Keeping a smile on your face...

...is starting to feel harder and harder, isn't it? People on the message boards keep talking about stockpiling food and buying guns to protect it...the polar bears are dying...and this is what we've come up with to take over the country when McCain keels over.

I can't imagine this woman sitting down with a cut-throat like Putin. When Katie Couric can make you look like an idiot, then you know you have a big problem.

Ugh, it's all so alarming. You don't know whether to watch the news or just look away and cross your fingers. I remember telling Todd a few years ago that I thought people in the future were going to look back at the 1990's as the last golden times before the fall, and I'm really starting to worry I was right. What does a country do when it's up to its nose in debt, with no money, no skills, nothing to trade, and a corrupt government that couldn't find its rear with both hands and a flashlight?

I think France's solution 200 years ago was the guillotine, but that seems a little extreme.

I try not to worry because that helps nothing, but it's getting me down. I don't want to be living in a dumpster when I'm 80, dreaming about the good old days before we became a Chinese slave colony.

I'm reading this book about Abigail Adams and the scary Revolutionary times when they all thought they might be executed as British traitors if they weren't killed in a battle first, and the terrifying task of putting together a country and a government that just might not make it, and it gives me a little perspective. But she was a person who felt that a country rose on its morality and virtue, and fell on its vices, and I can only imagine what she'd say if she saw where we are today.

Scrapbooking.

I've gotten back in the mood for scrapbooking, which I haven't done in a long time. This recent trip home was all about memories, and it confirmed for me that saving these bits and pieces of time really is worth the effort. It was starting to feel like it might not be worth the effort, but I guess it is.

My sister-in-law and her family, plus Todd, coming back from a little kayak trip on the lake in July:



A general Fourth of July spread showing a bit of what we did that day:


And Todd's fam on the pontoon boat:


Nothing fancy...but I'm not sure I'm capable of fancy scrapping any more! Not enough room and I hate hauling out tons of stuff.

We're having an awesome blustery day here, but I'm feeling grumpy because I overslept this morning and haven't caught up with myself yet today. Since the sun never came up, it didn't wake me up! So, back to getting caught up...

Back again! With soap!

I just got back from a trip to Ohio--more about that later, but I had to post this adorable business card while I was thinking about it:

A round card! I love it! We were at the Rogers sale, because every trip home has to have a visit to Rogers in it, and I was patting myself on the back for not spending too much money and then I smelled it. The handmade soap booth.

I adore handmade soap of all kinds--my friend Bev used to make it for Christmas gifts, and that was quite a treat. We used to have a store in Columbus that sold handmade soap and I had to stop in and stock up every few months when I lived there.

This soap is completely fantastic, very soft and supple and great for shaving. It seems to hold together well and not dissolve fast the way some other handmade soaps do. There's no goat's milk in it, just lots of olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, stuff like that. And it smells unbelievable. I'm using the Orange Spice right now, perfect for fall.

It seemed that Ellie's husband was the guy running the booth, and I got a very strong Mennonite vibe from him (I can sniff out fellow Mennonites like a bloodhound...a Mennonite bloodhound) so if it's a Mennonite product, then you KNOW it's made with that Swiss-German precision and skill. Just like pies and quilts and barns.

Here's her shop: Ellie's Handmade Soap. Now go make her rich!

Today...

(Lifted from Mimi, who got it from this blog:)

Outside my window...it's cloudy, rainy, and semi-cool.

I am thinking...that Election Day can't come soon enough.

I am thankful for...a cloudy day and my sweet DH.

From the kitchen...chicken breasts are thawing, now all I need is some inspiration!

I am wearing...a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

I am reading...April 1865: the Month that Saved America by Jay Winik.

I am hoping...for a good, safe trip to Ohio in a few days.

I am creating...nothing at the moment, but the urge is stirring!

I am hearing...the dryer, the ceiling fan, and the wind rustling the big tree across the street.

Around the house...getting the living room squared away and painting the last interior door.

One of my favorite things...is PG Tips tea in the pyramid bags.

A few plans for the rest of the week...make family history board for family reunion, hang pictures in living room, go to Lowe's.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

(garden ornament from my grandma's house)

September's here!

Sunflowers are such a great late summer flower. This one came up all on its own, from a seed dropped by a bird or squirrel making his getaway from the birdfeeders we had out front this year.

I interrupted a couple having an intimate moment...how embarassing!

I swear the one on top was giving me the evil eye. Deserved, I guess.

Not quite as sexy, but the blooms on my garlic chives are also looking lovely right now, especially when they blow gently in the breeze.


And that's it for the garden, everything else is brown and sad and done blooming. It looks like the mums are getting ready to explode soon, though.

We're doing some fall redecorating--moved our living room around over Labor Day weekend, which is so much more of a process than it sounds. All the home entertainment stuff has to be set up and wires run in new places and holes drilled so wires can run under the house and through the walls...my poor hubby. General Eisenhower had less trouble preparing for D-Day than Todd does setting up his home theater.

But the room looks better. It's long and narrow (like 10-12 feet wide) with a fireplace at one end, a doorway at the other, and windows on the one long wall. It's been hard to figure out a way to set it up so the couch can face the TV (necessary for Todd's optimal surround speaker placement.) The TV competes with the fireplace and the room has never had a focal point.

After visiting his boss's new house a few weeks ago, Todd suggested putting the TV on the wall above the fireplace and turning the couch to face it. I wasn't sure the couch would fit well placed across the room (have I mentioned this is a narrow room?) but it did, and now things are falling into place. The focal points are combined, and the bonus is that we'll be able to face the fireplace and enjoy our winter fires, instead of sitting off to the side and letting the heat wash past us.

I'd share some pictures, but there is literally stuff sitting everywhere--all the wall pictures I'm not sure where to put now, odds and ends, and stereo equipment and wires all over the place...so I'll wait! We've also decided to pare down all our components--get rid of the separate receiver and the 300-CD changer and the two separate DVD players, and Todd found a great system on Craigslist with small speakers and a DVD/CD/receiver in one. So we'll just have that plus the satellite box and one DVD/VHS player left so I can watch my piles and piles of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on VHS. So, three components instead of five, I guess.

All the neighborhood kids started back to school yesterday, and we've had a few cool nights here and there so one might start to hope that fall is on the way. Not today though--it's 93 degrees. Ick! I want to go buy some sweaters and move to Maine!