My Weekend Find

My husband says I gravitate towards things from the 70's when I shop vintage.  That may be true.  Actually, that is true. There is something about the style, the color, the feel of an item from the 70's that calls to me.

When we go out garage sale-ing, he shakes his head, with a grin, when he sees my hand reach for a harvest gold cup, or an avocado green glass bowl.  He knows I can't help it!

When we got out of our car this past Saturday, and looked across the parking lot at the rummage sale wares, I saw something orange and velour and I had to have it.  I went right to it and when I saw the price, I snapped it up.

What could be better than this darling footstool for $1?

How about it's mate for another $1?

I'd meant for them to go down to my booth, but I made the mistake of putting them in my living room and giving them a test run.  They are the perfect height for our couch and they are comfy for our feet and I think I might keep them!

Even my husband agreed....they are pretty much wonderful for relaxing.....orange velour and all.

I am linking to Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl.

Summer Brain

There comes a point every year, about right now, that I get a gigantic case of Summer Brain.

My whole focus is how to get the stuff I've got to do done so I can do what I want to do....which is not one darn thing.

It might not be a hot summer for us so far, but I've still got the mind set of summer: nothing a good book, the hammock, and dinner grilling can't solve!

This is all to explain why I'm not as faithfully writing as I usually am.  Summer calls and my brain melts a little.  All in a good way, of course!

Dream A Little Dream

Dream a little dream
A day dream, a night dream
Dream soft fluffy clouds
and rainbows of color
Dream tantalizing stories
and mesmerizing tales
Dream of scaling great heights
and diving some depths
Dream in magical glittering sparkles
and rose colored glasses
Dream plans of grand design
and goals of intricate measure
Dream of things, places, people
and the who you want to be
Dream a little dream
and dream it big!

This post inspired by prompt #5 at Mama's Losin' It!

Well, I Was Wrong

Yesterday morning, I said I was not going to turn on the furnace.  I just put another layer on and snuggled down on the couch with a cup of hot coffee and stayed cozy until I had to get up to go to work.

And while I was at work, I was warm, even so much as to have the fan blowing on me.

But then I came home for lunch and it was COLD in the house.  I asked my daughter if she thought it was cold in here too, and she said YES.  Freezing cold.

So we turned on the furnace to chase off the chill.

It made my lunch break so much nicer after I got warm again!

The "Winter" Quilt

There was a brief period of time this "summer" that the "winter" quilt was not on our bed.  I took it off last weekend when my husband was out of town and couldn't complain too much about freezing to death.  We lasted a week without it, although the quilt was within arms reach on my husbands side of the bed.

But last night it was cold.  I even turned off the fans and closed windows, put on my thick sweatshirt and wrapped up in a blanket.  For a moment, I was worried that I was coming down with an illness, because I am never cold like that!

When we went to bed and lay shivering under the thin blanket, I asked my husband if he thought we needed the quilt and he said absolutely positively yes.  It was quickly thrown over us and it was very nice.

Not sure how the rest of this summer is going to warm up, but I've given up on putting away the quilt!  The only thing I haven't changed my mind on is the furnace is off.  Thus the sweatshirt and warm socks being worn by me as I sit here on this freezing early morning!

Be Good And Be Careful

Be good and be careful
Are the words I say
As I send the kids off
Into the world each day

Be good to yourself
And to each fellow man
Treat all with kindness
Lend help when you can

Be careful please too
Don't take drugs or strange candy
Look both ways before crossing
Avoid vans and dark alleys

Be good and be careful
The kids've heard it before
They wink and they nod
As they head out the door

With a casual "Of course"
And a "No worries, Mom"
They take off untroubled
While I try to stay calm!

From Julys Gone By

I've never re-posted before, but I liked prompt #5: recycle a favorite post from July of any year you've been blogging over at Mama's Losin' It!  I had a hard time picking my favorite but my daughter narrowed it down to the top 8, then the top 4, then the top 2, and finally, the top one.

From July 30, 2009, "I Want To Be Mrs. Weasley."

I recently took a quiz on Facebook (yes, that horrible place has sort of sucked me in) to see which Harry Potter character I am.

I am Ron Weasley. I'll take it because I love Ron and his whole family, but who I really want to be is Mrs. Weasley.

Mrs Weasley takes the prize. She takes in Harry as one of her own, giving him presents at Christmas, sharing what little their large family has with a friend of her son's. She's still in love with her husband, even when he does silly things that exasperate her. She's not afraid to send her boys a howler if they deserve it.

Then in the fight of good and evil, she does not hesitate to fight for good, no matter what. Sure, she worries for her kids, and sure, having Harry Potter hang around puts everyone in danger, but she does not hesitate. One son works for the wrong side, one son gets badly mauled by a werewolf, one son loses his ear, and in the final battle one son dies.

And through it all, she knows it is better to lose on the side of good, then give in to evil. You've got to admire that kind of dedication.

Plus, when she gets down to the final battle and sees Bellatrix fighting with Ginny Weasley, Mrs Weasley becomes a mother bear. My favorite line in the whole books is: "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

Needless to say, Mrs Weasley wipes the floor with Bellatrix and that should be a lesson to all. Don't poke a mother bear. She's fearless, ferocious, and only has one goal: protect her cub.

I quite like that.

The Twilight Bark

On nights like tonight, when every dog in the neighborhood is barking and howling, even the dogs who are usually silent and turn out to have a super scary bark that gives me the shivers, when they all go bonkers at once, I think two things.

One, what do they sense in the wind that we don't know is coming?  And two, the Twilight Bark is a very real thing and somewhere, 101 spotted puppies must be missing!

Work And Life And All Points Between

There is a spot
On the front porch
With a chair that fits just right
A footstool perfect for my feet
A table to rest my beer on
Between work and life
And laundry and dishes
And husband and children

There is a spot
On the front porch
With a cool evening breeze
A sunset in golds and pinks
A scent of fresh cut grass
Between work and life
And phone calls and emails
And filing and scanning

There is a spot
On the front porch
That calls to me after a long day
Take a load off, put my feet up
Hold hubby's hand
And just be.

Of One Direction And Spam

I thought watching the "One Direction" special on TV with my daughter was the only thing I was going to enjoy so shamelessly, with no regrets and complete with the "pause this show while I go to the restroom so I don't miss a single moment" devotion.

And then my son came home from work, starving, and fried up some spam.

A little back story: I have successfully not eaten spam for almost 38 years.  I can remember my Aunt once asking, aghast, that I'd never had a hot spam sandwich, and I, equally aghast, said absolutely not.  I had no desire to open a can of 'meat' and eat it.

I'd been raising my children the same way, but on his spring break camping trip, my son tasted spam for the first time, and he loves it.  I would occasionally buy a can for him but I have never been home when he cooked it.

So it's 10:30 at night, I'm full of contentment after watching the latest wonder boy band (they are really talented!) and my son asked me to please try the spam he was cooking. I tried using logic (10:30 is so late to be eating fried, greasy meat) but he just kept offering it.

I grudgingly took one tiny piece, fresh off the griddle, and OMG.  I ate a second one too.

I have no regrets on my new found love of British boy band music or canned meat fried to a crisp.  Both are that good!

Checking Off The To Do's

Today I have checked everything off my list of to-do's.  Well, let me amend that.  My first to-do list was insanely out of the realm of feasibility.  This second list was manageable and could be done and I did it.

Get my son off to work, pick raspberries with my daughter, make jam and cobbler, clean the kitchen four times over, bathe dogs 1, 2, and 3 (although the last dog almost got a pass because she smelled okay and the first two were so much work), scrub the tub, scrub everything else bathroom related, sort laundry, do laundry, fold laundry, finish book, sweep from top to bottom and all the corners in between, and make dinner.

Done and done.

The only thing left to do is put my feet up and relax with my husband.  The satisfaction of a days tasks well done is second only to the ice cream and cobbler we're going to share!

Yummy Compromises

Tonight my daughter and I sat outside at the table eating dinner on the patio, enjoying the cool evening and a very yummy Thai curry that she had made.

She asked if I had noticed that she had made a sacrifice and included celery in the curry, even though she doesn't think it belongs, because I like it?  I said yes, and did she notice that I had made a sacrifice and agreed to tofu in the curry instead of chicken because she is a vegetarian now?

Turns out our compromises made a wonderful dinner! I may have licked the serving spoon after I put the leftovers away.....

The True Story Of the Moth

We seem to have more moths in our car than the average person, but I know that the fault lies with us.  We tend to be lazy folks, who leave car windows open and convertible tops down and in Washington State, that is risky business.  Not just because of the occasional spider or moth or roaming midnight cat, but because chances are great that it will rain and your seat will be wet, both the cars and yours.

Yet, we still leave the car open.

My son and daughter picked me up from work the other day and as we step outside my son says, "Full disclosure, there is a giant moth in the car."

Giant?  Like freakishly huge?  I look at the car and my daughter is standing outside of it.  I asked where the moth was and they shrugged.  First it had been on the dashboard, then it went under the drivers seat, then it went under the passenger seat and who knows where it is now.

After some banging around and searching, the moth remained hidden.  My son drove because he was pretty sure if the moth flew out at me while I was driving, I'd forget I was driving and flail and scream.  He's probably right.

The moth remains unfound.  I'm choosing to believe that it waited until we left the car, with the windows down, and took off to star in the moth land version of "I Shouldn't Have Survived."

That said, I'm not really interested in getting back in the car for awhile.  I think I'll just walk.

Ten Things I Love About Her

1. I love her brown hair (the same shade as mine) and her big blue eyes.
2. I love how smart she is, and how she reads boring (at least to me) literary books for fun.
3. I love her independence and her ability to march to her own drummer.
4. I love her confidence, and how when she decides she's doing something, she does it.
5. I love how she plays the piano beautifully, how she loves to play, how she loves to practice.
6. I love her no-nonsense ways, how she calmly wipes away the blood to see if a lip needs medical attention.
7. I love how she makes me laugh, her sense of humor has always cracked me up.
8. I love her love of the Beatles, and how she glanced at a note my Dad had written ages ago, and told me that was from a John Lennon song and then told me she thinks my Dad and her had the same taste in music.
9. I love how she is good friends with her brother (and he is likewise).
10. I love how much she has made our family complete, how when the doctor said, "It's a girl!" the puzzle pieces all clicked into place and it is a very good thing.

Happy Birthday Leah!

Waiting For Baby....

Fifteen years ago today, I was in the hospital and had been for days, on bed rest and only allowed up for a minute or two, puffy with pre-eclampsia, blood pressure sky rocketing, the worst migraine in my life, had that horrible amnio needle stuck in my stomach to test if the baby's lungs were good, the first attempt at induction failed, missing our son who was staying with grandmas and beyond ready to meet this unknown little baby who was causing a minor ruckus......

Fifteen years ago today, I was all out exhausted, miserable and desperate for a shower.......

And I'd do it again and again and again without hesitation.  All of it was worth doing for what awaited us on July 11, 1997 and every day since!

Deal Of The Day

My husband has formed a relationship with the Snap-on Tool guy.  The guy comes to the shop, his van full of gadgets and gizmos and whirly-gigs and everything is high end, top quality with the price tag to prove it. 

I am okay with my husband buying some tools from the Snap-on guy, and if it feels like he is buying something every week, well, I'm sure that's my imagination!  He's got to fill up his giant tool chest somehow.

But I have never been excited about his purchases.  Boring tools, with a free hat thrown in on occasion, but nothing that I used or wanted.  Until now.

When my husband brought home these plastic cups, I was quick to classify them as junk and figured they'd clutter up our already cluttered cupboard.  I wasn't going to use one because I have a water bottle which never leaves my side and have no need for a cup.

It all changed, of course, when I saw my husband enjoying his ice water in this cup.  The ice clinked so nicely against the cup and the shape looked like it would be perfect for my hand, and my husband graciously let me drink most of his ice water and then refilled his cup and filled a second one for me.  It is just right on a hot summer night.

Thanks, Snap-on Tool guy!  Finally, something from Snap-on that I can enjoy, and free with the purchase of a $350 tool.  What a deal!

14 Pounds Of Strawberries

This is what 14 pounds of strawberries looks like before: 

And after:

15 pints joined its brothers from yesterday's jam session:

And yes, we've eaten fresh strawberry jam for breakfast, lunch, dinner, 

and all snacks in between!

A True Sign Of Summer

This is a true sign of summer: Rainier Cherries that didn't cost an arm and a leg.  

Just an arm....and they are so worth it!

The sun is shining, I've got fresh, delicious cherries sitting on the counter....

Summer time has arrived! 

Barefoot Delight

Some moments, some times, when I slip off my shoes and feel the cool hardwood or the texture of carpet or the tickle of grass, it is perfection.  It is almost as if all of my happiness receptors are in the soles of my feet and then the bliss rolls up to my soul.

No socks, no tights, no shoes, no mukluks, flip flops or heels.  Just my feet and me, reveling in the freedom of being bare.....

That is, until I step on something sharp, usually something elusive, that I can't see, can't find, but am positive will step on again.  The delight stops there!

I have developed a terrible habit of slipping my shoes off when I sit at my desk at work.  I'm not actually aware of doing it, I'm just sitting at the desk, scanning and answering phones and suddenly I'm shoeless.  Apparently, under my desk is where used staples go to die.  Now, I can't prove it, exactly, because I can't see them, but ouch!  I'm very aware of when bare foot and sharp staple collide.

That spiked sting of pain has not broken me of the habit.  This is all to explain why someday soon, I'm going to found under the desk with a flashlight, pulling those visible to a bare foot only staples out of the carpet fibers!

Two Nervous Dogs + One July 4th

Our oldest dog doesn't love fireworks, but she doesn't have a massive freak out either.  But our other two dogs turn into baskets cases as soon as they hear the first pop-it on the first day of July.  This year I'd spent the morning of the 4th cleaning the house (I don't know, I just felt like I'd celebrate better if the house was clean!) and I put fresh sheets on our bed.  And then since I love fresh sheets, I shut the bedroom door so the girls couldn't get in and make a mess of things.


The girls didn't know what to do with themselves when the louder booms started and they couldn't get into my room.  Eventually they found their way upstairs and holed up in the kid's bedrooms, and we did not see them again for hours and hours.

Today, my daughter discovered what two nervous dogs plus one July 4th equal.....dog pee in her room.

On the upside (and there is a real one) my daughter decided she had to do some laundry immediately because of the pee.  And then she decided that she might as well sort out all the laundry and actually do some.  Then she cleaned the house, folded laundry and ironed!

Needless to say, she and I went out to dinner tonight.

The 4th Of July

I am going to close this favorite holiday, like I've been closing every 4th of July for the last few years.....

Hoping the cops don't want to further our acquaintance!

Backyard fireworks are still legal in our town and as our kids have gotten older, we've moved from sparklers and cutesy fountains, to mortars with booms and eye burning flashes.....We fit right in the with rest of the neighborhood, but that doesn't stop me from worrying that this will be the year that the cops shut us down!

Happy 4th of July!

How I Knew It Was Pouring

One of the last things I mumbled to my husband as I fell asleep last night was instructions for him to tell me if it was raining when he came in to kiss me goodbye in the morning.  I was already feeling lazy and if it was raining, I wasn't going to jump out of bed to walk the dogs.

At 5:15 this morning, I got up to tell him he didn't need to tell me that anymore.....

The soaking wet dogs that had scrambled under the covers had been answer enough!

It was pouring like you wouldn't believe, and the dogs turn into sponges when it rains, and I was cold and wet and kind of awake by the time they settled down, which of course, was curled as close to me as possible.

After awhile, body heat mingled and while we were all damp, at least the cold part was gone, and while I had thought I was wide awake (maybe I feel like that every morning?) I fell asleep and by the time my alarm sounded (not like music this morning, sadly!) we were dry-ish and energized.

The rain, however fell even harder and it the girls and I took one look outside and decided to skip the walk.  The girls returned to bed, snoozing as they waited for the breakfast bell, and I drank several cups of coffee as I watched the torrential downpour, glad that the dogs were not out in it again, soaking up water like Sponge Bob soaks up bubbles!

Sleeping In Morning

My husband rolled out of bed pretty early this morning, and in my sleep fuddled state I was pretty worried it was actually Monday and I was late for work.  He reassured me it was not Monday and he just couldn't sleep.  He was going to get up and let me sleep in for a change.

I mentally blew a raspberry at him because I felt wide awake by then, but since he was being very nice, I thought I'd roll over and at least pretend to sleep for a little bit.

That little bit, of course, turned into a long bit, and two hours later, I popped up out of bed, wide awake.  I opened the bedroom door to discover there was a couch in front of it.

That does explain why I slept restfully!  The couch was moved to keep the dogs away from the bedroom door and they couldn't throw themselves against the door, doing a darn good imitation of a slobbering beast trying to break the door down.

Husband and dogs were very pleased to see me, and I was pleased to see them.  Thanks hubs!  I sure did need those extra hours of sleep!