The Sunday Salon (TSS 8/15)

The Sunday Salon.com

Life: It still remains hot, humid and hazy here, which means a lot of indoor work.  In less than two weeks school resumes and I hopefully my schedule will slow down or at least become more manageable.  Next Sunday we are having a birthday party for a dear friend, we believe it will be his last and want to make it special.  Ideas?

Family Update: The house is completely re-painted and currently looks fabulous (I can say that as I had no hand in the painting).  My son’s senior pictures have been taken, proof viewed, and selections made and ordered.  School shopping has not begun, yet all the boys’ extra-curricular activities have already begun.  As I type, my oldest is writing college essays.  My reading has slowed down due to the hectic schedule, as I knew it would.  Surprisingly I am fine with this.  I am finding myself gravitating to more deep and reflective novels which command more time.

Saturday Night: Family at home movie night!  After much deliberation we agreed upon Invictus.

Read and Reviewed: My reading really slowed down this week  due to family obligations, pain, and an incredibly wonderful but long and detailed novel I am not quite finished with (I am hoping for a lull as it takes a lot of concentration).   I read and reviewed 8 books which totaled 3, 440 pages. Do not want to wait until Monday to see the entire list? They are all up and as usual I love comments.

Today I will continue reading: In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which if anyone is familiar with his works, knows it is not a book to be read in one sitting.  The 741 page tome demands concentration, reflection, introspection and deserves my full attention.  Unfortunately I do not have a free week to do this, which is why it is the beginning of my second week with this brilliant masterpiece.

Happy Reading and please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.

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The Sunday Salon (TSS: 8/1)

The Sunday Salon.com

Life: Happy first day of August! The weather has not really provided any relief from the heat and humidity.   School resumes in three weeks and for once I am not looking forward to it.  This year will bring about a lot of changes and I do not intend to miss a moment or to wish time to speed up.

Family Update: Last week I mentioned we were painting and guess what?  We are still painting.  It took many, many paint samples before deciding we wanted a completely different colour scheme.  Thank goodness for sample containers and primer.  My immediate family is well.  I had a dreadful week filled with pain, not much new there.  I did learn my grandmother is not doing well and my parents are heading back to Minnesota.

Saturday Night: We worked on painting the house and putting up new drapes.  Not overly exciting but the house is finally coming together nicely.  We decided to reward ourselves with watching a movie in the wee hours of the morning,  an oldie but funny movie Volunteers.

Read and Reviewed: As usual there were books I had hoped to read but did not, overall I read some truly exceptional books and hope people will take time to look at them. I read and reviewed 12 books which totaled 3,473 pages. Do not want to wait until Monday to see the entire list? They are all up and as usual I love comments.

Book Total Read and Reviewed for the month of July: 50 books

Today I will be reading: I Curse The River of Time by Per Petterson.

Happy Reading and please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.

Visit the The Sunday Salon.

The Sunday Salon (TSS 7/25)

The Sunday Salon.com

Life: Summer is flying by!  Thanks to the USPS I learned my driver’s license has expired.  I had no idea.  I seriously thought I had just been there last year.  Anyway I dashed out to get it renewed and paid quite a hefty late fee.  I greatly appreciated the postcard letting me know it had expired, but a postcard alerting me to the impending expiration would have been even nicer.  Our friend had surgery again on Monday and another friend was put in a nursing facility so she can recover from pneumonia.  She also has to decide if she is willing to allow a biopsy for cancer.  She is very stubborn and very active and would prefer not to know and live in the moment.  The weather here remains frightfully hot and humid the storms never seem to bring any relief.

Family Update: Finally my son had his senior pictures taken.  The rain held off and the sun even made a brief appearance.  I look forward to seeing the proofs.  DH took this past week off, so it was a lot of fun having him home with us.  We began another painting project.  We decided since the kitchen hallway, and laundry room were freshly painted why not repaint the living room and family room?  The only hitch is that none of us even remotely enjoy painting.  I have heard people describe painting as calming, meditative, and  soothing, yet none of us have yet to find those feelings when painting.  My least favourite part is having my house turned upside down.  I have never functioned well in clutter and wish we would have begun this project we DH’s vacation did.  Hindsight is 20/20.

Saturday Night: I shall not lie, I watched DVDs of Jeeves and Wooster while my husband and twins started painting.  In my defense, the last two days were dreadful for me and laughter is the best medicine, right?

Read and Reviewed: As usual there were books I had hoped to read but did not, overall I read some truly exceptional books and hope people will take time to look at them.  I read and reviewed 11 books which totaled 3,752 pages. Do not want to wait until Monday to see the entire list? They are all up and as usual I love comments.

So what will I be reading? I am reading Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe by Jenny Hollowell.

Happy Reading and please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.

Visit the The Sunday Salon.

Uncaffeinated and Migraine Brain Thoughts

I knew today was not going to be my day when I was taking migraine medicine before bed and they were not helping. Thankfully my sweet husband is preparing pulled pork in the crockpot for dinner tonight. He is wonderful that way. He is dreadful at painting, yet I could not ask for a more loving father and husband.

So what is on my pain-filled mind today?

  • My identical twins are finally coming into their own and developing separate interests and making separate friends. It only took 15 years! This may sound odd, but I am thrilled. One twin has always been more dominant and it makes me happy to see them on equal footing.
  • My friend Amy is due anytime time now and we are all very, very excited for her!
  • As a mum of 3 teen boys I am beyond frustrated with High School athletics. If you have teens, you may know what I am rambling about. If you do not yet, be prepared.
  • My shyest child, the non-dominant twin is not only involved in theatre, but crew and an independent play. This is his first year and I am so proud of him I could burst.
  • The painting in my home is gorgeous and progressing slowly. Some have asked what is taking so long (fair question as this may now be week three?). It all began with my neighbour (whom we view as a family member) offering to paint a wall red. I have red accent walls throughout the main rooms and forgot to place one in the family room and this had been bothering him. So, he began that then decided the kitchen colours had to go and well once in the kitchen, the hallways looked dim and the main bathroom, *shudder*. Still I hear people thinking, “3 weeks?”. Let me try to explain. He is offering his precious time, so I cannot actually force him to move faster. He is the full time care giver of a 91-year-old and her disabled son. They live next door, so he often has to check on them. He is a full-time caregiver, which means 24/7, so what time he devotes to us is truly limited and rather precious to us.
  • I will indeed show before and after pictures. For those interested in colours. The hallway is Light Sage with Snow White trim and doors, the main bathroom is Scandinavian Sky and White, The Kitchen is Butter Yellow and Snow White with two recessed accent walls in Heirloom Red.
  • My head is at about a pain level of an 8 or 9.
  • I have two book tours tomorrow that I am excited about and hoping my head lets up enough for me to write coherently. Please check back and see how well I did.
  • Finally, my oldest will be singing this Saturday evening at a charity function. This is the first time I will have ever heard my son sing by himself and I cannot wait.

A fresh carafe of coffee is waiting as are pillows, ice packs, and rice bags. I wish for my readers a truly wonderful day.

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Ramblings From An Un- Caffeinated Brain

I know, one would think my brain would be fully caffeinated by now, however, that is not the case. It took quite some doing to find the coffee grinder, the French Press, and the tea kettle.

Why? My home is in utter chaos.

It all began simply enough, as most projects do. We decided it would be nice to add an accent wall to our family room. Easy, should not take long, or so I thought. While the primer was up, it was decided that well, the kitchen needed some fresh paint and new colours, carry the accent colour through. The accent wall is finished, the kitchen is not. Did we choose to stop there? Of course not, that would have made sense. We decided the hallway was too dark and chose yet another colour and oh my the bathroom, really, what were we thinking when we painted that? Several gallons of primer later, 2 reds (flat: Royal Red and semi-gloss: Heirloom Red ), 2 whites (flat and semi-gloss), Scandinavian Blue, Butter, and Thin Ice, my house is still a wreck. It has been a week now and 1 wall has been completed. The bathroom is close to being finished and the kitchen, optimistically speaking is another two days. I am no longer guessing on the time line for the hallway. I know it will be beautiful when all completed and for my sanity I hope it is soon. Yet, I know, all the doors must come down and be finished, the new lighting installed, and I heard talk of painting the laundry room.

I need a hug.

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Painting Chaos-Wordful & Wordless Wednesday

We have been painting for almost a week and this is the only section that did not cause me to twitch more than I already am from the chaos.

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OrdinaryAndAwesome.com is the Chronicles of headquarters as well as the home to several original awards and memes.

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Painting-Quotable Sunday

We have been doing a lot of painting these past few days so the theme of painting came quite naturally.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.”
~ Vincent van Gogh

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
~ Pablo Picasso

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech.”
~ Simonides

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.”
~ Blaise Pascal

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.”
~ Edgar Degas

Creativity takes courage.”
~ Henri Matisse

To join in the fun or to see what other topics are being quoted visit A Daily Dose of Toni

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Chaos Also Referred to As Painting.

Is it not amasing how one word can capture mood, or in this instance, what is happening inside the walls of my home, yet chaos does indeed describe the current situation in my house. While my family thrives the state of my house deteriorates. Chaos has taken over. The end result will be worth it, but as I sit here looking around I wonder if things should have been left alone.
It all began quite innocently enough, as these things tend to begin. My neighbour thought the red accented wall theme should have been carried throughout the house. Why we left out adding an accent wall in the family room I no longer recall. We could have run out of paint, or more likely been too tired to really concern ourselves, regardless of the reason, over a year ago we left the family room without an accent wall. A few days ago my neighbour rang up and offered to correct our mistake. He was ready and willing to take time out and create a red accent wall where previously none existed. I was thrilled. And naturally I not only jumped on his enthusiasm but also joined in. We could not be happier! This one wall project led to more painting, as these sorts of things tend to do. There is something about painting, that makes one begin to think about other things that need a fresh coat of paint or a different colour. This one small project turned into repainting my entire kitchen. I thrive well under order. Chaos and I do not function well together. I am one who believes everything has a place and everything in its place. Now I am living with the contents of my kitchen as well as my family room in my dinging room. This morning was quite unpleasant as I tried to find the French Press, the coffee grinder, and the teakettle to make my necessary morning coffee. Chaos. Apparently, as I have been told, my kitchen will be yellow, white, and red. Honestly it sounded hideous to me, but enough patches of paint samples have been splashed up for me to agree it will indeed liven up the kitchen. The family room wall is not finished, the kitchen has only just begun and the boys are off at a cross-country meet for the day, leaving a lot of painting to few hands. At this point I must mentioned that my husband has been fixing a plumbing problem and has been unable to help with the painting.
There was a slow leak in shower (home ownership has a lot of pitfalls), which led to my husband dismantling the shower by removing tile, and old dry wall and repairing the leak in order to, install new drywall and re-tile. It was a contained area. I could not see the mess and I was not bothered. Until the word “paint” was uttered. Apparently the colour we painted the bathroom will not do. In hindsight I agree. However, it means another room, albeit small, to paint. It means another day where I am unable to read, and I am going through withdrawals, and another day of chaos. I am hoping against all hope that at least two of the three rooms will be restored before Monday.

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