Unexpected Wednesday Productivity

We are enjoying a heat wave here--today was the third day in a row that we spent several hours outside!  Monday we went to the park, yesterday I exercised outside while the children played, and today I got downright industrious and worked on clearing out the muddy flower bed in the back of the house.  I got my clippers and snipped all the dried dead hosta sticks down to the ground, pulled up browned wire grass, and raked.  I was just getting warmed up when the children got cold, so we went inside. But it felt so good to get a little wintry gardening done!

Once we were inside I spent an hour or so painting the bathroom, which was sorely neglected during the holiday season. I am finishing up beadboard painting--almost done!--and am painting the mirror and a little decorative table.  There's a wall left to paint and the ceiling to do.  Then the plumber can come wave his magic wand....and I can wash my hands in there again!

Once Upon a Hill

Several years ago, before our daughter was born, my husband and I checked out a beautiful old 1912 house that was for sale (a foreclosure).  The location was so gorgeous.  I was rather smitten with it from the outside.

The house had so much charm, 

wonderful details in the woodwork, transom doors, like a gingerbread house,

with lots of potential in the awful, but sun-filled, little kitchen,

...and it needed an extraordinary amount of work.  I have always longed to renovate an old home, but I knew after our tour that this was not the time in our lives for this house. Interestingly, only a couple of months later I was pregnant with our second child, so it turns out my gut instinct was right. 

I am happy to report that the house was purchased, renovated and now looks--at least from the outside--so beautiful. One day I may gather up the courage to do a little door-knocking and see if I can get a tour of the new, improved home!

Snippets of Charleston

Poking around this old city never gets old to me. 

Little bits of beauty everywhere.

A New Year

I love setting New Year's goals, resolutions, call-it-what-you-will.  I do it every year when we are in Charleston, South Carolina after Christmas, and keep the list in the back of my monthly planner calendar. 

I often set goals related to exercise or sleep, like most people probably do, and I also try to expand my definition of resolutions. This year a couple of my quirkier ones are--

*learn to can something....anything!
*sew a garment that I am fully pleased with from start to finish, for myself (I sew frequently, but I'm often not pleased with *something*)
*keep fresh flowers on the table
*try to do FUN things with my children every single day, whether that means staying home and playing together for a while in the afternoon or going to the park or somewhere else....I want to enjoy them, have fun and be fully *present* with them.  These years are fleeting!
*write every day--journaling is good for me!

Now, in order to keep that sleeping resolution, I'd better get to bed....