Winter/Snowman Time

I love snowmen, do you?  I put them up at Christmas time when I take out the Christmas decorations.  When the Christmas decorations go away, the snowmen stay out.  I keep them out for a few months more. They make me smile. I put them in the bathroom to smile at me when I get out of the shower.

They are tucked in among the dog treats in the kitchen, reminding me of those I love, and keeps me smiling.

One stands guard over the grand girls Lego toys and August goes over to check him out a lot.

And a bunch stand near the TV ready to brighten that corner of the room.

The Santa comes down of course but the snowmen stay up. Do you keep any winter decorations up till spring?  What? 

The Flip Flop Goodby

It's officially Fall up here in the upper right hand corner of the USA and it sure does feel like it is real!  At night the temps are in the high 30's and by day only in the 60's. So at night the heat goes on so that we can wake up to a warm house and during the day, the heat goes off.

One of the first things to go away are my flip flops. I love wearing them and I know that they are not good for ones back or feet, but I love the sun on the toes while having something between the rocks and my feet.  It's always sad when they go back into the closet.  

The flip flops have found their spot in the basket until next year. My heart is heavy over this, people. I love my flip flops and wear them all day, every where. It's always sad to put them away for socks and shoes.

The front door also gets some color with a fall wreath. The glass was so clean that the glare was showing in every photo I took no matter the angle I stood at.

So here is the door again with the storm door open. Do you all have storm doors? We have them up here. The glass comes out and a full screen goes in for the good weather.

And one more photo of the wealth itself.

I do love the colors of fall but not the temperatures. It is getting pretty around here fast! The leaves are so pretty and bright.

Unfortunately, at some point all that beauty up on the trees, land here where we have to blow or rake them all up.

Well, that sure is a workout so it's all good right.  Have a great weekend all. See you Monday.

Weekend Review -

"What're you up to mom and does it include a cookie?"

It was just so nice this weekend.  The sun was out, the temps were in the 60's, I had energy, and the "To Do" list needed to be attacked.

The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have Hubby home with me but he was out of town on a Lectureship, so it was just me and the dogs and we went to work.

Remember last weekend we had a few teens stay with us while they were attending the youth rally?  Well, we did pick up after them but we didn't clean up. So I did that.  I also moved furniture around and opened up the room a bit.  I took one small table we had down there and moved it to the back deck to use as a  table next to the grill.

Then I began cleaning the kitchen and changing a few things there as well.  Saturday, I finished changing a few things.

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

I love the color dark red and love having it around me.  Since I had some red paint still around and it IS possible to paint the counter tops I did so.  

Another view before

Another view after

Then I went to the back yard and put up August's agility equipment.  He enjoys most of the obstacles (he has had 2 bad experiences on the see-saw so he avoids it now. I have a small one that he is getting use to again. Poor baby.

Agility equipment runs behind the grand girls  play station

The see saw at it's lowest, we have other legs to make it taller once  he gets use to it.

When Gerry got home and saw all I did, he was surprised and helped me with the arbor that fell down last fall.  It fell during a wind storm, then it froze to the ground, then it got snowed on, then it got snowed on a LOT MORE. Finally it appeared but it was showing signs of wear so Hubby tightened up the screws and we cleaned it up and repainted it black.  Once it dries we will get it back in the ground so that the flowers can climb it again this summer.

It was a great and busy weekend and boy did I need the naps that I took.  How was your weekend?

Spring in the Snow

This is a large part of our front yard. We still have a lot of snow in our yard with some frozen ground splattered here and there.  On one side of the house, it still is way more snow than ground as we have a lot of woods on that side of the house.

So we rake the frozen ground around the piles of snow. Ever rake frozen gound? Let me tell you it's not easy.. and it looks really silly to be raking the gound between snow piles

Saturday I really wanted to work on the yard and Hubby was willing to help me. However the weather was not very conducive to spring clean up, so I wore 3 layers (shirt, sweatshirt, flannel coat) ear muffs, two layers of gloves (winter gloves with garden gloves over that) and out I went! Hubby wore a long sleeved tee shirt, no gloves, coat, sweatshirt or anything else, and out he went!
YUP, we found that the section of yard right up against the house was the most thawed out so we worked there. Plus, the sun was shinning on us which help add to the delusion that it was warmer than it really was.  In fact we were frozen and that was the inspiration to work faster and "get it done".

After cleaning out the leaves and winter weeds we covered the area between the house and the walkway with a combination of pea gravel and stones. Hubby carried the bags of rocks over and I spread them out covering the plants that have already come up.  The front yard hose will go next to the window, where you see the hose cover.  Since it is still well below freezing at night, we don't want to take out the hoses or turn on the outside water just yet. 

We went shopping and took off a few layers because we would be in the car and then inside the store however, the store was cold and we were frozen by time we got out of there.  Back inside the car we headed over to Dunkin Donuts for HOT coffee and then back to work. There are a lot of Dunkin Donuts shops around here and I think Hubby knows where every one is located.  A talent that I love!!!

Hubby hopes to get out the chainsaw and take down some trees in the front, perhaps that will bring in more sunshine and help melt the snow and warm up the ground.  I'm hoping that it's warmer and that I don't have to blog about our trip to the emergency room! 

Sunday we had a great morning worhip service. Later, I did some laundry, and then the much needed nap (oh why did I give my parents such a hard time over naps when I was little!) and then we finished off the weekend with a great small group meeting.  

I hope that you too had a nice weekend and that it was warm enough to enjoy being out there.  

Welcome to a New Month and New Attitude!

I am in love with March!  I know that Spring starts in just over 2 weeks - well officially at least.  And although it may not feel like it, Spring is nonetheless getting closer and I can smell it in the air.
I plan on taking all weekend and putting away all the winter decor.

Putting away this:

And this:

And even this:

And putting up all the spring and summer decor.  I hope to air out the house, and put away my long johns. They have served me well but I long for flip flops and shorts.

Have a great weekend all, Lord willing, I'll see you Monday. HAPPY MARCH

As our little 4 foot Christmas tree sits atop of our toy cabinets, it glows in the dark room. As I look at it I see 20 small wooden painted Christmas decorations.

Back in 1972 we lived in New Mexico. Hubby was in the Air Force and we were stationed in Albuquerque NM.  We had been there only about a mouth and didn't have a Christmas tree.  Our neighbor, also in the Air Force had 2 small silver trees. Remember those?

Photo from Google

She didn't have any decorations to share however. Hubby and I went Christmas shopping. It was going to be our first Christmas as man and wife and our last Christmas as man and wife at the same time, since our son was due at any time. All of our money was going into getting the nursery ready.

We found this paint by number Christmas decoration kit and we bought it.  We made a big bowl of soup, hot cocoa and laid out newspaper on the kitchen table. We painted the wooden decorations and then using rope, attached them to the tree.

It was our first Christmas together. We had a nice meal, visited with others in our off base housing unit, relishing in the fact that it was December and I wasn't wearing a coat since it was so warm. Within 6 days, we had our son. 

Over the last 40 years, those little wooden painted figures have been put on each and every tree that we put up. Over the last 40 years, I look at them and smile about all we have been through as a couple, as a family, as a nation.

It's a simple thing that always warms my heart.  I love our little wooden decorations. They have aged over the years. The paint has worn off in some spots and run in other spots. You may even say that the years were not so good to some of them.....just like me some days.

Do you have a special decoration that you put out and remember.......

We Are Starkers! Are You?

Do you put lights up on the outside of your house?  When do you put them up and then when do you take them down?

We don't put up outside lights. I don't really know why except it's cold up here although putting them up may not be too bad, taking them down in sub-zero temps is just not going to happen and leaving them  up until Spring, just seems silly.

So we drive around and look at others lights. Do you do that as well? Do you listen to Christmas music while you do that?

We like some.....

We love others......

And we are glad we don't live anywhere near a few.....

But we just about comment on all of them.

Here are a few photos of what we saw just in our area the other night.

One house had all white lights which is very nice.

But I really like the houses with colored lights.

One house had just a few lights in the windows. This photo doesn't do the house justice as it was simple and elegant.

While others light up the yard more than the house.

Where do you stand on the whole house lighting issue?  Do you like it?

Do you light up just the house or the yard as well?

White or colored lights?

Do you add music to the lights?

Do you light up the front and back or just the front?

I'm still looking for the "Over-the-top" house but so far, none are in our neighborhood.

I'm thankful for that.

Have a Blessed weekend and I'll see you Monday, Lord Willing...

When all others got power, we lost ours!!

YUP! after the storm of last week that put so many in the dark, we finally lost our power. It was not storm related at all but a car accident that took power lines down. We were sure that we would be out of power for several hours so we got set up. The oil lamps wet on.

The generator was turned on and then we plugged in the important things to us. The fridge, freezer, aquarium, a few outlets so that we can charge our phones.  It means a lot of electrical cords on the floor so we have to be careful of where we walk.

Of course, the pellet stove has to run on electricity so it has to be plugged in and again a few lamps so we didn't have to use just oil lamps.

The house never got cold since we had the stove on and it turned out we were without power for only about 2 hours. There are people in NJ still without power and it's cold at night now. It will be down into the 20's Sunday night alone.

Saturday, I discovered that Hallmark Channel was showing Christmas Movies all day and I love Christmas movies so I put the channel on and listened to it while I cleaned the the house. It was great to have a clean house and I even got in some crafting.

I had wanted a wreath for the front door but I found so many Halloween or Thanksgiving themed wreaths and I didn't want that. I wanted a Fall theme wreath,---so using some coupons, I made one.

Pulling out my glue gun, and getting out the ribbon, glitter ribbon that is I stated creating.

I started by using some wire to hold the ribbon in place but used lots of glue as well.  Adding a few pine cones, leaves and some silk flowers, I made a great fall wreath which is more brown than what this photo looks like. 

Sunday after a great worship service, we got to play with our granddaughters before my body just crashed. I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for this week.  I'm looking forward to all the political ads stopping after Tuesdays elections.  I'm so fed up with all of them!!

10 DAYS?? Say it Ain't So!

Yup, there are only 10 days until the official start of Fall. Are you ready?  When you decorate for Fall, if you decorate for Fall, do you decorate just one room, one floor or just one object (as my daughter-in-law does by putting apple placemats out on the table and declaires fall decorating done). In her defense, she lives in San Diego. I decorate just about the whole house and a little outside as well.

The kitchen and dining area is done as well, with a fall table setting and decoreted microwave cabinet.

This is the top of the microwave cart

Bathrooms are places that are necessary to a home so why not make them look nice as well. Pull out those fall scented candles and place them in there for leasurey tubbies. Add a fall border to your shower curtin for a little extra color (no need to go buy a fall shower curtin after all)  Add a Welcome sign to show everyone you are glad they stopped by. Top shelves with some fall color and place small pumpkins in there as well.

Do you add a few touches to the outside as well?  How about a few pumpkins - they dont even have to be real - they just need to give that FALL feeling.

With only 10 days to go I really need to pull down the fall clothes and get them ready.  Weve had a few days in the high 60's and low 70's here and when I get up in the morning, it's in the low 50's!!! Yup, it's feeling like fall up here in the upper right hand corner of the USA.