Hello Out There!

I think a person's kitchen counter tops can tell a lot about a person. Tonight my sister-in-law was over for dinner and she said, "Something seems different around here. Oh! I don't think I've ever seen your counter tops cleared. It looks really nice!"

That was such a fitting end to my month of crazy-busyness mixed with a little "unschooling", bolstered by hosting friends from out of town, and actually re-opening shop on the photog business.

But you see, the picture above was not taken today. It and the the ones to follow were all taken one nondescript day of the past month. Choose a day. Any day. The counters always looked like that or worse.

And because for some reason I feel a need to justify myself when I've been blogging AWOL, I will now disclose to you what my counter tops tell about me and what I've been doing.

The funky coloring of the first photo is this little action called Matt's Surreal Edgy Effect 4-Really Dark. The photo was just so boring and bland I had to do something. So I clicked on that. But then, I figured if I took the time to make all my boring photos Surreal and Edgy and Really Dark to the 4th degree, I'd never actually get this blog post made, and I'd continue my journey of AWOLness.

Bear with me. It's been a crazy month. One more look at the photo to refresh your memory.

Starting on the far right we have this:

A power drill and some quick dry caulk. In all honesty, the drill has nothing to do with what's gone on around here for the past month! Mark just likes to store dusty power tools on the counter for lengths of time. Whenever I see one I assume he's going to use it again soon. It takes me about 10 days of looking at it to realize, he's not actually using it anymore. The caulk has come in very handy. Mark and I have learned neither one of us is very good at caulking. He's too fast and I'm too slow. I go over and over and over again, because it never looks quite right. He puts HUGE globs of stuff on and tries to smear it semi-smooth.

Next photo:
Light bulbs. Those are for the New Old chandelier I found at the Goodwill store for $9.99. It's a big red globe that nobody but me really likes. The two designer-type people in my life both said, "Wow. I bet that's gonna be somethin'." That's designer speak for, "I think you're crazy. I'm glad I don't live here. And if I knew of a way to talk you out of actually hanging that thing, I would." But . . . I like it. However it didn't come with a light bulb. So we bought some. Now we just have to hang it.

And those Purdy packages . . . aren't they perty? Just had to say that. It leads us to our next slide:

These are 3 different paint rollers currently in use. We've got: your Basic white, your Dried Parsley green, and your I-Can't-Believe-You-Painted-Your-Stairwell-Dark-Dark Brown. That's just some of the things we've been doing. Painting, Painting, Painting. It's sort of fun. For a while. But not for weeks on end. And not till 1 AM for 5 days straight. And not hallways and stairwells. But you see those are the only places we've been painting because we love to torture ourselves. Let's move on.
But not before we take a peek at all those paint trays. If you look real hard you'll see The Red. The Red that Jody didn't like after she'd painted 2 coats of it on her hallway walls. The Red that has now been changed to Dried Parsley. She likes Dried Parsley. (Why did I just talk in 3rd person?!)

The fruit.
If you know me, you know I've got to have fruit around. Even if it's hidden under paint rollers and flanked by paint trays and brushes. There's no excuse for not eating your 5 fruits and vegies every day. No excuse.

Next slide.
These are books that I didn't know existed. I have never once in my life thought about the fertility of soil as something people write about or that someone would want to read! Just saying those words could get me ex-communicated from one side of the family. But I'm just being honest. This farming thing is a whole new world for me.

But here's a funny story. Mark was getting ready to leave town this afternoon, and as he was walking out the door he said, "I left my fertility books on the counter because Brian said he was coming here so we don't need them." It took me a whole 10 seconds before I was able to put the first 5 words into the appropriate context. Not be beat a dead horse here, but I've never thought my husband would refer to books about preparing and repairing dirt as, "my fertility books". Woh. I've got a lot to learn.

Moving Right Along:
Atop the toaster oven are the Christmas cards that were returned to us. So if you didn't get one and you wanted one, chances are it's on top of my toaster oven. I'm still planning to look up addresses and send them. Some people might like getting Christmas Greetings in February. You know, Jesus was not actually born in December after all. I might just hold on to those babies until Sept when it would be a more appropriate time of year to celebrate.

Then comes the list.

This is my To-Do list. I honestly don't like lists. I don't like that I have to make them. I'd much rather be able to remember to do stuff and live a relaxed, care-free, lifestyle where it didn't matter if I remembered to prime and paint the stairs before the carpenter came to hang crown molding. I'd like to live a life where I didn't have to put "Shower" as the 16th thing on my list for the day! Yes! That does mean Take a Shower! These days, if it doesn't go on the list, it's not getting done!

So there it is. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I'm happy to say I did find at least part of my counters today. The painting is not quite finished, but it may never be.

Here's stuff my counters don't tell about:

Kendra and Co. came to visit for a week! We had a blast!


I've started up Moments by Jody in Illinois. It's going great!


Claire reads 1000 pages a week. I'm not kidding!


Lydia F-I-N-A-L-L-Y said, "Mama". To my sister in law, not to me. Seriously.


Mark and I took a weekend trip to celebrate our 13th Wedding Anniversary! What a FABULOUS time we had! I can't wait to be married 14 years so we can do it again!