Mailbox Monday - Aug 17

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Oh, my! We are back to Monday. A cool and rainy weekend rounded out a week of writing, showing houses, and meetings. Doesn't that sound exciting? A few fall decorations arrived in the mail last week, so I am getting ready to start decorating. That means we will be saying goodbye to this beach mailbox on August 31.

So much has been going on at the house. We had our pantry remodeled. The old pantry door was only a single, so I lost 18 inches of storage space I could never reach on each shelf. I chose the glass for the doors. Then our handyman cut out the wood and installed the glass. He painted them and added the handles. We changed out the wire shelving for wood shelves and added some metal baskets that slide onto the shelves to maximize storage space. I am thrilled with the results. It's not a butler's pantry, but it is so much better.

We are putting together ideas for other remodeling projects. We will probably have to take them one at a time, but I'm okay with that. I know we want to get rid of all the carpets. 

The new seeds in the garden are starting to sprout. We will see what we get.

My physical mailbox held no books this week. I'm okay with that since I have a ton to read over the next few weeks. I, did, however pick up this Kindle freebie when it came out.

An author also asked me to review this one.

I have a crazy week ahead of me, so I might not comment at your blog right away, but I will definitely stop by.

Thanks. Hope you have a blessed week.

Task it Tuesday - July 13

Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task it Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

Well, it has been a few weeks since I posted a Task it Tuesday. I don't keep a task list when I'm on vacation. That kind of defeats the purpose of vacation.

Let's face it---2020 has been kind of a bust. I had a stellar year planned in many ways. Then the pandemic hit; we lost my father-in-law; and, as much as we love each other, spending every day at home together isn't all it's cracked up to be. The vacation helped us a great deal. Now, I am ready to get back on track.

Here is this week's list:

• Meal planning - DONE
• Daily Bible reading - Started a new week-long plan
• Update planner  - on track
• Walk three days this week
• Book review due Wednesday
• Empty pantry Tuesday night or Wednesday morning - new doors and frame being installed

That's it for this week. Not sure if I will accomplish everything, but I need to stay focused.

What's on your to-do list this week?

You've Got Mail Monday

It was a busy weekend followed by a busy start to my week. We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday on Saturday. I worked in the garden on Sunday planting second season vegetables, taking in some of the earlier harvest, and restaking the tomato plants that have grown like gangbusters this year.

This week, the Lil' Princess has soccer camp and the Lil' Diva is making up two days of golf camp she missed because of last week's rain. I have a couple of hours to myself while I wait for the inspector to come check out the new roof. Yep, the house needed a new roof. We had hail damage from the 2011 tornado.

This is a picture close to completion. We changed from a drab black and brown colored shingle to a reddish brown called Burnt Sienna. Love the new look.

There's so much that needs doing around the homestead right now, I'm not sure how we'll pay for it all. We're not handy people, so we have to hire out to accomplish almost everything.

Okay, now on to the mail. I was able to plant the second season vegetables because Burpee® shipped the beets and salad greens I ordered. They arrived on Wednesday. As I mentioned, the tomatoes are growing like crazy. I've never had such tall tomato plants. The pumpkins are doing well and so are the watermelons. It looks like the leaves are picking up that Powdery Mildew disease. I have to see if I can get rid of it. I cut off the infected leaves--not sure if I should have, I'm learning as I go--but just learned I should not water them at night because the humidity makes the condition worse. I'll see if I can save them. Next year, I'll plant them in a different location and water at a separate time. We've had several green beans and potatoes so far, and my crop of onions came out great. I replanted lettuce and carrots, so hopefully they will come up with the beets and the salad greens.

My latest issue of All You arrived this week. The August issue talks about spending less on everything: groceries, beauty items, and Back-to-school. They have chicken recipes in this one, which is good because we eat a lot of chicken. I'm also drawn to the "easy organizing ideas."

We received a catalog from dElia's and it has a 20% off entire purchase coupon on the cover. The prices look good and the styles seem to be what the Lil' Diva would like. Maybe I'll get her some school clothes from there. The other item in the mailbox this week was the Olympia Sports catalog. We get the Lil' Princess' sports equipment there. Sometimes we visit Dick's Sporting Goods, but Olympia is closer and the staff is great. Olympia is also offering 20% off entire purchase (including sale and clearance items). It might be time for a new pair of cleats before fall soccer kicks off.

That's it for today. Hope you have a great week.

The Busy Mom's Landscaping Projects

People without green thumbs who take on landscaping projects must be insane. The above picture is what the front of our house looked liked before my crazy idea to change it. When we moved in, I had no knowledge of landscaping and gardens. I barely have more ability after thirteen years, but that doesn't keep me from trying.

My brilliant idea: remove these bushes and put in flowering plants. Not a bad plan, just not an easy one. Finding and downloading the garden plan off the Internet--easy. Ordering the plants online--also easy. Getting bushes out of the garden that have been there for thirteen years--not easy at all.

I had promised the two low ones to the church for the new flower bed they (I mean me and three other people) were putting in, and I decided to move that juniper (maybe) into the backyard to hide the generator we put in after we lost power for over a week in 2011 after a surprise October snowstorm. You know, the lovely storm that meant we had to vacate our home for the third time in the span of five months and where the power was out long enough for sewer water to back into our basement.

Anyway, I had to call the landscaper in to get that big bush out of there. My back said no way was I doing it. He was kind enough to set up the flower bed for me, so all I had to do was dig and put the new plants in. Keeping the plants alive for two weeks after they arrived until he showed up to remove the bush was a challenge.

I laid out all the plants--even took out a measuring tape to be sure it would be relatively even--and then put them in. Then the landscaper came to mulch all the beds.

We've made a few other improvements, too, lately. Hopefully I'll have more pictures soon.

Is the Formal Living Room Passé?

When we built our home, one of the things I was most thrilled about was having a formal living, in addition to, a family room. I had a loveseat and chair set that worked well in the living room, and bought three small elegant looking tables. To give it a more formal feel than the rest of the house, the builder add two floor to ceiling pillars--which you can see in the picture above (sorry, best shot of those is this Christmas photo).

Before the girls came along, the living room was fairly unused and easy to maintain. We would use it for entertaining a few times a year (though most people congregated in the kitchen). Putting our main Christmas tree in that room also meant anyone walking in the front door would have a festive view. I felt, however, that the space was underutilized and began thinking of converting it to a reading room. So, I bought some bookshelves, put the loveseat into the family room along with our sofa, and took a comfy chair from the family room and put it in the living room (now called the reading room.)

Problem. Between the dark walls and the front porch blocking light from getting in, it wasn't the best room for reading.

Then the Lil Diva was born and it soon became known as the play room--or more appropriately, an unsightly room filled with toys and other childhood things. See below.

Don't ask. It's just much easier to let the Lil Diva do her own thing.

Daughter #2 comes along. Add more toys and childhood things.

Even before she could read the Lil Princess loved books. 

At some point, I grew weary of having a messy room being what our visitors saw when they first walked in, so I moved the majority of the toys and two bookcases upstairs. That left two comfy chairs, one bookcase, one toybox and three elegant tables.

What do we use the room for now? Not much. We had added French doors a few years ago because the doorway was framed for them when the house was built. They look nice, but the room isn't any more formal than it used to be. The girls put their backpacks on the chairs when they are in school. Other than that, the only use the room gets is as an easy walkway from the family room to the front door or upstairs.

Many of our neighbors have converted their formal living rooms into offices or other usable spaces. My hubby and I each have an office now that our son moved out and got married, so I don't need to use it for that. I'm still searching for ideas.

What do you think--are formal living rooms passé? Do you have a formal living room? Do you use it or have you converted it to something else? If your house doesn't have one, would you like to have one?