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Fall Gardening…NOT for the Faint of Heart
As previously mentioned in this prior post, I love, love, LOVE to garden! But not all seasons are appreciated equally. You see, I have a problem with fall gardening.
I have a very large perennial garden and after all the thought and work I’ve put into it, the end is so sad. In Wisconsin, we call it “fall”.
So many people love the changing colors of the trees and bushes. But why does no one but me notice our dying gardens? Arghhhh. I look out at my backyard and see brown ferns, the leftover stems from phlox, and weeds that were previously hidden. Don’t even get me going on the holes from when my grand dogs visited.
Here are some sanity strategies that I’ve come up with (instead of just mowing everything down and planting grass seed).
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Craft the Life you Want…Start with Organizing Your Sock Drawer
The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.
-JoshuaBecker
It was November 1998. Tom and I had just listed out the household items that we were dividing between the two of us. We were getting a divorce. He got the leather lounge chair with the matching ottoman, the good blender, and our best set of knives. I kept the master bedroom furniture, the new sofa, and the dishes we got for our wedding 13 years prior. He took the new Acura. I kept all of my flea-market treasures.
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Time to Clean – Becoming a FlyLady
If you are anything like me, I have a hard time wanting to clean my house. I don’t enjoy cleaning at all. Growing up, my mom did it right. She had it set up that Lisa and I had jobs to do to clean the whole house by the time she came home from work. I dusted and Lisa vacuumed. On Saturdays, you didn’t do anything else until those jobs were done. -
Think and Grow What???
I recently reread the 1937 version of Napoleon Hills’ “Think and Grow Rich”. Mr. Hill opens his first chapter with the phrase “Thoughts are Things”. He goes on to say that when we mix our thoughts with purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches or other material objects, these thoughts have the power to create what we are desirous of. Wow. That’s quite a statement.
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Spring Hygge Anyone?
Spring
Raindrops and puddles
Laughter, dressed in yellow coats,
Umbrellas in hand
Yeah. Right.
Have you seen any kids lately wearing those Hallmark-style yellow raincoats? Me neither. Spring here in Wisconsin seems to be one wet, cold, windy day after another. Kids still love their umbrellas, but we all seem to be wearing damp jackets and holding our breath…just waiting for summer to arrive.
Have you heard of Wisconsin’s eleven seasons? Winter, Fool’s Spring, Second Winter, Spring of Deception, Third Winter, Mud Season, Actual Spring, Summer, False Fall, Second Summer (one week), and Winter.
Spring is sooooooo long. We feel impatience. There is a restlessness in the air.
So, how do you get your mind in a place of appreciation, mindfulness, and gratitude?
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Fern Gardeners…Beware!
Years ago when I realized I had inherited the gardening gene from a favorite uncle of mine, I lived in a different house, on a different street, and had different sun exposure.
There was full sun on all sides of my just-built house. It was fun planting flowers such as snapdragons, marigolds, zinnias, geraniums and I achieved a profusion of flowers and consistently brilliant colors. I spent hundreds of dollars every spring purchasing annuals to accomplish this result.
Then, we moved, and guess what? I now live in a house with mature maple and birch trees. This translates into a yard with almost no sun. Can you say…gardening challenge? As noted before I was used to lots of sunlight and could grow almost all sun-loving plants. -
Wallpaper With a Twist
In our family, we all like to help each other with projects, especially home projects. Just one word of warning. If Sandy is creating be sure you understand the parameters of the project. We were asked to help wallpaper Michelle’s bathroom. That request sounded tame enough. Right??
Wrong!
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Is Spring House Cleaning Even a Thing Any More?
The first day of spring this year is just around the corner. And that gets me thinking about…”Spring House Cleaning”! Crazy, I know. Isn’t this an antiquated activity?
I remember when some of the most beautiful spring days were dedicated to emptying out one room of a house at a time. Then we spent days cleaning windows, washing walls, scrubbing floors, shampooing carpets, organizing drawers, sorting out closets, you get the idea. We used to basically clean the whole damn house, from top to bottom, one room at a time. -
Halloween Is Not Just For Kids! – Enjoy Yourself!
Who thinks that Halloween is strictly for kids. I have noticed that a lot of adults sure know how to enjoy themselves. I have had a couple of fun memories that still make me laugh about Halloween! -
Sandy’s 9 Tips for a Beautiful Garden
Here are some of my gardening tips:
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Letting Go, Decluttering and Streamlining
A magical night (in the perfect dress) We work from the time we’re old enough to make money to buy stuff. Actually, it’s true that there’s a lot of good stuff out there like collectibles, beautiful crystal, all of the issues of Oprah Magazine from Day one, clothes, furniture, decorations, and shoes (my special weakness). This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stuff. Then one day when we’re older, our desire to have things turns into the need and desire to purge and to work on letting go of the extras in your life.
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Changes are Coming – Time to Streamline My Life!
The women in my life are facing many changes and it’s brought to mind the idea that to have the kind of life you want, you need to let go of what you don’t want in your life. So it’s time to ask myself, what kind of life do I want and what do I need to let go of in order to obtain that kind of life? The first thing that comes to my mind is the clutter that I’ve accumulated since I moved out on my own. I tend to be a pack-rat and my basement contains so much clutter. The storage room contains toys and games from when the children were little, ceramics that Grandma Is never got around to painting, old prom dresses, etc. For whatever reason – I have a hard time letting go of the old stuff. By letting go of this clutter, I can make room for the new and simplify my home. I’ve currently been cleaning up some of the paperwork clutter. I’ve been shredded old documents that I’ve been holding onto dating back to 1986!!! (Don’t ask me why I’ve been saving documents for that long!!!)
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I Love All Colors!
I love all colors. I also love a monochromatic color scheme. Do I ever use it? Never. Oh well, I love the white-on-white idea of just about anything from china, to room decorations, etc. -
Cooking is a Waste of Time
I dislike cooking. I find cooking, on average, a waste of time. First of all, you have to decide what to make, then you have to go to the store. Another thing I dislike to do and purchase the ingredients Then you spend hours making your delicacy, it takes ten minutes to eat it, and then, guess what, you get to clean the mess up. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking when the house is clean and everything is done, and I am cooking for a get-together of family and/or friends. The key here, everything else needs to be done. -
How Lovely the Silence of Growing Things
I am more myself in my garden than anywhere else. Its the place I feel most grounded. It is my happy place, my church. -
Honey… What’s Cooking??
I have a confession to make. I don’t cook very often. My husband was raised in the restaurant business and started scraping gum off the bottom of tables with a putty knife when he was too little to remember. One thing led to another and he started food preparation when he was very young. Being around food and people who cooked well caught on with him.
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I F**king Hate Cooking
I hate cooking. My kids have always been impossible to cook for. But before I get into that – maybe I should explain where I think my dislike of cooking came from.
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Soups, Casseroles, etc – Cooking Is Love To Me
In my mind, cooking equals love. The thinking goes this way…
If I love you, I take care of you.
If I take care of you, I want you to be healthy.
If I want you to be healthy, I want you to eat good food.
If I want you to eat good food, I have to cook.
If I cook, then you won’t get processed or fast food.
If you don’t get processed or fast food, you will be healthy.
If you are healthy, it means that I am doing a good job of taking care of you.
If I am taking care of you, then I love you.
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Do I Have a Favorite Drink?
What is my favorite drink?This sounds like an easy topic…not. My answer is, it depends.
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Hey! Get Me an Old Fashion!
My favorite drink: Alcoholic that is.
I guess I would have to say the this would be an “Old Fashion”. I say this because it has come to be a kind of old friend so to speak. When I came of age, (I don’t like beer) I tried what my Mom always ordered. A Bacardi. Then I thought I should be drinking what my friend liked. Manhattans.
Well, after a couple of years of being totally wiped on only one or two of those (most likely one), I realized that I didn’t really care for them. Anyway, an Old Fashion was presented to me. It had a good taste of booze, I like them rather sweet, and that is where I am at the present time. Margaritas come in second. When you are out of state you don’t even think of asking for an Old Fashion because they are made with brandy, not a staple in other states.
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Green Drink vs. Gin and Tonic
You might think that I have a touch of bipolar with this one. You see, I definitely have a morning drink and an evening drink…and these two are at the opposite end of the beverage spectrum. -
Weird Favorite Drinks
When someone asks you “What is your favorite drink?” – do you automatically think they are referring to an alcoholic drink? Well – I do, and that’s where I take pause. I’m not a big drinker. Typically people talk about coming home from work and having a drink or a beer… I come home from work and grab a glass of milk. Is that weird?
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Orange is not for everyone!
All of my life, as I remember it, I have been very aware of color. My older sister always looked so pretty, so for the first many years that I could choose colors, I copied her example. I constantly asked myself why I looked washed out and dumpy when she looked wonderful? -
What color are you?
What color are you? What colors look best on you? Back when I was a teen, my mom and my god-mother took my girlfriend and I to “have our colors done”. Some of you may ask “You had WHAT done?” Well – the process of getting your colors done involves determining what colors look best on you. (Color Me A Season)
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Color Me Green
When I was a kid, mom decorated my bedroom in pumpkin orange, mustard yellow, and avocado green. (I’m just gonna say it…I hated these colors!) There were lollipops painted in these colors with a ribbon on the sticks that made a headboard. I regularly hid the suckers under the bed in protest.
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Gardening is Not My Favorite Thing
Everyone has decided to write about gardening. What do I have to write about gardening? I hate gardening!! Mom always tells me that as a kid, I loved to garden. No – I loved to plant a few flowers for her. That is what I liked to do. I don’t like the weeding, the soil preparation, the watering. Ugh. It’s a never-ending job!! Now, granted – I DO love the end result when someone else does it for me. (aka Mom – “Thanks Mom!!”) -
Gardening is Hard Work!
I was never much of a gardener. As a kid, I usually got stuck out in Mom’s garden in the prickly raspberries picking berries or weeding between the brick walk in the back yard. To me gardening was hard work and no fun.When my sister got married and bought her first home, these beautiful gardens started popping up. How did she do that I wondered?
When I left home I lived in apartments, condos, and townhouses so I concentrated on indoor plants. I actually got quite proficient with them.
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Gardening is Therapy
I LOVE gardening or the results of playing in my yard with flowers!
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Walk to Downshift
Stress makes me crazy. Literally. I want to sleep the second I get home from work and then when it is actually time to hit the hay…guess what, I can’t shut my brain off! It doesn’t make sense.I wish I could drink and the calm continues. But alcohol just makes my brain depressed and my body tired. Besides that, I don’t need the empty calories..and I wake up in the middle of the night..and I can’t get back to sleep…My brain is on while my body feels groggy and heavy.
So..is downshifting an art? An art that I have a very limited talent for?
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What Downshifting Means For Me
Beaver Dam has become a member of something called “Blue Zones”. I am a beginner in what that means exactly- but with time I’m sure I’ll be on board. One of the elements that resonates with me in the “Blue Zones” information is something called “downshifting”.
What does that mean exactly? To me, it means letting go of all the crazy things that make me grumpy, psycho and just plain bitchy.
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Doing Nothing
The question is how do you downshift at night? How do you relax?
Well for me – it’s very easy. I am not a big drinker, so it’s just a matter of sitting down and doing… NOTHING!!
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A Vacation Story
Lik-M-Aid ……..checkDots on a page ……check
Bag of Brach’s Candy …….check
Why am I writing a vacation story about candy? Because, when we went on vacation, it was to see Grandma in Black Earth and the only time we were given permission to eat candy.
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Vacation Thoughts Down on Paper
It’s been months plus since I’ve written for our blog. Life has been hectic and time scarce and the writer lazy. It’s time to reconnect and get back to putting thoughts down on paper.The last 10 days have been spent in Door County with the other Sidetracked Sisters and our families. It reinforces for me that family time is a heavenly time and being at the cottage in Door County makes it even better. Some went horseback riding; there was girls’ day spent shopping, lunching, and enjoying each other; some of us played mini-golf; there were daily swims and time at the beaches; dog walks, and much-needed downtime to read, rest and relax.
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Playing with Others
My family tells me I don’t play well with others. Well – here is an example of why. -
Lifetime Vacationing
In “My day” I never thought of going to Europe, Mexico, Alaska, or wherever for a vacation in the summer, not to mention in the winter months.
My family only took a “vacation” to either paint the house, do the lawn work, or go to the big metropolis of Black Earth, WI, to see my father’s parents. My father was a salesman and when he was home you couldn’t get him out of his recliner to save your soul, much less leave in a car for a family vacation.
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Onion Sandwiches
When I was a child, we went camping every summer. Camping as in TENT camping… The dads were responsible for breakfast…bacon, eggs, hash browns on a little propane camp stove for about 10 people. The smell…aaaahhhh. (Close your eyes and smile. Pause.) The best alarm clock ever. The kids would then take off for a day of bicycle adventures, tanning at the pool, mini-golf, and gift shop exploring. The dads hung out at the camp site. The moms went shopping…antiquing, I think. Around 2ish, we kids would start to get hungry. VERY. HUNGRY. Going back to the camp site, we pillaged the Twinkies, chips, and (if we were lucky) onion sandwiches. -
Childhood Camping Memories
When I think of my childhood vacations, I always come back to the visual of camping with our family and another family. When we would arrive at the campsite, the parents would throw the kids their swimsuits and then we would disappear while they set everything up. When we came back a few hours later – nirvana in the form of a campsite was arranged.We had a huge 14-man canvas tent with an orange and green striped top. The other family we were with had a camper. Everything had a particular place and was always organized the same from year to year.
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No Black Friday Please!
I love how our family does the holidays… Each of us gets a holiday to organize and coordinate – for example, Mom’s house for Christmas, my house for Easter, and Lisa’s house for Thanksgiving. We used to do Easter at Judy’s till she moved away and then I got that holiday… Now that she’s back, we’ll have to reorganize the holiday schedule somewhat.
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Prayers Answered
Wow- This is a topic loaded with awe and wonder- I have more to be thankful about than I can ever remember…
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Thanksgiving – The Simple Life
This is one of my favorite holidays. It is a celebration, lots of food, and, of course, getting together with family and friends, and enjoying a relaxing time together. This seems so much more relaxing than say Christmas as the hysterical shopping binges, and fighting crowds actually makes me crazy. I love the thanksgiving decorations, smells, and the feeling of celebration that I get from this holiday.
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Can I Decorate?
I’ve never considered myself very good at decorating… I especially got a complex when mom would come over and move things around after I’d arranged them… -
Picture Worthy Fluff
My life is decorated by my children. Decorations are the fluff that adds sparkle to your life. Not necessary to survive, but the stuff that makes us smile when we think back. Decorations are the people, places, and “stuff” that we take pictures of. They are the stories we tell… -
My Decorating Mentor
Whenever I think of decorating, I think of my sister (and her two talented daughters). She is hands down the best decorator I have ever met. So she works professionally as a paralegal and office manager. Go figure!
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A Passion for Decorating
If anyone really knows me they know I love to decorate. I can waste more relaxing time (what’s that!!) planning for re-arranging a room, decorating or redecorating it, whatever the case may be. I love planning and gathering all the materials before starting the decorating project. I do not like to start anything until I have all the items needed to finish my vision. That way, if there are changes to be made, it is easy to do so. I think you need to start with one item that you just love and decorate around that. One time I decorated a room around one little pink light. (sorry Lisa).
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Always a Witch, Never a Princess
Always a witch, never a princess…
When I was little, I always wanted to be a princess for Halloween. I could picture the long flowing gown and tiara and I thought I would be soooo pretty. But, before I could get too excited, my mother would tell me, “You can’t be a princess for Halloween… Princesses aren’t scary.”
Thus began the story “Always a witch, never a princess…” So – every Halloween – I would be a witch even though it wasn’t what I wanted to be.
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All You Really Need are Pumpkins and Scary Stories
Fall isn’t my favorite season and Halloween is far from my favorite holiday.Halloween equals crazy kids in my life–and crazy kids (as a mom or a teacher) are NOT at the top of my favorites list. However, I can look past the candy-crazed children, the high cost of cheap, plastic costumes, and insane after-school costume parties and see that there are three…and ONLY three good things about this holiday.
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Costumes with a Parka
Most years, Halloween comes in the middle of the coldest time of the year. From the time I was little, I worked to come up with the best costume only to cover it with snow pants and a parka.
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Witches Only Please
I think Halloween is actually more for adults than children. Every year you see more and more decorations, almost as much as Christmas. I, personally, like a few tasteful semi-scary decorations for Halloween, but the really gruesome ones I can do without. -
Not a Fan of Autumn
What are my thoughts about Autumn?
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Leaf Piles and Pumpkin Spice Lattes
Am I the only person on the planet who doesn’t like fall? Yeah, yeah, yeah…I’ve heard all about the “colors”, cuddling, hot cocoa, the crisp air…blah, blah, blah.
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My Time of Year
Aaaah…..at last, my time of year. The colors, the crispness, the changes, and the leaves beneath my feet. I love autumn.
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Autumn – A Bittersweet Season
In reflecting over the seasons one would say Autumn is a wonderful time of the year. Yes, it is truly beautiful, most of the time, but I really do prefer hot summer nights, with the crickets chirping and long hours of daylight (with a few less mosquitoes that is). Autumn is a sure sign that all our hard work in our yards is now back to square one, to be started again in the spring. -
Surrounded by Clutter
I deal with clutter on a daily basis. At home, at work, in my car… everywhere. I can never seem to get ahead. At work – I deal with clutter for clients. Taking all the miscellaneous paperwork they have and trying to help offices go paper-less. Wow – do some of them have a lot of paper around!! -
My Life is a Mess
The first thing that pops into my mind is….a messy desk is the sign of a creative mind. Is that how it goes? Well my desk is messy, my home is cluttered, my life often seems to be on the verge of chaos.
Kitchen…see that cute plant on the right?
