It’s cold and sunny in Mendota, Virginia today.   I have been cleaning house and enjoying being inside where it’s warm.  We have snow in the forecast for next week.  If it occurs, it will be a snag in our Thanksgiving plans for sure!  Can’t worry about what might or might not happen.

If it does snow, however, I usually am okay–more than okay– with groceries. I keep two of all the essential grocery items. Haven’t ran out of milk in over 10 years!! I organize my pantry so I can find things, and I always have some “basics” right out in the open. Like above my cabinets…colorful and useful and sparkling clean. I just cleaned each jar so I know this to be true! 

And the other direction..more jars. I have them all around my kitchen cabinet tops. I went in a friend’s house about 14 years ago, and she had green beans on her cabinet tops. Her name is Amy, and I’ve been copying Amy ever since. Sometimes there are more tomatoes than green beans. It depends on how much I’ve canned and how much I’ve used. I once asked someone “did you notice my green beans on the cabinet top?” The person sneered and said “talked about it all the way home.” Did you know that I didn’t get it? I thought she really liked them (how could she not?) and talked about them all the way home Ha! I’m serious!

Above the plates…it’s a little sparse in this picture. I usually have several jars of pistachios as they are our special nephew’s favorite. That is Neth, and he can put away the pistachios!

I like red and yellow in the kitchen. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get a picture of the plates on the wall that looks  good. I enjoy looking at them every time I walk in the room..and frankly I want to show them off. Never quite looks right. There is always a shadow. The shelves are a place where I keep pasta. I need to refill these jars.

I’m watching more Lifetime Christmas movies tonight with my Dear Girl beside me. Currently watching Country Christmas with Dolly Parton. I know it’s not cool, but I love Dolly Parton.

Yep…love these plates.

We finished up Day Two yesterday of our Mini Quilt Retreat. I don’t have a lot of pictures, and I don’t have a picture of my quilt. I’ll post it in about a week when I get it back out. I was so tired that I shoved my sewing machine and the accompanying “stuff” that goes along with quilt making in the bedroom and shut the door.

My poor quilt. It’s a sad little thing because all of it’s seams are every which way. They should all be a certain way but I got mixed up, and I then decided that completing the quilt was a better goal than seam ripping. Here I am…I pulled my hood up because I felt so guilty. The Uni-Quilter.

I was so tired I didn’t take many pictures at the end of the day. Here’s one on the ironing board. If you don’t like to iron, quilting may not be for you. Isn’t that IRONIC? Get it…funny. This was Erin’s quilt…it turned out really pretty. All her seams did what they should.

Here’s another quilt and quilter!

More later…I’m watching Lifetime Christmas movies the remainder of the weekend

Until Mike retired, he was gone all week just about every week. Gradually, I became a night person and it remains so. I’m a bat or isn’t it more popular to be a vampire? So as it gets dark, I get energetic. Add a little anger to that, and I am a Cleaning Machine.

If you look at my house, you’ll know I don’t get mad that often. However, something totally chapped me tonight. Armed with a toilet brush, I cleaned commodes. Two to be precise. There were paw prints all over them. Sam the Cat leaves his mark.

Then…I started in on our kitchen drawers…might as well take pictures of them.   I knew I’d have a night like this at some point so I prepared…I bought the little red inserts at TJ Maxx just for this evening…I didn’t know the exact date, but I knew it would arrive.    It’s like a bottle of wine that you might set aside for that special evening…well…I didn’t buy wine…I bought organization stuff.

I’m feeling better. I did another drawer…more little red things to play around with. This one has a lemon juicer thing plus several flat things that are 4 inches wide. I just stacked them as best I could. See the cute little silver thing in the front that looks like an acorn? I use that when I make Russian Tea. I put cloves inside and drop it into the tea…if I leave it in a long time, the tea makes my tongue almost numb. I talk like dis when dat happens! Oh…I wiped out the entire drawer and everything as I did this. Sparkling. Smells like bleach.

I don’t know why I’m keeping these things pictured below. They are probes or something that go to the microwave or the oven–probably the OLD one that we removed when we changed to stainless steel. These are the kind of things you don’t want to throw away but know you’ll never use.

Feeling better already. Going to clean the mirrors. At least I won’t be frowning. I can’t. Sue put some Botox in my frownies.

October’s over. Done! Finished. In my rearview mirror–I used to say that about wanting to leave Mendota…when I was very young and very STUPID, I told my friends…”I can’t wait until Mendota is in my rear view mirror.” When I turned 35, I began pleading to come back here.   Gasp…I actually ached to return here.   It’s a mountain thing….a Poor Valley thing…hard to articulate but easy to feel.   At any rate, my dream came true. I live where I love and love where I live.

Here’s my favorite blog picture from the month of October.    Mr. Burley, we still miss you.

My favorite quote during the month of October came from my sister, Pat.  She posted a picture of  a barn–she’s like me…barn crazy– with this quote.   I don’t know whether she dreamed it up or read it but here it is:

“I’m not Southern.  I’m Appalachian.”

Finally, because I don’t have anything else to put in this spot, here is a picture of me that Mike took this morning.  He’s not much of a picture taker, so there are not that many pictures of me.   I’m completely askew!!

I hope we all have a great November!