On November 18, I finally found a foster for Famke’s kittens. This was a great blessing for them, I know, but it was hard for me to say goodbye. The yard is so quiet and still now, without them here. Famke’s gone too. My mom, …
I’ve been eating a lot of baked oatmeal lately. It’s so satisfying and easy to make that I decided I’d share the recipe with you. Of course, this meant that I needed to get a blog-worthy picture of oatmeal, a tall order. I did the …
Last Sunday, I had the best day ever, not because anything exciting happened but because of how peaceful I felt in my heart. I played with the cats, polished the furniture, carefully cleaned and rearranged my collection of Fiestaware, and hung a little garland of pine cones on the mantelpiece in the dining room. It was a delightful day of puttering.
In the late morning, a great sunbeam spread itself across the dining-room floor, so all the cats gathered to bask in the warm, golden light. They dozed and stretched and got into lazy wrestling matches. Meanwhile, I took pictures of them and complimented them on their cuteness.
I was calling them dumb nicknames. I was calling Buntin “Miss Beauty Lady,” for example, and Carl “My Little Cutie Boy.” At about eleven, Rob joined us in the dining room, and his nicknames for the cats were even dumber than mine were. He was calling June “Jan,” for some reason.
We groomed the cats with an array of different combs and brushes. Then we gave them some Cat Sushi (bonito flakes). As we watched them eat, Rob was jabbering on about FSU football. During college football season, it is all he talks about. (He’s a Booster and has season tickets.)
“The cats are big FSU fans,” he said.
“No, they’re not,” I said.
“June is,” he said. “I mean, Jan is.”
We like to pretend that smart, busy June is a local Quincy business tycoon with questionable ethics, and that Elroy and Leroy, our chubbiest, shyest, most babyish cats, are her two hapless employees; she’s always taking advantage of them.
“Ticket scalping is where June’s interest in FSU football begins and ends,” I said. “I guess you saw Elroy and Leroy at the Duke game, standing on the corner by the stadium.”
Rob nodded, playing along. “June wanted them to wear FSU jerseys while they were working, but she wasn’t about to pay good money for them. So Elroy and Leroy had to make their own shirts.”
“Yeah,” I said. “They wrote ‘FSU’ on some old undershirts in Magic Marker. Some of the letters were backwards.”
Rob spent the rest of the day watching pro football while I continued to play with the cats and make tiny home improvements. After I hung the pine-cone garland on the dining-room mantelpiece, I repositioned the painting on the wall above it. The painting used to hang too low, so it was touching the clock beneath it. I moved the painting up just a couple of inches, and the result was “amazing” (as I bragged to Rob). I was pretty proud. I took more pictures and savored my small but sweet success.
For the last six years, I’ve been using the dining room as a makeshift crafting room, sitting at the big table to paint and sew. Well, the other day Rob and I started talking about how I needed better spot to work in, and we …
I wanted to share a few little improvements I’ve made around the house and yard recently. I’ve lived in my house for 19 years now, but I’ve still got so many dreams for it. About a month ago I found the neatest little rocking chair …
One of my favorite Saturday activities is whipping up a smoothie for myself in the early morning hours. It’s so fun and easy. I use almond butter, almond milk, ripe bananas, and organic frozen strawberries. In the lamplight before dawn, I like to sit with my smoothie and dream about everything I want to accomplish that day. The cats will be dozing all around me, and I’ll be gazing out through the big sunroom windows, watching as the day awakens and the quiet, gray yard becomes shot with gold. My smoothie is always delicious and satisfying; it keeps me nice and full until lunchtime and gives me the energy to garden, clean house, and provide quality cat care all morning long.
2 cups almond milk
2 ripe bananas
2 tablespoons almond butter
1 1/2 cups sliced frozen strawberries
Put everything in the blender and blend until smooth.
I spent the last two weeks of February reorganizing the back bedroom. Every night after work I’d hurry home, eager to get started. I’d change into my comfy fleece pajamas and socks and sit on the rug in front of the bed to sort through …
I took last Friday off and had another long weekend. Hooray! “I have so much to do!” I said to Rob on Thursday night. “Well, you won’t be able to get to it all,” Rob warned kindly. “But I’m going to try!” I said. Here …
Last Monday at my lunch hour I ran over to Rabbit Creek, a great new antique mall in Tallahassee, and bought a rocking chair and footstool I’d had my eye on for a while. The owner of the booth where I found the chair was sitting in the store doing some paperwork when I came in to make my purchase.
He said, “That chair was sold to me by a 76-year-old lady, and it’s got its original upholstery.”
“I’ll take it!” I said.
And I hauled the chair and footstool to my car and raced back to work. (I’m always rushing now that I’m in the office five days a week once again and have such a long commute. I feel like a hamster stuck in a wheel.)
I couldn’t wait for the weekend to come so I’d have time to arrange my new finds in the back bedroom. On Friday night when I got home from work, I was ecstatic. I love being at home—and I had a precious, rare, wonderful three-day weekend ahead of me! That evening I merrily cleaned the back bedroom, preparing the way for the new rocking chair. I scrubbed the floor and waxed the furniture and removed unbelievable amounts of cat fur from the premises.
The cats were having fun too, because I was moving furniture around and they found all the action very exciting. To make room for the rocking chair, I moved the ugly old chaise lounge out of the bedroom and into the hall temporarily. June, Carl, Tellie, and Frankie thought this was an awesome home improvement and spent the whole evening scratching the chaise and snuggling on it.
I quit cleaning at eight so Rob and I could watch The Pale Blue Eye, a mystery thriller involving a fictional version of the young Edgar Allan Poe when he was a student at West Point in 1830. The movie was beautiful to look at, with most scenes taking place in snowy woods, and shadowy interiors lit only by candles and glowing fireplaces. Becky slept on my lap, and Buntin bathed herself on Rob’s lap as we sat in our chairs in the cozy living room.
“This is so great,” I said to Rob. “Sitting here with you and the cats. Eating popcorn. Wearing my pajamas. I’m really loving everything about it. I just wish it wouldn’t be over so fast.”
The next morning I was up long before dawn, cleaning the back bedroom again. I cleaned it from top to bottom, then got the new rocking chair and footstool into their proper positions.
“They look perfect,” I said to myself, admiring my new additions.
I took some quick pictures. Ha! But then, immediately, I had to completely cover/smother the chair and footstool in quilts to protect them from the cats, whose favorite hobby is, of course, destroying everything in the house.
