Joys Jots: The Gift of a Day

Saturday morning I woke feeling horrible. I had the kind of headache that no amount of Tylenol seemed to budge. 
 

I was achy all over and went back and forth from feeling chilled to burning up. I had only enough energy to pull myself out of bed, walk into the living room and collapse on the couch just so that I could have a change of scenery as I dozed in and out of conscientiousness throughout the day.

During one of the rare moments when I was fully awake I thought of the list of chores I had written for the day. It was practically the same list I had every Saturday: Laundry, Cleaning, Groceries, Purchase a Card for a Friend, Bake Cookies. 

Nothing on the list was eventful; most items were boring and mundane and yet at that moment I realized that even the boring and mundane parts of life were precious. Cleaning and groceries were one way of giving my love to my family, buying a card would encourage a friend, baking cookies for another friend showed my support for her and her family. 
   If we are in tune life has a way of teaching us how tender and precious it is. Unfortunately those lessons often come through illness, injury, or death. Perhaps it is because in those unfortunate moments we are finally forced to stop and realize the simple yet significant events that we take for granted every day. 
   Today I am feeling much better. I have added a few more chores to my list and I am happy to be able to do those seemingly boring and mundane tasks. Today I have a deeper appreciation of how those tasks touch the lives of those around me and of how fortunate I am to have the health and strength to do them. Today I am very grateful for the gift of a day.
 

Joys Jots: A Life Well Lived

When I began this blog I wanted to remain anonymous. I am a very private person by nature. This blog was only meant to be a place to share my creative projects, not my life. But since this blog began I have had my fair share of "adventures" that have opened my life and made it more public. This has caused me to reexamine my goals. I believe life gives us experiences, both good and bad, to teach us. We can choose to learn the lessons and share with others or we can mope, complain, and grouch to others (and occasionally we can do both). I hope you don't mind if I begin to share some life lessons that come my way in the form of "Joy's Jots."  My goal is that in the sharing we might both to have more JOY in our home and in our life.
  
Just days before Christmas my husband's co-workers came to our home on two separate occasions to surprise us with multiple boxes of gifts. I was humbled, delighted, and beyond grateful for their kindness and charity. My sweet companion passed away nearly nine months earlier and yet his co-workers still loved him and missed him so much that they wanted to give to his family. They had already been incredibly generous to us after his death. What is most amazing is these are not people with whom he had worked with for years and years. After losing his own business my husband had taken this job just over a year and a half previous to his death. He was one of the oldest employees and many of the others were the age of our oldest children. They barely knew my husband and had only met the rest of our family at his funeral and yet they came bearing several gifts, months later, to bless our family. We laughed and cried as they told stories of the fun times and memories they had working alongside their beloved co-worker.

On Christmas morning I sat contemplating and staring at one large pile of presents. My thoughts were of gratitude. I was grateful for the givers and thankful for the life my husband lived. These gifts were given to our family because my husband had lived a good life. He was a man with no enemies. He never burned a bridge. He formed friendships easily, even with people he had only talked with on the phone. He always tried to see the positive. He would fill the room with his large personality and infectious enthusiasm. He worked hard, loved life, and enjoyed people. He made it a point to let others know of his love for them. The way he lived was a gift to all who knew him. Now, even in his death, his life was still bringing his family bounteous gifts. 

 

It was sobering for me to realize just how much living a good life can affect others long after we are gone from this earthly existence. It caused me to make a resolve to live better, to give more of myself to those I love, and to be more useful to my fellowman. 

We rarely get the opportunity to truly witness how our actions affect those we love but those stacks of boxes were a very tangible evidence of the gift of a life well lived. 

A Hole, An Honor, and A Winner

QUESTION:
What do you get when two grown boys wrestle in the hall?
ANSWER:
A home-improvement project that suddenly gets a little closer to the top of the list! My sons couldn't believe that I was standing right there when the foot went through the wall, and that instead of getting mad I just smiled and shook my head. Perhaps it's because I already had plans to give this hall a makeover or perhaps it's because I have finally come to realize that a hole in the wall can be more easily repaired than an unhappy memory.

I am honored to announce that Joys of Home has been nominated for the JDR Annual Industry Blogger Awards in the Interior Design category. If you have a few seconds, I would be THRILLED if you would click over here to vote for this humble little blog. Thank you so, so very much!!!

I am excited to post the winner of the Cutting Edge Stencil giveaway. Random Generator picked:

Lynda said...

As I have said before, I love everything that you do! Thanks for sharing with us. There sure are a lot of beautiful wall stencils on Cutting Edge. I would like to pick the "Anna Damask" stencil for a wall in our new home and a dresser front that I would love to do. Thanks!

Congratulations Lynda! Please email me with your mailing info.

A Shelf Story

You've seen the shelves in our family room before but I don't think that I've told you their story. Several years ago I dragged my husband into a quaint little consignment shop. While I was there enjoying all of the furniture and home accessories, my hubby stood enamored with metal items piled into an old wooden crate. He was so excited with the contents, asking if I knew what they were. I was clueless as to their use so he explained to me and the shop owner that the vintage metal pieces all fit together into a shelving system. Once I understood what that old crate held I was enamored too! After a little dickering on the price we walked out of the store as happy, chippy shelf bracket owners.Sometimes it really pays to drag a husband into a quaint little shop!

Belated Greetings

Christmas is over

And New Year's is through.

I've neglected my blog

and several projects too.
But I've made some new goals
I'm determined to keep.Get back to blogging,finish projects. . .tackle the heap.I'm excited to host
some great giveaways too.
I hope you'll stay with meas I share my life with you.

In Remembrance

One of the things my Mother-in-law was know for was her love of jewelry. She was always adorned with sparkly earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. She believed it was important for a woman to look her best, and up until just days before her passing she consistently wore make-up, nice clothes, and jewelry. She taught her daughters: If you spend the time to get yourself ready in the morning then you can focus completely on other people throughout the day.

After she passed I was fortunate enough to receive a couple pair of her old clip-on earrings. I placed them on the tops of the lampshades in our living and dining rooms. They are a sweet little reminder of a life well lived in

love, service, and beauty.

Bouncing Back

I'm back! Wow, it has been an event filled summer. I was blessed to witness the births of two beautiful granddaughters. They are happy, healthy and growing quickly as babies do. I have also said my earthly goodbyes to my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. As a family we have peace knowing that our loved ones who have passed are out of pain and in a much better place. We know that we will see them again and that they too are happy and growing.

Because it has been a "life and death" summer I have neglected my home and my blog. I am looking forward to fall (and praying that it will be less eventful).

I have several projects in the works and many more planned.I have appreciated your kindness, thoughtful comments,

and patience!

Thank You!

And now, a week late (so sorry!), the winner of the Vinyl Crafts giveaway is comment #26 Lacee, writer of the blog Mommas Like Me. Congratulations Lacee!

A Take Home With A Story

Last week I posted about our day at Lucketts.
Today I'll show you what we took home.
You already saw the beautiful mirror that my daughter purchased. It's new green paint looks fabulous in her living room.
She also got a few old bullseyes. We hung the set above her kitchen window to give it a little architectural interest.What did I take home?

I fell in love with these
two good-sized pieces of vintage architecture.
An old corbel and what I think is the base or the top to a column. The nice thing was that they both fit inside my carry-on bag.

The not-so-nice thing was that when my bag went through the x-ray machine I heard the TSA agent call for a "bag check."
Then another TSA agent picked up my bag and tested it for explosive matter.
She asked if she would be hurt by anything when she opened my bag.
I explained that it was just filled with a couple of old architectural pieces.
When she opened it she told me she had to call her supervisor.
The supervisor came over to examine my bag.
After I told the two about the wonderful store where I purchased the pieces they decided that I appeared to be a reasonably sane woman and I likely wouldn't be using the blocks of wood to knock anyone over the head in order to hi-jack the plane.

Don't you just love it when the items in your home can lead to
a great story?!?!Don't forget to enter the HouseHold Words Giveaway

Delayed by Delivery

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged! But I have a perfectly wonderful excuse. My only daughter, who up until a couple of weeks ago looked like this, delivered a beautiful baby girl. I was thrilled to spend time many hours of "girl time" with the two of them (thanks to my sharing son-in-law). It was so hard to leave this gorgeous bundle of happiness. But my boys were at home and apparently I'm the only one who knows how to buy fruits and vegetables. They would still be eating hotdogs and bacon if I didn't return.
Now that I'm home and there are healthy snacks to be had, I'll be back to blogging and sharing some of the photos I took of our girl time.

The Girl Has Taste

Last week I took my three-and-a-half year old granddaughter to the thrift store to shop for a gift for her momma. Why the thrift store? Well, the thrift store and the dollar store are two of the smallest stores around which makes it much easier to keep track of a very active three year old. And out of the two choices the thrift store definitely has a wider variety of pretty junk. First we visited the toy aisle to get that distraction out of the way so we could better focus on our gift finding mission. Taking a child to the toy aisle of the thrift store can keep them entertained for quite a while. Three year olds don't seem to be bothered with the fact that most of the toys are broken or have dead or missing batteries. Once she had experienced broken toy overload we went on our journey to find the perfect gift. After searching high and low (me-high shelves, her-low) we were both ready to throw in the towel and resort to the traditional gift of a handmade card. It was then that she picked up this vintage darling off of the bottom shelf. I'm sure she didn't base her choice on the age of the item, it's color, or classic style. Her choice was likely based on how fun and easy it was the flip the lid up and down. Nonetheless she made a great choice. All that was needed to make it a perfect gift was the addition of some fresh color coordinating tulips, a tag and bow. . . along with a wish for a Happy Mother's Day and a hug and kiss. Her momma was very happy. And I, her nonnie, was pretty proud of her great taste and superb thrifting skills!

Designer Plastic

Every Sunday we gather as a family to eat in our dining room. It has been a tradition since we moved into this home. We set out "Sunday" dishes, glasses and even unique-to-Sunday salt and pepper shakers. We light a candle or two and enjoy having a delicious dinner, usually cooked by my hubby. And we always have a tablecloth. . .well, not a reeeal tableCLOTH. We can be a sloppy bunch and I don't want to spend my week soaking and removing stains from a real tablecloth so I resort to the plastic variety. But it can be difficult to find a faux tablecloth that doesn't look too country or too grandma-y. So imagine my delight when I found these beautiful covers at Big Lots the other day. Look! Lovely colors and designer patterns. I had to stock up on all they had in my difficult to find table size. I couldn't pass up such pretty, practical, and priced-to-please plastic!

Reminiscing The Past With The Present

When we were first married my husband and I always had a real tree for Christmas. The tree selection process would take nearly the entire day as we would visit several lots trying to find the biggest and cheapest tree (almost always under $10). There were a couple of years that we were lucky enough to find a tree with a double trunk which meant that it would fill up the entire six foot window of our first home. When our children were young we took them to a wooded lot to select and cut down the Christmas tree.
As the years progressed and the prices of Christmas trees increased we began to celebrate the holiday with artificial trees.This year I tried to put up the old artificial tree in the family room. . .several times in fact, yet every time it just looked too pitiful to trim. My frustration mounted as the sad, unadorned tree leaned against the wall day after day.
Last Saturday, just a week before Christmas, we shopped at a freight damage store. That morning before we left I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if the store was selling real trees for a big discount." True enough, an announcement was made that Christmas trees were being cleared out for $10. I was smiling from ear to ear as I ran through the store to find the exit where the trees were, my husband trailing behind trying his best to keep up with his giddy wife.Once home the real tree was placed in an old bucket filled with water hidden inside a garden urn. Not only was the tree a bargain so were the decorations---most were purchased at dollar stores over the past few years.

It's our bargain tree that looks like a million!

Uncreative Break

I've been missing in action for a few days. Not because I have been up to anything wonderfully creative. Simply because I've needed to do the mundane things of life.

A little weeding

and turning my junk drawers into junque drawers.

Best Fool

Today is a wonderful holiday, the first of April---April Fools Day. A day for playing fun practical jokes. And being the joker that I am, I wanted to play one on you. But my mind is blank, empty, containing nothing of humor. Me! The person who loves to laugh. The one who has people walk up to her in a crowded room and say, "I knew you were here because I heard your laugh." (to which I often reply, "Please tell me I don't sound like a cackling witch.")
I'm always up for a good laugh and a great joke.

But today I have nothing.

So I'll share my most memorable April Fools Day joke. It was played on me by son #1 years ago in our previous home. The boy sneaked into our master bathroom and very carefully placed those little snappers (the small twisted white paper packages that make a loud POP when they're thrown to the ground) under the toilet seat, one snapper on each of the pods of the seat. When I went into the room to sit, those little packages EXPLODED causing me to scream so loudly the neighbors would wonder. Of course immediately following the scream was the sound of laughter both inside and outside the bathroom door!My sons have tried to repeat the infamous prank, but to no avail. This momma catches on pretty quick!

What is your most memorable
April Fool's Day joke?