at night in my big comfy chair and knit.  

I spent Sunday getting out my new calendars and making sure I had all the birthdays written in.

 This last calendar was a Christmas gift from my kids.  My DIL Melissa put it together.  Each month features different pictures of my grandchildren and highlights the grandchild whose birthday it may be for that particular month.  I just love it.  I've requested that she do this each year for me with the current pictures of the kids each year.  Won't this be so fun to look back on in 20 years?

We were so fortunate this year to have all my kids home for Christmas.  I know that it's not going to happen every year, so I will treasure these memories in pictures.  2010 was a very emotional roller coaster year for us.  I lost my mother-in-law, my grandmother and my grandfather all within six months.  I gained two new beautiful grandchildren; Leanna, now 6 months old and Heath, now 4 months old.  No one can predict what 2011 will present, but I think I could go for a  little smoother ride this year.  

Happy and Good New Year to all!!