About This Time...

About this time two weeks ago I was packing the car with my prints, ready to give the Saturday market another chance. My how things have changed since then. Seriously, I'm in shock that it is February 5 already. January has flown right by me. Because I know you'll want to know--I had a long conversation with Karen, of the bleeding brain fame, and she sounds terrific! Each day she grows stronger and stronger, with her latest CT scan perfect! How about them apples?

There is probably nothing quite like dismantling another home to make one realize how much they have neglected their own home. On Wednesday I spent eight hours working in Zellwood cleaning out drawers, the pantry and cupboards. When I'd called the food bank last week the nice woman mentioned that oftentimes older people have a pantry full of expired food. Aside from a few boxes of Jello, there really wasn't all that much to throw out due to an expired date. It seems as if Mom had made a recent trip to Costco, so she did have thirty cans of V-8, twelve rolls of paper towels, 3 lb. bag of Crasins, you get my drift. What most puzzled me in the pantry was a 48oz. unopened container of Nestle's Quick. I totally wondered if she drank that much chocolate milk.

For Christmas I'd given her new dish towels from William-Sonoma, exhorting her to throw out all the old stuff and start fresh. I found the towels in their original packaging. The kitchen drawer was still jam packed with old towels and potholders. Check out the great shape these are in:I suspect most everyone reading this narrative will recall the great feeling of satisfaction after making one of these beauties!

So now I know where Bruce's amazing storage skills came from--his Mom. It is astonishing how creative she was at storing things. Every little nook and cranny was put to good use. Another thing that made this job easy was that everything was clean; I can honestly say there was not one thing that made me say ICK--I don't want to touch that. Instead it made me admire her all the more.

Thus, I was inspired to clean out my own cupboards. From the moment I awoke (aside from occasional computer use, tea making, and eating), I worked feverishly dismantling my own kitchen--trashing, cleaning, and re-organizing. This took hours and hours. I'm pleased.

The guest room, formerly Bill and David's bedroom, is decorated in a peaceful, and I hope, sophisticated style. That may be a bit of a stretch, but that was the intention. Most of the curtains in our home are wild prints except for the ones in that room. They are white tab curtains. Floor length, like white sentries on either side of the windows. Looking at things with my new eyes, I realized that I'd never washed those curtains in the, I'm ashamed to admit, six years they've been hanging. Let's all just think ICK right now, shall we? Adding to the shame, I moved them a bit, discovering, with horror I might add, that a bug had left a trail on said curtain panel. Pathetic!!!!

You're probably one step ahead of my typing aren't you? Yes, I washed, bleached, and ironed those babies today. This makes me feel better. Poor, neglected house...

I was thinking today that dust is not my friend, and who, pray tell, invited it into my home without an invitation??? Still working on that...

We've had more rain this winter than I can remember, but I guess that's not saying much. Today we received a statement detailing a transaction that Bruce cashed in some stock options in April. I gave him a call at the office, asking him if he remembered what we did with the money....he can't remember either. We're quite the pair in that department!
Tears from heaven is what I'm thinking about this...

Finally, our former book editor at the Sentinel has begun blogging about, you guessed it, books,Nancy Pate. If you need a fix of good grammar and punctuation, go there!