I live in a cozy old home in the Piney Woods of east Texas.
This is my journal
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Today I spent 5 hours on hold (it was actually a chat) with our Internet provider. We lost Internet and I couldn’t get through on the phone so I used the chat feature. I waited forever and then I was told it was a billing issue and they would transfer me to billing. I had paid my bill, had the confirmation number and the funds were taken out of my bank account. When I logged in it was saying I didn’t pay. I’m so frustrated. I don’t know if it’s because our provider just bought out 3 other companies but I’ve never had this issue before.
i finally gave up around 7 because a Bible kept popping up saying there were 19 people ahead of me, then 63, then 42, then 23, then back to 56. I honestly think they were closed and just left people hanging. So now I’m blogging on my phone which I don’t really like to do. But, while I was waiting I was able to delete 5000 photos that were taking up way too much space.
i also made dinner candle holders. I hate throwing away glass bottles so I just turned some olive oil ones into candle holders.
i found another face and added it
i think they turned out pretty cool. Making then kept me busy while I was waiting on a reply.
i will be in the phone first thing in the morning to get this figured out.
I had a few things on my to-do list today that I wasn’t exactly looking forward to but they needed to get done. I needed to mow first and because it was 79 degrees at 9 am this morning the morning glories were still open. Unfortunately the humidity was at 73.
I knew I needed to start laying the pavers. First I needed to paint them. I would have loved to do a bright color, but the only paint I had enough of was the warm cinnamon. That works.
Next I had to lay them out and dig out the rest of the grass and dirt to try and get them as level as I could.
This took quite a while, but it was so satisfying when it was finally finished.
I brought some rocks from the backyard to the front to just add that little touch to the all gravel part.
Nothing ever grows in the small pots I have hanging by our front door. Since we’ve had some good luck with wandering Jew I decided to try them there.
While I was planting those I noticed our house numbers were looking a bit faded. Since our house is old I didn’t want to completely take them off because who knows If I could even get them back on so I just used a black sharpie.
So much better.
The last thing I had on my list was to pull out the dying cucumber vine, stake up the tomatoes and plant the pumpkins sprouts and marigold seeds.
See the little cat on the left? That’s Monkey and every time I’m pulling weeds or planting anything, mainly when I’m a sweaty mess, she has to come and rub all over me.
I hope the cloches keep the pumpkin sprouts safe until they are bigger. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
I slept 9 hours!!!! I took Nyquil at 9:40 and by 10 I was OUT. I don’t even remember Donny coming in and turning on the TV. I woke up feeling like a different woman. No headache and I felt so much better. I swear when I don’t get enough sleep it wrecks my entire body.
I also managed to get everything on my list checked off. My left speaker on my 1970’s stereo was not working properly. It would cut out and have static randomly. I popped off the front and just wiggled the wires and it worked. I have no idea why, but I’ll take it.
So so so so happy that I can listen to my albums clearly now.
My bathroom cabinets were next. Every thing was just all hully gully and I just could take it anymore.
We apparently were just throwing stuff in with no rhyme or reason.
Still crowded but it is easier to find what we are looking for.
This top one is so hard to reach so I just keep extra mats and our toilet paper up there. Plus the medicine box.
Things would always fall out on my head when I was trying to get something out.
The top of the fridge is just used for storage.
Our bathroom has no window, but it does have an exhaust fan. When we take steamy showers we will start getting mildew. I do treat it with mold spray but I’m always having to repaint. Today I spray painted it with Kilz. It worked great, but my house smelled like a nail salon. If you’ve ever painted with Kilz you know how bad it smells.
SO gross!!!!! I was going to just let the Kilz dry and paint over it with out wall paint, but it actually turned out to be the same color. I’m going to see how well it holds up and go from there.
I think next time I’ll buy the brush on Kilz because I had to wipe down the whole bathroom afterwards. We already had the spray so I wanted to use what we had. Now to get it off of me.
I have had a headache for three days now. Last night around midnight the tornado sirens started going off and then again at 1. Needless to say I did not get a restful night sleep and woke up feeling so sick. Just an allover yucky feeling that lasted all day.
I did manage to get cookies baked and veered off my meal list and just made tacos. There was so much on my to-do list, but it is just going to have to wait. I did get our fridge’s magnets and assorted paperwork we have hung on it sorted out.
We like magnets. I hope the putt putt coupon is still valid.
Bit of a mess.
We’ve had the drawing of the pig and rooster on our fridge for years. Hannah drew it and we just think it’s funny to keep it up there.
This is my to-do list for tomorrow, God willing.
Right now I can’t possibly imagine doing any of it, but that’s how I get when I’m sick. Everything feels impossible and unattainable. So now I’m going to go take a hot shower and take a shot of this magic elixir.
Always on Donny’s days off we have one day that’s just kinda spent around the house and one that is out of the house getting everything done that’s on our lists. I slept so poorly last night because the baby cat and the two daddies were basically having a rave in the other part of the house. At 3 am they finally settled down and slept. I ended up sleeping until 8:30 and was slow to move when I did get up. Donny had gotten the kids up because they had to finish some paperwork at the college. I ended up staying home to get dressed and get some things done around here.
When they got back I was ready and as it turns out we had to run up to the high school to get a transcript for Jackson. Next we needed paper towels so we headed to Home Depot. It was sort of a date day and we were just meandering around the store. One thing we were happy to see is all of the non computerized washer and dryers.
We have been contemplating getting a freezer so we headed over to look at those. The problem is that space is an issue. I’m just not sure where we would put one, but we did find this cool upright that can be a fridge or a freezer.
We also like the very small chest one also.
We’re not quite ready to pull the trigger yet because neither of us have any idea where it will fit. We headed to the paint area to see if there was any oops paint. The guy at the counter said I just missed a purple one and that was the last oops they had. Darn it, I love purple.
I DO know our next purchase and that’s going to be a light weight weed eater. The man helping us had to unlock the case because people just walk out with them and the employees can’t do anything about it or they’ll get fired. What a world.
Next stop was Dollar Tree because I had seen this cloches that I think will really work well for the pumpkin spouts when they go in the ground this weekend.
I also picked up the last bottle of the hair mist. It’s a duplicate of the one I got the other day. I scanned it through the Yuka app and it came back with a good rating. It smells SO good and really lasts.
That was the last of the errands so now it was chickens time. I froze some rinds from the watermelon I cut last night and they loved them. Donny was gathering the eggs while I changed out their water. We thought they weren’t laying much until Donny found a nest in the grass by the shed when we were hauling stuff out for the trash pickup. I think we have a snake under the shed because there were fang marks and some shells where he found them.
Tonight for dinner I made the hamburger cornbread casserole and it was so good and super easy. Here’s the recipe:
I always change the recipe if there’s something in it that I know one of us really doesn’t like. Instead of tomatoes I just added a can of tomato sauce. I also added more milk to the cornbread batter because it was way too think. I baked it for 20 minutes and the cornbread wasn’t done, but it was browned so I just covered it with foil and baked it for an additional 12 minutes.
We finally got our rainstorm. I noticed it was getting so dark. Our solar lights came on at 6:30 then the thunder started.
We needed the rain so badly.
But it made a nice little pond where I am working on the pavers. Hopefully it will dry out quickly.
I actually slept in until 9:30. It was much needed because lately I’ve only been getting about 5 hours sleep a night. Donny had been up for a while and was outside starting to bring all of our bulk pickup trash to the curb. We’ve just been piling it up in the back because it took 2 weeks to get a time slot. It’s tomorrow and we didn’t want to have it out for two weeks because that annoys our neighbors. While he did that I decided to weed the front beds. That didn’t take long so I started on the edge of the patio because it had gotten so weedy. Donny suggested putting pavers and I thought that was a fabulous idea. We needed to go get some gravel for this strip around the front stoop. When I started digging up the weeds so I could put the pavers down I noticed that there was SO much gravel under the weeds and dirt. I started separating the gravel by hand, but that was taking forever so I got out a colander and started sifting. 100 degree weather be damned.
Next thing I know I have been out there for almost 5 hours. One thing about me is I love rocks. LOVE them! Ever since I was a little kid and my family and I went to Concan to go camping and I filled the trunk with river rocks. So many that my parents had to remove so many of them because we had no room for our stuff. I’m only about halfway through but I filled 3 buckets with the rocks and have another big bucket full of beautiful sifted dirt.
Luckily I was at a stopping point when this started blowing through. The wind was wicked.
It came out of nowhere. I mean stuff was BLOWING around. Donny and I stood outside for a while watch the clouds swirl around. All of that and it probably only rained about 20 drops.
If anyone ever wonders why Donny doesn’t really help me do my weird projects it’s because he hates being hot and sweaty, where I love it. I would rather be outside than inside any day. But, he went to the grocery because he said since I was doing all of this he was going to make dinner. He did not disappoint.
P.S.
We asked all of the neighbors if they had any bulk items they needed to throw away and if they did, just add them to the pile.
It was unfortunately the dog abusers haven’t been home all day so I didn’t get to ask them, but they need to call and make their own appointment because if I look out my side bedroom window I’m greeted by this.
Today was a hot one. It’s the first time this summer that the actual temperature hit 100 degrees. Of course, I decided that it would be the perfect day to rearrange my metal flowers. Because of this I had a big blank space that really needed something there. When we were in Dollar Tree I had seen this hanging shelf (awful quality so I didn’t get it) but it gave me an idea.
I have had this sign for what seems like forever. I guess at one time many, many moons ago I went through my live, laugh, love stage. I liked the shape of the sign and always though I could repurpose it. I sanded off the words, stained it with dark walnut and drilled holes in the corners. I already had some rope so I just threaded it through and added some jump rings.
It works perfectly for what I was wanting and I already had everything to make it so it was basically free. I was going to take the metal hanger things off, but I have plans for hanging somethings from them.
The kids and I needed to get out of the house today. The only problem was I didn’t really need anything and It was hitting 100 degrees. So to Dollar Tree we went. I did need to pick up some floss and new toothbrushes also Hannah wanted some canvases to start painting again so it wasn’t a wasted trip. Because we haven’t been out of the house much since the car issues we ended up walking all of the aisles. I found this cute little wooden sun.
I love anything celestial. I thought I might be able to do something cute with it. So with some yellow, orange and red markers, plus a little stain, I turned it into this.
I think it looks like it cost more than the buck twenty five I paid for it. I still have no idea where it’s going to go but bet your butt I’ll find a place.
I also found some hair mists. I love hair mists and the one I got last Christmas is almost gone. They are so good in the summer when you’re outside for 15 minutes and are already pouring sweat.
I gave Hannah the Amber Rouge because that scent is more suited for her. It’s light and smells so fresh. I took the Santal Woods because it’s much more earthy and I love sandalwood and cedar wood. The scent lasts too. I sprayed some on when I got home and I can still smell it. Huge plus is that it’s cruelty free.
It’s time to say goodbye to Markie Mark, my car. I named it Markie Mark because ever since I got it it’s had a vibration. No one could ever figure out what caused it. Then the driver’s window wouldn’t go up or down. Got that fixed for a pretty penny. Now it’s not accelerating. Donny and I talked it over and decided that because my car was the one that was most driven it just made sense to get rid of it and get a much new car. I’m not picky when it comes to what I drive. I just need a good a/c and for it to get from point A to point B. Today we got a 2025 Buick Encore.
I will say that it DOES accelerate and it does NOT vibrate. I will be losing my beloved CD collection that I love, but I feel much safer in this car.
It’s much fancier than my little GT.
I digging this blue trim. Anyway, I think it’s a wise investment that will serve us well. Especially if I need to pick something up that would otherwise not have fit in my trunk. I’m also so ready to just be able to leave the house and drive further than a mile without worrying I might get run over.
For dinner I made the baked ziti from my 1987 cookbook.
Changes I made were adding sausage and spices because apparently we ate very bland food in the 80’s. I added salt, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. I also grated the mozzarella. Oh, and Aldi didn’t have ziti so I used penne. Same difference. Everyone liked it, even Hannah who doesn’t like pasta. It’s also super cheap to make.
My second oldest and I were on the phone the other day and the topic turned to how we would never have the latest trends in our homes. We would never stand in line at Home Goods or TJMaxx to fight over the newest and shiniest mass produced item that every other person decorates with. That’s okay if you like that because I’m very sure there are people out there that think my idea of decorating is just plain weird. I’m good with that and would actually take it as a compliment.
Here’s a few things that are a little quirky that we have in our home.
Our ceramic clown bust. We all love him.
The clown puppet that dances when you pull his string.
A couple of more clowns. The bean bag one is almost exactly like one I had as a child. I found this one at an estate sale.
Jackson took art appreciation and that’s his Picasso rendition that I framed. The brass bunny is from my childhood and the rock family is just something silly that Donny made for me many years ago. The little log the bunny is on is from a Christmas tree we had a few years ago.
The top left postcard is one that was sent to my parents. The address simply said their name and Marfa, TX. No street address whatsoever, but they received it just the same. Times were simpler then. The photo below that was given to me in a box of very old family pictures. Everyone said to give them to me since I love old things. This my grandmother and my dad. The yellow picture is one I found at the thrift store. I felt so sad for it because someone took the time to paint it and, well, yellow is my favorite color. I just found the giant head in a book and liked it so I cut it out and framed it. My bongo hangs beneath them because who doesn’t like a good bongo session.
Our hallway is just a hodgepodge of things I like.
I love his picture of my dad. He played football at Sul Ross University. Little know fact is that he was best friends with Dan Blocker who played Hoss on Bonanza. Dan even came to visit us one time when we lived in Corpus.
My homage to New Orleans and Southern Louisiana. I have been going to New Orleans since I was a child . My aunt lived in Mandeville and I would spend summers there and my favorite part was going into New Orleans. I was also very sad when we moved from Baton Rouge because there is just something about the southern part of that state. My actual dream is to live in New Orleans although most people think I’m crazy for that. There is just something so mystical and magical about that city and they people who call it home.
This vintage box holds are litter box. The frog heads hanging from the mirror are from fireworks we shot off one year. I just thought they were cute.
I hope that when people visit our home they find a lot of funky little treasures or they could be freaked out by all the clowns. I think it’s interesting either way.
The Funky Frugalista 