::30 Days:: 8

What I saw when I woke up this morning: Peter's black eye. The skin glue did it's job, and at bath time, it came off and I could see I didn't need to add any more. As of bedtime, the colors of the bruise deepened to a pale dark blue/purple.

Today was a long, long, long day.

I went back to the booth and added more stuff, looks better, don't it?

I was pleased to see a few items sold! Yay!!

After finding homes in the booth for everything, I went all the way to the big town in the opposite direction and ran errands with my Mom. It was a grand effort, but it was just too much to do all in one day.  By the time we got home past 5 pm, I was exhausted. Won't be doing that again!

I'm glad I had the sense to pick up frozen pizza and then Andrew cooked 'em on the grill. Fast, easy, and delicious! Bonus points for not heating up the house with a hot oven!

I've been busy setting up a facebook page for our new booth, while eating leftover chinese from my lunch out today. Find my booth on Facebook: 516 Antiques.  Like it, too! :o)

::30 Days:: 7

I love waking up to the smell of my wonderful husband's breakfast potatoes!

Oh yum!

He shreds the potatoes, adds chopped onions and green peppers, spices, butter, and most importantly, lots of love. None of us can resist making pigs of ourselves when it comes to his breakfast potatoes!

The handsome man behind the potatoes!

He rocks the new beard! Just a stripe down the chin and it makes me weak in the knees!

Taking time out of tagging more items to help Sylvia make a little bird mobile from a kit I had.

Of all the children, she is the one constantly declaring, "I'm bored!" Talk about karma making full circle! I used to drive my mom batty when I'd announce every 10 minutes, "I'm bored!"  Seems fitting that at least one of my children inherited that trait! I try to point her into different directions: make lego houses, embroider a picture, play with the play-doh, swim in the pool... but nothing interests her. I didn't want to stop pricing stuff, but I'd never hear the end of her announcements if I didn't give her something to do!! And look, she's so proud of it! It's hanging above her bed now.

Had to put on my doctor hat today. Poor Peter fell off a chair and hit his head on the corner of it. Ouch! He only just got better from a hit above his eyebrow, and you can just see the scar above it. Thank goodness for "skin glue"!!  He doesn't leave band aids alone and putting a band aid so close to his eye just won't do.  He was starting to get a full-on black eye by the time he went to bed.

Heading to the booth tomorrow, good night!

::30 Days:: 6

Today was a big day!  We loaded up the truck and I went down to the antique mall and started setting up the booth. This is the mall where our booth is. It's in downtown Berkley Springs, West Virginia.

Here it is! Yipes, it's huge!! 

All those boxes and it hardly looks filled!

It's 10x10 but it seems so much larger!! I got to tag more things, stat!

Here's that white shelf I painted and I love how it looks with all the stuff on it!

Makes me wish I had more shelves like it.

After I got home. I went straight to work painting another shelf. This particular shelf used to be Mom and Dad's and they kept their record player on top with all their records on the bottom shelves. Memories!  But it was dark brown, too, so it had to be painted.  Took 3 coats and it's done! I'm going to try and make it back to the booth on Monday with another full load of stuff and fill up that huge space!!

I *should* be working on more stuff, cleaning and pricing, but I'm absolutely pooped! I deserve some TV time where I just relax and watch '27 Dresses' on dvd. Tomorrow, I'll get back on the ball and work like a maniac to get more stuff packed and ready to go, tomorrow!



::30 Days:: 5

Still working on inventory for our antique booth, but we need something to put them on, so I tackled painting this old, brown, boring shelf. Looked like rain, so I dragged it into the sun room to paint.

Between coats.

I'm amazed the kids managed to keep their fingers off it while drying!

The kids cooked dinner tonight. Spaghetti! Something they can do on their own without me fussing behind them and I can go off and do what needs doing.

The onions have been drying out in the pole barn for more than 2 weeks now, time to start bringing them in. Started on the yellow onions and filled the bag more than halfway and stopped when Gretchen complained the bag was getting too heavy for her to hold any longer. Can't wait to get the final weight on the total onion harvest! I'm hoping to get all the onions trimmed and bagged by the end of the weekend.

Finished! Looks pretty good! Took 3 coats to cover the brown. Normally I don't like when wood furniture is painted, but this is one instance where the shelf looks sooooo much better painted than it did with that dark brown stain! Seeing as how it will be displaying my wares in the booth, I wanted my items to pop out of the white shelves and not disappear into the shadows of the formerly dark shelves.



Bath night and bedtime reading.

Sweet dreams!



::30 Days:: 4

Hummingbirds have been humming around the flowers outside the back door lately.

This morning there were two of them. Pretty green ones.

Impossible to get a shot through the screen and I'm afraid that if I tried to open the sliding door, they'd fly away. But I'm content with this shot of the girls watching.

 Still plugging away at cleaning, tagging and packing up inventory for our booth.

Didn't do as much today, it was just too hot and I was plain old cranky!

I did about 25 items today.

"C'mon kids, let's go into the pool," says I!

Ahh, I feel that crankiness melt away once I slip into the cool waters.

Just what the doctor ordered!

We stayed in the pool long past supper-time, so I needed to make a dinner that was quick and easy-- tacos! It always helps having pre-cooked meat packed away in the freezer to cut down on cooking time.  My secret ingredient? Oatmeal! Helps to stretch out the meat between the 6 of us and adds a bit more fiber. Not really a secret anymore, since all the girls know I add oatmeal, as they help cook meals with me, but they always whisper, "time to add the secret ingredient" when they help!

Yummy yummy in the tummy!

Pay no mind to the Christmas wreath on the door! It usually hides behind the curtain and comes out for the holidays.  I've always meant to put it away, but I keep forgetting and until I saw this picture, I realized that I never really notice it anymore.  It sort of disappeared into the background! By the time I finally get around to putting it away, it's going to be Christmas again!! 



::30 Days:: 3

We recently put a deposit on a booth in an Antique Mall. The booth opens August 1st, though we are allowed to go in now and start setting up shelves and what-not.

Of course, now that we are committed to a booth, we have the fun job of going through our "inventory", cleaning everything, and deciding on prices.

Early start today, continuing to bring stuff up from the basement to clean and put prices on things.

In the future, I want to try and do 25 items per day, but for our initial set up, we'll need quite a few things to fill up a 10x10 booth! I'm thinking... 300 items to start? More?

Better get cracking!

Popcorn for dinner because...

...I'm still doing this!

Whew! I did more than 50 items today.

Looked up certain things on the internet for reference prices, dug through boxes in the basement, washed off the dust and dirt, priced and packed into clean boxes for transport. I have 87 items ready to go, just over 200 more to do over the next few days!

::30 Days:: 2

We've been cleaning out the basement and in the process, finding "lost" things.

Found the replacement lamp socket and wiring I bought ages ago for a different lamp.

First thing this morning, I re-wired a thrift-store lamp.

Love the lamp! It was a bargain at the thrift store.

I also love that the kids see Mama doing handy-woman stuff, with tools and everything!

 It works!!

Then the rest of the day, the kids kept switching on the lamp, turning on the big lamp, then the small inner lamp inside the green globe, then they both turn on, then off again. Over and over! It'll be a miracle if that lamp makes it a year in this house!  I hope so, I really like it.

This is what happens when you leave your beads out and your nosy little 4-year old brother gets into them-- a big mess on the floor!

They had a choice: sweep and put in the trash = no more jewelry kits

OR

pick each bead up and future jewlery kits will be given.

They chose to pick up all the beads, but not without grumbling.

Lesson learned by the girls, I hope.

Found the old ViewMasters and reels and the kids had fun with them.

Evelyn took over reading the bedtime story tonight. One of the ViewMaster reels was a very, very condensed story of Rumpelstiltskin, so they pulled out the longer version to read.



::30 Days:: 1

The only picture I took today:

We've been playing with the old Spirograph set lately.

Any one remember those?

I had a set when I was a kid and it used to occupy my time for hours.

Probably got rid of it when we moved.

I found this set at yard sale, almost complete.



::30 Days:: Redux

Four years ago, I participated in a 30 Days series, where one posted a picture a day to represent their day.  I found it hard to choose just one picture, so I posted 3 or 4 a day with a brief description of my day.  Some of it was hum-drum,  with nothing much to share, just ordinary days in which I do laundry, tend to the children, can apples.  But I was recently looking back through old posts and I really enjoyed reading each one of those 30 posts. It forced me to look and find the beauty in my ordinary day. To stop for a moment, snap a picture, and remember.

I'm going to do it again.  I'm busy these days, but how much busier am I than I was 4 years ago, with a newborn baby?  And I was preserving all sorts of apples-- applesauce, dried apples, apple chips.  And we were splitting and stacking wood.  And I  had not just baby Peter in diapers, but young Sylvia, too. And the older two were not exactly independent and doing things on their own compared to now.

While I tend to bring the camera along for special occasions-- a visit with family, or a picnic outing-- these very ordinary, sometimes boring days, deserve some recognition, too. Because within these days spent at home are some extraordinary moments, a glimmer of extra-specialness that lasts only a second, and if it isn't remembered somehow-- writing it down, or a photo taken of it, it will very likely be forgotten. I know I have had plenty of those, 'this was so cute, I need to write this memory down' and then I didn't and I couldn't remember the moment anymore.

I'll start next Monday, giving me time to gear up for it and if any of you want to join along, please let me know in the comments.  Just a photo (or 3 or 10) a day that represents your day for 30 days. The original series, if I remember right, asked for just photos, but I guess I'm a chatty person, I couldn't post just a photo and not say anything!  So feel free to silently post just a picture(s) if you want, or by all means, describe your day!

The Best Investment

We've had such a stretch of hot days.

 The temperature rises and makes everything sticky hot.

The children melt.

We trip over the cats and the dog laying on the coolest parts of the floor.

The sun shines bright and beats down on our skins.

Sweat beads on our brows.

It's just hot.

Hot, hot, hot.

Ah, the pool.

The cool water is just the place to be on these hot, hot days!

So grateful to be able to slip into the water and instantly wash away that stickiness.

We spend a good chunk of our days out there, in the pool.

A break for lunch, then it's right back into the pool again.



 In the stillness of the evening, when I come and check the water,

I catch the sun taking a dip in the pool.

Mr. Sun gets hot, too, I suppose.

Onions!

We harvested the onions yesterday. Seeing all those yellow and white onions just make me feel so pleased with our efforts at keeping the garden weeded. Last year, when we planted onions, we lost the entire crop when weeds completely choked them out.  All that back-breaking work to plant them only to have all our efforts wiped out.  Not this year!

I didn't count, but there are more than enough onions here to last us for quite awhile. I don't think it'll last til next summer, though, so we plan to plant a second batch to make sure there's enough. We eat plenty of onions, just about in every dish we make.

A far cry from the onion-hating person I used to be! I used to plead with my mom not to put onions in meals, and she made onion-less potato salad for my sister and I.  Then I met Andrew, with onion juice in his veins and he often says, "A house is not a home without onions!" I'd begrudgingly add chopped onions into a dish, just for him, only a little! He'd ask for onions in the meatloaf I make, so I obliged, just half of one! Then the amount of onions I used grew, onions were included in more and more meals. We'd give raw onions to the kids when they were babes, and to my surprise, they liked them!

Now, I cannot imagine not having onions! Onions go in practically everything I make these days. Even though our kids have grown up eating onions, it still surprises me each time they willingly put raw onion slices on their sandwiches or hamburgers.

The onions still need a couple weeks of drying time, and they're in the pole barn now. I plan to store some, dehydrate some, and of course, use them as we go.  I've stopped buying store onions quite awhile ago, and there's nothing more satisfying than being able to provide something we need from our own garden.

Catching Up- July Edition

So much going on these days.  A birthday, loose teeth, stormy nights, canning, fireworks..  And that's just the beginning of July!!  Oh my! What does the rest of this month hold for us?!

Peter had a birthday. 4 years old now! What a big boy!

Since we had a double birthday party for him and Evelyn last month, his actual birthday was pretty low-key. I made him his favorite meals: pancakes for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, cake and ice cream, and spaghetti for dinner. He seemed to have a pretty good day and liked all the presents he got from us and Grandma.

Fireworks!

The small town down the road from us had delayed fireworks, which turned out to be a good thing, since we had a thunderstorm the night of July 4th. They held the fireworks on Friday, July 6th, and we decided to go.  It wasn't so hot then, and we knew that it would get cooler once the sun went down. The kids had a great time, making friends with other kids there and running and playing in the field next to where we parked. As soon as the first boom! went off, the kids scattered back to their families and we settled down to watch the show.

Pretty good show for a small town. A lot less crowded than Washington D.C. would have been, that's for sure! I think the fireworks lasted about 20 minutes and there were some really spectacular ones, too! I liked hearing the kids ohh and ahh in awe and jump when there was a really loud boom!

I remembered to break out the glow necklaces before we left, which turned out really handy in spotting the kids when they were playing off in the distance! Just look for the glowing arms and hands!

We got a scare on the way home when the hood of the truck popped open on us while we were driving! Talk about heart stopping! And in the dark, on a pitch-black mountain road! I'm glad Andrew was driving because I think I would have crashed! Luckily for us, he kept his cool and turned into someones driveway to see what happened.  Nice people stopped to help, armed with a super bright spotlight which was so much better than the little, puny, kid's flashlight we were using! The hinge of the hood got over-extended and we had to get it back into normal position before we could get the hood shut again. About 15 minutes of fiddling with it and we were back on the road to home again.

Before:

Peter got into the clippers and shaved a few bald spots on his head. Time for a haircut then.

After:

He's so cute, after we cut his hair he gave me a big smile and said:

"I so handsome!"

Why, yes you are, little guy! Very handsome!