I’m gaining countertop space…slowly but surely!

I have a huge family now that I’ve married Mr. FixIt. I have bonus kids and bonus grandkids and even bonus great-grandchildren. But I only have two girls who I raised from birth. They both live in Colorado and I miss them tremendously. That’s why we go and spend a month every summer to see them. We have to fill up our cup when we can.

There aren’t too many tasks that I truly loathe, but one of them is cleaning the refrigerator. I hate wasting food and I always end up throwing stuff away. I hate the idea of opening one of those plastic tubs and see a science experiment in there that would have really pleased my 8th grade science teacher. (Shhhh…I’ve been known to toss it, plastic container and all!) Ugh!

I will be the first to admit, I’ve never been the best at keeping house. I mean…it’s not dirty. There aren’t roaches or bedbugs. But, I’m just like my grandma…I would MUCH rather be outside on the tractor or with my hands in the dirt or writing or doing art or camping. Let’s face it, I would rather be doing just about anything besides housework.

No such luck. My second “stay at home day” developed into yet another trip into town. Mr. FixIt had a prescription ready. We each take several prescriptions…each filled with a ninety day supply. One would think we could somehow get all of our meds at the same time and go to the pharmacy once every…what is that? Oh, yeah…ninety days! But nooooooo…seldom do both of us get a refill at the same time. So, there’s always another trip to town and I get pretty tired of it. But, it is what it is, right? Let it go, Ginny. Just let it go.

Yesterday was a pretty easy at-home day. I had every intention of doing some cleaning, but honestly…it just felt great to be home in my Big Red Chair with Mr. FixIt by my side. We haven’t had a lot of that this summer and we really enjoyed it. I did some organizing on my new laptop. I’m trying to keep it from getting clogged up with too many graphics and I need to be able to get to my designs quickly.

Pumpkin Kitty has squeezed herself into the little ditch beside the sidewalk…waiting for Dad to come by.

I worked all day Friday and all day yesterday on my shop. I’ve been a little behind in getting the fall stuff our and now its time to start on the Christmas stuff. I have a deeper empathy for those who not only run their own small businesses but also have the time crunch of being ready for the holidays.

Touch-Me-Not, aka Jewelweed. This grows at the edge of the porch every year. The bees and the hummingbirds love it. I’m going to see if I can transplant some of it next spring.

It was March and I blinked. Now look…it’s September! I need to slow down the hands of time to hang onto the fun summer months. They go even faster when you travel like we did this year. I told Mr. FixIt the other day…we wouldn’t normally have traveled like this, but we’re both feeling great and we won’t be able to keep this up forever. We got a year full of great memories, that’s for sure!

I firmly believe God speaks to us every day in every way. He can manipulate earthly things. Sometimes the message is huge. And sometimes it’s just a way of reminding us He’s here and he’s watching out over us.

I sat down yesterday to do my Bible study. It had been a while since I’d done this, but I just opened the Bible and randomly chose a page and put my finger on a verse. I landed on 1 Corinthians 15…”Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and you still stand firm in it.” That was God reminding me I am His beloved.

Passionflower Vine, foreground. Elephant Ears, background.

The roadways are lined with Joe Pye Weed, Giant Ironweed, St. John’s Wort, Black-eyed Susans, Goldenrod and all manner of wildflowers. Most people think of these beautiful wildflowers as weeds, but they’re wonderful feeding stations for pollinators to store up the rich honey they need to survive on in the winter. I used to look at them as weeds and pulled stuff up out of my carefully landscaped flower beds all the time. Now, I seek them out to harvest seed for my own pollinator gardens.

We have a 30x40 metal building that sits out back of our house. We pay our taxes on it as well as everything else here at Marshmallow Ranch. Yet, there it sits…full of who knows what. I’ve had ideas for how we could better utilize that space to bring in some income instead of sitting there as an expensive storage closet.