Move Over June Cleaver.....

and make room for me! As many of you know, March 7, 2014 was my last day at the print shop. I want to thank so many of you who left kind and thoughtful comments, and to those who didn't, but kept me in their prayers. It has been a tough road for sure, but bored I'm not! I have kept myself busy like never before in my life. Some of it, I'm sure, is nervous energy. But I decided to NOT treat this like a vacation-sleeping in, staying in my pj's all day while I stitch up a storm. I've done everything but. Being unemployed has offered me the time and ambition to do so many things around the house that I previously lacked time for. Our bathroom sink, like most, needed a shelf underneath to make organizing easier, as did our kitchen sink. Such wonderful open spaces....so WHY don't they come with shelves?! I am happy to report, that with a little yankee ingenuity, shelves have been installed under both sinks and look a little bit like this:

The next project I tackled was scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. Our kitchen gets all the foot traffic and as you can imagine, it's impossible to keep the floor clean. Our tiles are very forgiving, because their color allows the dirt to be camouflaged making one think that "they aren't THAT dirty"..... and that my dear friends, is called denial! I perused Pinterest and found a wonderful recipe for heavy duty floor cleaner. Warm water, washing soda, white vinegar, a bit of dish soap, a Mr. Clean scrub brush and LOTS of elbow grease, back strength, and arm power......BAM! My floor looks brand new once again.

Next I constructed this little ditty that goes inside our recycle bin:

We have a preschool at our church and they collect items such as foil chip bags, granola bar wrappers and dairy containers among many other things. After they collect a certain amount, these things are then sent to a place called Tera-cycle. The preschool then gets a check sent to them. Not a bad deal for everyone involved and it keeps a lot of garbage out of the landfills. Once we fill the cloth bag, I will lift it off the frame and take it to church. It sure beats our old bag-over-the-kitchen-chair collecting system!

And Friday, Alan and I tackled a project that has waited 18 years to be done. We FINALLY painted our bedroom. When we moved in back in 1996, the walls AND the carpeting were PINK! UGH! It was like sleeping inside of a Pepto Bismol bottle! I remember saying "That's the first thing that's getting painted". Needless to say, it didn't happen until Friday. Now the walls are a lovely tan, although it looks yellow in the pictures. The carpet is STILL pink, but that will have to wait for another day, like when I have a job and am getting a paycheck!

We have once again tapped our maple trees and have collected about 14 gallons of sap so far. I suspect I'll be cooking it sometime this week.

And that my blog friends, is what I've been up to. Still no leads on a job, but I'm keeping the faith that one will come along. It's time for me to straighten my pearls and go check on the roast. Ward will be home soon!

Thanks for stopping by to check on me. Please do come again... the house has never looked this good!