Home Sanctuary

Fake Plants

The only plants and flowers that look good at my house are the fake ones. And the dried ones....the ones that were already dead before I had a chance to kill them.

I finally gave up trying to keep cute little african violets and graceful palms alive a few years ago, and I've got to tell you, it's a bit of a relief. I used to beat myself up for forgetting to water them until I realized that life is just too short to feel like a failure over houseplants. So I just got rid of them.

But I do like the softness that plants bring to a home and I don't like to go without having *something* that looks alive and has some movement. So I've added dried grasses and preserved flowers here and there, a bit of moss...and yep, some fake greenery.

 

Even though "non-living" plants don't require regular watering and care, they do get dusty and disheartened as they perform their decorative jobs day in and day out. It's kind of a sad existence.

Today's Small Thing is to pay a little attention to your fake, dried, or otherwise non-living plants.

Got some greenery lounging on top of cabinets or tucked into vignettes of arranged pretties? Or maybe some bright blooms stuck in a vase to bring a bit of cheer to your corner of the world? How about some dried lavender sprigs that look good just about anywhere...as long as they don't have cobwebs on them? Grab a little duster and give your faithful friends a good dusting. You could even take the sturdier ones outside and shake them out, or gently wash with a damp cloth. A blow dryer might be a good way to blow them clean.

Give your imitation foliage new life by sprucing them up today. They'll thank you for it!

Tell me: do you think "silk" plants are tacky? How do YOU clean them?

Song of the Day: Best Imitation of Myself, Ben Folds

Company Girl Coffee 9.15 and Countdown

A breath of fall air came through north Texas yesterday and we suddenly felt our spirits lift. We had a record number of days over 100 degrees in Dallas - 70 of them - the hottest summer ever....and it was startin' ta wear us out. Now, I think we can make it. Funny how "cool" temps in the 90's can feel. That's just twisted.

We are in Full Wedding Mode around here. The countdown on my chalkboard tells me that we are 58 days away from Meghan's Big Day. Actually, 57 days now....and time to really get details nailed down. After meeting yesterday with my friend and florist, Kim, I'm convinced this will be a beautiful event and I'm starting to get very excited about it! We sifted through her cache of centerpieces and decorations and found lots of shabby-chic/vintagey items to use, like these:

 

And I'm giddy about hanging some chandeliers in my barn!

Tom is setting up sprinklers to get some rye grass going in the yard and pasture, in the hopes that the cooler weather is here to stay. Our "real" grass is crunchy - just completely fried - so green grass will seem heavenly! Our list of spruce-ups seems like it is getting longer as the countdown gets shorter.

Hey, let's do something easy for our daily task, ok??

Today's Small Thing is to count down. Counting backwards is super helpful, and not just when an anesthesiologist tells you to count backwards from 100. (I've only ever made it to 96 before waking up to find that surgery is all over.)

Days until Christmas? 99.

Days until Thanksgiving? 69.

Days until Halloween? 45

Minutes until dinner? Too many.

Pick a goal or event that has some tasks related to it......and then decide how you will break up those tasks into the time remaining. Sometimes, just seeing a defined period of time "left" is enough to motivate you get started crossing things off your list! Ready, set.....GO!!!

 

What's going on at YOUR house? Feel free to link up below for Company Girl Coffee....it's a fun and easy way to connect with each other over the weekend. If you are not a blogger, I invite you to join (or start) a conversation in the comment section! Let us know what you're counting down to....I know there are some babies due shortly as well as other big events. We'd love to know!

Have a great weekend!

Go Bowling

Today, we're going bowling!

No, not THAT kind of bowling, although this type of sport has been around for eons. The earliest forms of bowling have been known to have existed in ancient Egypt, Finland and Yemen! That's a pretty impressive history.

 

But OUR brand of bowling goes back even further - to the earliest women who figured out that it was easier to serve up soup in a tortoise shell than a banana peel. Bowls, invented by smart women trying to stretch the day's hunted meat by adding grains and broth and mixing it together, revolutionized life as they knew it and eventually brought about the invention of the wheel because people could finally think straight with their tummies full of warm stew. All because they could eat out of a bowl. 

Never underestimate the power of soup.

Bowls can be both utilitarian and decorative. They usually stack nicely, except if they have lids or handles...or some odd shape that can't be cradled easily. Cereal bowls are easiest to stack, even if they aren't a matched set. It's the other bowls - casserole dishes, pots, soup tureens and tupperware that present challenges. Hence, the original kind of bowling sport - figuring out the best way to store bowls - has been around since long before a man set pins in a pattern and rolled a ball toward them for points.

Today's Small Thing is to go bowling......as in, play around with the bowls in your cupboards.

Straighten, stack and organize them to your heart's content. Throw out a few "spares" and knock the broken ones to the "gutter." Strike a victory with a beautifully arranged group of bowls!

Do you have a favorite bowl or serving dish? I love my grandmother's china serving bowls - perfect for holiday dinners and special occasions.

Song of the Day: Animal Crackers in my Soup, Shirley Temple

Multi-tasking Meltdown

 

My man, duck hunting AND reading his hockey play-book.

 See how he can call in the ducks AND plan hockey practice at the same time?

I'm not much of a multi-tasker, so I'm thinking that's pretty good...for a man. The truth is, I've gotten better at juggling lots of tasks at a time, purely out of necessity. I mean, who really has the luxury of simply sitting on the couch while chatting on the phone these days? I'm usually unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry when I make a phone call.

But I find that multi-tasking becomes a habit that is hard to break, even when there is no need to do it. I'll start straightening a drawer in the middle of brushing my teeth, or check my email while my son is trying to tell me something about his day. WHAT?? So unnecessary. When we constantly keep simultaneous activities going, we lose something important.

We lose the ability to focus. The  ability to savor and enjoy. We miss the feeling of completion.

Today's Small Thing is to deliberately focus on one thing at a time.

Don't see how many things you can cram into a minute, but simply take one task and see it through to the end. Don't text during lunch, but just enjoy your sandwich instead. Drive without making a phone call. Play with the kids without reading blogs on your laptop.

Then, focus on savoring each moment, no matter how mundane. Concentrate on the blessings you have been given and the beautiful moments that you might have missed if you were too distracted to catch them.

What will you focus on today? What did you find when you concentrated on one thing instead of several? I'd love to hear!

Song of the Day: All Things New, Andrew Peterson

Celebrity Mug Shots

We worked so hard yesterday that we need to take it easy today. For the occasion, here is a Small Thing we've done before.....with lots of pictures and hardly any words to read. What a relief!

Celebrities never look as glamorous in their mug shots as they do on the red carpet.

Paris Hilton: Bad Girl.

 

 

James Brown: Do you feel good?

 

 

Keifer:  How DO you fit it all into 24 hours?

 

Shia: Too plastered to be remorseful.

 

Nick Nolte: Scary hair, dude.

 

No Comment.

 

 

And this bad boy.

This criminal finds his way all over my house. He and his frat brothers, the water glasses, like to party in front of the TV, in the bedrooms and even in the bathrooms.  The kitchen counter is another one of their hangouts. Lawless bunch of loiterers. They're even bringing up a new generation of ne'er-do-wells, the sippy cups, who generally end up joy-riding endlessly in the minivan or stuffed behind furniture.

Today's Small Thing is to be a cop and round 'em up.

Too tired?  Hire your kids to be bounty hunters and find those outlaws. However you choose to find them, bring them to justice and put their mugs in the slammer, or wherever they belong.

Song of the Day: COPS Theme song, Bad Boys Bad Boys

Housekeeping Schedules and Daily Home Management

Thank you, Company Girls, for the sweet comments and emails this weekend. It was so hard to say goodbye to our dog, Beau, and it was comforting to know that so many of you knew just how we felt. My husband, Tom, is "tore up," as we say here in Texas. He's just tore up over that dog. It really hit him hard.....and I don't think he was expecting it. He asked me to read the comments aloud to him and it brought him a lot of comfort. Thank you for that.

It will get better, I know. And life - the laundry, the cooking, the child-rearing and all the stuff that fills each day - does go on. So.... let's go on ahead today.

I thought I'd start this week with a list of my most popular posts - the top google searches that bring people to my blog.

Far and away, my most searched posts are the ones on setting up a housekeeping schedule. I imagine women stumbling across my easy system, and I can hear them saying, "FINALLY! A schedule that doesn't make me feel like a failure before I even start!"

See, we all know we need to get more organized, but we fear living in a prison of "must-do's" or starting yet one more thing that we know we'll never complete. Here's what I say in one of the posts:

The reality is, most of us would be thrilled with a general system that would corral the clutter into a reasonable scale, help us find permission slips, and keep our homes relatively germ-free and company-ready.  We'd like to function freely without being slaves to a monstrous spread sheet.  

We want to have a home that embraces the people within its walls and accepts that life is sometimes messy. We don't want to become housekeeping tyrants.

These three posts go together - grab a cup of coffee and consider how you can apply them to YOUR life!

Setting up a Housekeeping System that WORKS

Where Does Your Time Go?

A "Real World" Housekeeping Schedule

And no post about home management would be complete without my best friend, Minimum Maintenance. It is absolutely THE most powerful tool you can use to start getting your life in order. In fact, if the thought of making a schedule (above) freaks you out, simply start here:

The Secret to Successful Home Management

Today's Small Thing is to take ONE concept from any of the above posts and make it a reality TODAY.

There are several downloads you can print off in the posts above.....why not take a pencil and mark them up with your own ideas and tasks? Sometimes, just seeing what you are ALREADY accomplishing each day makes you realize how hard you really ARE working.

Listen. You are not a failure. You are not a loser-mom. Don't listen to that voice in your head that makes you believe you'll never be good at this "home thing." Today you are taking a small but significant stand to improve your life and help you find the joy you've lost along the way. Big things happen in small ways every day....and this task is one of those that will change the course of your life forever.

Song of the Day: Feels like Today, Rascal Flatts

Have you ever made a simple housekeeping schedule? How could you incorporate Minimum Maintenance into your daily habits? I hope you'll share your success stories - and areas you struggle with!

We are in this together.

Company Girl Coffee 9.8...and Farewell to a Friend

Beau LOVED to go hunting!

I have sad news. Our old dog, Beau, is taking one last trip to the vet today. He is being put to sleep this afternoon - after a good, long life as our family dog.

I wish I could write a fitting tribute for him, but I'm afraid I will end up in a puddle and we won't be able to follow through with loading him up and turning on the car engine to go. I'll just write a couple of fond memories and leave it at that.

He's been a great dog. "Faithful companion" sums up his life pretty well. All he really ever wanted out of life was to be near people and get an ear scratch every now and then. Oversized and powerful, he loved to go duck hunting and would sit in icy water for hours, scanning the sky for incoming fowl. Fetching sticks in the pond was one of his favorite pasttimes, and we would usually tire of the game long before he did.

Lauren and Meghan in their high school days with Beau.

Beau has a sixth sense. One night, he ventured up the (forbidden) stairs to stand watch over Grayson, who was sick with pneumonia and having difficulty breathing. He refused to leave his side until morning. Later in life, when we gave up trying to keep him in restricted areas of the house, he slept by Gray's bed every night. In June, he finally stopped trying to make it up the stairs...it was just too hard on his old, stiff bones. One day we realized that he hadn't been upstairs in awhile - and shortly thereafter he had to be jailed in the kitchen due to a leaky bladder. He just hated that.

A boy and his dog: Grayson and Beau

Beau's nose and tail still work beautifully. He's always happy to see you and always looking for a little food scrap to come his way. But his ol' body's just given out on him, and it's tough to see him struggle to get up without help, and not be able to control his bodily functions.  For his sake, we've decided to go ahead and not let him suffer anymore. Man, this is hard.

He's given us 15 years of companionship and loyal friendship.

We will miss him.

I hate to be so glum, but there is no Small Thing Today on account of I can't think of anything.

If you'd like to link up for Company Girl Coffee, please don't let my teary post stop you! Life must go on....these things are part of it, and I welcome your company today. Simply enter your blog post URL into the linkytool and then go visit some of the blogs that link up. Even if you don't "link up," I hope you'll get to know the smart and talented women who frequent our coffee time on Fridays. If you are reading this post in an email, pop over to my "actual" blog and you'll see the names listed....then stop in and visit them!

And P.S. Thanks for your thoughts today....I know that many of you know exactly what this day feels like and I appreciate your friendship more than ever.

Love, Rachel

Quite a Pair

Could there be a more classic pair than Fred and Ginger?

Maybe......Laurel and Hardy.

 

Or Fred and Wilma.

There are other kinds of classic pairs besides "people pairs."

How about ketchup and mustard?

Or cats and dogs, babies and bottles, salt and pepper, and ribbons and bows?

Then there are the "pairs" of things that aren't actually pairs, like pairs of underwear and pairs of pliers. And how do scissors qualify as "pairs"?? Is there one scizz and two scissors?? We won't solve those mysteries today, but we WILL think about pairs of all kinds today, because...

Today's Small Thing is all about making pairs. Pairing, if you will.

If you think about it, you have probably made several pairs today and thus, have already accomplished our Small Thing. I really make this too easy on you, but sshhhhh! Don't tell anyone how simple creating sanctuary actually is. :)

• Cream in coffee
• Toast and jam
• PB & J
• Eggs and bacon
• Shoes and socks
• Pen and paper

You might have made all those pairs before 8 am!

Now, how about taking things up a notch?

• Making PAIRS OF SOCKS (the bane of existence)
• Bills with payment checks
• Bible with notebook
• Card with stamp
• Exercise with music
• Dinner and a movie (yes, YES!)
• Brush and floss
• Soup and salad

The point is this: do something, ANYTHING with pairs. You can task your children with finding and making pairs - or simply look for things you are already pairing. Pairing is fun, and so much more interesting than singling....as proven by pairs figure skaters worldwide.

What will you pair today? How will your "pairing" bring delight to your life? Do you love any odd pairings we should know about?

Song of the Day: Me and You, Kenny Chesney

What's an Apronon?

(Warning: second day in a row about clothing. What's up with that?? I don't know.)

When we were little, my sister, Katherine, used to ask our Mom,

"What's an Apronon?"

She couldn't figure out what Mom meant when she would say, as she began to prepare dinner, "I need to get my apron on."

As a result, we still call aprons, "Apronons."

When my girls and I make cookies or lefse, someone goes looking for the apronons, which are hanging on a nail in the pantry. When I am cleaning up a messy kitchen with greasy slop, I reach for an apronon. And I always wear an apronon when making spaghetti, so it won't splatter onto my clothes. The men in our family even put on apronons when they carve the turkey at Thanksgiving, or clean up the holiday dishes.

I like wearing apronons. I only have a few of them, but they make me feel professional when I wear them. Very June Cleaver-esque - like I might be ready to pull a standing rib roast from the oven at any moment. Usually, it's reheated pizza coming from the oven, but the FEELING here is what's important.

Here I am, modeling my favorite apronon (Marshalls, 12.99) on my way to an apron-themed party.


And you know something, when I tie my apronon I feel a kind of connection to my Mom and Grandmothers, who always wore their apronons not just for cooking, but for cleaning as well.  Generations past also had housecoats, or housedresses: loose comfortable dresses that women wore while they did their household chores. They weren't nearly as attractive as the apronons, they were more like apronon's Ugly Cousins. Thankfully, that's why we now wear sweats.

Today's Small Thing is to wear an apron. Not ALL day, silly....just for a task or two.

Some of you don't need any excuse to tie one on, but others of you are hesitant to leap into the apron scene for fear that you will be stuck in "1950's female servitude." Let me assure you, aprons, er, "apronons" are POWER, baby. They give you courage to scrub things, bake stuff and make your kids tow the line. They are the "professional edge" every homemaker needs. Try it - you'll like it!

What task will you wear an apron for? Do you have a favorite? Do you need to go getcha one?

Song of the Day: Apron Strings, Beady Belle

Real Crime

It was late at night and I was already in my jammies, chatting with my son before heading to bed. We talked about this and that and got on the subject of some kind of injustice in the world, like the high cost of new video games or parts for his car.

I shook my head in sympathy. "I know, baby. It's a crime."

Gray looked at me, and without skipping a beat said, "No, Mom. The only REAL crime here is what you're wearing. What IS that??"

I looked down at my shapeless, oversized nightshirt in mock hurt. Rumpled and stained, it had a cow jumping over a moon on the front, which at one time seemed cute.....but suddenly seemed tacky.

"Well, it's comfy!" I protested.

He gave me that stare that teenagers are so good at - you know, the kind that lets you know that they know more about things than adults do - and I just had to start laughing.

"I bought this at Walmart for $5.00! It was a great deal," I continued to defend my offensive attire, even though I knew I was busted.

Later, (still wearing the nightshirt) I told my husband about Gray's comment.

"That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen," he concurred. "Where did you get it, Loaves and Fishes?" referring to a local donation store.

"Duh, Walmart. This is haute couture, I'll have you know. Actually, this shirt is code for "not tonight," I joked.

To which he replied, "No kidding. That cow says it all."

Today's Small Thing is to fight nighttime crime by investigating your sleepwear.

Put a warrant out for the arrest of ugly, shapeless Tshirts, stained nightgowns and hideous jammies. Remove the criminal elements by putting them behind bars and tossing the key. You deserve better than what you've become accustomed to - the squallor of comfort over any sense of bedtime style.

Guilty as charged? Me too. I'm fighting back by throwing the book at my cow-jumping-over-the-moon shirt and am pulling out my shorts/cami set and putting the rest of my limited night time selection through the wash so it is fresh and clean. Then I might even stop at the store and buy something new. Yep, there's a new sherrif in town.

How will YOU fight nighttime crime? Can you top my cow shirt for indefensible tackiness?

Song of the Day: Good Night Sweetheart, Sha Na Na