17 things

I found this and thought it was worth sharing. BY Darlene Schacht at timewarpwife.com. 

If you start to look around, you’ll probably see things that you would be better off taking care of now than leaving it for later. In fact you’d probably find several. Before you run off and start doing them–I’ll also offer you a list of my own. Here are 17 things that we can do today to make our lives easier tomorrow:

1. Pray. Women often waste time over-discussing our problems when going to prayer with them is far more effective.
2. Make a double portion of your meal and freeze half for another day.
3. Make school lunches for the next day while you’re cooking dinner. (An idea I got from a reader!)
4. Clean out your purse and organize it.
5. Clean out a junk drawer so you can find things easier.
6. Empty the dishwasher before going to bed.
7. Grab garbage every time you leave your car.
8. Pick up small containers to use for organizing and storage. How many times do you clean up loose items in the pantry like crackers or pasta? Storing them in small containers will save you time and keep them fresh.
9. Make amends where you can.
10. Take care of a difficult or annoying task that you normally put off. Get it over with today and you’ll feel a weight off your shoulder tomorrow.
11. Pay your bills before they are due.
12. Eat well so you’ll have energy tomorrow.
13. Never handle a piece of paper twice. Remember what I did this morning?  Paper work is a huge time-waster. Every single time that paper went through my hands I wasted time with it. Open your bills and pay them immediately. Have school notes? Grab a pen, sign them and put them in your child’s backpack.
14. Go to sleep early so you feel refreshed and productive the next day.
15. Cut veggies up and store them in the fridge so you have healthy snacks on hand. Wash fruit and keep it out on the counter.
16. Fill bottles of water so you can grab one on the run.
17. Take the time to train your children to do a task right. Even if it means standing beside them when they make their bed for the first several times. Having them learn to do it correctly will save you all time in the long run.

Do you like my new blog style?

It’s Friday! The start of a busy weekend for me.
  Today I worked on my blog. I found a new site called ribbet.com  If you want to have fun with your photos visit this free graphics site. Just upload your photo and use the many tricks to make your photos look professional.  Lots of fun!


Tonight Don and I are invited to my in-law’s home for a turkey dinner. The corn casserole that I’m bringing is in the oven. Also I made a dump cake because Chris and Scott will be home.
  If you’ve never made this easy dessert before here is what you do:  dump a can of fruit pie filling (I use cherry) and a can of crushed pineapple drained into a nine by thirteen pan. (Don’t forget to butter it well first). Then sprinkle on a yellow cake mix, a cup of chopped nuts, and pour over a stick of melted butter. That’s all.  Easy-peasy! Bake about 1/2 hr till done. Everyone loves it.
   Larry is here again today and putting down the landscape weed barrier out back. Then he will mulch and viola! My landscaping will be done for this year. I am so happy with it. This is the view out the sunroom window today.

Rock and Roll

In came the rocks! Larry brought three big rocks for my landscaping today. |

One went up by the birch tree and one is on the other side of Tatiana.
I love how the rocks give a look of permanence to the garden.
I will plant the day lilies behind the rock to fill in up to the fence.
The view is looking better on that side of the garden.

Larry also planted the holly bushes around the back of the house.

And he put a bigger rock out front that has more impact from the road.
All that is left is some mulching and planting just a few more plants and it will be done. Can you say HAPPY!!!!

You’ve got a friend

Sunday thoughts

More landscape news.

If you’re not totally bored hearing about the landscape, let me update you. Today Larry came and planted the boxwoods around the Tatiana statue. She isn’t up on the pedestal yet because Don had to cut a stone to fit on the top to make it absolutely lever. We wouldn’t want Tatiana to topple over now would we? He also planted a beautiful blue hydrangea beside the birch trees, an agapanthus by the wall, and a lilac tree around the back of the house. He also gave me three very large hostas that he planted behind the lilac tree. It looks so good. Sorry I didn’t get a picture for you today. I didn’t have the camera out.
but here’s a picture of my favorite spot in the world, the porch swing.

The view from the porch swing in the early morning.

It’s Birthday time!

 

Way out in the Woods

Last night our Kinzua Kuties group (formerly Red Hats) ventured out to the little settlement of Westline to have dinner at the Westline Inn.  This inn is in the heart of the Allegheny national Forest with great food, spirits, and rustic lodging.






It was a great time with all our friends. Here Joan and I enjoy a laugh.

The Little things

Here are some more of the little things in my life.

My mailbox—Who doesn’t like getting a new magazine in the mail?  Or a note from a friend or from family?

What I’m reading now… My new book from my sister for my birthday, a new magazine I’d never seen before and the current library book.


A light fixture..this is the new fan/light we put in the computer room.


Looking out my window..the boxes did very well this summer.
My favorite drink…ice tea.



The kitchen faucet..with the summer tomatoes on the windowsill.

My Grandkids

Here’s the latest picture of Dan and Gretchen.


Dan and Scott at a Baltimore Oriole baseball game. Gretchen and Dan are deep in their cell phones.

The Front Door

The new landscaping called for a new front door decoration so I made one when I was away this weekend visiting with my sisters.
It looks so pretty on the yellow door. Notice the new column with the armillary. Aren’t you glad I have that van and can bring things home.

The front landscaping is completely finished now.

Pieces of Me

It’s the little things that count. Haven’t we all heard that statement? But yet when we take a photograph we concentrate on the big picture, the event, the action and ignore all those tiny moments and things that are a part of our everyday life. Kim is giving us a scavenger hunt this week to allow us to focus on the little things. Today the assignment is 1. a favorite chair and 2. on your feet.
There it is. At the end of the table. If you would have told me twenty years ago that I would purchase two zebra striped chairs for my dining room table I would have called you crazy. But yet, here they are. I guess the moral of that story is that we change. We change our persona completely and are not the person that we were yesterday. Life is flux. We live and learn. And like new things. I like zebra chairs now.

On my feet are my plastic gardening shoes. I’ve been wearing them a lot lately since we are in the midst of a big landscaping project. I’ve never done so much gardening in my life. (and hope to never again..LOL).

The Landscaping goes on

Stones times two. Don and I both left at the same time. Him in his truck and me in the van. He was headed to Walmart to pick up some more pond pebbles to finish in front of the walkway out back.
 

Sadie and I went down to the local creek and picked up rocks to put around my weeping cherry by the picket fence. Then I planted a beautiful fern and two coral bells.


I’m still working on this area. My goal is to have perennials there so I can have color without buying so many annuals every year.

LOOKING DOWN

Today’s challenge was to take the time to look down. How often we are so busy that we don’t take time to notice some of the little things in life. Here are the results of my two photographs.

Goin’ plant crazy!

Since taking out the rhododendron around back I needed to get some more plants to fill in that area. That meant a trip to Lowe’s in Warren.
 
I picked up a tree form of a lilac at a nursery near Lowe’s. And I also found my all time favorite flower there and couldn’t resist getting it.  It’s an agapanthus.
The hydrangea that I bought last week is still blooming.

This is a picture of the rear of the house. (soon to be landscaped. )

The side of the house with the Hashiki willow.
The corner:
and around front:


Aren’t the window boxes extraordinary this year?