One Part Inspiration...

New Year.  New Beginnings.  New Chances.  Yes, it's that time again.  Time to review and renew. Time to yearn for the unexpected, the unattainable, the unimaginable. Some time ago, I determined not to make resolutions.  However, this year, I caved.  My husband and I made a game of it.  What did we want to see in 2015?  What were some of our dreams and ambitions?  We brainstormed.  And then we wrote them down. Late in 2014, I found a binder in which I had written down thoughts about themed birthday parties, filed interesting articles on household organization and finances, as well as cataloguing internet courses I had taken.  Also included in this binder were lists of Christmas presents for everyone from teachers to co-workers and family[starting in 1993 - and abandoned by 2006], menus for special occasions, recipes for various fun items, and inspirations for making gift baskets [one of my early yearnings was to start a 'Send A ...

As we were planning programs for December, I asked the question that was hanging in the air.  "Are we going to do a door decorating contest this year?| Grande. Silence. We have 'always' done a door decorating contest.  Then it got to be that 'one more thing' that people did not want to put on their list of things to do for Christmas. Bah. Humbug. So, when someone asked if I wanted to organize it, I had a quick meeting with myself, and I said yes. And then I went into high gear becoming Santa's head elf. Mostly, I hired other elves to do the work for me.  These elves came in the form of volunteers who come each week to help enhance our programs. I asked some to cover the doors of the people who agreed to enter the contest. Check.   Then I asked others to cut out the shapes for my door. Check. Still others agreed to help take the pictures of the doors and create the 'voting poster' complete with a baggie for stickers for the vo...

  I was moving some things around in my walk-in closet the other day, and to my chagrin, I saw some fairly major scratches on my hardwood floor. Did I mention that I say hello to my beautiful hardwood floor every morning?  This is because because for two years, I woke up to this flooring: and then it got even better and I looked at this for another year.   Needless to say, I try to treat the hardwood with the deference it deserves.   Scratches are NOT cool on hardwood.  Fortunately, I like to look at random webistes and peruse their 'life hacks'.  On one such website, I read that walnut meat can take away the scratches. I went to the pantry and grabbed some.  Then I rubbed the meat into the scratches.  Look at that!  They receded!  I will give it one more go and they should disappear all together!  I have to say, I almost felt like I had magical powers seeing that awful scratch disappear into the w...

When we moved to The Pokeaway, a co-worker friend gave us a portable dishwasher.  It is in my mudroom and has been one of my go-to tools to try and maintain some semblance of order here.  It has seen many loads go through it and I always whisper a 'thank-you' when I use it. About 8 months ago, we began having problems with it.  When we hooked it up to the faucet, it wouldn't always grab the and soon, we found ourselves having showers when we went to start it up.  The connection would explode.  For a long time, we tried holding our tongues on the other side of our mouths to have more success.  It worked sometimes.  Other times, just as we settled into another activity we would hear the cascading whoosh of water spewing all over the mud room. It got to be, that if we found a way to hook the dishwasher up, where there was no shower happening, we would leave it hooked up for days, without moving it.  This sounds simple enough, un...