Spring cleaning is coming sooner than I think.

I just want to do a giant household purge-but only enough to make room for new things! Not exactly the AT way to do things, but honestly, I can't stand that minimal life that so many of them propose. I need stuff, my stuff, around me. I need to see, and be able to touch, that stupid Mexico pinata bat that my Grandparents brought home for my Mother when she was 3. I need to see all my families pictures hanging around. I just don't do clean surfaces and walls well.

I have decided to start a new collection. Fat Lava. Pottery from the 60's and 70's from West Germany mostly. I have 4 pieces already ( and one piece of Brush pottery that LOOKS like fat lava), and I have always heard that 3 things make a collection, so I guess it's decided. Here are the pieces I have already...

I have less than 10 bucks into the entire group so far....

out of the mouthes of babes

Almost two years ago my son (3 at the time) was watching TV with me. It was the news of course, I'm a news junkie. We were watching Barack Obama announce his run for the presidency. My son looked at me and said - "the president?" and I said no, just a man who wants the job. The little dude was adamant that he was the president. I let it go- he was 3.

Time went on (because this was THE longest campaign) and he got older, and realized that Obama wasn't the President- Yet. I was a fan of Hillary so I know he didn't get it this air of inevitability from me. Time went on, Hillary lost, McCain picked that creature to run with him, and my son was still convinced. I tried to explain to him that everyone would vote, and that the winner might not be who he wanted. That kind of goes over the head of a 4 year old.

Well, you know how the election turned out. Today we watched the inauguration. He watched from 8 am to 12.30pm. He stood when they told the crowd to stand. He called me in to hold his hands when Biden and Obama took their oaths. He didn't ask once for me to change to a "kid"show.

He was right all along. He doesn't understand the importance of today for so many, many people. He doesn't understand that people fought and died for this man to take office today. He just understands that "he's a good man, with good ideas".

Let's hope that President Obama keeps those two qualities for the next 4 years.

It's good to try new things....

When I posted about the deer being on my front porch, I neglected to post the picture. Earlier that day I had this in my back yard....I think you can only see 5, but there were a total of 6 of them down there.

Then, the next morning we had this....

See near the bottom middle? That is a deer track. The post is my porch fence- this deer had to go up 2 steps to put his little footsie there, he then went to the door and turned around, he never even bothered to knock.....

The good thing about cold, nasty weather? The chance to do things inside that are new. I decided to test myself with some new paintings. This first one had a one, two, three ,rule. One brush, 2 hours to do it, and 3 paints (white,blue, and black) It also had to be in a style that I don't normally paint in. This one is aboriginal in style...

This one was just a 2 hour test, in the style of the illustrator Phil Frost. I call it "angry bird"

Oh, another gratuitous picture of pizza that I made when it was cold outside.... tonight it's shrimp and veggies with a spinach salad

Things I learned when it's -21 F outside (with the windchill it was -35F)

1. No matter what you wear, you will be cold outside.
2. When it's this cold- the deer in my area will try to come inside- in my case, they were trying to come in my front door. They were ON my front porch.
3. If your garbage can is anywhere near your heat register, and the heat is going all the time due to the cold, your house will REEK of hot garbage.
4. When you can't take your kid outside due to the cold- neither can anyone else. Pre school turns into a zoo of crazy, cooped up 4 year olds in less than 72 hours.
5. Even if you turn your car on and allow it to run for 30 minutes in your driveway PRIOR to getting into it to go anywhere, it is still not warm. Hell, it wasn't even not cold.
6. I miss spring......

My frozen butt just fell off.....

it is 11.34 pm. It is -15.3 F outside. No wind, so no wind chill. -15.3 F is -27.7C. It's only going to get colder tonight. tomorrow may get to 0. Yep, 0. Oh, and another 3 inches of snow. Yippee skippy.

In addition, I found out that a small clip that holds one of my windows in is broken- so it's a little colder than normal in that room tonight. Yes, it's my bedroom, and yes, I plan on fixing that tomorrow.

Oh- and the boy has a cold. Poor thing is just running around with a bright red dripping nose rubbing it on anything stationary. Last time he got sick he puked in my bed and I slipped and fell in the hall (trying to get the sheets to the laundry room) and ended up in hospital. Wish me luck.

It is possible to freeze your butt off

Here is the weather forecast for this week-

Tues temps 14/-3 F (-10/-19c) with snow

Wed. temps 7 /-6 F (-13/-21c) lake effect snow

Thu. temps 4/-8 F (-15/-22c) mmmm...could it be more......snow?

Fri temps 4/-4 F (-15/-20c) I don't know anymore- snow?

this isn't even taking into account wind chill. My job this week will be to make sure that the pipes don't freeze at my house and my parents place. That is, of course, if my car battery starts.

This sucks.

Everyone loves food, everyone loves a meme- 2 great tastes that taste great together?

It's a meme for the weekend-

1. What is your favorite comfort food? Loaded baked potato, and by loaded I mean butter, cheese, sour creme and bacon. Lots of bacon. Oh, and chives.

2. Best food smell memory- It has to be the open pit at the Salt Lick in Driftwood. They smoke the meat inside the restaurant, oak is what they burn- and they throw wet pecan shells on the fire to damp it down and make the smoke. The entire place smells of meat and smoke.

3. Most likely to eat for lunch? Something frozen- like a lean cuisine or something that was on sale at Meijer's ( 6 for 10 bucks). If nothing was on sale, then a ham and cheese roll up.

4. Least likely to eat for lunch? Something I actually have to cook (other than microwave) or something with more than 3 ingredients.

5. Food that makes you gag. Those tiny little sausages- I can't remember what they are called- but they are the kind you sometimes see on buffets. Also, I try not to eat food other people make. If they don't work in a restaurant I probably won't eat their food. I hear my Grandpa was the same way.

Extra Credit-

Favorite food scene in a movie OR favorite food lyric-
I don't have one, I just thought I would toss this in! Everyone have a great weekend!

Resolution 3

Here are my 3 resolutions for the new year. They are similar to the resolutions of probably about 75% of the American people this year. Sorry for being redundant.

Res. 1 Be tidier- clean thoroughly. I am sick of the mess. It makes me jumpy.

Res. 2 Lose some weight. To be healthier and since my family history is nipping at my heals. You would think the cancer would have made me take better care of myself. No, it made me take better care of my son. Now it's my turn.

res. 3 Spend less money. The money I do spend I want to think about more. Having fewer, better quality items instead of tons of junk. In conjunction with this I want to try to purchase more items made by hand, locally grown or sold.

SO, to tie this up with a bow- A cleaned, edited, organized kitchen, closet and life. We will see...

Making my kitchen larger one foot at a time....

I fondly remember my kitchen in Texas. It was about 20 x20 with an attached pantry (8x10), laundry room (6 x10) and 1/2 bathroom. It was gigantic- bigger than my living room in this house. My kitchen now, well, it just frustrates me to no end. It is 8ft wide and 9 ft long. I do have an attached pantry (about 5 ft wide and 7ft deep) which is the only reason we could even buy this house!

This past year we have taken the area next to the kitchen (about 8x9) and started moving the kitchen-foot by foot- into that space. This spot used to be a dining area ( we think) but we used it as a hallway for the first 4 years- as it connects the front dining room to the living room and it makes no sense to me to put a table in a walkway. We installed the bar height butcher block table (about 5ft long and 3 ft wide)on the far wall last Christmas . This year we extended the kitchen one foot into the area from the actual kitchen side.

The kitchen ended with the stove. Not a good thing with a small boy child. The cabinets on the other side end 6 inches before the door frame. First we bought a small, butcher block rolling table from IKEA for 50 bucks, and then my Mr. bought a 12 inch cabinet from a co worker when she re did her kitchen (20 bucks). We also found a small butcher block countertop at a garage sale for 3 bucks (unused). We used a majority of the countertop in the original part of the kitchen by the stove, but had enough left over that (with a frame around it) that it could be used on the new kitchen cabinet that we installed this holiday. We put bead board as a skin on the new cabinet. We also had to fix the floor and bring out the kitchen floor one more foot. There is still some work to be done ( a large pole behind the cabinet for one thing) but here are the pictures.

Before-

Yucky- behind the stove and removing the floor...
new underfloor




new tile area....
installing the cabinet

after it was beadboarded, the top installed and I primed it- from the back-the missing post etc.. goes back here up the wall (so imagine it right now!)

From the front....

Now to just finish painting the kitchen....

Let there be light- resolution one.

That new, great light that my Mr. put in has shown an ugly truth. What was in my opinion a relatively clean bathroom has now been shown to be in truth- filthy. Not as bad as a mens room in a gas station- but still- living with a house-ful of boys , well, you get the picture.

Resolution one- be tidier, clean thoroughly.