A Good Coat of Paint

 We have a half bath next to the laundry room right as you come through the door by the garage. At first, it seemed like an odd place for a bathroom to me. My experience had seen half baths near the main entry and were used mostly by guests. However, someone pointed out that this was probably meant to be the place you use when you come in from working outside where you didn't have to worry about getting the rest of the house dirty. 

Well, I guess that made sense, but guests still used that bathroom sometimes.  And it was definitely worse for the wear. It had all of the original 30 year old fixtures with rusting plumbing, walls that had permanent stains, and finishes flaking off the vanity and moldings. No amount of scrubbing made it look better. I was embarrassed when guests used it because it looked like we never cleaned in there. 

This month we finally did something about it. We were gifted some paint that was leftover from a friend and decided that this bathroom was a good place to use it.  At some point, the previous owners had done a poor job of trying to restain the moldings and paint the walls which resulted in a lot of prep time for us. We also decided the room was too small for the extra shelf and towel bar and removed them.  

The results. A very simple, unremarkable bathroom, which was just what we were going for. Our goal was to get the bathroom to a place where no one would notice it, where as before, it was noticed for how grubby it looked. And all it took was a good coat of paint (and a lot of sanding).

2020 My in Review According to My Blog, part two

Note: In preparation for writing today's post, I just reread yesterday's. I want to thank to all of you who read it despite all of the typos and bad grammar it contained. My excuse is that I was interrupted several times while writing it and it was getting late and I wanted to publish it. I hope that I will do better in the future, but no guarantees in that area. :)

July 2020, I did four posts this month.

This month saw me returning to work in the library. At that time, we thought we would have customers back in the building by the time school started. We're still waiting on that one. I celebrated my birthday by paying a tribute to my mother. I was not an easy baby and she was a saint for sticking it out with me. The first nasty comments showed up on my blog after many years of G rating remarks. Luckily, they stopped, although I know they can come back at any time. But my main focus for the month was outside - citing unusually hot weather with no rain. Despite that, I found many flowers blooming in our yard along with zucchini in our garden.

You can see a yellow zucchini developing among the leaves drooping from the heat.

August 2020, I did seven posts this month.

August was a month during which our country was in upheaval to which I obliquely referred to in a post that wondered where all of the calm, rational thinking had gone. Otherwise I found positive things to focus on such as the tomatoes and brussel sprouts we were harvesting along with copious amounts of pears. I spent a long afternoon at the DMV and was thankful for the workers who day after day have to put up with unhappy customers. For one of my walk around the yard posts, I featured insects, but perhaps the most fun of the month was the discovery of a linear park in a nearby town.

We visited the linear park again recently when we saw a boat display.

September 2020, I did five posts this month.

September found me acknowledging that I was cranky. I didn't go into it on the blog, but pandemic fatigue was definitely taking its toll.  It was a good thing that we had already scheduled a week away in WV at Miss Landers' cabin. I documented our trip which included hiking through beautiful scenery as well as visiting historic sites. Also, the end of September marked a first for me - going to a drive-in movie. Ward and I had a good time until our car wouldn't start to go home. The staff were great with their help in finally getting it started.

Spruce Knob, the highest point in WV. This is one of the places we visited.

October 2020, I did seven posts this month.

I started the month with a reoccurring theme on this blog over the years--posting fatigue. That's when I feel like I don't have anything to say and writing a blog post is a chore. As part of a plan forward, I said that I would be featuring posts from the past. True to my word, I reran a post featuring a recipe for a potato soup that Wally made and the differences between rutabagas and turnips. I also reran one of my favorite stories about Sarah and taking time to experience the beauty of the day. The other posts were my standard fare picturing flowers and vegetables (radishes, turnips, and tomatoes) from our yard.

Wally's potato soup recipe was an early post when I was featuring cooking.
I was very proud of myself when I figured out how to put in a link to a printable recipe.

November 2020, I did six posts this month.

In November, I had a mask lapse when I forgot to wear my mask into a grocery store and didn't discover it until I got some sideway looks. I was horrified, but learned that I'm not alone in having a lapse like this. The rest of the month presented posts of things of not much consequence. Pretty normal for this blog. I did a post of lists that included what we had for Thanksgiving dinner (turkey and two kinds of stuffing) as well as the countries I have visited outside the US (Belgium and Japan among others). I mentioned that we got a new furnace and continued to harvest carrots and turnips from the garden. Ward and I took hikes in the nearby mountains and in a bird sanctuary. The month finished up with me reporting on the neighborhood Halloween costume parade.

These late season carrots were the sweetest of the year.

December 2020, I did seventeen posts this month.

The holiday season and the uncertainties of how it was going to be celebrated because of COVID had me feeling restless. In my crazy mind, I thought posting every day for two weeks would be a good distraction. Not one of my clearer moments, but I did accomplish my goal. Three of the seventeen total posts were blasts from the past when I reviewed some of my Christmas memories and how animal crackers figured into the decorations of the season. I also reran a post on different kinds of tree bark. I liked looking at the stark profiles of the trees in the winter and remembered I had done a post featuring that previously. 

In addition, I tried to look for positives in the long dark nights, but mainly the posts revolved around Christmas. I showed you the decorations on my mantel and told you the significance of each. I featured some things we were making for gifts including a wooden matching game, terrariums, and wooden boxes handcrafted by Ward. I had my first ever guest author when Kris told us about disappointments from past Christmases. She has since also written about her COVID 19 vaccine experience. I would be happy if her contributions became a regular thing. But the post that makes me smile the most is the one where I described rejuvenated behavior in my elderly cats with the excitement of Christmas.

Annie, after she had gotten done with dumping out the candy basket of peppermints.
That's still a daily occurrence.

So there you have it, 2020 in review according to my blogs. Did I learn anything from doing this? Maybe. This review confirmed that my favorite kind of posts involve something outdoors whether it involves plants or animals. Also, I can see that I use this blog to try to put myself in a better frame of mind sometimes by doing thankful and positive posts. 

When I first considered doing a blog, my kids told me that I needed to pick a theme or it would just be an online diary. I think they were right, but since I have no goals here except to put some thoughts down in writing, that's okay. Little did they know that maybe having a simple blog about not much more than  my thoughts and happenings may have been the best way to make new friends. A wonderful, unexpected consequence.  And to quote myself, "And for that I am thankful."

2020, My Year in Review According to My Blog, part one

Part One

I wondered what last year would look like if I only used my blog to remember it. Here it goes.

January 2020,  I did eight posts this month.

I started the year off talking about the controversy of whether the new decade begins in 2020 or 2021 since there was never a year zero. Little did I know the controversies that were to come were so much bigger and would make me want to crawl into a hole and never come out, she says with exaggeration. I explored the difference between homonyms, homographs, and homophones and it all made perfect sense at the time, but I'm hard pressed right now to remember exactly what the differences are. At least I know where I can go look them up again. I was fascinated by an apple that rattled because of loose seeds and was thankful that I had willing teachers in my new job. But mostly, I did porch updates on the porch that was being build on the back of our house.

This picture shows new trim that was added to the porch.

February 2020,  I did three posts this month.

February found warmer than normal weather and early blooming spring flowers. We also got a new-to-us car, and still more progress was made on the porch. We went to a concert and I had a cookbook party at my house. Boy, do I long for those days of socializing with others like I didn't have a care in the world. 

I discovered snowdrops blooming. I didn't even know that they were there until this year.

March 2020, I did five posts this month.

Spring began in earnest this month with blooms abounding everywhere. I spent a special morning with my buddy, Sarah, when she showed me that the back of daffodil leaves are softer than the front. This was also the time the corona virus pandemic reared its ugly head here in the east. We didn't know what it all meant and we were confused by the conflicting news that was emerging. We stocked our pantry for quarantining, in case it came to that, and Ward and I both began teleworking. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time reading news about COVID 19 and not following the good example that Sarah set for me by being in the moment and appreciating nature. 

Not only were crocus blooming, they were joined by daffodils and budding fruit trees.

April 2020,  I did seven posts this months.

This was a month of celebrations with a tribute to Wally on his birthday and pictures from past Easters spent with extended family since this one was spent without them. I featured birds that were coming to our feeder and wrote a poem about the pandemic. I rarely write poetry, but I think this was a way to release some of the high anxiety I was feeling about the scary, coronavirus world.

This Too Shall Pass

Gentle clouds

Apple blossoms

Bird warbles

It should be so easy

Warm house

Close family

Plentiful food

It should be so easy

But reassuring thoughts are fleeting.

Novel virus

Not knowing

Job loss

It is so easy

No masks

Uncertainty

No cure

It is so easy

For bleak thoughts to invade.

Deep breaths

Good books

Neighborhood walks

I will try

Friend calls

Nutritious food

Consistent sleep

I will try

Because this too shall pass.

 May 2020, I did six posts this month.

Except for a birthday tribute to Theo, the posts this month focused around the pandemic in one way or another. Ward and I finally got comfortable venturing out of the house and went on several outings to combat the cabin fever we were experiencing. We took three outdoor outings away from other people and enjoyed visits to a national battlefield, an azalea garden, and a barn quilt trail.  Another day, our van broke down and while waiting on the tow truck, we talked to our first family that had lost someone to COVID 19. We were overwhelmed by the kindness of the family who helped us and the story of losing their father last week to COVID 19.

One of the barn quilts we saw on our tour.

June 2020, I did five posts this month.

This was the month that I did two posts featuring my father. The first was for Father's Day when I shared some of the things I learned from him including freckles are fun, but wear your sunscreen. The second was being thankful that I got my father's ears, which stuck out, because my non-delicate ears were holding my masks very well. This was also the month we decided to have new siding put on our  garage and found a massive termite infestation. Not fun, but it all got fixed.  And this Thankful Sunday post below shows that I was still feeling quite a bit of anxiety about COVID 19 but trying to do some positive self-talk.

Life can be confusing. Terrible, beautiful, simple, complex. But everyday we get a new chance to make sense of it all.

So for today's sunrise as well as all of those to come, I am thankful.

Part 2 coming soon.

Thankful Sunday, January 17, 2021

 I am thankful the mail keeps coming.

For various reasons, the post office has been having problems keeping up with the demand for its services resulting in delayed deliveries. This has caused some problems such as a delayed bill (happened to us), but despite the tardiness, I am enjoying the late delivery of Christmas cards. One or two shows up each week -  always an unexpected treat.  When they arrive in this manner, this gives me time to thoroughly enjoy each one without the busyness of the holidays swirling around me. So for the fact that mail keeps coming, even if it is late, I am thankful.

Refrigerator Wisdom

I love Winnie the Pooh and his outlook on life. This paper lives on the front of my fridge but had started to blend into the background. I thought I would bring it front and center this morning to remind me having a good day is much about choice. Hope this your favorite day. :)

 

Outtake: 

The kitchen lighting wasn't very good, so I took the paper down to photograph in another room. Here's my first attempt when Leo thought he would help.