Domestic Thrills

Somebody broke our windows!  Not one, but two of them!

Okay, okay.  It happened before we moved in.  We bought the house knowing that there were two kitchen windows that needed fixin'. 

Of course, our living room was also bright yellow.  And our water heater was shot.  And our furnace wasn't really working.  And the kitchen cupboards had six layers of disgusting contact paper on them.  And the carpets were gross.  And the back fence to the pasture started to fall apart.  And... oh, yeah, we needed to eat.

Long story short, the windows weren't super high on our list of priorities.  We figured we'd wait until the money situation was a bit better.

They were, however, a very constant and visible reminder that WE NEED TO FIX OUR HOUSE!!!  And here's something interesting that I didn't know about broken windows- they sweat.  Yeah.  When I cook, which I tend to do fairly often, the kitchen heats up.  That contrasts with the cold outside the windows, and because one pane of glass is broken, the conrast on one pane of glass is huge.  Condensation forms.  Then it drips.  The drips fall down into the space between the panes, forming a pool in the window.  During the winter, this happens often enough that the water doesn't have time to evaporate.  I didn't even realize what was happening until one evening when I burned something and we had to open the windows out of self-defense.  The water sloshed around and splashed out of the broken window, down the windowsill, and onto the floor.  And it was somewhat rusty water.  Filled with dead bugs.  Gross.

I don't know if ya'll have noticed, but the weather's turning cold again.  Those broken windows have been staring at me for over a year.  I finally decided to do something about it, and last week, we got the windows re-glassed.  Yay!  My kitchen is finally starting to get pretty!  It gives me a little thrill every time I look out one of those windows.

It also highlights the contrast between a clean pane of glass and... well, the rest of the windows in my house.  It also weirds out my husband, because he thinks the new windows are open windows, and he tries to close them.  I've done the same thing myself a couple of times.  Ah, the thrills. 

I'm off to do a little dance!

The New Me... Or the Old Me with New Oomph

 

This is a versatile picture.  I like it.  I actually don't like the picture itself very much, but I like that you can use it for just about anything.  Time to cook dinner?  We can do it!  I'm gonna buckle down and lose some weight?  We can do it!  The car needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up?  We can do it!  It's uplifting, really.

On to the subject of this post.  You ready?

There is not enough time in the universe to do all the things I want to do.  That's a quote from my hubby.  And here's the thing:  he's right.  I am not an ambitious person.  I swear I'm not.  I'm a very solid type B, laid-back, ignorance-is-bliss, if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it kind of gal.  But somehow, I learned all sorts of cool things.  I write.  I want to write books and series and epic adventures.  I do arts and crafts kind of things.  I am very active in Church and all that it entails.  I enjoy cooking.  I like to organize.  (I know, I'm weird.)  I ride and train horses.  I exercise.  I read.  I play games.  I want to homeschool our kids.  I want to start a Melaleuca business.  I am learning photography, because I need a hobby to fill up all those spare hours I have just lying around.

In my newfound obsession with Pinterest, my imagination has been sparked with all sorts of new ideas for making and keeping a beautiful home and happy kids.  I honestly want to do them all!  We can do it!

But, I really can't.  It may be possible, but I'm not entirely sure how at this point in my life.  And so, here's my newfound plan:  I will focus on horses, and let the other things fall in wherever they may.  Horses do require a certain amount of time and effort, and, quite frankly, I'm happy when I get out there.

I figure, really, that there are tons of other people who can do the other things.  The world is abounding in arts and crafts and the wonderful people who can do them.  My brother is a better writer than I am.  I'm never going to be an acclaimed chef and I have no real desire to start any kind of a restaurant.  Church will always be there, but it doesn't take up the entirety of my life.  You get the picture.  But horsing really is a rare kind of activity.  There aren't nearly as many people who are adept with horses as there are people who can do the other things, and in a far better way than I can.

So, I am not giving up on my other talents.  I love them.  I just also think that horses are in my life for a reason, and I need to figure out what that reason is.  I'll let all you other girls be pretty.  For now, I'm going to roll up my sleeves, put a handkerchief on my head, and go out and get dirty with the horses.