I am sick*...

Which means I've stolen away to bed with the girls' laptop and can share pictures from their secret files finally. And a few videos too(which failed, grrrr).


(I took this behind our tent at Bob Sandlin)


(girl pigs enjoying some hay)


(queen Rosie being herself)


(a VERY rare photo of Amy smiling-trust me, she's worse than the girl on the cruise line commercial)


(a clever hiding Jasper)

*Where sick equals the nasty-asty cold the kids have been suffering with for the last 3-4 weeks. It came on fast too, one minute I was splashing in the pool with Sarah, the next I'm having chills and that "jumped on" feeling. Dangnabit.

Summer Salad

My inspiration was THIS.



Of course, having looked at it several hours before shopping, I did get a few things wrong. Mine has cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, califlower, sunflower seeds, and a bit of soy sauce in the dressing. I also used horseradish mustard. It is YUMMMM!

A Lucky Break!

I know a few people know about me losing my BAM bag(booksamillion) but I didn't mention it specifically on my blog. The last time I remembered having it was when we went fishing at Gladewater Lake, back when I thought I saw a baby alligator way back on June 8th. It couldn't be found for our last camping trip. Thinking it was stashed in a pile somewhere, I didn't worry about it. Things have been busy since we got back and the bag's whereabouts were pushed out of my mind... sort of. It nagged me that I couldn't find it. NAAAAGGGED ME. Bad.

I have literally torn the house apart several times looking for this bag. Its loss was the catalyst for my latest decluttering efforts. Finally I decided that I must have taken it to a park day and left it there, though I couldn't remember having it at the park since before the alligator trip. So, I drove to the lake to look in their lost and found, drove to the park and combed the woods, had false memories of putting it down and walking away, nightmares even. I do NOT lose things and not remember!


(bag booty included about 75 hexagons for my Victorian flower quilt, my peppermint essential oil, 3 pairs of scissors and my handmade hussif-sewing kit- with pocket made from one of my dad's few neckties from my early childhood, a pair of silver earrings and a pack of gum)



Anyway, this morning Amy was looking in the hutch, one of the blue ones, where we keep the guinea pig polar fleece and towel bedding. She spied MY BAG!!! YES!!! I didn't lose it!! Wooohoot!

In other news:

I slept past 9 this morning and did not do a dang thing all day long except eat and watch tv. My hip was killing me as well as the top of my foot(aggravated by swimming unfortunately and keeps me from walking a lot most days). I did manage to watch the girls swim for over an hour, make a pan of brownies and a batch of spaghetti sauce. Oh and laundry, I did some of that too. But no working on my shelves at all. Oh well, I have tomorrow.


(here they are, mostly done)

Just because my bag was found does not mean I'm slacking off on the decluttering! I'm hitting it hard and heavy tomorrow morning. I want to get some done before we do our "fun thing" with the kids, yet to be determined.

Only One Me, Thank God!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. and 4 with Mark's name(and only 822 people have the last name of Sonier). There is 1 Ryan but 2 Amys and 2 Sarahs. My brother shares his name with over 3700 others and my dad shares his with 23,428 but my mom only shares with 6300. Pretty cool huh? How many have your name?

Now for my freaky hair, which may well be my best feature besides my sparkly eyes and winning smile, lol. These are some bad photographs but...



I do NOTHING to my hair and this is how it looks. The color, a brassy chestnut, is growing off from this past winter, underneath is a dark coffee brown with lots more silver than I remember.





I wash it, sometimes with baking soda, and rinse sometimes with beer or vinegar, brush it and go. Very occasionally I'll straighten it but lately it seems to make me look more wrinkley.

PaRk dAY!

Well here's a quotable quote!...

Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs. ~Vaclav Havel

I feel like I'm doing a bit of both here. Sometimes all I can do is just stare at steps all over the house! Yesterday was my raw milk run so I was gone a good bit of the morning, til 11 o'clock, actually. Then Ryan had a friend over to spend the night, I was on the phone a lot, the girls wanted to swim, grocery store trip, etc., etc. I got nothing done declutter-wise. I'm trying not to get frustrated by this. I'm ready to step up the stairs but life is getting in the way. Today is homeschool park day and we'll have to take Ryan's guest home at some point. Instead of giving up though, I'm making plans to get back after it on Friday.


(decorated for Halloween)

Currently the fireplace is junked up again. The mantle is decorated for summer now but the hearth is cluttered with quartz and mica rocks, baskets, and some fabric. Not too bad but definitely being used as a storage place. I'd love to have two low-backed comfy chairs to put facing the fireplace for a reading area. May have to search the thrift shops over the weekend.







Here's the living room. The first picture is from our rearranging session last summer, before I painted the hutches. The second is from around Christmas because I see Ryan's arm in a cast from when he broke it. The hutches and loveseat are centered on the wall, unlke the position of the loveseat in the first picture. Its just hard to tell from the angle. The Peace banner(wip) is gone but the horse quilt is still up. There is now a middle shelf on the right-hand hutch. I keep some of my quilting and other craft books on it. The vintage suitcases have old quilts and works-in-progress in them but that corner has become a catch-all for yarn baskets and floor pillows. It is in dire need of a overhaul too.


(China cabinet's current location beside the fireplace)

My goals for the weekend include getting the hearth cleared off and swept, moving the china cabinet to make room for a computer area(and setting that up), dusting all the furniture in the living room, sorting the "pretties" box I have in the dining room(items from the red kitchen carts and the entertainment center), and clearing out the suitcase corner. I hope I'm able to get all of this done!!!

On this day in history...

On Wednesday, July 16th, my mother was born to Edgar and Thelma Smith, 9am, at home, weighing 9 and a half pounds! Happy Birthday mom!!!!



She shares her birthday with Rose, our niece(who is turning 12 today, Happy Birthday Rose!!), and some other famous folks like Will Ferrell, Ginger Rogers, Roald Amundsen, Barbara Stanwyck, Stewart Copeland, Corey Feldman, Barry Sanders, and Phoebe Cates.

She's out running around with her friends today, hitting some antiques shops in Hendersonville, North Carolina. I hope she buys something for meeee! Really, I can't wait to see what she gets for her own self. The thing I'm making her is not ready and probably won't be til late fall, I'm slow like that.