Yesterday I read part of an article in the April issue of Real Simple magazine that concerned time...saving time, taking time to do things, etc. One of the suggestions was take time to make your bed...it makes you feel like you've accomplished something almost immediately after the start of your day. I have a friend who once told me that if nothing else got done around the house, she at least wanted the bed made. It just makes your room look clean, even if there is a pile of clothes to be folded at the foot of the bed. (For both of these reasons, I make our bed every day.)
Another part of the article suggested taking a week to document every mundane part of your life...from taking pictures of your half empty coffee cup to saving receipts of all the things you buy that week...and then taking some of your pictures, receipts, movie ticket stubs, etc and putting them in a scrapbook. I don't have time to do that (not many do), and I would have to translate all of my receipts...which I guess would be good practice. However, I did walk around the house yesterday afternoon and documented a few random things around the house. So..here's a collection of unprofessional pictures from June 9, 2010.
Shelves hung above our bed. Bought the brackets (braces? what are those called?) at the fake IKEA around Thanksgiving. Got the wood at the second hand furniture store. Books we've got up there: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry...I love his stuff! Chinese Stuff, a book w/ a bunch of pictures of Chinese stuff. The Two Towers, by Tolkien. Two books of poetry/story on Ruth and Job, both by John Piper. A National Geographic magazine on China, and a photo album that Karl and Liz gave us w/ a Bed Bath and Beyond gift certificate in it for our wedding gift. (Now there are pictures...we spent that money a long time ago.)
Inherited this around December. Dish towel is from Logan's MawMaw, and the cups we randomly found here in town one evening. It hangs above our coffee cabinet.
The wall of fame.
Got this idea from Lissa Anglin. Nails w/ buttons super glued to them, ribbon tied and wrapped around the nails, and pictures strung along. This is what I look at when I sit at my desk. Lots of good friends here in front of me.
The wall behind Logan's desk in his office.
Back in my office now, meet Ger/Frances. We inherited this lovely guinea pig in....April. She likes green beans, cabbage, carrots, and especially cucumbers. And toilet paper rolls on occasion.
My cookbooks...which have felt very neglected lately.....we've either been eating out, eating chicken salad sandwiches, or if Logan is gone, I have two pieces of toast or a scrambled egg and call it good.
My bamboo TEXAS cutting board! I love this! (Thank you, V!!!)
And lastly, a not so great shot of what our bathroom has been doing lately. Or, rather, what the bathroom sink of our upstairs neighbors has been doing. A slow and constant drip...which is making the area behind the tile wet (that's not a shadow) and dripping from our ceiling as well. We have told our apt. management about it, and they've come to check it out. The beauty of the situation: it will be easier for them to tear out our false ceiling to get to the leaking pipes instead of busting up their concrete floor to reach the pipes.......we'll see what happens.
--da
