Acceptance

I am finding that it is so easy to fall back into old ways, old thinking, old habits. I have so much going on that at times it feels like I am spinning my wheels so I am constantly making lists and trying to figure out what is next. But at the same time, I am constantly adding to the list.

Marni (my-sister-in-law) told me she doesn’t know how I find the time to do all this; this meaning being a mom, going to work, do mini projects, blogging, going north to help my mom on most weekends. And then yesterday Jason told me that I have so much on my plate, shouldn’t I finish what I started rather than just keep adding more. 🙂

I guess I don’t see it that way. To be quite honest, I can’t stop myself. I am a true Gemini; always jumping from one project to the next, and I love that about myself. Before I used to think I needed to be more focused, take one project and work on it alone before starting the next. That was torture.

But in this new phase of my life, I am accepting who I am and now realize that doing one thing at a time just isn’t my style. Surprisingly enough, I am actually accomplishing more now than I did before. I look at life as my playground, and if there is something I want to do then why not? There is no time like the present so bring it on!

And so, in my true nature I have added more “To Do’s” to my list. In addition to the renovations to the house, I have more mini projects I want to try, I am planning on renovating our site to make it much more user friendly AND I want to add a tab dedicated to my guilty pleasure…..makeup. So much fun!!!

Every day brings new possibilities so who knows what my list will look like tomorrow. 🙂

How about you? Are you like me where the more work the merrier or would you rather sit and enjoy the moment?

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Taking A Time Out

Life races by and we try to keep up, filling our days and nights with projects, renovations, etc. Yesterday, we had a severe thunderstorm warning while I was at work (around 4:30ish) which then turned into a tornado watch. Where we live, tornados are not a common occurrence and so as the power began to flicker and the skies darken to the point where it looked as if night had fallen our little city, my mind switched into mommy mode and thoughts focused on my little JBear – was he scared? Was he okay?

As reports/rumors started to pour in via friends and families, we heard that a tornado had touched down 25 minutes east of us. Roofs had been torn off, trees uprooted and people were trapped in their homes and cars due to down power lines. Jason (being a volunteer firefighter) called to tell me he loved us and that they were responding to the scene to see if they could help.

As I left work, my mind raced as fast as my car, I knew we were okay (the storm had passed over us already) but I couldn’t help but feel a desperation to see JBear and give him a huge hug. Our drive home was the usual, he began chatting about his day, Bryson did this….. and Georgie did that…., and I hung on his every word.

We pulled in the driveway, JBear (being oblivious to what was going on) raced up the steps in his usual manner, kicked off his shoes and began to hunt for his batman and/or superman cape. As I made dinner and listened to him run from room to room, I kept thinking just how precious every moment is. Whether it be a crazed gunman, a freak tornado, or an accident on the way to work, we truly do not know what tomorrow brings and should be grateful for every second we have.

So last night I didn’t hang the mirror or paint the bathroom but rather called my mom to tell her just how much I love her and spent the rest of the night taking a time out to play with my little man. Life has a way of giving you little reminders as to what is truly important, we just need to be willing to listen.

Our Tipsy Topsy Planter

Well, we finally did it. We finally went outside, pounded some rebar into the ground, stacked some pots and plants on it and voila!…A tipsy topsy planter. Okay so maybe there was a little more to it than that. 😉

We originally thought to have the planter on the corner of the house where the side porch once stood. However, after some torrential rainfalls we realized (or rather Jason pointed out the obvious) that the flowers might get washed out. So we changed locations to the corner of the house by the kitchen. Aside from the pots, flowers, soil and rebar two more must haves are a ladder and a sledge-hammer (especially when the ground is more rock than soil).

We pounded the rebar 2 feet into the ground and put our first pot on the bottom.

We added rocks to the bottom of the pot. This would add to the stability of our structure.

 

Next came the soil and flowers, Planting them in only half of the pot since the other half would be where the next pot would rest.

Adding the next pot and tilting this way and that we finally managed to get it where we liked it. Then came the soil and the next bunch of flowers.

At this point we couldn’t decide whether to continue using all the same sized pots or to scale them down and use smaller pots  so we tested it out.

 

I liked using all the same sized pots so we went with that, but now knowing how it turned out, the smaller pots would have looked cute as well.

And so we continued. next pot, more dirt and more flowers.

It turned out very pretty and we actually got some…”oooo very cute!” from the neighbors and passerbys so I’m happy.

As we sit here and sip our coffee, both Jay and I agree that some cascading petunias would give it a cascading waterfall look.  Another little touch that I will save for next time (oh yeah….we have one more piece of rebar, more pots, so there will be a tipsy topsy planter sequel) is that I would love to paint or stencil on the pots giving them a little flair. But for our first try, this one looks pretty so no complaints here.

Surprisingly, I actually had some plants left over so those babies went into some pots to add a little zing to the front steps.

Pretty, right?