Button Button! Who has the button?

Mammy and her mama before her always kept a large jar, usually with a wide mouth, filled with buttons.  We used to play a little game when a crowd was cooped up indoors.  A button would be selected from the large jar and held between two palms.  Everyone would stand or sit in a circle and the holder of the button would slide the pressed together hands through each of the others.  At some time in the process the button would be dropped into another pair of hands.  At the completion of the circle, the leader would then ask "Button, button...who has the button"!  The person able to identify the recipient would then become the leader. This was a good way to occupy a lazy afternoon and develop our skills of observation with the ability to maintain a secret for a short time. The little ditty passed around my mind this morning.

I noticed a small brown box with a slightly askew lid.  It was so full, the top was elevated.  This is my version of extra buttons.  When I purchase clothing, a tiny little bag with extra buttons is often attached.  Of course I must keep these extra buttons where they can be located should catastrophe occur and a gap is left where a button is necessary.  I can easily count on the fingers of one hand, the times I have retrieved a button from this box to replace one that has gone missing.  Still I keep them...just in case!  This collection was due for some sorting and clearing. In fact, some of these buttons await their chance to come to the rescue on clothing that now lives in another state or has moved on to an unknown destination.  How inconsiderate of me not to retrieve the little bag with extra buttons and attach with a tiny safety pin to clothing being passed on!  I carefully opened the bags of now orphaned buttons  and dropped them in a small jar. Now I can stash the tiny bags in my sewing notions.  I often need to attach buttons or tiny trims to a project in progress. These little bags are a range of handy sizes for holding little sparkly things.

Now my little box lid closes nicely and I feel a lovely sense of accomplishment.  I placed the lid on my new jar of buttons and remember that I have one of those wide-mouth jars passed along from my mother back in a cabinet.  

Now the little jar is resting along side one of those jars of buttons (many still on their cards) that have never found that perfect destination.  I wonder if a bunch of old ladies would enjoy a game of  "Button Button"?  Mammy would be proud, order has once again been restored to my buttons without homes!  My little sparklies have empty bags awaiting when they are matched with potential projects. My morning was not wasted!

The Fix is in!

In case you have forgotten...or maybe you never knew, I am the one who tends to break things, NOT the fixer.  I am spending this week with my grand daughters while daughter and son in law are in London.  (Yes, I know LONDON is MY big plan, and I'll get there eventually) Daughter left lengthy instructions in case one of the girls, pets, or house breaks.  Permission slips, Insurance cards, medication schedules, class schedules, maps and contingency plans were all addressed prior to her exit from the country.  Other than the four am awakening each day, I felt certain that I was capable of maintaining a smoothly run household even in parental absence. At fourteen and seventeen, both girls are fairly self sufficient, the younger requiring a chauffeur, but otherwise knowledgeable of all things expected of her.

Pushing the handle on the toilet in the downstairs bathroom brought no response on one of those stops on the way into the house.  Even with my limited mechanical knowledge, I knew to check to see if the chain inside the tank had come loose.  It was still firmly attached to the little bar, but the little bar was just lolling around in the water attached to nothing on the other end.  I pulled on it and the toilet flushed, released it and the tank began to fill with water. You have no idea how satisfying this can be to one usually unable to make things of this nature function.  In my newfound area of expertise, I thought I would simply snap the end of the bar back into the place where it meets the handle on the inside of the tank.  It is plastic and the connection was still in place but snapped in half, never to connect again.  My first thought, Son in law will fix this easily when he returns. After about fifteen manual flushes (reminding myself each time that this is CLEAN water) it occurred to me that this might be daughter's first stop as she enters her home tonight. I thought it would be comforting to know that the part was already in place for her spouse's easy correction of the problem.  I mentioned it when talking to Ol' Abner this afternoon and he told me what I would need to buy.  As we talked it came to mind that Da' Handygirl across the street was always doing some sort of home repair including some fairly complicated plumbing projects. I tentatively mentioned her ability and asked him if I might be able to take on this project.  Since he is a few hundred miles to the south, he said "Sure", but if I can't figure it out, it will probably be helpful to son in law to have the part here when he arrives.  

With a sense of mission, I drove to the big box home repair store, purchased the required part for the toilet and returned to begin reading the instructions. Elder Grand came downstairs and I requested that she see if a pair of pliers like the ones pictured in the tool list might be found and she brought them in.  I showed her the instructions and she seemed to think this was not beyond my capabilities.  Perhaps not, but in the end, I read instructions, opened packages and she installed the new toilet flusher.  It flushes nicely, now (and I did have to keep reminding her that it was clean water).  Did I mention that she has chosen engineering as her field of study as she approaches college?

We can see it from here!

As Ol' Abner recovers from his surgery, I am looking to the near future.  I refused to cancel summer and autumn plans just in case he might be too ill to enjoy them.  It was a good decision.  As we move into July, August looks like a good time to escape from the Bayou City and return to life as usual...well, as usual as it will ever be again.  We missed a family reunion and a fiftieth anniversary party in June, but those sacrifices were understood and lauded. We will use the month of July to prepare our house in the hill country for life with a suppressed immune system.  That means removing all carpet and replacing with a solid surface flooring. The house has had only occasional occupancy for the last three months, so I'm pretty sure the dust bunnies have taken up residence. Fun events planned for August and September look like we can enjoy full participation. I may need to get home and gather my quilting supplies soon.  A quilting retreat is on the calendar and I already have the pattern.  My fingers are itching.... 

Here's the Good Dirt!

Daisy Mae's a happy momma this morning!  I awoke to scratching on the tiny patio.  What a neat surprise DIL was sitting on the cold concrete in her jammies working over my new flower pots to prepare for planting.  Last night she and Son were sent to our local home improvement store to buy A/C filters and they returned laden with plants, soil and flower pots.  

A Strawberry and a Tomato

I sat outside and watched her plant a number of herbal offerings, and lament that they decided to forego the purchase of a tiny lemon tree.  Perhaps, I'll rectify that later this week.

Yes! I like this view!

It's feeling a little more like home.  I don't think Ol' Abner will be particularly impressed.  Maybe I'll see what Lulu thinks!

Shocking!

To offer a cliche, when it rains it pours.  After spending most of a day staring at totes and boxes filled with Christmas decorations.  I unplugged the lights on the naked tree and went to bed. The next morning I went to the dark utility room to fill the dogs dish. The light switch did not respond with illumination.  Backing into the kitchen and flipping switches revealed the overhead lights and the pantry light were dead.  Thinking circuit breakers were probably to blame, I whined to Ol' Abner as he was testing his sleeping chair fully clothed. (This tactic made perfect sense because I was barefoot wearing pajamas).  He re-flipped the switches and a few others. Some lights and electrical appliances were fully functional while others that seemed to be on the same circuit were powerless.  After making the usual rounds and flipping circuit breakers, he pulled out his handy tester thingy and went around the house beeping and chirping.   He finally concluded that the light fixture in the pantry was mal-functioning and had shorted out the rest of the lights as well as the plug for the cable box.  The last plug made the situation urgent. Football games must be watched in real time.   A trip to the hardware store, after opening the garage door by hand, and the light fixture was replaced but power to it was not!  In the midst of his storm of activity, I was carefully finishing the tree decorating and Papa sat quietly in his chair, commenting from time to time that electricity was something he didn't have as he grew up.

A heavy duty electric extension cord from the dining room revived the dormant cable box and television.  The mantle and tree are adorned.  Old world Santas and reindeer reside in the kitchen and the stockings are ready for filling.  That's about as much as I plan to do this year. The electrician came today.  A wire had been crossed at some point in the past and a switch designed to turn a light and ceiling fan on independently had been combined, for unknown reasons.  He corrected the installation and voila, everything worked perfectly again with the bonus that I can turn on the ceiling fan and light in the living room with two different switches!

Changing Scene

Home improvements seem to be the present fashion in our neighborhood.  A new pool has been completed across the street and the fence of it's house is properly upgraded.  Next door a retaining wall is in progress to hold river rock to replace the drought damaged grass in the front yard.  Drought tolerant succulents and shrubs will be added to soften the look.  On the street behind us the retaining walls are complete and plantings for winter are being added atop a healthy supply of mulch and additional topsoil.  We seem to be stirring up more commotion than most.  Our house boasts a new steel roof and a rather large garage is rising above concrete behind us.  It has been fun to watch and I know the extra space will certainly provide some relief to our cramped household.  Stone setters are working to give the garage a cohesive appearance with the house.  It's coming together nicely but the slope to the garage door on the house side is going to be much steeper than I expected...why am I the only one surprised?  I will occupy my thoughts with the shrubs and flowers that will need to be planted around the building!

Right now I just want to envision the pretty neighborhood when all this digging and pounding and rumbling ends!

Long Awaited

It looks like Ol' Abner's garage may actually get built.  The building permit has been issued, the electric connection for construction has been set and approved.  Yesterday the workers showed up unexpectedly to deliver equipment to begin work.  Anticipated start date was Tuesday, but apparently they will be here this morning to begin the process.  Ol' Abner and a friend were out and about most of the day at building supply stores, hardware stores and piddling around in the back yard.  He hasn't said so, but I think he is excited.

Paper No More

After so many years of moving at the whim of a corporate regime, Ol Abner became quite a talented wallpaper hanger.  With limited time to make a move, we often overlooked cosmetic deficits in a potential home.  If the furniture would fit and the kids could stash their stuff out of sight, we could look past wallpaper that looked like old men's pajamas.  Before we even moved in I was usually checking out wallpaper sample books to pour over for each room.  He knew a couple of weekends would be spent painting and papering, sometimes in a rush before new flooring was installed.   Before he assumed the role of paper-hanger,  I tackled a couple of simple papering projects with a modicum of success.

One newly-finished house we bought  had what looked like grandma's housecoat on the master bathroom wall.  My frugal spouse refused to change out brand new wall paper, thus I lived with it for several years.  When he was traveling I found a sale and bought new paper after a reasonable time of suffering the ugly environment,  Dancing girl dropped by one evening and after a glass of wine, we concluded we could remove the offensive paper and replace it with a fresh new covering in one evening.  

Just as we began to coax the old paper off the wall, Ol' Abner called.  We usually chatted five or ten minutes each evening when he was away.  It didn't take long to catch up on most day's events.  This particular evening, he suggested I call him back when my guest left.  Now he knew it always took the two of us several hours to "catch up" on any day's  events.  I told him it would probably be late, and he assured me he had enough paper work to do that he'd be awake for some time.  I hung up the phone and we went back to work.  Forty five minutes later he called. Paper work was done and he was sure I  had just forgotten to call him.  No, but I was willing to chat as my friend steamed the walls.  Mind you he didn't know she was slaving in our bathroom. He again told me to call when we were through with our visit.   His calls became closer and closer together, to the point that he was totally disrupting our progress.  A project that could have been completed by midnight stretched into the wee hours and we had to leave the medicine cabinets for him to re-install.  Every time he called we would sit down where the phone cord would reach and have another glass of wine. If something was of great importance, he never did get around to that point in any of those conversations.  He was never fond of that wallpaper, but it really was lovely.

He remarked recently that he is so glad that wallpapered walls are no longer in vogue. I do hope it hasn't taken him fourteen years to notice we aren't buying wallpaper.

Steamed!

Hill country is hot! No surprise there, but usually the air conditioner gives relief instantly when entering the house.  We returned from Temple, where Ol' Abner didn't get the great news he was planning, only to walk into a rather warm house.  He messed with the thermostat and declared it dead.  Suspecting it was on borrowed time, he had purchased a replacement a few days ago.  Gathering his tools, he set to work replacing the errant device while I turned on fans throughout the house. New thermostat was installed, and nothing changed. The dog didn't seem to be suffering, so we concluded the cooling hadn't been malfunctioning long.  A call to the air conditioner  repair contractor didn't give much comfort.  They are booked through next week, but since Ol' Abner is recovering from a surgical procedure, an evening visit would be worked in on Thursday.  I guess we better prepare to swelter for a couple of days.

Rock

My kitchen and bathrooms are adorned with lovely stone counter tops now!  The worker bee arrived just before nine yesterday and by the time the house was empty, my counters were not!  The granite is a similar color to the old formica and we didn't have to replace the back splash.  I didn't wage the war for the hammered copper apron sink.  The deep 70/30 undermount stainless sink actually works quite well at 10% of the cost of of the dream sink. Perhaps, someday!  I'm happy with the new look and so glad I don't have to deal with scratchable, burnable, plastic sounding counter tops any longer.

Butterfly Verde Granite

The view above doesn't really show the colors in the granite, but the overall effect of shiny stone counters can be seen.  I am a little disappointed that the photo doesn't look that different from the realtor's photo of the kitchen when we were buying the house.  I know the difference.

Pieces of the same rock have been cut and installed in the bathrooms.  It looks totally different in each of those rooms.  Ol' Abner will get the framing back on the mirrors today and I can begin my next campaign.  I need to reface all these oak cabinets from yesteryear.