Doing The Lord's Work

Opening that jar of peanut butter + a weekend hodgepodge

Hello & __________ Weekend,

Scroll for a post-post poll at the end 🐦‍⬛

Thursday I told M I didn’t put peanut butter in my breakfast oatmeal. I plain forgot. She said she didn’t either. But she told me she didn’t have the energy to deal with opening a new jar. (You know, pulling off the little plastic around the lid and mixing the lake of oil on top with the soft peanut butter below…with the extra thick, dry peanut butter chalk at the bottom of the jar. I guess that’s what you get for buying hippie peanut butter.)

I opened the jar yesterday. Patted myself on the back for supporting our household in such useful ways.

Do you have a dog or cat? Is there some thing that will call your pet in from the other room? Or the other side of the house? Around these parts is it’s opening the peanut butter jar and unscrewing the lid on the peanut butter jar. No matter how quiet - Roux will know. Also, you can beckon her from anywhere by opening a bag of shredded cheese. I call it confetti. M calls it sparkle cheese.

This week I (finally) got a tattoo from the Frequenzine flash tattoo sheet from…September 2024. I am thrilled. Beyond thrilled. Ecstatic.

I am working on the stairs (I know, endlessly) but while waiting for finish to dry we went outside for an adventure.

Shockingly, spring is actually coming. Even though it was 70 last Monday, it’s been in the 30s and low 40s since - with flurries today and some weird mix of rain and then thunderstorms followed by a blizzard (?) and temps dipping into the teens.

With the cold weather, I hope all my new little garden friends survive, like this just emerging Hellebore.

Hellebores! Lenten Rose! Signs of Spring!

And the so precious first little purple leaves of the Columbines under the tree along the road.

The daintiest little Columbine leaves. Stay warm little buddies.

And, of course, THE PEONIES! I’ve poked around most of the peonies and about 60% are already showing signs of spring.

Peonies! Peonies! Welcome Welcome Peonies!

Ooof, and not everything is off to a springy start - like this one Quaking Aspen (out of 20+) that continue to get beat up by the deer. I’ve given up. They are resilient trees…they’ll just be Dr. Seuss shaped.

The deer's endless abuse of the little Quaking Aspens.

And I’ve cut back most of the plants around the house on the warm days so far, but I’ve left the Stiff Goldenrod because it’s so pretty. It will be the last to get cut back - and I’m curious to look for nesting insects in the stems.

Can you guess what this is? IT’S GOLDENROD!!!! This is what’s left behind after the seeds blow away (or get eaten by birds).

And now…for the indoors things. This is mostly a hodgepodge, a mishmash of things around the house as I try to stay focused on finishing the stair goals for this weekend.

I like to eat frozen burritos when I work on house projects. Warm and cheesy and satisfying and limit my ability to get distracted. I forget, however, they have a tendency to throw up in the microwave. Blurp.

Great reason to deep clean between coats of finish.

Don’t scroll any further down. Don’t look at the photo. For now, if I were to list the following words, what do you think they mean?

Necessities. Courtesy Bag. For your needs away from home.

I had to go to the dentist this week. They have these little “Courtesy Bags” in the bathroom stalls. If you didn’t find this in the bathroom stall in the women’s room would you have any idea what these words mean? Gosh - let’s pretend all the things that are…aren’t.

I want to write a thesis on this.

I adore this little bag. I want to pretend I can fit all of my actual necessities in here. What actual necessities would you want to put in here? Tell me all about it?

Last weekend I cleaned off my desk and tried to clean out parts of my studio/office. This included a 2023 issue of Better Homes & Gardens. This add was toward the back. I was flipping through it after M was asleep. I laughed so hard I thought I might wake her up. I think I might have to frame this and put it in a prominent location.

JFC perhaps we just need cases and cases of Snickers at our house to prevent any and all of my future DIY decisions.

Last, but not least - yesterday I was thoroughly reading (and re-reading) the instructions on the back of the floor finish. It’s one of those products that requires you to mix two different liquids in very precise measurements and if you don’t do it exactly right YOU WILL FAIL.

I read the instructions at least five times. (In case you were wondering, the ratio of the two liquids is 1:11.33 - take that MATHS.) I really liked the fact my floor finish was dropping these vital pieces of life advice: DO NOT SPREAD (yourself) TOO THIN.

Thanks for the life advice Bona.

That’s it. House projects take more time and energy than they did ten years ago. WHO KNEW! But check in with me tomorrow to see if I met my stair goal or if I experienced TOTAL & UTTER FAILURE.

Midwesterners, stay safe in the thunder - sleet - snow - blizzard.

Everyone…tell me about a tattoo you want to get.

Wait, it’s the post-post poll:

• Listening: Throughline, Iran and the Jewish people: An alliance before war

• Reading: One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, by Scaachi Koul

• Watching: Law & Order

• Noticing: I’m fascinated by what gets picked up in our air purifiers

• Tidbit: I got very, very curious about these salt caverns the US surplus oil supply is stored in after hearing “salt caverns” on the radio so frequently. Anoint my caverns with oil (2023) The Economist.

🛠️vanessa

Wait, it’s the post-post poll: