Mending and other stories

This morning I can hear the rain and hear Steve sigh, probably thinking it's going to rain all day and they will get further behind at work.

Yesterday, I spent part of the day doing all the mending I had accumulated. Three of Steve's shirts, two of mine, two underthings that needed new hems, done. About a week ago, I changed out a plastic cabinet for a beautiful wood dresser that matches my dining room hutch. Since my girls were here, knew I wouldn't be able to re-arrange that room by myself, or for that matter, bring the dresser in, they volunteered.

Before I dashed off into the kitchen, I gave them a rough idea of what I was thinking and then a handful of large baskets to move things out of the way to the basement. Then my dining room became a hive of busy children, moving baskets, moving furniture and doing that giggling cursing thing that people do when they moving things for someone else.

They were able to move both large sewing machines and change out the table the serger was on. They brought in the new dresser and found a home for it. It may not stay there, but it does look so much nicer than that plastic cabinet that was taped up the front. And, after all, when you are eating in your sewing room, looking classy helps. Removing clutter also helps.

I am never going to be able to say I'm completely without clutter, but I'm working on having homes for those things I simply must keep. I've also been working hard on getting rid of things that I don't need or have a home for. The best question I've used to pare down my things is "and where will it go?" If I can't answer that question with a good answer, one besides the attic or the basement, I seriously consider getting rid of the item.

The harder part of getting caught up is overtaxing yourself. Last week, we ended up making a mad dash to another house and found it overgrown to the point of needing to rent a brush hog to mow it down. Brush hogs are awesome, but very wearing. The bruises are still coming up and Steve finds them everywhere, like half dozen new ones every day since. I'm so still today, I'm seriously considering staying at home.

Now, besides bruises, brush hogs, mending and cooking, I managed to pour a whole cup of coffee into my side table. *Frown* This meaning I now had no excuse not to remove the top of said side table and get working on it's new one. So, outside it went. I can say that the top is now stripped off and due to the rain, it's probably as clean as it will get. Now to cut about 100 small Formica samples into squares and glue them all down, but first, I think I should sand the top down and fill any low places with Durham's and sand some more.

I already have a large polished piece of glass I found in a neighbor's trash that is perfect for putting on top the new top once it's dry and the base re-stained. In the meantime, my living room looks like a hurricane blew in because everything that was in the table is now all over the floor. I think I'm at least going to put it into a basket or something to at least *look* presentable.

That being said, I think I'm going to get on that...
Laura