Around here, Friday is the day to “fluff the nest”, which is just a much cuter way of saying “clean the house”. Am I right? So my Friday posts are all about tidying up and getting the house fresh and in order for the weekend. Some weeks my nest-fluffing comes more easily than others. I need motivation each Friday.
Well friends, today my house is going to need more than just a fluff! After all that’s gone on the last couple of weeks, the current condition of my house is beyond fluffing! While I would love to say my kitchen looks like the photo above, the reality is the photo below! There’s an Andy Griffith episode called “Andy and Opie, Housekeepers” where Aunt Bea comes home from a trip to find the house in shambles and states, “We’ll clean it up with a mop, and a pail, and a bulldozer!” And that, my friends, is what it will take for my house this week!
I mentioned the other day that there’s probably no good time to turn your house upside down for a major painting project. But way back in January when we first talked with the painters, the last week in March just seemed like the most ideal time to schedule this project. Isn’t that how it goes! I’m just laughing at myself now.
I really thought I’d snap eveything back in shape last Saturday after the kids’ morning soccer games. But as we were pulling in the drive from soccer, the call came that there was very little time left in the life of our dear adopted grandmother. I dropped eveything and headed into town to sit and visit with her for what I thought would be our last moments together. She has since surprised us all and hung on for another week, so naturally I’ve wanted to be there this week as much as possible. My, we have had the sweetest visits together this week and I wouldn’t trade them for anything!! And certainly not even for a clean house!
The kids and I had two field trips already scheduled for this week, and at the beginning of the week I was sure we’d have to miss them. But the timing ended up working out, and even though it really squeezed the schedule, those two field trips provided some normalcy for my kids in the middle of a sad time (much like this blog for me). I’m so glad we kept them!
One field trip was to American Village in Montevallo, and the other was just down the road to a strawberry patch. I’ll post on both field trips another day! The strawberry picking must have been extremely therapeutic for me because I was a picking machine and we ended up coming home with six buckets! The problem is, once they’re picked, you’ve got to do something with them, and pronto! I came home from the patch, washed all six buckets, left to go sit with my elderly friend for part the afternoon, and finally came back home to make jam. Jam?!?! At a time like this? Yep, jam. Crazy, huh! And I thought I was still holding eveything together until this happened…..
I dropped a whole jar of freshly poured strawberry jam on the floor, sending splatters of hot jam and shards of glass ALL over the kitchen! This photo looks like it’s contained to that one spot, but oh no! It’s amazing how far that stuff shoots. It was the stickiest! There was so much glass and I couldn’t just sweep it up; it was stuck in jam! Everywhere! At that point, I was ready to break down and cry. Eveything from the week came crashing in at that moment. So I took a deep breath, had a minute with God, and started wiping up jam and glass. And you know what? It was OK.
I’m STILL finding jam and glass under counters and in corners, so I’ve got some more scrubbing to do with that. That’s where the mop and pail come in to play today. And there are still the stacks of pictures, curtains, and nick nacks from the painting project. That’s where the bulldozer will come into play!
Happy Friday, everyone! Go hug an elderly friend today!!
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