just brilliant...

 The sunshine on the reds and oranges of the back yard, especially after yesterday's rain, oh my!  It's sleeping weather now, so chilly at night.  I know the grass is always greener, but it's been a long hot summer, and the sweater weather and coziness are appealing.  Now my feet are cold, and I'm realizing that cold weather isn't all that!  Oh well, we don't get to choose anyway, unless we move.

So yesterday, I did my cleaning and organizing...

I took everything out of several cupboards and cabinets, and tried to make it make more sense.  I moved the baking stuff from the pantry into one of the cabinets, to keep it all together, as there was some stuff there, and some in a different cabinet.  My brain works in strange ways, I have to really work on getting organized.  I get used to having flour in one place, chocolate chips in another, and brown sugar in another!  So, I changed things around.  

With piles on every countertop, I wondered what I had gotten myself into.  Oh, I had to do this, by the way:  when I made meatballs the other day, I was getting the big container of whole oats, and the top snapped off, and I heard the sound of tumbling oats...several inches from the container, down at the back bottom of the cabinet...dang.  So I knew I had to get to it and get those cleaned up.  I had to remove everything from that cupboard to vacuum and wipe it down.  

I have big ziplock bags of leftover holiday plates and napkins.  I thought, any normal person would just throw these out.  And who still has styrofoam cups?  me.  i do.  

This was in the middle of it all...I had one of those can organizers at the bottom of this closet, it did not work for me.  At all.  I couldn't reach them, or see what I had.  

Orange Guy this morning...he is very serious about his heavy cream.  When he hears the coffee grinder, he comes a-runnin'.  I have to stand there and make sure he minds his own cream and doesn't go after his mother's, she's hesitant to even put her head in the bowl when he's around, he'll plow her out of the way and take it.  He is a jerk.  :). 

I went out on the deck in bare feet, oh dear, brr!

The flower box!  I threw some seeds in there, and they took over!

Over by the door...

What the kitchen looks like this morning...just being real.  There are things piled there headed to be donated...next step is keeping them in the back of the car for a few weeks.  

The counters need to be cleared off, there are glasses to wash, and clean pans on the stove top to be put away, and the hand towels are all crooked.  There's a Fisher-Price talking coffee mug on one of the stools, and that is one of Char's black boots in the foreground.  It's normal.  

When we remember to close the pantry curtain!  (It's one of my peeves, I mean, how hard is it?) (It used to be the coat closet, right when you come in the deck door, but there were too many coats, and it was a mess...there came a point, I just needed the space for food (way back when we built our house, I hadn't heard of building a pantry, I thought you just put food in your cupboards!  So Paul put plywood shelves in here, which we are going to replace some day, but it hasn't made it to the top of the list yet...isn't even ON the list yet, yet here I am, alive and well, hasn't killed me!)

The cans...yes, it is an AFTER picture.  Do you like the big tub of bubble gum?  The grandkids do!  It's the first thing they ask when they tumble in the door!

I am well aware this would be someone else's BEFORE picture, but let's be real.  :)

So that's how I spent my day.  The girls were having leftover soup for dinner, so I informed Paul I wasn't making anything but eggs.  I also had an Ezekial cinnamon raisin English muffin, so good!  

I do love when I get in the organizing mood.  I have gone through all the cupboards and cabinets now.  Hmm, what's next?  I really want to work on the laundry room.  One side has these big ugly black utility shelves...what if I took those out (I can use them for other things downstairs), and put in some actual cabinets along the wall, with a nice wood counter top, and then lots of wood shelves?  Maybe some new flooring...Paul will be like, WHAT?  Why?  ha.  We'll see.  

All right.  I'm going to get moving now, you all have a really good day!

Orange Guy is having a good day!