Name That Tune - The Piano Men

What do you get when a few good musle-y kind of men volunteer to help my husband move his baby grand piano?

You get some good comedy.

And, so here's your opportunity to fill in the blanks and post some your captions for each scene.

Come on, make me laugh! I really need to laugh today.

Moving. . .

. . . is something I'm not particularly fond of. As a matter of fact, I don't think I like it. Not one bit.

Moving exposes how much - uh - stuff you have that - uh - you probably don't need.

Moving is vulnerable - those who help get to see all the stuff you have - that you probably don't need.

Moving also lets you know who your muscly and kind friends are - those who are willing to sacrifice their own time and energy to help you move all the stuff - you probably don't need.

Today, I've moved. Tonight, I'm so thankful.

Ben Moore on The Floor

A little before . . . and getting started.

One coat. Done!

Painting the Floor - Sneak Peek

It's Friday and we're just getting ready to begin to add furniture. It takes days for the floor to cure properly.

There are two Benjamin Moore floor and porch paint product and we used one product in this room and our son in law used the other with the higher VOC in another bedroom. I have opinions to share about each product - but for another post.

More pics to come. . . am off to paint a bedroom and prep the concrete floor to paint that one - Linen White as well. It's yummy.

xoxo ...... Have a wonderful weekend.

Tonight is the Night

This floor has been full of surprises. It's understandable because the CRH was originally built in 1949 and some of those original walls happened to be in this part of the home.

This is step up into the sun room. The tile was horrible and broken and the only solution was to strip it off and hope that the repair work wouldn't be to intensive.
This was Michael's first experience at working with over layment. He did a fantastic job and my fantastic job was to keep him encouraged by telling him what a fantastic job he was doing.

This was the crazy surprise area where we uncovered the spot of the original wall.

So, tonight's the night and I can hardly stand it. Ben Moore and Michael and me.

My Notebook on Women and Gardens

Erica joined Anita this past Friday to begin to fill the herb section of the CRH garden. After a bit of planting, we realized that lunch was ready to be picked. (Oh,please excuse the background mess, we're still in a construction zone at the farm, but no one seems to mind.)

Our first CRH salad!

Saturday, three of the women in my small Coffee Talk group came to the CRH - for, you guessed it coffee and talk.

Happy Herb Sunday

May your Sunday be filled with little surprises of hope and joy and peace that only come from Heaven's Delight.

Planting Chervil

Erica volunteered at the Cactus Road Farm yesterday - to help fill our French Herb bed with spots of chervil, dill, thyme, cilantro and other delectable so wonderful to cook with.

Have a wonderful weekend. xoxo

My Notebook on the Pantry

One of the things I love about this house (and there are many) is this particular room. It's going to be my new pantry. One of the things I love about that man whose shirt matches the walls is that he loves to bless me by doing these sorts of homey projects like this room and this one here.

I feel very blessed to have a pantry. Just about every home I've lived in had a small spot that I could claim as a pantry. Where I live now has this pantry. It's small because of the space for the washer and dryer.

I value a pantry because this past year, I've worked on developing my year long pantry. The wy and how to can be read here.

I LOVE home making. I LOVE to create sanctuary. We love to garden. We enjoy the gift of people coming to our home where conversations of life, hope and truth can be heard.

So, the pantry isn't done yet. We've got to paint the floors (BM-Linen White), bring in the freezers, add some more shelves . . . but it's on its way.

Have a wonderful day....

For Reals . . .

. . . this is almost how I've spent my last five days . . . in this crazy position. The only reason I'm smiling is because this floor scraping with a razor blade on my hands and knees is almost done! I'm incredibly excited to show you an update tomorrow!

I Love Cement

. . . no, not really. But last night I tried my hand at filling that big hole in the family room at the Cactus Road House and to be honest, I didn't do to bad a job . . . but am thankful my husband came in . . . to the rescue . . .and made what I was doing . . . better. Isn't that how life works? We need each other.

Pictures to come. Am off to paint - with joy - at the farm. Blessings on your day.

On My Hands and Knees

For five days, literally, I've been on my hands and knees with a small razor blade scraping off glue from our family room floor. I had this little mantra going on in my head, "It's the prep work that counts, it's the prep work that is important, stay focused, keep going and one day it'll be beautiful."

About two months ago, there'd been a flood of sorts in this room and in the pantry. All the yucky glue down carpet had to be pulled up along with the base boards. I'd never dreamed what a blessing the flood and the mess would end up being for us.

Some new options for flooring in the CRH. I decided that what would be best in this room and the pantry would be to strip the floors completely and paint them Benjamin Moore's Linen White (which is the color of the fire place).

Friday Michael and I trekked to McFarland's Carpets to look for wool carpet (for other rooms) and I just happened to mention sisal rugs. Paul knew exactly what I was talking about and pulled out the most gorgeous piece of a 12.5X14 piece off wool sisal with the feel of cashmere and in my color - a perfect soft yellow. Needless to say it's perfect. Can't wait to show you the pics soon.

Today, we get to fill in the big hole and putty the little ones! Yeah....it's progressing.

Be Thankful

Cosmos in our garden.

I'm working on cleaning up the cement floor at the CRH today and tomorrow and the next day.

Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend and don't forget to look up once in a while and say "thank you" to everyone for the little kindnesses they give. Thankfulness is desperately needed in this world today.

It's Coming Along . . . .

slowly - but surely.

Work is slowly progressing on transforming the inside of the CRH - Cactus Rd. House (affectionately coined by my son-in-law).

Pretty much every square inch of the CRH has been crying out for attention and transformation - saying something like, "Will someone see the potential and create sanctuary in this house and reclaim its spaces making it home?"

Yes - I whisper. I want to. I will . . . space by space.

Interestingly enough, just after my wonderful man started one of several herb boxes (above) he said, "Honey, for some reason, you needed a big project - and this is a BIG project."

So, let's talk herbs a bit. I love cooking with them and experiencing the flavor of new ones. Basil, dill, cilantro, French sorrel, English thyme, French tarragon, garlic, chives, oregano, dill, lavender and rosemary grace my garden paths. and in this new farm & garden project I've added rue, lambs ear, chervil and a few others.

This spot will be my French Country Herb garden filled with herbs for some French cooking and Spring salads. I've added rue, lambs ear, chervil and a few others to experiment with in cooking and in natural remedies. I'm hoping that women who volunteer and spend time at CRH farm will be encouraged to return to their kitchens using some of these new herbs.

Maria just told me yesterday that she has dill popping up in her garden. She uses my mother's potato soup recipe which MUST have fresh dill to make it an experience.

This is the season where I make this just about every week. It's that good.

Moms says to:

Peel and cube about 4 to 5 potatoes. I actually add 3 more.

Chop a whole onion and several celery sticks. It's up to you how much.

I add crushed garlic.

Saute this mixture.

Then add the vegee mixture, the potatoes in your big pot and cover it with 32 oz (or more) of chicken broth. I use Trader Joe's.

Then add (gulp) 1 stick of butter and (yum) one cup of sour cream. It's rich and it's wonderful.

Then thicken the soup with about 3 T. corn starch mixed with 1/2 cup of milk.

Add fresh dill. I use dill liberally as I have fresh dill in my garden.

Heat and do not boil. "Mash" the cooked potatoes with a potato masher. DELICIOUS!

For an extra kick, chop finely jalapeno and add it to the soup. This made it more than wonderful.

Have a wonderful day!

Gone Painting and Gardening Today

Each day is full of wonderful activity. Painting, gardening, painting, gardening. It's all pretty exciting. The progress is amazing. Saturday volunteers to The Simple Farm came to plant purple beans, beets, fava beans (first try at these), different kinds of lettuce, etc.

Today's focus is back on the inside - painting. Later this week we'll build two more 4x4 beds for the herb garden that our master gardener, Anita, will plant with her two of her herb helpers.

Hope your day is going well!