Let's Take A Tour - The Balcony

Before I get started, let me address the new look on my blog. I did like the old background and colors, but I was ready for a change. It's been five years, after all. I fell in love with this rustic look and the sunflowers. It reminds me of spring and summer, of warm days and showers and new growth on the trees and flowers blooming. It's change, but in a good way.

One of the things that immediately caught our eyes whenever we first walked into this home was the views. There are plenty of windows, but there are also two glass doors from where everything beyond is green. My heart skipped a beat. 

The balcony sits between the living room and dining room and has two sets of sliding glass doors. This allows lots of sunlight to stream in during the day, and in the winter we have lovely cross breezes that keep the house cool and refreshed. It's also completely screened in to keep bugs out, though we've noticed there's a little lizard that has found some crevice to sneak in through. 

I love the fact that the floors are tiled and not just plain dull cement. It makes it easier to keep clean, though now in the summer we've been getting rain almost daily and that helps wash away most of the dust. 

I desperately wanted to get a small patio set for the balcony but since it was October the stores were preparing for Christmas, not outdoor activity. I looked on OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace but I couldn't find anything that caught my eye, not to mention it would have to be close by since I don't have a vehicle that would fit a bunch of outdoor seating. So I went to my trusty Amazon to see what was available. There were plenty of patio sets; finding one that would fit was the challenge. This balcony is not very big. The patio set I'd had at the house wouldn't fit here. I wanted something with a couple of chairs that was comfortable but didn't take up a lot of space. This set on Amazon was just what I was looking for.  It's two rockers and a side table, black metal with taupe cushions that clean easily. It took about half an hour to put together. The small shelves had been in our old garage but it was too small for what I needed in our garage now, so instead I put it here and added some fall greenery and a white pumpkin over a hay bale. The barometer on the wall was left by the previous owner so I didn't have to put anything there. I just added the lantern that I got on clearance from Target for $4.50 and the look was complete. I kept it simple because the star of this show is the view:

My realtor and best friend's words to me were, "The view alone sells this house." And she's right. There's a canal running along the back of our house, where we've seen all sorts of wildlife - cranes, ducks, turtles, fish (thankfully no gators, at least not yet), and this beauty which I was able to get a picture of:

It's kind of hidden, well blended into the tree, but what a majestic hawk! My son first noticed it, and it took our breath away. We've seen so many different birds - finches, blue jays, some we've never seen before and don't know what they are. It's a nice quiet neighborhood, so sitting outside and watching all the different animals gives us so much enjoyment. 

I've only done a little decorating since we moved in. We got plenty of use of the balcony in the fall and winter months, but now in the summer it's so hot and humid we don't sit out here. Still, I've made a few small changes that make it a bit more homey.

 

I added a couple of plants that I bought in the spring from Costco for $8. They came with the terracotta planters which is a plus, since they are my favorite types of planters. At the old house I had plants on my window sill, but they didn't fit in my kitchen in this house, so both my cactus and my orchid ended up out here. They are both thriving, so I don't mind the change.

Another great thing about this balcony is the ceiling fan. It came with the house and has been convenient whenever we sit outside. The hanging plant is artificial; I want to get one or two real plants but I'm waiting for summer to be over so I can get some from Home Depot cheap. And there's that view again...

I no longer have a big yard. No more mowing, no more trimming, no more weeding, no more sweating. Yet I still can enjoy the outdoors. I love looking out from my balcony to the water, the trees, the grass,  and the wildlife. It's so peaceful. Even on stormy days, when the sky goes from blue to grey and the clouds are no longer puffy white; when it seems ominous, and the wind blows, and we hear the thunder rolling in the distance, it's still beautiful and awe inspiring. God has made all these different scenes, these backdrops that are a work of art. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1). 

I hate to leave this tranquil spot, but it's on to the heart of the home. The kitchen is next, so stay tuned. 

Tackling Tuesday

Did you ever get the feeling you were the last person to find out about something?  Like everyone is in on the secret but you?  That was me this morning.  The world is progressing forward and I'm stuck in neutral.

Last night my computer (which is pretty old, by the way) started acting up as it sometimes does.  I shut it down multiple times but for whatever reason I could not get internet access.  At all.  It wouldn't recognize our wireless network or any other wireless network in the area.  I was concerned because this is the computer my son uses for his schoolwork.  He can't get Java to work on his computer so he watches all his live lessons on mine, and today he had two. I prayed this morning that my son would be able to figure out what was wrong with the computer before 10 am when E's first lesson started.  As soon as R woke up I told him what had happened last night.  He walked over to the computer, pressed a button on the top of the keyboard, and all the wireless connections came up.  I sat there in amazement and asked what he'd done?  His matter-of-fact answer:  "I turned on the wireless."  I couldn't do anything but laugh my head off at what an idiot I was.  I must have turned the wireless off without realizing it.  Even funnier, I pointed to another button and told the boys I'd thought that was the button for the wireless.  My 14 year old said, "No Mom, that turns off the mousepad."  I shook my head and wondered when I'd left the prehistoric era and landed here in the 21st century.

Breakfast today was pretty basic:  one fried egg, 2 strips of bacon, honey wheat toast with homemade apple butter, and coffee.  Lunch will be tacos, with lettuce from my backyard.  I'd started a garden months ago but had given up on it when the caterpillars waged war and were winning.  Still, without even trying, my lettuce seeds sprang up and I have large gorgeous lettuce leaves ready for the picking.  Not only that, but I was watching our dog Molly and happened to look at my tomato plant.  There's a tomato growing!  The first one on this plant!  I stopped watering this plant because I was sure it was a dud.  It grew and grew but never gave me a single tomato.  Now it has a small tomato and 2 more little tomato buds.  Proof again that I plant, I even water, but it's God who makes things grow.

I watched Alexandrea Garza's new video this morning and had to tell my daughter about it.  She goes over her evening skin care routine, and there were some really good pointers.  For instance, why hadn't I thought of using Johnson's Baby Shampoo to remove eye makeup?!  Oh my goodness, that is genius!  It's gentle on the eyes and cleans really well, plus it's way cheaper than any makeup remover on the market!  She also had some advise for people with extra dry skin which my daughter suffers from.  Especially now that the humidity has gone down, our skin gets drier than usual, and her skin gets downright flaky.  Her regular moisturizer isn't doing a good enough job; hopefully she can find something that will work for her.  My daughter has started using Michael Todd products which are totally organic, since she has sensitive skin.  Hopefully a good moisturizer regiment will also help improve her complexion.

I thought today was gonna be another busy school day; after all, E had a couple of assignments to do, and 2 live lessons.  He went in for his first live lesson, English class.  Except it wasn't a class per se, it was review and question time for their end of semester assignment.  The class is writing a thesis on Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail (which is an inspirational read).  They've done the thesis statement, introduction, body paragraphs, and today they were writing the conclusion.  It took all of half an hour.  So he read his book till his next live lesson, leadership.  Turns out the teacher had cancelled the class because they are just about finished with the semester.  So he did his reading for leadership, wrote his conclusion paragraph, and was done in 3 hours.  Great.  He needs 5 hours of work per day.  We went ahead and started working on his music history lab, but I don't want him getting to far ahead of himself; the rest of the week is really light, and if he does all the work today and tomorrow he'll have nothing to do the rest of the week.  I'm looking forward to Christmas break so I don't have to figure out what schoolwork to do.

While my son was listening to his English teacher review for his assignment, I took our dog Molly out for her bath.  Molly is an American bulldog mix.  She acts very much like an American bulldog, except that lately she had gotten to digging in the backyard.  She comes to the door with filthy paws.  She also has taken to rolling in the dirt, causing her to stink to high heaven.  I was dying to get her cleaned up good but it had been too chilly out - we have to bathe her outside because she absolutely HATES getting a bath and she would not stay still for a moment to get bathed inside the house.  Besides, she sheds enough to build a second dog, and I can't imagine the damage her hair would do to our plumbing.  The weather has gotten nicer the last couple of days; 50's in the morning, 70's in the afternoon, 60's in the evening.  I had to wait till the sun came out so I could give her a bath without her freezing.  Now, normally I tie Molly up to the patio furniture to get her bathed because if I don't she'll run off.  The patio furniture is light, but she wouldn't move it because the sound it made against the patio floor would scare her (she's part dog, part chicken).  Today, however, she decided she wasn't having anything to do with cleaning or water or shampoo or anything.  I brought the hose out and started getting her wet.  All of a sudden, she bolted.  And I mean she was taking everything that was in her path!  She knocked down one of the patio chairs, a large planter, the glass from the patio table she was tied to went flying and only by God's grace landed on the grass and didn't shatter, and she ended up on the other side of the house, patio table still dragging behind her, where she turned and gave me that look said, "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"  Yeah, you better believe it!  I not only had to give her a bath, I also had to put the patio back together again.  She was in the doghouse, so to speak, after that little incident.

I got the email from Ulta today:  my order has shipped :-).  I'm glad; it's one less thing I have to worry about.  The Bare Escentuals orders are also supposed to ship this week, in time to receive them for Christmas, though none of the items we ordered are actually Christmas gifts.  Of course, there might be a birthday gift for my little girl, whose birthday is two days later ;-).

Tonight was our weekly group run, and I met up with my friend DS at the corner of our block.  We live about a mile away from the meeting spot for our running group, so DS and I sometimes go there on foot.  We took my son E since he'd been cooped up at home all day.  The night was brisk - 61 degrees felt nice for our walk/jog around the neighborhood.  DS and I don't usually run like the others in the group; we either walk or jog, so we lag behind and chit-chat the whole time.  Tonight we were walking along a path that is directly behind a bunch of houses, and there is a concrete wall separating the houses from the sidewalk.  My son E was a few feet ahead of us, running.  As we walked something along the top of the wall caught my eye.  It was a possum.  Possums are nothing more than giant rats as far as I'm concerned, and anyone who knows me knows I hate rats.  I let out a scream, grabbed my friend DS, pulled her away from the wall and yelled, "Run!!"  I hit my turbo button and took off like a mad woman, DS was trying to run but didn't know what was going on, and my son turned around and wondered, "What in the world are they doing?!"  He heard laughter and thought maybe we were laughing at a joke.  Then he saw us running and thought we were racing!  It wasn't until I'd gotten far enough that I told them what I'd seen.  It was so hilarious, we couldn't stop talking about it and laughing!  Even our exercise time is an adventure!

Oh, and I did change the background on my blog today.  The background I had was pretty but it was more appropriate for spring; this background is more of a winter theme, but not too wintery - it's not like we get snow or anything.  Hope it looks appealing!  Have a good night y'all.