At last my kitchen project is over. Painting the cupboard red was a challenge but I stuck with it and am proud of the outcome. That’s why we do such things, to improve our nests. After days of dishes being piled on the table with a sheet over them to keep dust and the cats off them I am glad to have things back to my normal. Normal can mean all kinds of things but we each have our comfort level and being piled up isn’t one of mine.

The rain finally quit with a bang. Our last wind and rain storm came in about 4:00 AM some time last week and made a lot of racket. It’s been days now since rain so I had to water my pot flowers, the berm and the Japanese ferns planted around the big oak. After the rains we are boxed in with some of the hottest weather at this time of year. It has been in the low to mid 90’s for days and not expected to change anytime soon. Summer in the Ozarks. Who can figure.

I’ve had visiting friends recently. My card and butterfly lady last week and this week a girl I used to work with before I retired. She is a top-notch stitcher and brought a variety of things to show me that she’d been making on her sewing machine. Life is never dull around here. There are always hobbies to trade with one another and I love making the cards.

I stained the top of a cupboard in the computer room and am pleased with the outcome. I’ll take a picture of that once I get another coat of stain and the polyurethane put on. It’s hard to open windows in 94* weather and it’s terribly smelly without ventilation. It took the red paint 4-days to dry good enough to put my dishes back in. One baby step at a time.

Essentially Esther