Oh dear, I had to renew my driver’s license this morning.  I should have done it last week on my birthday (or sooner), but I forgot. 

Don’t tell anyone I am a year older. 

Anyway, this morning after getting my license — on which the photo is just stunning, I might add — I stopped by the thrift store.  I saw a thrift store buddy while there, so we chatted a bit and exchanged thrifty gossip.

The first treasure I found was this very old phone (you can tell by the four-pronged, large, square wall plug).  I made a B-line to it and put it in my basket.  I hope I can get it converted to use in my old home.  If not, I will find something to do with it.  It would be a great toy in a little girl’s room, right?

The second thing I found was this old_looking mirror.  It looks like metal around the edges, but it’s heavy plastic.  I will certainly find a place for it once cleaned up. Maybe even on my potting bench. A girl’s gotta look good in the garden, right?

You know me and books… and gardening.  Thus, the rose book.  I’m sure I can glean some info from this.  The old book next to it just pulled on my heart strings, as all old books do.  The book on the right is a book for recording baby memories.  I have no idea what I’ll do with it yet, but it is so pretty and the pages so heavy and nice.  The books are sitting on a nice linen/cotton tablecloth that I’ll wash and put up for using on my old kitchen table.

I found princess of the universe a great hooded sweatshirt from Old Navy, and myself a new-looking black skirt from Eddie Bauer. 

Last of all is a very nice frame to put in an old picture of my mother that she recently gave me. 

Today’s thought: 

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.

Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh

Happy Monday, 
Lynn

Recently I said to husband, “Want to meet me at our mountain lodge?”  He knew exactly what I was talking about.  “Yes” was his answer. 

Our mountain lodge is just a few steps from the kitchen.  We have never had the money to really travel, though we have worked in a few nice family vacations through the years. 

When I rearranged the living recently, my husband said I struck gold.  I think so too.  This cozy little spot for us to sit and face the old gas heater is like a romantic get-away — if we want it to be. 

Everything is what you make it.

I told hubby that I pretended that the living room was a lodge way up in the Appalachian Mountains.  The gas heater is a great big fireplace with logs burning.  I can look over to the window and see the birds.  It’s charming.

One of the things I have always loved about my husband is how he jumps right in.  He is happy to pretend he’s at a mountain lodge too.  We put our feet up on the footstool and enjoy the roaring fire. 

We got out the bird book and talked about how we used to look at birds with our oldest when he was just 2 years old.  He could name all the local songbirds:  tufted titmouse, cardinal, black-capped chickadee, purple finch, and so on.  I told husband we’d come full circle because here we were sitting with our last child doing the same thing.  (It didn’t take our daughter long to figure out where we were and pile on the loveseat with us.)  She’s a bit older and very much into taking pictures with my digital camera.

She took this picture of the dove.  It may not look like much, but bear in mind that we are behind a window so she has to turn the flash off and hold the camera very still while the shutter lets enough light in.  It’s cloudy and gray here today and she has got the camera on digital zoom, just about as closely in as it’ll zoom.  So I think she did a good job.  Her request for her birthday is her own digital camera to photograph things outside.  I hope I can do that for her.

Without telling “Papa Bear” as she calls her daddy, we set the camera up to take two automatic shots of us.  That’s why I am smiling so big.  Papa Bear is studying the birds, without any idea he’s about to have his picture taken. 

We saw a grackle today and a rufous-sided towhee.  I wish I could have gotten pictures.  It’s just too wet outside.

Happy Sunday, 

Lynn

Has anyone noticed the price of bread going up?  I work in a bakery, so it’s really been evident to me while at work, but it’s most alarming when I’m trying to shop for my own groceries.  We are feeding six here, and I know some are feeding even more.  A lot more!

I pulled out my breadmaker to a very prominent location.  No.  Actually, I made a place just for the breadmaker so that I will be reminded to make a few loaves a week to help add to our food without increasing our spending.  Hopefully, this will cut our grocery bill.

Before I went to work today, I got on the Betty Crocker website again and found this recipe for Bread Machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread.  It only took about 10 minutes to set everything up, and when I came home tonight I had a fresh loaf of raisin bread sitting in the bread machine, albeit cooled down, to put a simple icing on.  (Simple bread icing = powdered sugar, milk, vanilla.)

The recipe is a pretty good one.  I think the bread would have been great warm, but it is still good tonight.

As an aside, I picked up some new Mrs. Meyers cleaning supplies.  A couple of containers of surface scrub and a bottle of all purpose cleaner so that I can continue to refill my spray bottle.  All this in Lemon Verbena.  Mmmmmmmm.

I also decided to use a coupon and try something new.  Every night I drink some type of relaxing herbal tea.  I bought this Good Earth Organic Good Night.  I’ve not tried it before.  So we’ll see how it works. 

And with that…

goodnight.

Lynn

I wanted to share with you a little plant (weed) that I love.  I love it probably because it’s one my mother showed me when I was a little girl.  She would find it outside and show me how I could take off a little fruit (the heart-shaped part) and eat it and get a great peppery taste in my mouth.

This shepherd’s purse is growing in my yard, right along with grass, chickweed, dandelions and violets, etc.  The leaves are very close to the ground…

and there are a few smaller, narrow leaves up the stems.

Shepherd’s purse is widespread, introduced from Europe and considered a weed, though the plant is edible.  It can be found in places like yards, roadsides and vacant lots. 

While my wild salad is soaking, I look at the stem of shepherd’s purse I have brought inside.  The leaves near the base of the plant are good in salads.  Yes, this is my very old window ledge where you can see multiple layers of peeling paint that have been put on through the years!

I washed the stem and pulled off all the little heart shaped fruits to sprinkle on top of my salad.

Enjoy your weekend!!

Lynn

I don’t have the blues.  My garden does.

It seems there are so many blue blooms in the garden this time of year.  Blues and purples in the form of hyacinth, creeping speedwell, violets, tulips, phlox, and more.  The blue will give way to other colors, and actually that’s already beginning.

The hellebores have been especially pretty this year.  I love hellebores so much because they actually bloom in late winter and give me something flowering when I am so ready for spring and it seems it will never get here.

The euphorbia and the money plants make a display of bright yellow-green and purple.  I cannot believe the money plants are blooming already(!), but I guess it’s time. 

The tulips are also beginning to bloom.  There’s red and yellow and deep purple. 

Alas one of my favorite vines is beginning to bloom.  Akebia smells SO good.  The blooms are so pretty-soft-yellow-white and delicate.

The akebia blooms looked especially pretty in the late afternoon sunlight today.  One side of the arbor has akebia and the other has Carolina jessamine and they are beginning to intertwine.

Finally, I am watching the cottage pinks.  They will open soon — a profusion of sweet pink.

Just some little sights from the garden today that I wanted to share. 

Lynn

I just wanted to share a few more little treasures that I found at the thrift store this week. 

A very pretty red rug, a lovely heavy jar with a screw-on lid — perfect for some of the cosmetic concoctions I’m planning to make with my herbs this summer, and a sweet little pair of leather boots for princess of the universe.  Won’t they be perfect with a pair of tights and a long twirly skirt?

Happy Thursday, 

Lynn

Yesterday on the way home from dropping the children off at mom’s house, I had a strong feeling something good is at the Goodwill you don’t often visit, but you’re going close by today so stop! 

Ever get a feeling like that?

I was so glad that I stopped in.  The store was nearly void of shoppers — a rarity.  And sitting in the back of the store, just put out, were two wardrobes.  One was the old wooden one pictured above and another one was an old metal locker that will be great for one of the boys.  I got both for $50.00.  I am so glad that I stopped!  I’ll show you the metal one later, but for now I have just been focused on getting the wooden one cleaned up and finding a spot for it.  This “new” old wardrobe is very similar to the one I found for my daughter awhile back, only this one’s darker and the doors lock.

The doors unlocked nicely with the key.  Thank goodness there was a key!  I did open the doors while still in Goodwill and I did note quite a few hangers and some parchment-type paper in the bottom of the wardrobe, but nothing extraordinary.  When I got home I realized there was much more than just papers and hangers.  

I carefully pulled the large pieces of paper out and began to look at all the little things.  There were dated items going all the way back to 1967.  Maybe the lady who owned this is probably no longer with us.   I can tell you her name was Nettie.  And that she saved little things like this…

and this…

And there was a tiny little copy of The Little Bible.

It’s very delicate and old, but the pages are all untorn and intact.

It was a bit sad to go through this stuff, wondering where the lady was now, if she was even alive at all.  And wondering why her things would be disposed of in such a way.

I put all of her papers neatly into a large envelope and placed them into the wardrobe underneath my things.  Her things have a place in my house. 

I think the wardrobe looks nice in its new spot.

Lynn

Nestled in the woods is a beautiful cedar log cabin.  It belongs to Grandma and Grandpa.  It’s the best place in the world, and that is where my children are for a few days.  Imagine the empty nest syndrome I am facing this week!

In contrary fashion to where we live, which is right in town, with a small lot, and only goldfish and neighborhood cats for pets, Grandma and Grandpa have acreage and a pond ripe for fishing, guineas and dogs and a cat, chickens — with eggs to gather, and a big strutting rooster to avoid while gathering said eggs.  There’s certainly room to run and play and build forts.

Going inside Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house is like going back in time.  There are many oil lamps around and there’s Grandpa’s large collection of antique bottles.  There are framed displays of arrowheads found through the years, which Grandpa has an eye for finding when no one else sees one.  The visible woods through the windows beckon:  come outside.  The cozy log walls and fireplace say:  stay inside.  It’s a happy place everywhere.

Grandma makes bonnets and aprons to sell, along with handmade wooden dolls.  Her sewing room is filled with pretty displays.

Walking down the little hallway that runs through the cabin is like a walk down memory lane.  My mother is truly a collector of all things old and sweet.

I see long-passed uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  I see my mother when she was little and think of my third son.  I’ve always said that he’s proof that I am my mother’s daughter.  He looked just like my mother’s side of the family at birth, while I’ve always been the spitting image of my father.

Even the bathroom is pretty.  All old-timey and cozy, there are little rabbits gathered around the sink and beautiful cabbage roses on the bathtub curtain.  Visiting my mother’s house always inspires me to come home and clean so that I can be as proud of my house as I am of hers. 

Her garden will be unbelievable in a few months.  She reminds me of Tasha Tudor.  She loves being outside and tending her gardens and animals more than anything.  When she’s not doing that, she’s making something to sell. 

Every little place in the garden has a birdbath, or a bench, or some special thing that just belongs in a garden.

I love the fireplace-end of the cabin. I’ll show you again in summer when all the roses and shrubs are in bloom.

I also love the walkway that goes down by the cabin to the pond.

And I adore the red toolshed.

The grapevines make a little covered walkway by the chicken house.  This summer there’ll be plenty of grapes.

You have to be really brave to go into the chicken lot with Mr. Proud Rooster, enter the chicken house and gather the eggs. 

The children will have plenty of room to practice with their air rifles, with only the strictest gun safety rules in place, mind you. 

And all of the children love to fish, including princess of the universe. 

I know my children will be having a blast while I am here at home listening to the dead quiet of no children.  Think I can handle it?

Lynn

I’ve had it on my mind lately, just how do I appear to others?  Little things have shown me through the years that indeed others do watch my life, just as I watch the lives of others, and my actions and words give impressions to people.  Though others may not “judge” me, I am sure that they come to conclusions about me based on how I live my life.  I may actually influence another human being to do something based on what I’ve done.  It’s a serious thought.

I keep in my kitchen, in a prominent location (where I can focus on it daily), a hinged frame with a drawing in each side.  My daughter drew these pictures of me when she was about 7 years old.  These drawings are two of my most prized possessions. 

No, I don’t think they illustrate any genius-level art skills, but they mean the world to me because I could see in my daughter’s perception of me that I was actually conveying to those around me some of the attributes that I desired to possess.  Domesticity and modesty come to mind.  The drawings also drove home to me again the fact that what I do most certainly is written on the brains and hearts of my children.  Indeed, my daily actions are witnessed and recorded — at least in memory, by all those around me.

I guess I don’t have to elaborate about specific things in which to be circumspect.  It could have to do with anything from how I handle a dollar hard-earned by myself or my husband, to how I dress myself when I leave my home, to the language I choose to use, to how I treat a person in need or someone who has hurt me.

Herman Melville (1819-1891) wrote regarding seamen:  “he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.”

That’s because a wise seaman knows the dangers of Cape Horn — the gale-force winds that make waves 65 feet high and the chance of being shipwrecked. 

Visualizing the future effects of our  present actions may not be as easy as knowing of a hundred shipwrecks and steering clear of well-known danger. 

I want to check myself more often, that I am being circumspect in all that I do.  There’s a lot at stake.

Lynn