Today I...

Today has been a busy day.  I gave Chris some pointer on the biscuits he was making for breakfast.  I won't say I helped him, because he did a great job solo!  I led a great family discussion about how to handle kitchen cleanup when Ben and Chris move back home for the summer.  And then I helped clean up the kitchen.  I don't mind cleaning up when I didn't have to make the food - Trent and Chris made a fabulous team for biscuits and gravy this morning.

I helped Angel sort through the dresses in her closet.  She has a dozen of them, but only wears two.  We pared down a few, and she remembered some that she just loves - maybe they will see more wear time.  Or we can pare down a few more.

I assembled a shelf, with the help of four additional hands, and figured out where to hang it.  Trent is better at the power tools, so I let him hang it on the wall.  I also located a spider in the bathroom sink and allowed him to kill it for me.  See how nice I am?

I supported a neighbor's moving sale and toured their house.  I'm now fighting a touch of envy because it is bigger and five million times better laid out than the one I live in.  I wish I could buy it.

I sent birthday wishes to a brother-in-law.  I texted a list of shopping items my dad has requested to my sister-in-law.

I held a six-year-old on my lap and consoled him when everyone else got to play with a toy but he didn't.  I later convinced the other one that he would not die if he ate the gravy.  A bribe of chocolate milk didn't hurt there.

I taught David about pedal markings in piano music and how to properly use the sustain pedal.  He is teaching himself to play "Chariots of Fire."  I admire his dogged determination to do things he sets his mind to.

I had a discussion with Eddie about "fair," and complemented him for getting right on his chores.  He is the best one we have to get started without being asked.

I can't take a nap yet, because I still need to have an executive council meeting with my fabulous husband and send an email to my brothers.  And lunch - it's about that time.

I wonder what the afternoon will bring?

The End of School

I didn't record the end of school here, but it was a happy time.  I love getting my kids home for the summer!  Check out these cute little faces.  Maybe they aren't being so cute right now!  This will be the first summer vacation for the twins, and they aren't really happy about it.  Freddie will not miss walking home after school every day.  But they think they will miss their friends, and they love going to school.  They don't understand why they have to stop going to school for a few months.  I'm glad they have had a good experience in kindergarten.

David just finished his last year at the junior high, and Eddie his first year there.  I loved just sitting back and watching the two of them flip through the junior high yearbook together.  I don't think either of them budged for hours.

I didn't get a picture of our girl, but her world is falling apart!  She is in mourning for her little friends that she won't be able to see all summer long!  You should hear her lament.  With a pouty face, it's "alllll summer loooooong!"  Like they were dying or something.  Pretty pathetic.  I'm sure she'll manage, because she's not generally looking for drama, but her friends are important to her and she loves being with other people.  Like her daddy, she is.

Here is the biggest change at the end of this school year.  Chris is done - oh happy day!  He has not been fond of being in high school, and really couldn't wait to get done with it.  I'm glad he managed to finish all of his requirements anyway.  He hates having me take his picture, so this is a splendidly pleasant face.  It will be fun to see where he chooses to go in his life.

And that is the end of the school year.  Some summers are full of goings, some are more lazy.  As much as I would love to just relax and vacation at the beach this summer, I know it will be more on the busy side.  My oldest three boys will be working, Ben will be coming home, we have a wedding coming up, and at the end of the summer, all three of them will be moving out.

This is our last summer together, and I plan to cherish every little tidbit I get.  We will have 11 people living in our house for a few months, and after this, the whole dynamic of our family changes.  Not in a bad way, but change is often fun and melancholy at the same time.  Who knows what we will look like next summer?

Slowing Way Down

So the other day (which means a vague sometime in the past but not necessarily recently.  We're liberal with our definitions here) I wrote about getting an inspiration in the temple that I needed to slow m life down.  I tried!  I thought seriously about it and everything.

But the reality of life for me is that I am the Mama of a large family.  Six kids at home rely on me for food, clothing, love, and attention.  I am the homemaker in charge of a house and land.  It's not huge, but there are always things that need cleaning up, fixing up, taking out, and tuning up.  I am the primary caregiver to a wonderful man and his Parkinson's Disease and he's not improving.  This disease is slowly stealing him and his abilities away from us.  And not lastly (but bestly!) I am the wife of a good man.  I'm so lucky to be the one to love him.

None of this will let up.  In  spite of the fact that we cleaned the front room yesterday, it needs to be cleaned again.  The laundry does not stay folded and put away.  Kids need to go to school again.  Track practice got out late and the boys need a ride home.  He needs a new pair of shoes.  She needs her hair brushed.  They need dinner (seriously guys?  We just ate yesterday!  Can't we call that good?).

And in the middle of all this thinking about slowing down and realizing that life was just not going to make this easy for me, I got a phone call from the doctor's office.  "So sorry, sweetie (she always calls me that and I love her for it).  The blood test results came back and you have Epstein Barr.  You need to get your back on the couch and stay there until this flare settles down."  Wait, what?  What is it, exactly?  Didn't I have mono already when I was twelve?  It comes back?  How bad is that?  How long will it take?  "Probably a month until you start feeling a bit better, but the fatigue can hang on for a while."

The fatigue.  Oh, I remember that part.  I was too sick to go to sixth grade for weeks.  My mom would take me to the doctor's office for more tests and I'd still be panting when we got there from the exertion of walking out my front door to the car.  Sometimes I had to crawl down the hallway to the bathroom because I was too exhausted to walk.  I lived on the old hide-a-bed couch in the living room where Mom could keep an eye on me.  Then they got new blue couches and they moved me and my old brown plaid one under the peninsula counter in the kitchen.  I was always so tired and never even wanted to move.

And I get to do that again?  Oh goody.

So now I live on the couch again.  Sometimes in the front room, and sometimes on the squishy green couches in the back room.  And sometimes I hide in my bedroom while Trent makes dinner and David hosts his own birthday party with his friends.  Lots of times I get up and do things, which I thnk is ok - in tiny amounts.  Because if I do any more than a microscopic amount, I pay for it afterwards.

It's hard to slow down.  I appreciate my family more than ever.  Trent is a dear to take care of half of everything I can't do.  David and Eddie have each made dinner this week (er, helped, but they are getting better).  Angel unloads the dishwasher.  The twins cleaned the bathroom, and it is actually cleaner now than when they started!  Even Chris was kind and was willing to help out (when he's not at school or work or track - which is not very much).  I'm blessed with wonderful people around me.

So we'll see what lessons I get to learn from this adventure!  Patience, I'm sure.  And gratitude.  And being able to see the things in slo-mo that I miss on fast-forward.  Stay tuned... I'm not going anywhere!

And thanks, Lord, for giving me a heads-up there at the organ.  I appreciate that.

Look for the Good

I love my family.  I am appreciative that we have a roof over our heads and sturdy walls to keep out the cold.  I have so many blessings!  That said, our living arrangements have been challenging.  Living with my dad has been two or three castes below renting, and I'm so fiercely independent that it is pathetically hard for me to have such boundaries.  I get it - this is my dad's house, and I can't make changes and improvements to it.  And he still lives here, so there is a lot of even the decor that I don't feel like I can change.  It made him crazy that I moved the silverware to a different drawer.

So I can keep sniveling about the things I can't change, or I can look somewhere else.  I get a kick out of the design blogs that show us a gorgeous homescape, and then turn around and photograph the other side of the room - where they have kicked the old papers and the dirty socks and last night's dessert dishes and the two blankets that don't match.  Thanks for keeping it real.

We can do that in real life, too.  I get to choose where I want to look.  I can look at the shelves overflowing with my mother's movie collection, or I can look at the somewhat-calmer fireplace.  "Organize yourselves" was our theme for January, so I thought I ought to tidy up the space around it.  Looking here makes me happy.  I just have to be careful to look down every now and then because this room also houses our spreading Lego collection.  Don't step on Legos.

I got myself a bag of cinnamon pine cones this year, after admiring them at the stores - but not buying them - every dang year.  I love cinnamon, and they still smell lovely.  This is what I want to be smelling, not burnt toast or eau de teenaged garcon.  Look for the good.

The best part of having a family is that I get to be Mama.  Love these kids!  Even when they rip my heart out and have growing pains and act unlovable.  Maybe I love them even more then, because I have to search and find the wonderful parts of them.  It takes practice.  But the more I work on loving someone who is difficult to love, the better I get at it.  My angel mother and my sweet husband have taught me this.

My mom loved me when I was prickly and not very loving.  I still want to curl up in her arms and have her just hold me.  And my man loves me now when I am having a less than lovely day.  Thanks for holding me together, Trent.

Thanks, Mom, for loving me, and for showing me how to be a mom.  Hope you don't mind that I moved the silverware.  If you do mind, just look somewhere else, ok?

The Storybook House

I was bored the other day.  Yes, I had things I should have been doing,  but nothing on the A list, or even the B list.   Trent took the kids to play laser tag,  and I stayed home to watch over my dad,  who has been wobbly and falling a few times lately.  I cleaned the bathroom (because I got some cleaning supplies that don't make me sick from the chemicals!), and then sat.  And got bored.

I opened up my laptop and,  on a whim,  stayed looking to see if there were any good houses for sale in our area.  And then I saw it.   My dream house.

I had to put the sparkles on the picture because I always get stars in my eyes when I think of this house.  It looks like something from a storybook, doesn't it?  I always expect to see some princess coming out the front door, or find something magical in the gardens.  Actually, the first time I walked through the back yard, I did stumble across a tiny, bubbling stream.  I'm sure it was enchanted water.

We found the house several years ago when we were looking for a bigger house.  Adding the girl to my five boys meant that our house was a bit too full.  We needed something bigger.  And we found the Storybook House.

It was gorgeous.  And it had a kitchen spacious enough that we could all cook together.  I fell in love with the wooden door peephole in the front door, the tiny alcove that looked out on the front porch, and the Romeo and Juliette balcony over the great room.  The spiral staircase, the giant storage room, a dining area that would accommodate a table for ten, an office for Trent - it had everything.  Of course, with 7000 feet, it had room for everything!

Can't you hear the angels singing?  I do.  I love everything about that house.  Yes, it is really too big.  But it was going into foreclosure and was in our price range.  We didn't end up there, obviously.  And it's for sale again - for double the cost!  Sigh.  I'll keep dreaming about it.

And maybe if I take a stroll through our backyard,  I'll find something magical there, too.

My Family Makes Me Happy

A little bit of what we've been doing the last while:

Dad getting ready to tell bedtime stories to Georgie and Angel.  They love him so much.

Freddie deciding that he'd rather play with his Legos than listen to a bedtime story.  He'll pitch a fit if he misses any of the story, though.

Eddie logging into the computer to report his hours of trombone practice on the band's website.  He really enjoys playing it, but I don't know about lugging the big thing to school every other day.  I'm sure he's glad it's not a tuba.

I didn't get pictures of Chris or David - they are getting to those teenaged years where they would prefer not to have their pictures taken.  Still love 'em!

Yard Sale

When we moved last year - yes, it's been an entire year - we had two weeks to empty out a spacious house and move into a much smaller one.  Most of our stuff went into a storage garage that was literally packed to the ceiling with all our stuff.  What on earth could we have owned that took up that much space?  As a minimalist, I was quite disgusted with all of it.

A good deal of it was large furniture items that we could not shoehorn into my dad's already-furnished house.  We planned to go through it the garage and clean it out, but it was just crammed in there too tightly packed too efficiently to be able to get anything out.  Finally, the day came when we were tired enough (me:of having so much STUFF! and him: of me complaining about it!) that we just had a garage sale.

We hauled load after load of furniture and big stuff from the garage out onto the lawn where passers-by could see it.  We set out signs and advertised.  We brought water and set up canopies so we could sit out there all day long.

The stuff slowly disappeared.  People drove by and slowed down.  An older man, on vacation from California, packed more things into his car than he would be able to drive back home.  A couple slowly talked down the price of a tandem bicycle they would ride together.  A group of college boys together carried away a heavy side table that they thought looked like a treasure chest.  A neighbor girl went home and back three times until she had found enough money to buy an old blue bike.  Women wheedled, babies cried, little children carefully counted their coins.

At the end of the day, we loaded up what didn't sell and took it to the thrift store dropoff.  We were a few hundred dollars richer and a few thousand pounds lighter. Whew.

I thought I'd be jumping-up-and-down happy to see it done.  I wasn't.  Glad to be done with it, yes.  Relieved, yes.  But it took more emotional energy than I counted on to let go of things I had loved.  I'd paid good money for that stuff - picked it out carefully and lovingly.  I wanted it!  And the memories attached to each piece were substantial.  The ghosts of happy family times pressed thickly on my sentimental heart.

I'm sad that I don't have room for some of those nice things, but I'm not willing to store them.  Maybe one day I'll have my own house again and I can pick out just what I want to put in it again.  Until then, I'll just have to see what I can do to make happy family memories today, with what I have now.

Mission Monday

I'm having some reality checks while my boys are on missions.  We have so much!  We have so many things that we take for granted - and then have the audacity to complain about.  Must repent and be more grateful.

Every week, I send out a letter to my missionaries with all the newsy tidbits of the family.  Then I send another very short email with the question of the week.  That way they don't get inundated by having to remember all the things I've asked in the middle of the regular letter.  My questions for the last few weeks have been about how the people live.  I've found out - again - how simply people live when they are poor.  Here are descriptions of at-home life in Madagascar:

Usually there's one room (to the house). And it might have a bed, maybe two, some reed mats you can sit on, and maybe a little chair or bench. Then there's usually a table that they keep there stuff on and sacks full of their clothes underneath. Sometimes they store their clothes under the bed.

They usually cook on a charcoal stove outside. Only very rich people (like our branch president) have ovens or gas stoves even. The missionaries usually have gas stoves. But we ran out of gas three weeks ago and Fort Dauphin does not have any at all... So we're still waiting for it to come from Tana. But since most people only have one room houses, there aren't really kitchens. They'll just have a cutting board maybe and then two or three pots and one little charcoal stove that fits one pot. So cooking happens outside, unless it's raining, then you just have a smoky house.  Don't worry about us not having gas, I've been eating dry ramen every day.

(For games) there's kinety which is a marble game, then there's kinety be which is bocce ball with metal balls. Then there's soccer with balls made from trash bags tied together, some games with bottle caps, and some toy trucks made from from garbage scraps. Those are the biggest ones.

 Wow.  I have an awful lot to be thankful for!

You can read more about how the boys are doing in South Africa and Madagascar on their blogs.

Computer Room: Ye Olde Green Carpet

Ya gotta love this green carpet!  I mean, it's so colorful and matted and dingy and vintage!  It just oozes disco balls and bell bottoms and a dozen pounds of dust!

It was gross pulling it out.  I'll spare you the details.  The good part was that the backing was so rotted out that the whole roll of carpet fit nicely in our garbage can.  We don't have to make a special trip to the dump.  Yay!

And here is the laminate flooring we will be putting on the floor.  A nice improvement, don't you think?  Trent, always a great people person and deal maker, made good enough friends with the store guy that we got this flooring for half off. 

I like.

Computer Room: Before Pictures

I read somewhere that we should not be ashamed of taking pictures of our messes because we can always pass them off later as "before" pictures.  Aren't we always just works in progress?  Hopefully always getting better?  This is our dumping ground bookshelf, where things that don't have a home find a resting place.  Like empty computer boxes and long red wigs.

And here is the middle of our little computer room.  The walls are the same beige-y tan as the rest of the house.  In 40 years, this is only their third coat of paint.  My folks were never much for colors on the walls.  The carpet is the original 1970s green shag.  It's not staying, just in case you were wondering.  The boy is moving out, too, during the renovation, but I think we'll put him back in when we are done.

To the left of the bookshelf is a little closet.   To the right of the hutch is the door.  And that's the whole room! Next time, it will look different.

Hopefully, different in a good way.

Vanishing Computers

No, I haven't vanished.  I just can't post anything very easily because our computers are down.  All of them.  They're down and out, baby! 

By that I mean that they have been taken down and carried out to the garage.  That messy computer set up there?  It's Trent's.   Mine was squished awkwardly to the side.  We took everything out and we're redoing the room.  Fresh paint, new flooring, and then if all goes well, we'll only put half of our junk back in.  It should look great!

Oh yeah, and it has to be done and put back together in one week, before my first Mother-in-Law comes to visit.  I don't want to be scurrying around with a project when I could be visiting with her. 

Good luck to us (and so glad I have a great husband to work with!).

A Party in My Front Room

After a brief book pause for the end of school hubbub and the beginning of summer crazies, I've started reading again.  I'm happy when I have a book - when no one is bothering me.  So, nearly never!  But I can snatch a few minutes at night while Trent unwinds with a movie.

I've been reading my house book, "Love It or Leave It."  No, that's wrong somehow.  It's "Love the House You Have," and I've been loving it - the book and the house I have.  One suggestion she had was to schedule a party, invite people over, and let that deadline be a good incentive to get your house looking nice.  I'm more of an introvert than the author, and I don't really want to throw a party.  I'd rather just stay at home with my family. We are having company in a few weeks, so I guess there is my incentive. 

And I can invite you over, too!  Here is my living room last night.  I'll work on quieting and prettying the room today, and hopefully I'll get a nicer picture posted tonight.  See you then!

Love the Home You Have

For the next part of the book, I was supposed to imagine my dream house - every room!  I'm such a planner and a detail person, so thinking all the way through my dream house will take weeks and weeks. Maybe months and years.  Gah.  I finally compromised my thinking about what kinds of things I would love to have going on in my dream house.

I want a five-butt kitchen where lots of people can work at the same time and not be in each other's way.  I also want a sitting area/family room/great room adjacent to the kitchen so I can be part of things happening/watch the kids/sit and visit with Trent while he makes breakfast.

I really want a large dining area, where we all can eat dinner together.  Enough room to set up extra tables for a big dinner party would also be nice.  Maybe the dining area should be part of the kitchen/great room?

I want a large family room, where we have seats for the whole family to hang out or watch a movie or say family prayer.  That's an important part of our lives - just being together.

That's the main wish list.  On the periphery is a deep porch for sitting, flower and vegetable and herb gardens, a big wooded lot for the kids to make their own play, gobs of parking for my husband and his vehicles, and a soaking tub.  It would also be nice to have some elbow space from the neighbors, and to be able to live at a little slower speed.

I can spend the next week dreaming about this.  Happily.

Love the Home You Have

I got my new book, and I've been reading Love the Home You Have. It's been more difficult than I thought it would be.  I didn't realize how much emotional baggage I had when it came to houses.  And I love to read, and I read fast, so I was hoping to finish it quickly.  Alas, this will be a book of reflection and internal work.  Work, bah humbug.  <sigh>  But I need this.  I need to love this home and make it mine.

First of all, I was supposed to list three things I loved about my current home.  Only three!  Guiltily, I came up empty.  I fought with my thoughts for a while and finally came up with a few things.  But they came out very begrudgingly, "I don't even have a ______, but (grumble, grumble) at least we have a sprinkling system that mostly works."  Most of my first thoughts centered around the trees or the fenced yard or the great neighborhood.  

Then I forced myself to focus on the house itself.  It's really been a challenge to move into this house.  We didn't move here because we wanted to be in a new place.  We didn't move here because it was a better house than the last one.  We didn't move because it fit our family better.  We moved here because this is where my dad is, and we didn't want him to have to move.  Crazy!  Why would we move and inconvenience a family of 10 for the desires of 1?  I don't know, and on paper it is ridiculous.  But it feels like the right thing to do.  

It's certainly not a bad thing to be here, and it's not a bad house.  I've just been focusing enough on the things that don't work for us, and need to see the things that do work for us.  After a bit of mental rebellion, I took a walk through the house.  I noted the nice color and pattern of the kitchen floor.  I saw how the light pours into the back windows.  I appreciated the spacious laundry room.  I was glad that the noisy areas of the house are farther away from the areas we need to keep quiet.

And you know, the more I saw things with grateful and happy eyes, the more good things I saw.  I now have a list of far more than three things I love about this house.  And I'm feeling more happy to be here.

Soggy Sofa Solution

This is why I was working with fluff yesterday.  I have my mother's couches in the front room, and the back cushions are getting more that just a little saggy.  Droopy and soggy and saggy and sad.

When we moved in last summer, we had extra pillows from the beds of our two boys who left to serve missions.  And we no longer have guests, so we have extra guest pillows.  And I found a cupboard full of extra pillows that my mother had stashed away.  Lots o' pillows!

I gathered up the pillows - used and extras - and washed them all.  They got washed and bleached and dried to a fluffy near-newness.  Everyone picked a new, fresher pillow, and I cannibalized the rest.  Even washed, they were matted on the outside.  But when you pick it apart, the inside is light and... fluffy!  How many times can I use that word?  Fluffy, fluffy...

I unzipped the cover of the sofa cushion and found another cushion instead of loose fill.  When I opened that cushion at the side seam, I found that there were three baffles inside, to help the stuffing stay in place better.  I pulled the old stuffing out, fluffed it up, and filled two of the three baffles back up.  Into the third went an entire pillow of fluff.  It really wasn't hard, especially with enthusiastic fluff-ripper helpers.  The kids had a good time helping with that part.  Yes, it did occasionally look like a snowstorm, but it is easy to clean up.

Once it was full and firm, I hand-sewed the side back up with giant, messy stitches - because it's faster, no one will see it, and I imagine I'll be back in a few years to add more stuffing.

Look at the difference!  One cushion down,and a half dozen to go!  I love our newer, fluffier cushions.  Fluff, fluff, fluffy...

Love My Home

I stumbled across a new book the other day and it's hitting me pretty hard.  The name of the book is Love the Home You Have, and you can read more about it here.  I do need to learn to love the house I live in, and make it a home.

Ever since we moved in with my dad, I've been struggling to love this house.  I've been struggling to find my place here.  I've been struggling to feel at home here.  I grew up here, and it certainly felt like home then.  But I've gone away and grown up and now it's my mom's house - my dad's house.  It doesn't feel like my home.  I'm never quite at ease here, which has been draining.

Maybe I need to get this book.  Maybe, nuthin.

Stay tuned, and I'll let you know when the book comes - sometime next week.  It looks like a keeper.

Maybe it will help me to feel a little better about this odd situation I find myself in.

Scalped!

The fruit trees here are overgrown.  I remember when they were planted, even though I was only four years old.  They were supposed to be semi-dwarf trees, and stay small enough that the fruit would be easily picked.  They were placed in a line across the backyard, like ducks queuing up to get into the ark.  2 apple, 2 peach, 2 plum, 2 apricot, and 2 pear trees, all sunk into the ground by my gardening grandfather, as a gift to his daughter at the purchase of her first house.

We watched those trees grow along with us, always wanting them to be bigger so we could climb them.  And then they started producing fruit and we spent many hours picking and cleaning and cutting and cooking the bounty into jewel-toned jam.

Every spring there was a (mostly) friendly tug-of-war between my father and mother about who would prune the trees.  I don't think either of them really wanted to do it, so they each wanted the other to take care of the job, but they each thought the other would do it wrong.  So do the job, but do it my way!  My dad was a shear-er, and my mother, taught by her green-thumbed father, was more of an arborist.  I laugh now, remembering the struggles, and because I haven't yet developed the skill of proper pruning.

Now there are only 3 trees remaining: apple, apricot, and a little pear tree.  The apple and apricot trees have long since forgotten that they were supposed to be semi-dwarf, and have outgrown their easily-picked size.  Something needed to be done.

Unsure of my meager knowledge, I called a neighbor to ask for assistance.  He came over the other day, and took care of the job.  As the pile of lopped-off branches increased, he chuckled and asked me not to tell my mother what he was doing.  He, too, knew of the feud.

And now the poor trees are bare.  Trimmed and shortened.  I'm not sure we will get much fruit from them this year, but at least we will be able to reach it all!  Now, how do I get my boys to haul off all these branches?

Thanks, nice neighbor-guy!

Cold Storage

Looking at this picture, I'm feeling like I want to become a minimalist.  Yup.  Let's backpack through Europe, honey, with only the things in our packs!  No stuff, no furniture, no worries!

This, unfortunately, is our storage garage.  Or part of it, anyway.  The place is huge.  We. Have. So. Much. Stuff!  

A lot of it is furniture, that we didn't have time to sell due to the quick and unexpected nature of our move.  A lot of it is movies and cords and screens and wires and dead computers and other electronics.  I don't get that one.  A lot more of it is clothes - winter coats, snow boots, jeans-to-grow-into hand-me-downs, and baby twin clothes?  Some of it belongs to Alec, and some of it belongs to Ben, as we store away their favorite things while they are gone.  Some of it is memories that I just can't throw out, and some of it is valuable things that someone thinks should be sold instead of donated.

And some of it is my husband, and some of it is Eddie.  Hello up there!  Better get them out before we turn off the lights.

Repurposing Furniture

I've been reading some about "repurposing."  It seems like a big fancy word that means you take some of your old junk and make something new and useful out of it.  I remember doing this in the 70's.  Make binoculars out of old toilet paper tubes!  Make quilts out of your old holey jeans!  Macrame a plant hanger out of old rope from the garage!  Isn't it just recycling at home?

The latest trends on repurposing seem to be in using furniture for other than it's designed purpose.  Like cutting the legs off a kitchen table and using it as a coffee table.  Or adding boards to an old headboard and making a bench out of it.  I looked around the house today and discovered that we are trendy!  We have got this repurposing stuff down pat.  (patting self on back)

Vintage treadle sewing machine used as plant stand / end table.  Gorgeous.

Sunshiny corner table meant for *me* (notice covered sewing machine in the left corner) improved as a family computer center!  Maybe not improved.  Note the creative freeform tangle of cords in the snake pit under the desk.

Washer and dryer repurposed as storage shelving.  Open shelving is so *in* this year, isn't it?  How refreshing it is to actually see all our messes, instead of just having to assume they are there!

Empty propane tanks used as yard art. Stunning.

My current fave: yet-unpacked moving boxes standing in for a night stand.

And our all time best furniture repurposing came this week when we parked a full-size upright dresser next to a sofa and called it a side table.  It was quite a focus piece, I tell you.  And as much as I loved it, I have to say that the whole room breathed a sigh of relief when that dresser found a new home at someone else's house.  Somehow, the room feels bigger now, and we can actually get past the sofa without having to do a sideways shimmy.  

Maybe I'm out of my league with these professional repurposers.  My pictures don't have the same lovely feel that theirs do.  So I guess I'm not quite cut out for a home decorating blog.  Sigh.  I guess I'll go move those propane tanks around to the back yard.

Paper Products

My dad shuffled into the laundry room while I was in the middle of a project.  I was literally in the middle of a project, sitting on the floor surrounded by this.  And then some.  I don't usually like to use paper ware and such - something about being expensive and filling up landfills and the way my skin cringes when a fork scrapes a paper plate.  Don't even mention a foam plate.  Erk. 

"Dad, did you realize that your wife had a love affair with disposable dinnerware?"  

He chuckled, and asked where I had gotten all of the packages from.  The corner cupboard in the kitchen.  The shelves near her desk.  The storage room, and under the cabinet in the laundry room.  

He nodded.  "But did you get the big box on the top shelf of the pantry?"  Really???

About an hour later, we finally were somewhat more organized.  The utensils were corralled, the napkins were sorted, the cups were stacked.  I breathed a sigh of relief and hauled my stiff legs off the hard floor.  I'm gettin' old.  And then I remembered the big box on the top shelf of the pantry.  Argh (it's talk like a pirate day, after all).

I'll get to that another day.  For now, let the zombie apocalypse come - we're prepared!  We'll throw paper plates at them.  Argh.