BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY

IF IT WILL BE IN THE 60s, I will rejoice in enjoying the WINTER day!  I hope it is as beautiful a day as yesterday where the temps were SPRING like.  No coats needed.  I seldom need a coat as the cool feels really good to me.  Leaving a coat in the car at all times makes sure that if I go somewhere and it turns off too cold I will be alright.  Sometimes when the temps dip in the 30s, I willingly wear my coat.

BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY.  Church today will be a STAY AT HOME one as I am not up to attending a brick and mortar building.  I'll read and possibly zoom in to watch a service on the internet.  While I wait for milder weather conditions and health issues are resolved, I may continue to be what is called a SHUT IN.  

CHRIST is in my heart.  I'm sealed for the day of redemption.  Still meeting with like minded Christians has no substitute.  Quietly, I can sit in a pew or church chair taking in a in person service when I am feeling better and in better shape to be around people.  For now, I have to do what I can do.  SPRING is when I will be shopping about for a different church to attend in the area if I am in better shape.  

ON THE HOME FRONT, I have managed to take pictures for inventory, wrap and box tiny dolls and figurines that have been housed in a library cabinet.  This was a relief.  I can only stand for so long then my back begins to give me problems so I am relieved that this part is done.  Now to wrap BLUE WILLOW dishes.  A little at time is my pace.  It's slow, but it's what I can do at the moment.

Yesterday, I finished polishing the glass shelves for two curio cabinets at the COTTAGE.  Hubby installed them as they are too heavy for me.  Filling them with crystal, glassware and dolls as I go.

I quickly vacuumed the paper pieces that were on the carpet from when I shredded papers. Hubby worked on plumbing in the bathroom.  Looks like we will aim for the end of March with finishing up the bathroom complete with new plumbing, bathroom redo installing new tiles throughout, vanity, toilet and tub.  Closet floor will be tiled.  Probably do the redo on the closet after we get moved into the COTTAGE.  We can live with the wire closet rods for now.

Each day we try to work on the COTTAGE and what needs done in our main house.  Very busy. Getting so much done when having health issues is taking discipline.  Keep forging ahead.  

I will continue to box up small items then we will stack the boxes in the CARRIAGE HOUSE and take a few items over to the COTTAGE.  At this point where time is vanishing and the days on the calendar are disappearing, I think it best to get out of the main house leaving things boxed up, move into he COTTAGE, and get the main house on the market to sell after doing some touch ups about this main house.    

Early this morning, I managed to shuffle some things off a butcher block table in the Kitchen.  I will continue to box up dishes and glassware leaving only a few things to use as we live here.  We will use disposable cups and paper plates.  This can be like playing a game keeping it light hearted and manageable.  Going back and forth between the two houses is a challenge for me as I tire easily.  Like the tortoise and the hare, I will keep a steady pace as best I can and get on with it.  Praying.  Taking time to rest and think through how to do this BIG ADVENTURE with health issues galore.

To God be the glory.  Great things HE hath done.  I will put some gospel music on and listen to it in the background as I putter about the house today.  Put put.

As I have gone through my books, I came across a little book full of prayers by WILLIAM H. KADEL.  PRAYERS FOR EVERY NEED.  Copyright 1957.  Not sure it's still in print or not and I don't recall where I got this book, but the prayers are rather nice and useful.  Will share some later.  I'm typing int he morning light keeping as quiet as I can as to not wake my husband and the lighting isn't very good to see the prayers to copy.  SO I'll share later when I can see what I am doing.

After we get moved, I will store my Biblical materials in my Victorian desk that now holds some of my dolls.  It will be challenging to store things when there will be less space after we move, so I believe the best use for this desk is for Biblical books such as my Bibles, Devotionals, and other Christian literature that I have hung onto.  What's that saying about space is a precious commodity?  Something like that.  

I have watched a multitude of videos about organizing, living big in a small space, tiny houses, etc. in hopes in nourishing my thought life concerning moving into a much smaller space.  I have writer's block in the form of thinking through how we are going to downsize into the COTTAGE.  It truly is a challenge for my little ole brain that retired a few years back. Bringing my brain out of retirement once again isn't an easy task for me as I need to rest a great deal of the time.  Mentally decorating is a form of entertainment until I run into a road block in the mind then it's frustrating.  Take a break and do my best to think this through.  Morphing along as I go has some drawbacks.  Enjoying the ride when it's so bumpy may cause nausea.

       

At 67, I have what I call thyroid hair.  It is falling out more than I am comfortable with.  It's fly away and not very manageable.  Frustrating at times.  I managed to try a different way of curling my hair after a much needed shampoo.  Will try this again.  

WE ARE ONE DAY CLOSER TO SPRING!  I can tell you I'm HAPPY about it.  I am.  As I drove HOME yesterday, I noticed a field full of birds gleaming from the fields.  There were so many of them I pulled over to the side of the road taking a few pictures with my phone.  With the car window down, I could hear the birds talking to one another.  Beautiful sight as it was at that moment I wished I could have been sitting in a comfortable chair in my countryside home sipping a hot beverage just listening to their sounds and watching their movements before they fly south or where ever it is they tend to go.  Living in a small community has it's blessings, but there are times I wished I lived in the country away from the maddening crowd.

Okay...I'll see how this beautiful day goes and be blessed.
~d  

ONE DAY CLOSER TO SPRING!

LAST NIGHT AS I WAS DRIVING HOME across the prairie in the bitter cold temperatures, the sun was still up.  NICE as the sun is setting later being closer to 6 pm instead of 5.  Each day as we crawl closer to SPRING, the dreary WINTER gets lighter.  Reminder that it won't be WINTER forever!!!  Pinch myself.  SPRING will truly come.

The little shop 37 PINE in St. Marys, is decorated for SPRING.  It was like a breath of fresh air looking around yesterday.  Colorful Heart garlands were draped across the chandeliers making a nice statement.  It looked like they had cut out heart shapes attaching them to twine/string to make garlands.  

A nice decorating touch easy enough that I could copy these to add some cheer to a room.  If I can get some old wallpaper catalogs, I could copy the idea of colorful hearts to make garlands.  hum.  Now to find some old wallpaper catalogs.  Paper print-outs from HOBBY LOBBY would work just as well.  For now, I have a VALENTINE paper garland for the fireplace that I will hang later today. 

Sitting in the Kitchen Garden Window are Paperwhites that I planted last week.  A good growth is there.  SMILES.  I'll wait a few days before transplanting them into the larger galvanized container.  

I also have a Schefflera plant in the window that I will repot into a porcelain fish bowl.  After it adjusts, I will take the newly potted plant over to the COTTAGE in the SPRING to sit by a Parlor window.  I'd hate to lose this one as it was the plant we received from my Mother-in-law's funeral 6 years ago this month.

She has been gone 6 years.  The day of her funeral was like a gorgeous SPRING DAY at 73 degrees.  

ON THE HOME FRONT.  AS FOR PACKING...it's a slow process.  First, this old gal purchases boxes, take them HOME, open them up, tape the bottoms shut, snap a pic of the item going into ze box, bubble wrap the item that's going into ze box, carefully place item into ze box, tape the box shut, mark the box, stack box.  Sounds SIMPLE enough doesn't it?  The tape dispenser doesn't cooperate with me each time.  I have a wrestling match getting the tape unstuck from itself being set free to touch base with the box I'm working on.  ha.

It works pretty well to make up half a dozen boxes first so they are ready to fill.

I'm taking into account that it doesn't always RUN as smooth as it would seem.  Things are heavier to me these days as I am quickly aging and I have to put more muscle and sweat into the process than I did 30 years ago.  I may know more about the process of how to box up things then I did then, but the physical part of it is taking more out of me than before.  Gosh, if only the two were working together than not having the know how when the strength was there.  Make this work for me  

I inventoried my white bakeware.  Need to pack these up.  I started taking pics of my miniature dolls that are in a small library cabinet upstairs in the Master Bedroom.  I forgot how many small dolls I have.  They will be relocated to a curio cabinet that will sit in one of the bedrooms at the COTTAGE.  Figuring this out as I go. 

Hubby is working over at the COTTAGE tending to plumbing issues.  I hope the Bathroom is up and going by the end of February.  I'll continue packing small items to where they are ready to move.  I'd like to get out of the main house before doing touch up projects around the property.

Having the COTTAGE all done before we move in isn't going to happen.  We will be moving into the fixer upper COTTAGE in the SPRING.  Lord willing.

As many times as I have relocated, I should THINK this moving process is a piece of cake, but I don't.  I know it takes time and labor making the preparations to relocate.  Should I write a book?  This process is what it is.  I mustn't get down about the weather or the slowness of remodeling.  It is what it is.  One day closer to SPRING!

Smiles and best wishes as the day progresses,

~d