The Rich Bounty

Living on a farm has it's blessings.  

As with everything sometimes you have to learn to recognize the blessings.
Other times they are so obvious.

This week I received a bouquet from Lee.

 Then my mother gave me jewels of pearl and ruby.  

I snapped them up!  

Organization for the Busy Lady

Organizing Jewelry!

Sunday morning I was going through my necklaces that were all hanging from my towel hook next to my mirror in the bathroom, searching for a particular necklace and having to untangle it from the others that have attached themselves....a very frustrating time all the while thinking if I would just hang them individually it would be so easy.  

J-Hook Push Pins

It all started so innocently.  I am one of the buyers for my son's frame shop and because I am buying jewelry for the shop; I am buying jewelry for myself.  Over the period of time we have had jewelry in the shop I have accumulated a good many pieces of jewelry.  Storing the jewelry became a problem when the sheer number of pieces became more than was my jewelry organizers, boxes, etc would hold.   When I had Lee install a decorative towel hook next to my bathroom mirror for my hand towel I hung a necklace there as I took it off.  The next night I did the same thing and before long I had a dozen necklaces (or more) hanging on the towel hook, crowding out the towel long ago and piling one necklace over the other making it hard to get to the bottom necklace.  Plus there were necklaces downstairs on the table, next to the phone, in the studio next to my painting, next to the laptop on the table....you understand....I have a good many pieces and organization had no true meaning when it comes to jewelry. I had pieces I had forgotten I owned. 

I thought I would purchase a piece of plywood, cover it, frame it and put decorative hooks on it and hang the frame behind the door.  

Great idea!  

Never got done!

I got as far as buying the plywood which turned out to be a great purchase.  I use it daily with my Painting a Day challenge as the board to which I stretch my watercolor paintings.  

Recently at the grocery store I was on a mission to purchase push pins for my students when I found J-Hook push pins that looked interesting to me and I threw them in my basket. 

They are cheap-cheap-cheap.  

Just a little nail inserted into a button of plastic that has a plastic hook hanging on it.  

In five minutes I lined up the push pins on my wall behind the closet door and hung my necklaces on them.  

Behind my closet door inside my closet

The push pins come 40 to a box and I need to buy a new box to hang the rest of my jewelry.
Let's see....what shall I wear today? 

Spring Cleaning

Okay, Jackie and Gaby, this is for you...It has been a very long time since I blogged. I see it was almost a month ago. What a long time. I have been busy, I guess.

Spring has certainly arrived! I hear that while we are basking in the sun here is south Texas in Athens, Georgia where my nephew lives he had six inches of snow just recently. I can not remember when it was really cold here this year. What a mild winter we had. I guess that is one reason I love Texas. Lately it has been too cool at night to turn on the air conditioner but too warm to turn on the heater so the windows are open.

My huge cat (baby), Einstein loves to sleep on the bed next to me but he also, likes to have the freedom to decide where and when he comes and goes. I let him. I never allowed my children as much freedom as this cat seems to have. You have heard the saying "dogs have owners, cats have staff". I think it applies here.

At night he wants out and stands by the back door and rushes out at the first opportunity. He'll be out there for a little while and then he will come scratching on the window to let him in upstairs.
Usually, I am sleeping when he scratches the window.
The sound wakes me,
I get up,
walk in the dark to the door,
open the sliding glass door,
Einstein sniffs around the door as if trying to sniff out danger,
if he decides it is all clear he then slowly enters,
I slide the door closed,
I go climb back in bed fall asleep again.
This has been a routine now for a long time. In fact, Einstein has scratched a hole in the screen. First it was just a small tear in the screening and then I noticed it was about the size of a quarter or larger.

The warmth of the night invites sleeping with the windows open. The air conditioner was on downstairs and the windows open upstairs so the door between the floors was closed. Einstein came up with me while I prepared to go to bed. He curled up in his usual spot next to me and fell asleep . The next morning as I was getting ready for school I wondered where the big cat was. He could not have gotten out himself with the door closed and I did not remember getting up during the night to let him out. My mind focused on preparing for school, I just did not worry over him.

Last night Einstein rushed outside before I went to bed. I knew he would come scratching on the window upstairs soon so went on to bed. It did not take me but a few minutes before I was sound asleep. Suddenly an unfamiliar noise woke me. The sound came from outside....or was it inside? It was close and to my right side near the window, a strange ripping scratchy sound. Jumping straight up in bed and looking toward the sound I was startled to see a huge cat entering the house through the giant hole in the screen. It looked like the lion in the opening credits on those old black and white Tarzan movies.

Spring cleaning will include replacing some screens this year, I guess.

Moving on

Yup! Finally got those pics posted.
I had to wipe the counters several times to get past the layers of dust that keep settling out onto everything. But when I got past the layers of dust I found a beautiful kitchen.

I dread things like removing the ceramic tiles or the popcorn ceilings because you would not believe the mess it can make but so far, I have not found many things in remodeling that are not messy. Yesterday this looked like a demolition zone with chards of broken tiles flying through the air covering everything within a 20 foot radius. Got the injuries to prove it. I am just happy that Caleb still has his eyesight! Need goggles next time.

It does make a person keep their shoes on their feet.

Phase Two

Phase One was to put a new kitchen in the old living room area. This started last July and is still in progress but now for the rest of the story....

Phase Two has begun today.

Sometime during this last week everything in the old kitchen was moved to a new location in the new kitchen. Most things went into a temporary storage location since the upper cabinets are still getting "polycryliced". (In case you don't know that word, it is not in the dictionary yet but means applying a finish of polycrylic which is a water-based polyurethane.)


Today the old cabinets were taken out and officially I am now cooking in the new kitchen. It is much like camping out, searching for things I know I have but can not remember where I put them and cooking on an unfamiliar cooking surface. It is fun and mysterious. Opening the refrigerator is most enjoyable. Everything is where it should be but the actual appliance is in a new location and filling the void of where it belonged before it actually got in it's new location.

I will be posting pictures soon so all can see. I am a happy girl.

September Update

Life is a series of compromises.

It has been a busy beginning to the school year both at home and at school.

School is going well although I am not doing the job I thought I would be doing. Small changes have taken place at school but big differences are evident. Students are for the most part better behaved and the classrooms calmer.

At home progress is being made. Counter tops have been ordered and will be in soon. Cabinets will be finished soon. It seems to be coming together. It gets more exciting to me with every change. It is going to be beautiful.

July Update

I think July is passing faster than June. I guess August will seem like a blink.
I have added updated pics today to show you what sort of mess we are living in. Surprisingly no one is complaining. Dust is covering everything.

I leave on Monday for my trip to visit my sister and will return on the 24th. Hope all will remain well. Pray for us on our trip that all will go well.

Day One

Finally, the remodeling has actually begun in the house. Last weekend we pulled off the bricks around the window that has to be replaced but inside nothing had been done. Today, we pulled up the old carpet, removed the 1976 floor tiles along the perimeter of the old living room to make room for the new kitchen cabinets to go in and started studding out the small pantry closet.

While I am writing this post poor Einstein is looking very confused and rather put out. First there is no carpet on which to shorten his nails, his chair was moved, and what are these strange looking, funny smelling things sticking up all around. He has certainly noticed the differences and checked out every inch of the room, sniffing every board, every tool and walked in and out of new structure in the room before finally settling on the ledge of the window that by the way, will be replaced on Saturday.

I can picture it all in my head and it is going to be beautiful!

The Flylady

I hope I will be more productive tomorrow than I have been today. I had fully intended to get this house clean. I have been going online to check to see what the Flylady says I should be doing. I am too far behind to feel that picking up the clutter in the living room is all I need to do. After being occupied teaching for 10 months it is time to get in there and do the whole 9 yards. Although I will admit doing small bits and pieces of cleaning does help.

May 24, 1945

May 24, 1945 is the date in the concrete horse trough in our back yard. Back then a pier and beam house stood where my home is now. The old house belonged to Lee's aunt and her family. At some point Lee's dad came to own the land and at that time the old house was torn down and the land became farm land. A few large pecan trees, two grand old oaks, a windmill, a falling down chicken coop and a concrete horse trough were all that was left here when we decided to build our house here in 1975.

When the kids were little they used it for a swimming pool. It made a good swimming pool for them. I could watch the children from my kitchen window. At first I was concerned because it was concrete but soon felt fairly secure as no injuries ever occurred in the trough.

As all old things do, the trough needed mantainance and Ryan patched the major leak it developed while he was a college student. Then we added waterlilies and water hyacinths. Now it is full of plants and fish but it leaks terribly again. I guess it will be one of my first real projects for the summer to fix the leak. The choice is to take it out or fix it.

I just have a hard time giving up on things. Thankfully, Lee is with me on this. We will line the pond with a plastic pond liner and then do some landscaping around it and it will be a major attraction to add to the yard.

Now who else can claim to have a 1945 horse trough in their back yard?
There is too much history here to give up on it. When I look the rough concrete work on it I have a vision of the man making it.

My World is Changing

Things are going to start changing in my world.

Not only will I be off for an extended period of time in just a matter of days but my house is going to begin going through a transformation. I would say remodeling but really it is going to be more of a huge transformation. Small changes have already taken place, plans have been drawn up and everything moved out of the main room undergong the change. Already I like it better. I can look at the blank room and SEE the new room in my mind. I can hardly wait.