Recent Project

I have a To-Do List this summer.

(Did you notice the capital letters?  That means it is important to me and I REALLY intend to get those things on that List done!  See...capital letter again.)

The first thing on the list has been for me to recoup from the sinus/ear infection and rest up.  I know I am getting really old to lead a fast-paced life, but, still, this school-year really sapped my energy.

One of the things on my list was to spruce up the sofa on our back porch.  The cushions were originally bought as a make-do sort of fix.  You see, this sofa frame is one of those things which belonged to some dead relative of Mike's.  So, even if we didn't like it and even if it didn't sit well and even if it was hideous and horrible, we would have to keep it because SOMEBODY is very sentimental and leans toward being a hoarder.  And the good news is that the sofa is not any of those things - well, except it did belong to the dead relative and Mike inherited it.  It is really a comfortable sitter and I like it and it is nice and wonderful.  Only...

It didn't have any cushions when I first met it.  It was just a bare, sad, lonely frame crying out for some cushy goodness.

So, I went to places like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Trees-N-Trends, Lowe's, and Home Depot looking for cushions for that bare, sad, lonely, crying out for some cushy goodness sofa frame.  I had in mind something Martha-ish.  (Now that she is out of the Big House she is in almost every store imaginable, isn't she?)  The least expensive thing I could find was about $100 for one set of cushions...and it would need three cushions...and even then those cushions would not fit precisely...and I could buy a whole new sofa, cushions, and companion chair for about $400.

***Sigh***

So, I tried to figure out a way to make-do.  I stumbled upon a sale and bought several chair seat cushions.  I think I got about eight of them for less than $40.  We made that work for a while but, honestly, nobody wanted to sit there because those loose cushions just kept falling over and tumbling around and attacking whoever was sitting on it and it just wasn't very comfortable.  So, I wound up giving the cushions to my daughter, Bridgette, who turned them into something wonderful at her house on a Craft Day.  So, it was back to the drawing board for me and our sofa.

First, I thought I would just buy a couple of long foam cushions and cover them.  Then, I remembered my Bay Window Seat project.  The one piece of foam for that was about $100.  Then, there would be fabric.  Then, there would be sewing.  Then, there would be wrestling the alligator-like piece of foam into the cover.  And...I decided buying the pre-made cushions might be a better option.  So, I began pinching my pennies and planning my budget to include this luxury...

Then, one day while I was at Old Time Pottery looking for an outdoor umbrella after a spring storm had destroyed ours and... there was my solution... a chaise cushion.  It was exactly the correct length and the price was only about $25!  Deal!  I decided that these were a bit thin and wrangled three of them into my cart - two for the sitter and one for the back.  I chose this cute, snappy, red, geometric print that looked so cheerful and I thought it would provide a wonderful contrast to our green and white house.  Then, when SOMEBODY came home from work, the cute, snappy, red, geometric print that looked so cheerful and contrasty to me...did not look so to SOMEBODY.  So, I was back to the store with that set in a couple of days and got a bright-but-conventional-striped set of cushions that my daughter-in-law, Jessica, helped me select.

Those have served us well but the stripey colors were looking rather tired, sad, and faded. Plus, they had been subject to abuse from the cats and Scientific Trials.

So...I began looking for something to update them last fall when there was a wonderful sale on outdoor fabrics at Sir's Fabrics.  The table with odd pieces of outdoor fabric was labeled $4.99 per yard.  Deal!

I found a print that is all scrolly and geometric and modern and traditional all at the same time.  The colors are black, cream, and an olivey-hunter green.  It is perfect to coordinate with everything out there.  Plus, it is fresh and up-to-date.  If you don't believe me about this being something that is new and fresh, just look at THIS PIN of mine on one of my Pinterest Boards.

So, last week I set to it and stitched up some simple covers.

I'm not sure if I like the looseness of the fit of the covers and I may go back and do a bit more stitching to make them fit more crisply and snugly.  For now, though, I like the freshness and trendiness and cushy comfort of the sofa on the porch!

Plus, the bonus is, I have about a yard left and, when I can think of what I want to do with it, I will have a whole new project for free.  Deal!

Refreshing and Updating

What a wonderful day I've had today.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend some time with a friend from my college days.  I don't mean those days when I was in my early forties and returned to school and I felt like I was trying to wrestle an alligator and get myself into a career where I could support myself, feel fulfilled, and share my passion for literature and writing...I mean those days long, long ago when I was barely more than a girl and thought I had the world by the horns and could lead it around to do my bidding.

My friend, Margaret, and I went through undergraduate school at the same time - often taking the same classes.  I got to know her brother, sister, and parents back then and learned that we had similar upbringings.    We moved on after college - married, had babies - she had three boys and I a girl and boy.  (Her eldest are about the same ages as my two.)  Later, we reconnected when her brother married and our children were members of his wedding party.  Still later, we stumbled upon one another here or there along the way.

Like one day when Mike and I were out doing some last minute shopping at Target and there were her and her husband.  The four of us just parked our buggies and chatted as if we were touching base after being apart for a couple of weeks and as if we were not each on a mission to get something done in a hurried fashion!

About a year ago, another dear friend of mine, Angela, began working at a different school.  She mentioned the name Margaret a couple of times in passing conversation.  Low and behold, her teaching friend, Margaret, turned out to be MY Margaret!  Isn't it a small world?

Now that you have all the background history that is vital to this trivial drawn-out informative post, I can continue...

Margaret shot me an email last week and invited me to get together with her.  One thing led to another and then today I trekked over to her house.  The premise intention was for us to work on some teacher-y things together.

First, we assembled the ingredients for our lunch...and chatted.

We supervised her family dogs' bathroom break and sipped some water, ourselves...and chatted.

We logged onto our computers...and chatted.

We did a wee bit of teacher-type work...and chatted.

We took a lunch break to enjoy the delicious chicken wraps for which we had concocted condiments and sauces...and chatted.

We enjoyed a leisurely meal...and chatted.

We did a few more teacher-type tasks...and chatted.

It was one of those times when one of us asked the other a question about a family member and that answer led to a story and that story led to a tale and that tale led to an update...

I'd like to think of the day as spent with us refreshing and updating our internal computers.  After about six hours, we had mastered about three teacher-y tasks and we were getting close to being caught up on some important family topics...

We plan to get together next week to do a little more teacher-type work...and maybe a wee, tiny, little bit of refreshing and updating!

Happy Father's Day!

I am fortunate to have the man I do as my father.  He certainly could be the picture beside the word in a dictionary.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Rain!

We got a downpour!  At about one o'clock this afternoon I went out to do a little grass mowing because the weather gurus were predicting rain for late afternoon and I thought I could help the hubby out a little.

I got most of our yard cut and decided to cut along the fence line going down the driveway.  The sky started sprinkling a little bit on me but I thought I would continue and come back up on the other side of the fence before I stopped mowing.

Well, by the time I got back up to our house, the rain had stopped.  So, I decided to mow another little area across the driveway where the guys park their trailers and to mow the drainage ditch in case the rain did come and was too wet for Mike to mow.  Again, the sprinkles dripped down but stopped and I got another little segment of grass cut.  Then, all of a sudden, the rain began to really fall!

I went to the barn with haste and parked the mower.  Then, trotted pretty quickly to the house.  Toby, who had been waiting on the porch, and I scurried into the house but not before we were pretty drenched.  So, I just shucked out of my swimsuit and jumped into the shower.  When I stepped out of the shower, I glanced out the window and was amazed at the sight.  So, I pulled one of Mike's shirts on and went out with my trusty little camera.

This view of water rolling down the driveway between Stephen and Bonnie's house and our barn!

Just southeast and downhill of the previous spot, the drainage ditch in which I had just finished mowing grass!

Continuing on southeast and looking toward my mother-in-law's house, you can see the water running down the driveway and overflowing the drainage ditch across our driveway traveling on toward the creek which runs in front of our house.

Looking due south off my deck in an area that I had been riding the mower over less than forty-five minutes before.  The water would have been washing me away if I was there now!

Our driveway looks like a creek bed with water steadily running down it!

Lots of water coming down that hill!

I sent those pictures off to Mike and Stephen and Bonnie to let them know what things looked like while they were at work.  Then, I got a call from Stephen telling me that I needed to go out and take a look around to assess the storm damage.  So...

Off I trekked to begin my assessment.  LOTS of the rocks from the driveway were washed out and huge gullies were left behind in the driveway that connects our two houses!

The drainage ditch I had just mowed caught some of the gravel.  Isn't it hard to believe that in less than thirty minutes that much water can rush down and turn this area into a rolling rapids?  Then, about thirty minutes later it looks calm and serene!

I set the soft drink bottle into one of the gullies to give a little perspective of how deeply the water had cut into the ground after the rock was washed away.

I headed on up the hill to drive the loop around and see if this was the worst of the washout.  Again, see the soft drink bottle about half-way up and to the right there in the photo.  This was a bigger gully.

If you look really it closely at Stephen and Bonnie's garden, you can see how the corn is leaning toward the east...

An almost flat spot atop the hill shows that even there was some water damage where the straw off Stephen's newly seeded grass was washed.

Heading down the hill on the opposite side of Stephen and Bonnie's house and you can see that their driveway is gully-washed here, too.

Easing on down their driveway showed several gully-washes in this side of their driveway but nothing too dramatic.

Looking down the creek, you can see the 'stick-line' where the water was out of banks and on the right side of the creek there are a couple of limbs that were washed down.

Another view of the creek...

I pulled out onto the highway and turned in to the southern entrance to our compound to head back up the hill toward home.  Here is the view heading up the driveway toward my mother-in-law's home.  Look closely into the middle of the photo and you can see my soft-drink bottle setting down into that gully.

The deepest gully of all was washed here and I was glad to be driving a truck or I would have drug the bottom of my vehicle when I drove up the driveway toward home.

We had a major mulch washout!  This is a view of the flowerbed that I picked and poked at just this morning!

This shot shows where some of the mulch wound up when that water was rolling down the hill.

This picture shows the water trail that sweeps just past the stepping stones and around the flower bed just off our back porch.  That is a lot of water force!

As I am composing this post, I have the television on where the weather reporters are showing photos and video of tornadoes which swept through southern Kentucky.  Bless them and I hope folks weathered the storms safely!

Mother's Day Message

 Yes, I know that Mother's Day was last month.  I even acknowledged it with a post...

Oh no!  I didn't set it to publish and it is still sitting in my drafts!  Sorry Mama!  

I did go see my Mama and spent a little time with her on THE day.  We also spent a little time with Mike's mother on THE day as well.  My children both came to see me on Saturday before and spent a little time with me and that was wonderful as well.

I think I am just old and forgetful and didn't publish the post I drafted... or maybe it was because I have been feeling poorly.  Yes, I'm still struggling with this darn sinus/ear infection mess that started in mid-April.  That will be my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Anyway, I was thinking of my Mama this morning as I was wandering round the back yard and sipping coffee.  No, that is not something my Mama ever did nor does - because she is allergic to coffee.  But, I was wandering round and deadheading and dumping out the water to keep my geraniums from "getting wet feet" and just picking and poking at my plants.  THAT is something that my Mama does.  She doesn't just go outside and take a book or her digital tablet reading material or a good old fashioned magazine and veg out with a cup of coffee and soak up the great outdoors relax and sit idly for hours to take in the beauty of nature - like I do.  She tends to wander round, often with a plastic bucket and some clippers, and picks and pokes at her flowers.

Anybody could tell that, too.  Her flower beds are beautiful.  They look like some sort of botanical garden or park.  Even though she says she isn't a big fan of the color green, nobody would ever believe that because she certainly has a green thumb and enjoys all sorts of greenery and growing plants.  She loves roses and has transformed an old, rugged, scraggly, rough bank in her back yard into a beautiful rose garden complete with a sweet statue surrounded by soft pink shrubbery and roses and backed by a whimsical birdhouse and a fence with an heirloom rose that came from her grandfather climbing all over the lattice.

That thumb and her plant knowledge is one of those things that must have turned out to be incidental learning for me because I never recall having a lesson on how to pick and poke at your flowers.  I just recollect that Mama has always done that.  She usually does it early in the morning (not as early these days as when we were milking a herd of cows) and late in the afternoons.  I don't recall that she ever told me to think about all the angles landscaping and flowers would be seen from and to consider that when planting, either.  But, it is something that I seem to consider when I am laying out what I want to grow and the plants I hope will return with a little nurturing.

I've heard her talk about how weeding is therapeutic for her because she can just imagine that each weed is something or somebody who frustrates her and she yanks them out for disposal.  (That is where the plastic bucket comes in.  Mama puts every weed, spent flower bloom, dead stem, etc. in that bucket and then dumps it into a hole or gully somewhere not just to level up the ground but usually in preparation for another flower bed in the future - no fancy commercially produced compost bin for her.)

Mama has always loved natural elements like rocks and found bits of glass or pottery and enjoys cultivating bulbs and perennials because that gives her something to look forward to and anticipate the beauty of each year.  She always wants to share and has supplied me with plants for several different flower beds time and time again.  She also has shared with friends and neighbors and there is no telling where-all her plants have wound up.  I think that is a family thing but the tale of the journey of the Aunt Mae lily is a story for another day.

Just last week when I was at Mama's getting her to help me with another chore that had nothing to do with beauty or blooms or flowers, she INSISTED that I dig up "a couple of these little shrubs and take them home."  My lazy-self protested because I had on my new flip-flops and my congested sinuses and infected ears were making me feel a little dizzy and I just was being plain lazy, I guess.  I even pointed out that I didn't have a clue where I would plant the shrubbery.  I was wasting my breath, however, and was pointed to a shovel and meticulously bossed, ahem...well supervised on how and where to dig up these little shrubs.  "It will be really easy and take hardly any time at all.  Here, do you want me to do it (...with my ailing back and hip that I go to therapy every other day of the week to try to relieve the excruciating pain and my replaced knee - no she didn't say this but I thought it...)?"  She even knew exactly where I needed to plant them and directed me to do so as soon as I got them home so they wouldn't dry up.  So, I had absolutely no choice and began digging with my cute, new flip-flops and my vertigo and congested, shortness of breath.

Then, I trekked home grumbling and cursing under my breath and put on my old gardening shoes and stomped to the barn and got my own shovel and dug holes in the thick, rock-hard-clay-where-nothing-but-Bermuda-grass-grows for the three little shrubs.  I called and asked my bonus son, Stephen, to bring home a couple bags of good soil to fill in the over-sized holes I had dug for these little shrubs.  It was right at closing time for their store and I could tell he didn't want to have to drop everything and load up a couple of bags of soil to bring home to worrisome old me.

In a while, though, here he came with the soil.  Just as I had gotten good and hot and was just short of gasping for breath and was reeling with dizziness and plopped on the steps of our back porch, he pulled up in a spray of gravel and shouted, "Where do you want this dirt, Devil Woman?"  (That is his pet name for me.  Should I be flattered to have a pet name?)  So, between gasps, I pointed toward the little shrubs lying beside the holes I had dug.

Unceremoniously, Stephen walked over and plopped the bags down right beside the holes and asked me where I had gotten such "nice little Princess Spireas."  I let him know in no-uncertain-terms that MY MOTHER had FORCED me to dig them up and bring them home and plant them - between gasps, of course.  First there was silence.  Dead silence.  Then, his response was, "Well, you are lucky.  That is what we have planted right around the store and those little things are expensive.  They have these little pink blooms on them all summer long.  Don't you like pink?  I think you will like them.  That was nice of her to give them to you and you didn't even have to buy them."

So, I wound up feeling like the lazy, ungrateful, ill-tempered child we all are at times.  

I hope I can remember this and not be that way again.  

(I wonder how many times I've thought that?) 

And, I hope I can remember this when my own children (and bonus children) are behaving that way so that it doesn't pique my ire.

I guess the Mother's Day Message really is that it doesn't matter what day of the calendar year it is, when we are mothers, we mother every single day.  All the time.  Even when we don't realize it.

We don't realize what we are learning from our own mothers.  

We don't realize that we are incidentally teaching our children.

We sometimes don't realize what our children are teaching us either.  

However, when we do realize it, we need to be more appreciative 

and we need to realize it 

and we need to recognize it far more often than we do.  

Thanks, Mama!

P.S.  As soon as the pretty little pink blooms come back out on the Princess Spirea, I will try to remember to take a photo and post it.  Right now they are suffering a bit from the shock of the move and a couple of inches of rain that we have been blessed with during the past couple of days.  I hope my thumbs are at least a little bit chartreuse or olive or even weed-green and can make these gifts thrive like my Mamas have!

This message was brought to you this morning by a deep, robust cup of coffee, wanderings through my fledgling-back-yard-flowers, and...

...thoughts of my Mama.

Some links to past Mother's Day posts are:

Mother's Day Leftovers

In Honor of My Mother