I've been creating a few pages here and there. My phone's photos are filled, mostly, with Athena. I'm creating simple pages. Of here and now. Gathered thoughts. This photo wasn't that great. Definitely, not staged to be 'pretty' or anything special. I thought I could still use it to gather some thoughts about what I'm seeing through the lens.
1. There are a few grocery items that are becoming harder to find in our city, and unfortunately, even non-existent in any local grocery stores, I am sad to say. Muir Glen pizza sauce, so rich and full-bodied, and organic, as well, is no longer stocked on shelves anywhere, even the fresh market. We use a boxed hot roll mix for one meal on our regular rotation of recipes and probably eat it about 7 times a year - gone from shelves. I had to place a pantry order from Amazon to stock up for the coming months.
2. With a distressed natural-pine and a graywash finish, our new dining room table and chairs make me soo happy. We are ‘keeping’ (storing in the attic) our other dining room table (still in fabulous shape but desperately needed re-stained). However, the chairs need an enormous amount of work that I, nor Jeff, has the time or energy to make happen. These will go to one of our sons, whoever moves out first. Our new table is such a nice addition to our home. We are solid wood furniture snobs!
3. This little stinker regularly jumps up on the table, although thankfully not while we’re eating, mostly, but especially when I am working on my laptop. She inevitably will walk across the keypad and makes something, on whatever I am doing in photoshop elements, go wanky. When I have a vase of flowers, they are her next destination, for sure. When petals fall, Athena considers them her personal play toys. We keep a pillow on one of the chairs so she can ‘join’ us at the table, too.
4. I have been saying yes to a simple bunch of flowers as I pass by in the grocery store, either from Publix or Kroger’s. Simply adding a bunch into my cart sends my spirit soaring, then getting them home and arranging them in a vase and enjoying them for the weeks to come has been life-giving. Jeff has even, on occasion, been the one to select a bouquet on his own. Without prompting. He sees the importance. And beauty. And, happy wife - happy life, as he likes to joke.
5. With our new dining room table and chairs and - well - for many, many months, I have noted my discontent with our dining room and kitchen walls, the color, their peeling paint, their need for a little fresh paint and color. Without a complete kitchen overhaul in our near future (it is not at the top of our list of home improvement projects), a little paint might just do the trick.