Let Them See You in Meeting Mr. Jesus Christ

That song is the newest from JJ Weeks Band. So beautiful, so much what I need to start my morning with and end my night and live my day. It's what I want to be.

I finally bit the bullet. Having fallen so far behind I couldn't see my way out of my own mess I began tackling digging out the piles of papers, laundry, mail, dishes, odds and ends that had landed any and everywhere since the end of September. Normally I'm a very organized and tidy homemaker so this mess everywhere I looked had me feeling in over my head.

Like any cleaning stuff seems to just move from room to room and land in a new, larger pile when I first get going, leaving me more overwhelmed than when I started. Today the progress is showing, I'm feeling accomplished and less confined. One big project I made up my mind was getting done had little to do with getting the house cleaned up but made a world of difference in my comfort level, curtains. Let me be clear about this, I intensely dislike curtains. I'm more into blinds and shades, very unlike the previous owner of my home.

When I bought the house all the window treatments were here except the front bay window and I used some curtains I had from a previous home though they didn't fit all that well. Every window in the house, and there are many, has multiple curtains on it; sheers, curtains, valances, tie-backs, typically there's three sets of curtain rods to deal with. It drives me nuts. Equally maddening is they are ugly, thin, un-insulated and provide no privacy. With the cold this winter I have hung sheets, blankets or odd spare insulated curtains over what was already hanging giving the place a college frat house appearance, again just plain ugly.

Today the curtains in the front came down and were swapped for the ones in my bedroom. Surprisingly it worked out pretty nice. Now I have the only set of sheers I've ever purchased and that I absolutely love and insulated curtains in the bedroom. That is a big bonus being that room is on the northwest corner of the house and is always ten degrees colder than the rest of the house. The bedroom sheers and curtains now hang in the bay windows in the kitchen letting in light and giving me much more privacy, which is very needed in light of my binocular-eyed neighbor's constant roaming out front of my house. The down side is there is no insulation in them and those old window are floor to ceiling and let a lot of heat out. I really need to get a couple of those plastic window kits to help there.

Additionally I went shopping earlier in the day and without planning ahead bought a cafe curtain for the kitchen sink window, purely a privacy maneuver. That window looks directly to the neighbor's door where she sits to smoke and watch me work in the kitchen. Those curtains I've been eyeballing for ages and are part of a full kitchen decor that I went nuts over. It's a comical fat, dark-haired chef with a somewhat Italian color theme of red, black and white. There are a few other items I'd like to get to match if my budget ever has a little extra left over.

Before putting the curtains up the cobwebs came down and all Tucker's nose art was washed away. I didn't have the heart to do it until now and at that I had to hurry through the job feeling like another piece of him was slipping away. Last week it was the dog toys. It doesn't matter what the item my heart hurts equally and just as deeply as the day he died.

Saturday night I invited a friend from my old church to go with me to the symphony. It was her first classical music experience and I'm glad to say she enjoyed it. It's kind of embarrassing to take someone unfamiliar with classical if they don't become engaged and instead fall asleep and snore. It happens. Before the concert we went to my church's annual hunter's wild game dinner and auction. That was a great time. The church hall was stuffed beyond comfortable capacity and the food was plentiful and delicious as always. The auction was a combination of silent and open bidding, a highly profitable fundraiser for the food pantry. (Tuffy, I had some nekkid rabbit stew. Good stuff.)

Been shoveling aplenty this week. Been in the teens and nice to get out to enjoy the warmer temps and get some fresh air and exercise. Today we had sunshine for the better part of the afternoon. I enjoyed that while swapping all the curtains around and cleaning the windows. Wednesday it will start getting into the 20's for a couple days, I think for the first time since the beginning of January. Nights are still cold, near zero and wind chills aren't getting above zero. That's February in the north.

Enough for tonight. It's late and I discovered earlier on Hulu.com old episodes of ALF are on. I'm going to watch a few. I get the biggest laugh out of that furry critter.