Winter Wind

Here it comes again, approaching from the west, bringing with it hints of the snow that will soon follow. Another blistery cold night in Tennessee and the promise of snowy weather this evening will keep us indoors, tucked in tightly beneath our quilts and dreaming of spring. 

Stay warm in your corner of the world tonight!

September

The breezes taste

of apple peel.

The air is full

of smells to feel -

ripe fruit, old footballs,

burning brush,
new books, erasers,
chalk and such.
The bee, his hive,
well-honeyed hum,
and Mother cuts
Chrisanthemums.
Late plates washed clean
with suds, the days
are polished with
a morning haze.
        `John Updike, September

Gone to Seed

A lot of things have changed here in the last three months. We started the spring by planting a few annuals, hanging Boston ferns across our back porch, carefully weeding the gardens each week, and setting out herbs and a variety of vegetable plants. Everything was flourishing until May 15th. Since we brought our Baby Boy home, every moment has been dedicated to him and his care. Watering the flowers became something we thought about doing about once a week (on a good week), and I still haven't staked the tomato plants. As the old saying goes, everything has "gone to seed" -- quite literally when it comes to our property.

As the baby's schedule becomes more regulated and DH and I have caught up on some sleep, we realize that we are going to have to learn how to juggle household responsibilities with caring for our new baby. Is there a course we can take? A book we can read? A consultant we can hire? Surely other parents have experienced this same feeling of overwhelming responsibility and feeling as though they'll never get caught up on household chores again! If anyone has the answer to this dilemma, please let us know!  I'll be trying to get in a load of laundry in between the diaper changes and feedings.  :-)

Loving every moment of motherhood (even the crazy ones),

Through the Storm

Today, I am recovering.  I have spent the last 48 hours drifting in and out of a restless sleep between bouts of pure misery.  I have been hibernating, healing, dreaming of not feeling so lousy.  Stomach viruses are hard to kick, and believe me, this one has been a doozie.  I feel as though I have lost days of my life.  As I lay here in our bedroom this afternoon, watching the lace curtains blow in the breeze of the approaching storm, I find myself praying for the rain...the sweet, cleansing, drenching rain.  Just what we need.  A perfect way to wash away the yuckiness, leaving me feeling refreshed, albeit a little disheveled after this most recent storm. The thunder rumbles low in the distance (or is that my stomach?)...no, it's the thunder.  Thank heavens.  And yes, here comes the rain. Ahhh.

Isn't the photograph above lovely?  It's by photographer Lyle Huisken whose work you may find at http://lyle-and-fran-huisken.fineartamerica.com/.  This looks much like the white lace curtains blowing in our own room (although I am too sick to get out of bed to find my own camera to take a picture, but I will do that soon).  Meanwhile, please visit Mr. Huisken's site and look at his fabulous photographs. They're just the type I would take if I was a gifted photographer just like him.

Thinking well thoughts,

Conquering the Stuff

I hate that I have not had the opportunity to post for a week or so, but it has been for a very good reason. With the remodel finished on our master closet and art studio, we have been putting our house back together! This has meant a lot of deep cleaning and sorting and laundering and organizing. We had a great weekend and felt that we were making some progress until we opened the door to our guest bedroom and realized that we had another room full of MORE stuff. Neither of us has any idea how we accumulated so much stuff or how we had it ALL stored in our house. Looking at it now, that does not seem logically possible!

We are giving ourselves two more weekends to conquer "the stuff." What we have not found permanent homes for by then is going in the yard sale or to Good Will. We can DO this. We CAN do this. We can do THIS!

Wish us luck! ;-)

I have a dream

I have a dream that one day I will come home each day to an organized and clean house. I dream that the pantry will be a thing of beauty, with each thing in its place and no dog food bags turned over with food spilling out because we forgot to close the door and the dogs got inside. I dream that the shelves will be neat without things tossed carelessly on them. I dream that each closet in our home will have only what belongs inside. They will not be stuffed to the gills with things we simply wanted out of the way in our attempt to hide a messy house from our friends and family. I dream that our laundry room will not have clothes stacked waiting for washing. A couple of laundry fairies would be nice. I dream that every porch would be clean and free of dust and spider webs. I dream of an organized clothing closet where all clothes are neat, ironed and perfect. And since I am dreaming big, I would like to see a craft room without storage cabinets stuffed so full that I can't find anything. Oh, those cleaning supplies need to have some organization, too. Preferably one so that I can find what I want when I want. No more guessing "Is it upstairs or downstairs? Under the kitchen sink? Or maybe under the sink in the laundry room?" Oh, but since it's a dream, I want to dream for someone else to do the house cleaning for me. How about a couple of housecleaning fairies? Or one really good housekeeper. I dream of a clean, dust-free car with no crumbs that have fallen from my breakfasts during my mad dashes to work. I dream of there being a time when all the drawers in our laundry room have what are supposed to be inside them there, and I don't have to search all over the house for light bulbs or Mighty Mend It or an extension cord. They will simply be where they are supposed to be. I dream of being able to find a writing pen when I need it.

Sigh.

What are the chances?!

I have to tell you this, because perhaps you will find it as ironic as I did. When we cleaned out our storage area for the workers to begin construction on our new master closet, in the back of the room behind several boxes and under some stuff we had thrown back there to get out of the way......I found, not one, not two....BUT THREE books on organizing one's life. That's right. Three books. I obviously had lost them. Two went into my yard sale stack. I did keep one, however, because....I have a dream.

Photo from themotherhood.com

Old-Fashioned Screen Doors

Recently, my dog destroyed our screen door. I admit, I wasn't sad...or even mad at her. I hate our screen door! We inherited it with our house, and it is the standard, cheap metal with plexiglass door that one sees everywhere. Needless to say, it does not look as though it belongs on our circa 1869 house. I love those old-fashioned, squeek-when-you-open, slam-shut-with-a-spring kind of doors...those with the little curly-cues in the corners are my favorite. So I searched the internet to find one that I like, and I admit I like many! But they are so expensive to order over the internet. The shipping alone will break my budget! So, I am on the hunt for a local woodworker/master carpenter to make me a door. It has to be 85 inches tall by 40 inches wide...that's one BIG door! And, most importantly, it has to stand up to Molly the Mutt and our two cats, Isabella and Hermione, who love to hang by their toes from the screen. Below are a few that I have fallen in love with. Which do you like?


Look at the cute puppy on this one! I adore this!
This photo is from orvis.com.

Doesn't this look so homey and inviting?! Found this photo on thisoldhouse.com

These from Glyndon Carpentry are magnificent! Oh, how I wish I had a double-wide door! :-)

Okay, granted this is not a door to outside...but to a pantry! Isn't it WONDERFUL?!?! This came from the Sugar Pie Farmhouse...whose site you MUST visit!! This makes me want to take down my own pantry door and put up a cute screen door. Look at the embellishments in the corners and the chalkboard paint! What an adorable idea!

I love the cozy look of this porch!!

I found this one on the blog Anderson Daily Photo. This is a great blog. Anderson is a town in South Carolina, and the owner of the blog posts a photo each day taken in the city. Such a great idea! Anyway, isn't this a cute little entry to this cottage?

Here's another screen door used as a pantry door in a cute kitchen. I love the design of this one and its blue color! I think I need to paint mine another color besides white. I found this great picture on the AtticMag website. I love this website that has house tours and historic homes and designer rooms. You should really go for a visit!

...and this little cutie all painted in red I saw featured over at Twice Remembered who borrowed it from CountryLiving.Com.

There are so many designs and styles to choose from. As soon as I have it finished and installed, I will share it here with you. I definitely have a tough decision to make!

Change is in the air

I didn't realize that switching a few rooms around at our house would cause as much chaos as the day I moved into our home upon my marriage to Dear Husband. This past weekend, after an hour into our bedroom move from the ground floor of the house to the second floor and the den from the second floor to the ground floor, I knew I had underestimated the would-be mess and the time it would take me to get things back into order! I am a firm believer that a move on this scale is a good thing every four or five years, as I have learned that this may be the only way that I will agree to purge items that have outstayed their welcome. I accomplished a dramatic reduction in the number of clothes that I have...some that I had not worn in over three years! Why am I so reluctant to get rid of things?! I can be such a pack rat, and Dear Husband and I have agreed that we need to switch things up a little bit every few years just to force us to reduce our "inventory." What a concept!

For now, I will spend the next several weeks recovering from this move, but I find the prospect of a new routine in a new space a little exciting (I know, it doesn't take much to excite me these days). We will be building a new walk-in closet within the next couple of months, and I am enjoying planning the layout and flow of it and the adjoining art studio/work room. The changes taking place are exciting and give us something to look forward to...if we can only survive the decluttering stage!

Photo borrowed from http://www.alamo.edu/

The Weekend

Ah, the weekend is almost here. I love weekends, although I often end up doing more physically demanding work at home on the weekends than I do anytime at my job at the University. But there's something about being home that gives me such joy...even if I am toiling over floors or the kitchen sink or our latest home improvement project.

This weekend, I would love to spend the hours ....

Because there's absolutely nothing like a good...

But instead, I know that I will be doing a little...

and a lot of...

and perhaps ...

And if the weather clears up, I might even get in a little...And it's a good thing I have a long weekend, because after all of that, I will probably just want to spend Monday...

Have a happy and prosperous weekend, everyone!

Home at last!

Home has always been a wonderful, safe place, but it never looked as good to me as it did on Friday night after spending a week in the hospital. I was so happy to get home that when I saw the big, lazy trees in the yard and my cats sitting on the porch rail, tears came to my eyes. Home!

I had a very tough week. After a visit to the local emergency room on Sunday evening, I had to follow-up with my doctor on Monday morning. As soon as she listened to my asthmatic lungs, she immediately put me in the hospital. Come to find out, I was suffering from what she called the worst case of asthma and bronchitis she'd ever seen and a partially collapsed lung. I knew I was having trouble breathing, but I hadn't been prepared to hear all that! She immediately started me on antibiotics, steroids, and breathing treatments. I thought I might be in the hospital overnight until my lungs sounded clearer, but imagine how distraught I was when, on Friday morning, I was STILL in the hospital with wheezy lungs and horrible coughing.

She did let me go home on Friday evening with specific instructions and a case of medications to continue my treatment. We had a full house of guests for the weekend, so B&B duty was calling, but impossible for me. Thank goodness my mother had mercy on Michael and me and came down to help us. We don't know what we would have done without her. She cleaned guest rooms, cooked breakfast, and fed animals! When Michael came down sick, as well, she cooked dinner for us and kept us going.

I've been home for four days now, and I've brought home with me coughing fits and bruised arms from the iv's and blood tests they took. But I'd much rather be home, as comfortable as is possible, with my husband, my mom and our animals than in the hospital. It seemed impossible to get well in the hospital. I instantly felt better upon returning home. Restorative. Home is restorative.

It's been a week and a half since the illness overtook me. I can't believe it's been that long, and it feels as though I've missed entire days of my life (probably spent sleeping through them at the hospital). I've got a list of projects to focus on the rest of the week while I'm home: clean out the kitchen junk drawer, get out my Easter decorations, add new pictures to our photo album -- all things that I can do that won't cause my asthma to flare up or take so much energy that it sends me into asthmatic convulsions. It might be nice to have an organized kitchen junk drawer.

Going Home

I'm not sure why it happens, but it happens every time. Every time I go home to Kentucky to spend time with my family, it's as if I digress back in time...back to adolescence. Suddenly, my brother gets on my nerves, monopolizes the bathroom too much, and calls me names just like he did when we were young. Still, it's always good to see him, and it's fun revisiting the past every once in a while. I get by with saying things and doing things when I go back home that I would never get by with in the "real world." Like...burping in my brothers ear and him giving me a high five because it's an especially good one. I can't see any of my adult friends doing that (or me doing that in front of them), but, somehow, it seems the thing to do when I go back home. I also talk louder, laugh louder, and become more animated. What's with that?!?!?!

I remember the first time Michael met my family. I was petrified!! Michael, being an only child, grew up in a much quieter home than me. Besides, his family isn't nearly as vocal as my family. My family is loud. Let me say that again....my family is LOUD. I remember praying that, somehow, he would survive his first meeting with them and would be able to get a word in edge-wise. That's quite a feat around the Whitakers. We all talk loudly, we all talk at the same time, and we all think we're right and everyone else is wrong. I just KNEW Michael would run screaming from my parents' house and the romance would be over. I thought he would never be able to tolerate the Whitaker clan. But he was a trooper. He held his own. Now, he didn't really talk a lot...he stood around and watched in disbelief most of the time. But when he did say something, all the Whitakers stopped to listen. I couldn't believe it. I knew then that he would be okay. If he managed to somehow gain the attention and respect of my extremely loud family, he would be okay. And he was. That's not to say that some visits to Kentucky aren't hard on him and he doesn't want to lock himself in a room just to get some peace and quiet, but he's a good sport. And the Whitakers are so amazed when he actually does say something loud enough for them to hear, that they all actually shut up and pay attention! Miracles never cease!!

With that being said, I went home for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago. Michael and I loaded up the car and took the six hour drive back to Harlan. I was excited because my Aunt Vivian, her husband, Jerry, my brother Todd, sister-in-law Heather, and niece Mary Addison would be there, too. My mom cooked this year instead of my grandmother (as my grandmother feels that since she's reached the age of 90, she has earned the right not to cook), and Dad just enjoys having all his family back home.

Todd and I barely said ill words (although I think there were a couple of brother-sister insults) and nothing got broken. All in all, it was a successful Thanksgiving!!

Michael and me in Kentucky. Doesn't Michael look thrilled to be there?!?!

Michael, Jerry and Todd (Todd's giving Jerry a wet-willy...see, told ya...aren't we mature?)

Heather and Mary Addison play with Tiger, the puppy.

My grandmother with my Aunt Vivian. Grandmother turned 90 over the Thanksgiving weekend. Doesn't she look fantastic for 90!?!?!?!

Michael considering running for the state line.

Mary Addison in her princess dress (notice the furry cuffs) with Uncle Michael

Mary Addison and MiMi make a doll

Vivian and Tiger, the latest addition to the family.

At Home

Michael and I are so fortunate to own such a peaceful and beautiful home. The property that surrounds our house is shaded by beautiful old trees, and a creek runs down one side. Although we are located within the city's limnits, our one-acre of land is tranquil and abundant with simple beauty.

Today, we've been able to spend some time enjoying that beauty. Our animals make our home even more special and add so much pleasure to our lives. We love the days we get to spend at home enjoying our little place in the world. Thought we'd share some of the images that help to make our lives so special...