Home is Where my Toys Are

Home is where the heart is means my heart is all over the place because my friends and family are scattered.  So home is where my toys are works for me because I've gathered up things that make me smile.  I miss my friends and family...a lot.  But I miss my home when I'm gone for long. 

My Jet Tub

I love my jet tub, but it wasn't draining.  So I tried baking soda, vinegar, and hot water.  It still wasn't draining.  So I used a drain cleaner.  In a little while we put the rest of the drain cleaner in and that worked.  So I was in the bathroom a pretty good while.  I scrubbed the tub with baking soda, since I had it in there.  That looked nice.  Then I took a brush to the stopper.  Gross stuff popped off of it.  Then I ran a tub full of hot water, put a cup of vinegar and a dishwasher tablet in and let it run for ten minutes so the jets would be clean.  Then I refilled it with hot water and let the jets run again so the pipes would be rinsed.
Then, one more pass with a magic eraser and vinegar. 
Nice.

If You Have a Gripe

If people have a complaint, I really wish they'd mention it to the person or business that has irked them.  It's fine to tell me and everyone else, but let the person or business in on it, too.

Gardenia Protection

 Larry had to take the end of the porch on the shop off to get the gardenia structure out. 

This is a really good place for a gardenia bush because when it blooms, the fragrance is wonderful when we're sitting on the porch.  But this year it didn't bloom because the cold killed the plant down to the ground last year.  It put out from the roots, but it blooms on last year's new growth.  So we are hoping for blooms next year.  I'm going to put mulch around the base to help seal it in.

I've rooted more gardenias.  They are in the greenhouse right now, but I'm looking forward to planting them in my tire garden next spring.

I didn't vacuum any leaves up today.  They're likely to still be there tomorrow.

Low Carb Hot Fudge Sundae

Carb Smart ice cream and sugar-free microwave fudge topping from Smuckers...not as good as Baskin-Robbins, but better than a poke in the eye.

Beautiful Day

Today was one of those sparkling days without a lot of wind.  I vacuumed up leaves (an ongoing project), put mulch around three sides of the gardenia house, and various and sundry little things.  It seems that with the leaf vac I would have gotten my five thousand steps in on my fitbit.  But no. Using a pitchfork to load three carts of mulch and drag it to the gardenia didn't do it, either.  Walking does it, but I object to walking for no purpose...yeah, I've had the conversation where a fit body counts.  Evidently a fit body is further down the list than seeing that I accomplished something.  I even moved my place to empty my compost pail so I would walk more and get in a flight of stairs.  Still not enough. The fitbit "wants" 10,000 steps.  I've only gotten that once or twice since I've had the little jewel.  I have to pay attention to get half that in on a regular basis!
I've stopped using MyFitnessPal because it kept saying I had done it five days in a row when I had tried to do it consistently but was having trouble with connectivity. I'm still trying to eat low-carb, high fiber...I'm just not recording it.  My blood sugar was 94 this morning; life's good.

Bless Your Little Heart!

I sent Mama my first knitting project...a brown scarf.
She said every morning when she puts it on, she says, "Bless Deborah's little heart!"  I'm trying not to be insulted that she thinks my heart is little, and just appreciate the blessing:)

Vegetarian Thanksgiving - Oops!

I am a carnivore!  But I can never get my turkey (or this time, roasting chicken) thawed in time for dinner.
So my Thanksgiving Resolution: I will never again buy a frozen turkey or chicken for Thanksgiving.  If I can't find a bird, we may just have baloney and dressing.
Today we had dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, turnip greens, baked beans, creamed corn and yeast rolls.
We'll have our chicken and dressing with our leftovers if we've ever hungry again:)
Happy Thanksgiving!

Found Yarn Today

I found a lot of different colors of yarn today.  I must have gotten there right after they'd restocked.
Leigh said I could go to the WalMart website and order what I wanted and click on "pick up at the store."
I was thinking I might have to do that.  I had gone to the Red Heart site, but I hadn't thought about going to the WalMart site!  Good info:)

Today's Knitting Project

I started this scarf today.  I have finished one regular knitted scarf, and two twirly ones.  This is my fourth project.  I'm guessing I'll lose count at some point, but I totally love this yarn. 

Flying Sawdust

We've been making a couple of runs a day to the sawmill to get sawdust for my recycled tire garden.  Today we went and the sawmill was in operation.  It was like a blizzard but felt worse when it went in the eyes. 
We only made one run.

Tamales

My friend visited and brought tamales:)  I adore tamales.
One of my earliest memories is stopping for tamales from guys riding bicycles with a popsicle-looking box on the front.  Well, popsicle bicycles had white boxes on front and were cold.  Tamale bicycles were black on the front and warm.  I loved those tamales and begged my mother to stop whenever I saw one of the bicycle guys.