flora margaret

photos:
1) this is a vintage advent calendar from my husband’s youth. i am often alarmed at how much his family saves, think the show “hoarders”, but then they unearth gems like this…
2) …the windows of the advent calendar revealed pieces of the scene that was built day-by-day
3) a view from my office window just before heading home, so dark at 5pm now
4) i brought my geraniums indoors and love that I get blooms in the winter
5) a shadow of lace curtains above my mother-in-laws hospital bed, which is in their living room
6) walking in to work, our first real snow
7) the now empty advent calendar for my kids, they still love this.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter said, “Not to be critical mom, but it’s been a long time since you have blogged.”

In fact it’s been about two intense months. It did make me feel good that someone noticed.

So here I am, back. I hope.

What kept me from blogging?:

• Work has been intense with many weeknight and weekend activities, including one all day Saturday December 21 because I wanted to get it in before the term ended.

• I increased my time at the gym when I signed up for a seven-week, indoor, mini-triathalon class, just to have something to kick my arse. And it worked. I started swimming again. Which I love/hate…but mostly hate.

• I spent many hours sitting on our kitchen floor with a scraping tool trying to get all of the flooring glue and ancient vinyl flooring backing off of wooden flooring that was revealed when my husband ripped out several layers of vinyl flooring.

This project started in October when we ordered a new dishwasher that had the same measurements, on paper, as the old one, but in actuality was too tall for the space. So we were forced to start a long overdue flooring project to create space for the dishwasher. We thought we could gain the .25 inches we needed. We had no idea we would gain nearly an inch. No idea there were so many layers below the first one.

We also had to stop at one point and get it tested for asbestos. Which, thank goodness, it did not contain.

The scraping is now complete. Next is the sanding. Sigh. SOMEONE, hacked great gouges into the wood in several places when HE tried to use brawn to get the glue off. The floor will likely be so beat up that we will need to cover it with vinyl again.

This might not be all bad if we can find something like these Rose Des Vents vinyl flooring from the UK (manufactured in France). Doubtful I will be able to find anything so nice in the US.

Rose des vents 1

Rose des vents 2

There were also holiday preparations, and teenage kids to feed and occasionally transport, but here I am with a (relatively) clean house, laundry folded and put away, and good food prepared. My husband is out at a basketball buddy reunion, my children are somewhere in the house being happy and I am here at the dining room table with a glass of red wine blogging again.