In Which My Muse Goes on Vacation

So. I have nothing. Nada. Zip. My muse must be on vacation. I'm so sorry...several of you have been checking up on me daily and I apologize for not having something groovy and captivating and entertaining for you. Not that I often do have that kind of groove thing going on, but hey! I for sure don't have it going on right now!

The moon looked amazing the other night. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was beautiful and super bright through a break in the clouds. Just thought I'd throw that in there to justify posting the picture because what's a blog post without a picture? Lack of content must be made up for somehow, even if it's in low quality pictures.

Sigh. I hope the muse comes back soon.

Same old stuff going on around here...working out, house-y stuff, some sewing and I have some inspiration for the shop, but I have yet to get that inspiration from my head to my sewing machine to the shop...soon though. I'm working part time at my local craft store to support my habit and because the fall season is fully upon us with it's assorted holidays things are picking up and I'm getting more hours. Still part time, very part time, but for this SAHM it's a big switch! Love it though. I have to prioritize and do a lot of mundane things like grocery shop when I would much rather take a nap but such is life. My hat is so off to wives and moms who work full time. I can't even imagine the kind of time constraints and pressures you are under!

So. The shefflera is behaving itself. I posted about the battle on my facebook page and a friend commented that maybe I should learn not to open an umbrella (tree) in the house as it usually causes problems of one sort or another. The new hat continues to fit well with no alterations, so far anyway. In other news my tomatoes and strawberries are putting out sets. What's up with that? I think they are confused. I doubt anything yummy will come from it though. It's getting too cold at night now, I think, though we are having glorious days. In yet other news, my son is preaching in church tomorrow morning. My husband will be away for that service and asked our son to fill in. It's not the first time he's preached the service, but it's the first time for a Sunday morning. He's a little nervous, but he's well prepared so I'm sure all will go well. I think it's good to be a little nervous sometimes...reminds us Who is in charge!

Anyhoo...just wanted to check in, and thank you for checking back. More to come soon. The muse must be here somewhere. She doesn't usually disappear for long. I just hope she hasn't gone to Hawaii or somewhere with sand, sea, and sun. I will be most jealous.

Attack of the Killer Schefflera or I Heart Freecycle. Choose Your Own Title.

Good news! I didn't have any problem with the accounting! The real test will come next month when I have to do it by myself, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Add another hat to the collection! Thank God He is strong when we are not! Accounting and I do NOT get along and I don't think we ever will, but with God's help I will get the job done!

I will be needing a filing cabinet to house the various paperwork and receipts to which I will have to refer each month, also useful for my home schooling stuff which currently lives in a box under my desk, so I advertised on Freecycle to see if anyone had any laying around. Don't you have extra filing cabinets just taking up space in your living room? I didn't think so. I don't either. But apparently lots of folks do. I scored two, two drawer ones that are red to boot! My kitchen and desk area is black and red (or will be when I finish implementing all my decorating ideas!) so these will fit right in. Woohoo!  I'll pick those up tomorrow afternoon.

I even had time today to launch my assault on the garage. (See my previous post AGAIN and you'll know what I'm talking about. I won't link to it a third time to spare you.) I listed all the Christmas stuff from that weird warehouse (same post again if you don't know what I'm talking about) on Freecycle and had a few responses right off the bat. A very nice lady named June is coming early in the morning to pick it all up, and she's even giving me some extra twinkly lights that she has laying around to boot. Woohoo! Scored on that one. I also had some quick responses when I listed a chair that I don't want. Anne wins the chair (no, not you, Anne, I'm so sorry, another Anne!) so she'll be coming to pick that up. Anne, not the winner of the chair, the other one is a friend who reads here. At least I like to flatter myself that she does.

Anyhoo.

I had a very productive day after all, and finished it off by being attacked by the killer schefflera. It used to be a very nice plant but it got a little out of hand and I had to remind it's who's in charge around here. It's a tree, really. I had it in the living room and we were very happy together but my husband hated it. It was kind of in the way, I have to admit, so I moved it to an unused corner of our bedroom. The poor thing was naked, though, so I adorned it with some of the previously mentioned white Christmas lights (the ones that came from that weird warehouse). I was standing on a chair, trying to clothe the thing when it grabbed me and tangled me up in it's branches. There I was, helplessly balanced on a chair, being eaten alive by it's upper branches and the string of lights that was innocently standing by. I was too quick for it, though. I snapped off the top branches since they were too tall and bending over under the ceiling anyway. Hah! My self defense tactics took it by surprise and I was able to subdue it into submission. I will force it to grow out instead of up! I win. Muuwaaaahahah!

I'm not happy with the way the lights look though. Too many wires hanging out. I think it needs a longer length. Hello? Freecycle? Do you have any long strings of lights? You do? Great! I'll be right over to pick them up.

I heart Freecycle! More than Craig's List, if the truth be told.

In Which I Prepare to Add A New Hat

I wear many hats. Most wives and moms do. Mom, wife, nurse, chef, chauffeur, counselor, teacher, and that doesn't even scrape the surface. Lately I've been trading hats pretty frequently and the most recent one is that of janitor. In the six months we've lived in this house we have managed to amass far more junk and stuff than should be allowed. I'll never understand how that happens. It must reproduce on it's own when we're not looking, and it's really starting to get under my skin and irritate me. I hate that unorganized cluttered feeling. I don't want it in my house because from there it tries to invade my mind and lately it's been successful.

I put on my janitor hat and started clearing out the garage today. For months it's been irritating me super duper a LOT! To the point where I've been getting annoyed and short tempered just looking at it. It's at one end of the house and I figure I'll start there and over the next few weeks work my way through the entire house to the other end doing little decorating projects I have in mind and clearing out unwanted clutter. "Excellent plan," I congratulated myself on getting motivated instead of getting annoyed.

Anyway, I started on the garage. The garage in our house had been made into a rec-room sort of area many years ago before we even knew this house existed, but it has been more of a storage room than anything else since we moved in. The foosball table and mini-pool table are crowded out by assorted junk and stuff. I had an old but functioning full sized fridge out there that I was able to unload painlessly on Craig's List. Yay! Our daughters have some boxes containing the remnants of their childhoods stored along one wall and they have been able to go through them on various visits so those boxes are dwindling, which is a good thing. (Confession: I have confiscated a few of those remnants to sustain my own cherised memories!) I have an old desk that was my grandmother's (not going on Craig's List!) and some boxes of mementos that I want to keep but don't want to display stashed in a corner. I need to find a place for those things, and others but the worst problem out there is that I collected a bunch of Christmas decorations (hello again, Craig's List) that I don't know what to do with. Some woman was getting rid of literally a warehouse full of stuff and she had probably five or six full car loads of just Christmas decorations.

After looking around in that warehouse I decided she was definitely certifiable. I mean, what kind of private person (not a retailer or seller) has a whole warehouse of junk including a nearly infinite amount of Christmas stuff...much of it brand new?  And not just your regular junk. Bizarre and weird things. But that's another post.

I was looking for a zillion strings of lights because my husband is inspired to make our house some kind of electric wonderland this year. For some reason he's interested in outdoor Christmas decorating for the first time in our 25 years of marriage. I have no idea what sparked his interest, but whatever! I'm into it. It'll be fun.

Where was I? Oh yeah. That weird warehouse. I scored these bazillion strings of lights but part of the deal was that this woman wanted me to take all the other decorations too. I declined the extra carloads, but out of some misplaced sense of obligation I did load up with one trip's worth of greenery, Santa hats, wreaths, trims, bells and other holiday sundries. Now, don't get me wrong: I LOVE to decorate for Christmas. It's just that I don't really have a need for 27 wreaths. No kidding. Twenty seven. One of them is about four feet in diameter. It must have come from a department store display or something. It also looks like someone tried to fold it in half for some reason and it's all kind of mangled and wonky. Anyway...my point...I do have one...my point is that I set aside all the lights and I now have several very large garbage bags of Christmas cheer to get rid of. Once I find a home for all that stuff (anywhere...I don't care! I just need it gone! It's making me crazy! Hello again, Craig's List) I will be able to organize the rec room and finally feel like I've accomplished something productive. It will be a good start on the productivity thing.

I said all this to say that I had planned to dedicate the whole day tomorrow to getting my garage, and thus my life, in order. I just knew that once the foosball table is pulled away from the wall into a usable position, the weights and workout equipment is tidied up, the chairs are distributed attractively, and the boxes and extra furniture are removed to the "official" storage room (at the opposite end of the house...I shudder to think what that place will be like when I've finished going through the whole house!) and the whole place well vacuumed--I just knew that THEN I would feel settled, unruffled, calm, and peaceful. Forever. It's the key to life. It's all I need for happiness.

But.

Even the best laid plans can go awry. This evening my husband asked me to take over the accounting for the church that we pastor and he wants to dedicate tomorrow to training me. This, too, is fodder for an independent blog post, but suffice to say that accounting is NOT my forte and there is a REASON why my husband has been doing it and not I, and it's not because he wanted to! I love that he wants me to help him and I truly want to relieve some of the load he carries but seriously? The accounting? And tomorrow? I guess the garage will have to wait another day or two. It doesn't really matter...it's been that way for months already! I just hope I can keep all that clutter and junk from toying with my mind because I will need all my faculties and I will need them fully functional tomorrow if I can ever hope to successfully "get it" with the accounting.

So I will be attempting to add an accountant's hat to my vast collection.

Photo credit:
http://www.examiner.com/x-9721-Omaha-Style-Examiner~y2009m5d3-Kentucky-derby-hats

Check It Out!

Check out this very cool giveaway! I LOOVE this skirt! I wonder if it's too young for me? .....nah! The whole clothing line is very cute! Modest but not old-ladyish, appropriate for church or for casual or for going out to dinner, and the prices are great! Check out this post for details about the giveaway. The whole blog is a good read too.

Photo credit: 
http://www.downeastbasics.com/

The Signs of Fall.....

...are all over the yard. We have some groovy cobwebs going on but I haven't been able to get a good shot of them. I have taken other pictures though:

Mushrooms pop up overnight in the grass. Mmmm. Sauteed in garlic butter. NOT! I'll get my sautee-ing mushrooms at the store, thank you.

Pine cones fall from the trees that overhang the back fence.

Some kind of weird fungus thing is growing on the back side of an old tree trunk.

The ivy is turning red. 

The apples are getting ripe.

 

The strawberry plant is putting out sets and bearing fruit.

Wait. Whaaaat?