Dear D.

 

Dear Cindy D:                                                                                      1/20/2017

I have a whole 3 day weekend off!      SIL took the girls to see his mamma.    Whew!!       I’m giddy with delight!!              Whatever will I do??!!

Slept late, yay!        Showered, yay again!        Went to free lunch to hear Michelle speak on Tamar.     (She acts out skits on women in the Bible.     Tamar’s story is found in Genesis 38, verses 6-30.)      She did an excellent job, as always!!        

 

 

 

 

 

Went to Mama’s for a pork chop, (the free lunch was about worth what we paid today.   VERY skimpy!! ) and some blackberry cobbler. (and swiped the remainder of it!!     I didn’t want it to go to waste.     I was being considerate!)

Stopped by a realtors.            Talked about my pitiful situation.         I had already been in contact with a mortgage broker.         My credit is finally hi enough to qualify for a mortgage!!              My income qualifies me for $25,000!!       Hurray!  I can have my choice of imaginary, burned out, 1/1 houses on 5’x5′ lots!!            Woo hoo!              But only in black!      (Henry Ford reference.)

Oh, I forgot that I hadn’t even told you I wanted to move!         I know, I know!       I just moved a year ago!       (13 months to be exact.      There’s that pesky math again!)       I’m longing to be back home in Plant City again.        Being so close, and yet so far, for the last 3 years, I feel kinda like I’m in exile!

Got home at 4, and started the “C” word!            COOKING???           Yes, I said Cooking!              Pick yoreself up off the floor, woman!

Aunt “Nameless”  gave me a yummy recipe that only takes 3 hours on hi, in the crock pot. So, I’ll be noshing at midnight.       LOL             Uh, Melinda?                Yeah?            4 + 3= 7, not midnight!        It doesn’t??            (shakes head no)        Oh well, it took me 45 minutes to get the food INTO the pot!       So, I just kinda rounded up!

I do have to remember that math is not your forte!!

Exactly!

I’m also re-de-cluttering.  I’ve got to rid of so much stuff!!        Ok, well, time to quit yakking, and go work!

Aww, who am I kiddin??           I cooked!         And that’s all the work I’m gonna do today!

Blogging don’t count as work! I love it too much! Although, it totally IS work!

Love, Melinda

Cookie Chaos

Grandmama, Aunt Michelle, Cousins Kristen and Jaime came over on Sat. Dec 13th to make sugar cookies.     And they were wonderful!!     We  ate ’em as fast as they came outta the oven, almost!

 

PP had her own tiny rolling pin!     So cute!    

And she knew how to use it too, buddy!      Grandmama set that lump of dough in front of PP, and she went at it!       Grandmama stood there in astonishment!  “But, I didn’t even tell her what to do yet!”      We have a genius on our hands!!

(Maybe this will help show the scale of the rolling pin. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, that’s a giant cookie cutter, but a regular sized cookie sheet.)

Soon as she got it (the dough, not the boy) rolled out, she attacked it with the cutters,

 

 

 

 

 

 

with a will!    I think she had them all cut out in about 15 seconds!   😉

So everyone chowed down, and enjoyed themselves.    When Mommy came to pick up the girls, she got some.      Pop Pop even got a few!     (And is now lobbying for a second bake-athon.      Whenever ya got the time to some over and help, just let me know!      So far, ain’t happening!)

Now, all that to say, here it Thur. 12/22, and the table still looks like this.     

    That’s the right half of the table.   I skipped showing ya all the flour, and crumbs!     Welcome!

     The left side of the table.  Showcasing BOTH the cookie chaos, and the craft crap creativity.

(Yeah, the cookie mess is there, under the craft mess.    PP didn’t have the time to wait for me to clean up, she had to get her craft on!)

So now, the crunch is on once again, to clean up.    I’m having DD1, SIL, the girls, Pop Pop, and SIL’s sister that I just met last night, over for Christmas Dinner, after church.     (Actually it’s gonna be more like Christmas Brunch, since it’s gonna be our family’s traditional chocolate syrup, and biscuits!      Sadly, canned biscuits.     Please don’t tell Mama!    Or she will beat my butt for serving that mess to my family!       I’m planning to look up some kinda breakfast casserole I can do in the cook pot.     I ain’t afraid to use that!   And bonus:  the fire alarm doesn’t go off!)

 

Okay, so after I get this written to this point, now I gotta go clean!        UGH

And now would ya lookit the time!!      Gotta go take a nap now, it’s on the schedule!!      (I write “nap” down every day on my ta do list!     So, at least I’ll accomplish ONE thing a day!!)      The reason I had the time to write this post, and take the pix is- the girls were in day care.   But I have to go get them at 5, so I have to rest up first!!

 

 

You’ll be the first to know when I actually get the table cleaned off!

Bland Blankie

PP Jr is set to make her entrance soon.   And I don’t know who’s more excited, me or her parents!    (DD1 and SIL).     Just kiddin!    I know it’s me!!!    I get to be an Omie for the second time!    And PP will be a big sister!

So, ya know the drill.   Gotta make her a baby quilt.   (I was gonna title this post “PP Jr’s Quilt, but I’m on probation with my BBFFJ for alliteration violations!!)

Here’s the 3 fabrics for the front side.

3 “Gender Neutral” Fabrics

 

 

Not sure what the back will be yet.    The reason that it’s so much yellow, and green, and blue is, they wanted gender neutral.    Well, that went against my grain, but since they’re the parents, and control how much I can see the baby, I figured I better do what they said!    lol   So, this is the best I could make myself do for gender neutral.       See all the yellow?    and green?     and even blue in there too!!    Oh, so ya wanna know about the pink??    Well, gender neutral includes all the colors, amiright??

That’s why I called it a bland blankie, not enough pink for me!!

Here are some of the squares, cut out.

And yes, my arm and hand are both wore out now!

 

Here is a finished 9 patch.

Coming along quite nicely!!

Starting the actual quilting.   Why does it go wonky???

See how the edges no longer align??? AUGH!!

 

And here is the quilt fini!!

Well, it’s done. Wonky edges and all. At least it’s made with love!

 

 

On to Kim’s!!

 

 

Reminiscing Rememberances

When a friend , Kristen, started a homemaking blog, TheRoadtoDomestication, I was excited for her!  She just got married, so yay! We can learn things together.  But she’s a natural born “cleanie” and organizer, and I AM NOT.  It frustrated me that things that were simple for her made no sense to me, and I tried, but just COULDN’T do them.  So, while I was happy for her, I was still depressed for me.

L0026686 A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia. Colour lith Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia. Colour lithograph, 1892, after J. Williamson, 1890. 1890-1892 By: J. Williamsonafter: Byrom BramwellPublished: [1892] Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

 

Then I heard about FLYLady.  She has flybabies, well then maybe I can do that!  But, her first thing was to get up, shower and dress all the way down to shoes, and makeup.  I didn’t have any makeup, and only wore shoes outside!  So, before we even started, I was already a loser!  Than made me super upset and frustrated.

Then I finally had the bright idea to Google slob, (best thing I ever did for my home!!) and found NONY from the SlobComesClean, and the angels sang! She gets me!!  She’s just like me!!  I had found my tribe!!

I started reading her, then a month later, decided to start my own blog, (this very one!) to document my own journey out of slobbery.

Lots of things have happened between now and then.  DD1 and PP have moved out, DD1 and SIL have gotten married, now with PPJr on the way!!

I have moved twice!!!

My Very First Place, All on my Own!

 

DH and I separated, and now on the way to being divorced.

I have learned how to de-clutter!!  I have learned to do dishes!!! (before they mildew even!!)

I’ve broken my back, (can’t find the right post for some reason, oh well, back to my sentence) gotten back on track with health, gone GF, gone back on that, and gone back to GF!!

Whew! That’s a lot of switchbacks!

I’ve organized!  (With help, of course.)

I’ve lost a brother-in-law.  This one is the worst.  Death is horrible, the effects last as long as you live.  The only consolation we have , is that we will see him again in heaven.  So, cherish all your loved ones.  Kiss and hug, and say “I love you” everyday.  You never know when it will be your last chance.

So, here we are, today, January 25, 2016.   A year and a half later, I’m still slogging, cleaning, de-cluttering, and learning.   And I love my life!   Thanks everyone for coming along with me!!  I appreciate y’all so much for taking your time out of your busy life, to read what I have to say, and comment.  Y’all are the best!!  Hugs and kisses to all!

I love you, my readers!!

{I can NOT believe I didn’t say PURPLE one time in this WHOLE post!  I had to remedy that real quick like!}