it’s the little things. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

Why is it that the week before you leave for vacation is when all sorts of things break? It’s times like this that I need to be reminded that good things do happen in life, no matter how small they are.

The Bad:
Something in our car went kerflooey. We were on our way to my mother-in-law’s for a family get together on Saturday and after 15 minutes of random squealing noises, the air conditioner died. Then the car overheated in the span of about 3 minutes, and right after we pulled over into a parking lot was when the smoke started.

The Good:
The husband is a mechanic :D I really have no idea what happened, aside from one of the hose clamps coming loose, which was causing liquid to be sprayed on one of the belts (hence the squealing). All I know is that one screwdriver (the tool) and lots of water later, we were back on the road with everything working ok, including the air conditioner. The determination was that we need a new radiator in the car.

The Bad:
We discovered a leak in our roof last night. While it was raining outside, it was drizzling in my front hallway, too :P

The Good:
Well, since this was discovered at about 9:30 last night in the pouring rain, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it then. It was determined, though, where the leak was most likely coming from and how to fix it. And it stopped raining inside when it stopped raining outside, so no standing water above the ceiling. I suppose you could also say it’s a good thing that the leak is above linoleum instead of the carpet.

The Bad:
Ok, I have to admit, I’m still holding my breath for the Third Thing. These things always happen in threes, right?

The Good:
It was 4th of July weekend, which meant fireworks. Fireworks meant a reason to play with the DSLR - although I couldn’t remember all of what I was taught for taking pictures of fireworks, except for needing a long exposure time and to hold still. I don’t do “still” well :P

    

we like it! (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I am so tired of the smell of paint. It’s been well worth it, though, since the ugly old wallpaper is gone and has been replaced with soothing blues and greens. I also took advantage of the fact that the living room furniture was in complete disarray and rearranged, too. Drastically. I don’t think there’s a single piece of furniture that’s in the same place as when I started.

The fact that we’re done with most of the labor intensive work is reason enough for me to grateful, but combine that with the added bonus of a long weekend ahead of me and it’s even better. I’m not so sure if I should be grateful that our older kidlet finally got her license, though…

i like lists. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I haven’t stopped being grateful; I just haven’t been posting about them. To make up for that, here’s a list of random things that I have been grateful for lately:

• Floorplanner - my husband is probably also very grateful for this one, because it means he didn’t have to keep rearranging the furniture to figure out if things would fit
• the DIY channel - I learned the hair dryer and painter’s tape trick from them
• seedlings! - my veggie seeds have started to sprout
• painter’s tape - my living room carpet would be green, otherwise
• latex paint that washes off easily - my hands and arms would be green, otherwise

In case it wasn’t obvious, we’re still painting. We got the dining room and kitchen done over the weekend, took a two day break, and now I’m slowly making my way around the living room. One more wall to go!

she was helping, i’m sure. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

One of Barbie’s napping areas is in the dining room, underneath the piano. Since we’ve been painting the dining room today, all the furniture has been displaced and dogs have been shooed out of the room. I guess Barbie found the couch to be an acceptable place to sleep for a while, but she eventually made her way into the dining room to curl up. With her tail against the wall. The freshly painted wall.

So we get her to move in order to get her cleaned up, and what does the dog-who-never-sits do? Sits on our hardwood floor. The paint that was on the wall? Now on the floor :P

This leads me to what I’m grateful for today: Paint that cleans up easily off of hardwood flooring. And dog tails, too, apparently.

begone, foul wallpaper. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I am so very grateful for the power steamer that a friend of ours let us borrow, because the thought of taking down this wallpaper without it makes me want to cry. Yay for things that make life easier.

I’m finally taking down the wallpaper in the dining room and the border in the living room. We’ve been in the house for a year and a half now… I figure it’s time :P The border in the kitchen is also coming down and everything will be getting a fresh coat of paint. I have a vague idea as to what colors I want, but I’ll have to go and look at different samples before I get it truly narrowed down. I can definitely tell you that there will be no wallpaper. Ever.

please keep it to a dull roar. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

Waking up to the onset of a migraine means it’s very hard to be grateful for anything - except those magical green and white pills that come in the Excedrin Migraine bottle. They’re not helping completely, but at least I can’t see sound anymore.

I’ve basically been puttering around the house doing nothing important all day, which is sort of nice. I spent about an hour and a half this morning sowing seeds in our little seed starter greenhouse thing. This should be an interesting little experiment since I tend to kill plants, but the husband can keep them fairly healthy. Hopefully it’ll even out and at least half our plants will survive :P We bought a few plants that were already potted and those are already in the ground - the strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. If our seeds successfully sprout and transplant, we’ll also have onions, carrots, green beans, and various types of peppers. Come to think of it, a rather significant percentage of our yard is under development. We pulled out nearly all the bushes and have replaced them with the vegetable garden, flower beds, or just plain grass.

It’s too bad gardening makes your hands so dirty… ugh…

mmm…. brown water. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

Coffee, that is. Not water with every known color of food coloring mixed in. Why am I so grateful for coffee? Sure, it tastes good. And it’s warm and comforting. It’s the perfect end to a long day (decaf, of course). But no, that’s not why I’m grateful for coffee. The reason for that is because a coffee date is what really started my friendship with Nean. One visit to her house for coffee, and it was all downhill from there - at least, if you ask my husband :P

bounce… bounce… bounce… (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I did come up with my gratitude-of-the-day post yesterday in my head… I just never got around to posting it. Yesterday I was grateful for the endless amount of amusement my dogs provide me. While perched on the couch yesterday, Barbie caught sight of a robin in the front yard yesterday and started bouncing like a gymnast on a springboard. For about fifteen minutes, I had a bouncing Shiba on my couch.

Today I’m grateful that yesterday’s rain stopped :D I’m also grateful that we have a house that keeps us dry and warm when it’s wet and miserable outside. It may not be the perfect house, but it’s ours and ours alone. Well, and the bank’s :P

happy mother’s day (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

It would be too easy to list my mom as the recipient of my gratitude today. She deserves that every day :) No, today I’m grateful that I get to experience being a mother. Sure, there are the days that make me want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs, but the good days outweigh those… or at the very least, they break even ;)

So to all the mothers and mother figures out there… Happy Mother’s Day!

$14 (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

Today I’m grateful that other people want to get rid of their stuff for ridiculously low prices, and that I live in an area where “yard sale-ing” is both a verb and a sport :P While we didn’t get what we were aiming for, we did manage to get an Ab Lounge, a standing floor fan, a shirt, and a purse for $14.

This seems like such a frivolous and selfish thing to be grateful for, but it’s the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.

a bunch of days of gratitude (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I got this idea from wynx0r, who got the idea from Annie, who has a blog because she lost a bet to Wil Wheaton. Given my current state of mind, I figured it’d be a good reminder to myself that there are things that I’m grateful for in this world. I could put a number on how many days I’m going to do this, but then it’ll feel too much like an obligation. So we’ll just see how long I keep this up.

So for today, I’m grateful for the time I have in the mornings all to myself. Just me, the dogs, and the occasional hum of the refrigerator.