Stepping Outside the Kitchen

Stepping outside kitchen shown a day or two ago, into the dining area . . .

I'm looking for a new rug, one with turquoise and white and gray - so far, without success.  I'm finding that buying a rug is kind of like buying a dress, hard to find one I really like.

I am lucky in that my house is oriented so that I need no air conditioning during these early June days.  And there are lots of windows for breeze.  As long as we're in the lower 80's, all is well.

Grandma Kitchen

This morning Joanne posted a picture of a "grandma kitchen" with some memories of her grandmother.  Take a look.  

Her grandma kitchen reminded me of my own kitchen.

Pretty small, not much counter space.  Still the original formica.    Metal cabinets but with a nice upgrade of the sliding frosted glass doors on the top cabinets.  There are florescent bulbs to light them from within.  Refrigerator not as small as the one Joanne mentioned, but I did need to special order it to get one this small that had glass shelves.

When I moved in, the floor was gold vinyl.  I don't remember the paint color, either light gold or beige.  No backsplash tile.  No shelf over the kitchen door.  Really shallow sink with those plastic faucets.

There was the little enamel kitchen table with two chairs, like Joanne mentioned.  I opted for storage and a portable dishwasher instead.

When I moved to this house I planned to gut the kitchen, but the house told me to not do that.  Ten years later, I'm still happy with my choice.

Melting

Ahhhh.  This melts my heart.

Saturday afternoon after a game for each of them.

Flowers In and Out

Flowers outside - peonies are finally blooming.

Flowers inside - a Welcome Wall Hanging.  A Janine Babich Design.  The flowers are appliqued on the embroidery machine on water soluble stabilizer, then the stabilizer is rinsed away.  Flowers are then sewn on the wall hanging in sets of two.  This is not a quick project but it's a lovely one.

Muffins With Mom

Muffins With Mom this morning at Aaron's school.  I've been looking forward to this all week, and not because of the muffins.  I told Aaron I was the oldest mom there but he politely found a couple of other grandmothers as the event went on.

Rosie Red and Gapper were there too, although Aaron informed me that these weren't the REAL ones.  Pretty darn close.

The guidelines of food, according to me, is that protein should be eaten with carbs, so I nibbled at the muffins and stopped for an Egg McMuffin on the way home.  Without the Canadian bacon and with half of the cheese scraped off.  I am a little worried about all that sugar for the kids, but I guess they will be ok.

And now, on to the sewing jobs I'm behind on.  I felt bad about a late evening phone call asking whether a hem was ready because the owner wants to wear the garment this weekend.  I am behind on everything!  (But, I didn't know she wanted it this weekend.)

All week, the first line of the hymn running through my head is, "My life flows on in endless song."  And, the verse ends, "Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing."

Not that I'm a singer, I'm not.  But you get the idea. 

Frog on the Rails

Seen at the big box hardware and garden center this morning, a frog on the rails of an SUV.  I hadn't planned to go, I really hadn't, but my neighbor called and said that they had LOTS of reduced plants today.  People hadn't been shopping because it's been rainy and cold.  And a new shipment was on the way.

I got two lovely hanging ferns for $5 each, two containers, some bedding plants.  Most were 70% off and looked so pretty and fresh.  You can't sale shop and say, "I want exactly this pink petunia today."  The sale flowers might be white petunias or purple dahlias.  But if you're willing to go with what they have, there are bargains to be had.

On the way home, I rounded the corner on my city street and saw two little deer grazing.  I hope this isn't a sign that my plants are doomed.

Some time, perhaps next week, a routine will set in.  There will be baseball/softball games scheduled and not postponed because of weather.  School will be winding down and the special events will be over.

The school projects will be done, but I did enjoy helping my neighbor girl scheme how to sew together her art project kite.  And I am looking forward to going to Aaron's school on Friday morning for Muffins with Mom.  Or, in this case, with Gran B.

Nora was scheduled to be starting pitcher tonight.  The weather was fine.  But, the other team's coach had mixed up the times.  No game today.

Hang On

Sixth grade band concert was Thursday night and "Hang On Sloopy" is still running through my head.  Serious kudos to the band directors.  How do they take 100+ kids, most of whom don't know how to read music and have never played an instrument and over a school year teach them to play together?  The thought makes me head spin.

Hoping for a dry day today to mow the grass.  Before the rain starts again tomorrow.  And it's expected to continue all next week.

But this morning, it's wet.  Long rain delay for the Reds last night.  The Friday night fireworks didn't start until almost midnight.  The Reds had thirteen runs.

I'm a terrible housekeeper.  Never learned at home, my mother had other interests, like me.  But, I've stumbled on a website about how to clean your house in 20 minutes a day for 30 days.  My house is looking a lot better.  Maybe I just needed someone to tell me what to do.

Some of the days have tasks that take longer than 20 minutes, and in fact I'm spending more than 20 minutes a day most days.  Like today, cleaning the interior windows?  What???  Maybe a few of them.  Plus, I have a little routine of five things to do daily.  

So, we'll see how this works.  I know I feel better when my house is clean.  It's hard for me to feel creative when my house is a mess.