Jaci Dawn

I have been a very busy little bee around here. I’m pretty surprised myself.

First off, I did not go camping with Don because he was making his camping trip into a bird hunting trip with his bird dog and his shotgun. I’d love to go, don’t think for a moment that I wouldn’t, but the logistics changed when I brought Harvey into our little family. Yes, Harvey is a bird dog and I’ve seen him come up onto a point that he held until I flushed the grouse for him, but the truth is: he’s an unproven bird dog as far as having a shot gun fired over his head goes. And camping with Harvey is not as fun as all that: he still doesn’t quite understand boundaries and has to be tethered all the time when camping. If we had the money for a second shock collar, maybe.

Besides, he’d have to stay in camp with me while the Big Boys go hunting and he’d hate that.

He hates that they left him. Oh, he knows they went camping. And he knows he got left behind. He sulked for about 3 hours.

So what have I done with all this time on my hand and no husband underfoot? Well, for starters, not as much as I would have liked to because I have this stupid cold that saps my energy and today it dropped down into my lungs, depriving me of oxygen. I’ve used my emergency inhaler sparingly, but necessarily. I hate my emergency inhaler and the jitters it gives me, but I love that I can breathe. Anyone who suffers asthma knows whereof I speak.

I decided to give my house the kind of cleaning it has not had since we moved in seven years ago: I pulled out furniture and took things off of walls so I could wash walls and baseboards. Of course, I also had to wash the things on the walls and clear out the cobwebs that grew over the summer. I rearranged artwork as I put it back up on the wall.  I plowed through the bathroom, the hall, the living room, dining room and a third of the kitchen in two days. Today I tackled the last two walls in the kitchen.

UGH. We have a gas range with no hood. The wall behind it, the cupboards, and anything near it gets coated with a film of greasy dust. I frequently clean it all up, but it is never a pleasant chore – and this time, I confess that it has been about a year since I’ve looked on top of the refrigerator.

Hey, I think people who can actually see the top of the fridge should clean it, not people like me. I can’t see it. I can barely reach it. I had to stand on a chair to clean it.

I purged half of my refrigerator magnets. I can’t believe I did that. But they were flimsy advertisements from companies I don’t use or that no longer exist and they had to go. Magnets have to have some relevance, you know?

Like magnets from boxes of Celestial Seasons tea.

Or photo magnets. I don’t know why I have more photo magnets of Levi than anyone else. Not sure where the Arwen magnet went. My cousin and her sweetie in a cute little cabin frame. Justin at 3 months. But those are my photo magnets.

Places and Tupperware magnets. I’ve never been to Alaska, but I have three magnets from there. And two from Israel, another place I’ve never been. And some of those places didn’t come out so hot or don’t tell you where they were from: Pike’s Peak, Colorado; an eagle sanctuary in Minnesota…

I think Tupperware is self-explanatory.

Religious magnets. Yes, that one that says “In a world of Copies…” falls under “religious” – it was a gift from a church friend I’ve lost touch with and it reminds me of her. She was very special to me and I wish she hadn’t dropped off the face of the earth.

It’s just random. I love this magnet. Who wouldn’t?

Live streaming folk music from Kent State, Ohio. I have three such magnets. I love Folk Alley.

Smokey the Bear magnets and personal ones from friends: Bob’s Buck Camp is a place where Don goes camping (and a person he camps with) every year. Eagle’s Quest is my dear artist friend, Eric Clanton. And Jesse the Magician is no more, but when he was 12-14 years of age he was quite the magician in the Seattle area. He’s grown up now and moved on to other things. Another friend we’ve lost touch with. 😦

Sort of a dual set of magnets. Ones large enough for little hands so they are where little boys can reach them. The ones on the right are from Starbucks and I swear I had more of them (probably lost somewhere with the Arwen magnet). The ones on the left, now… the wagons are from my very brief stint as a waitress at a place called “Trail’s End Restaurant”. I don’t know if the place exists still or not: I walked off the job with several other waitresses back in 1978, but not before I made them give me a name tag with my name spelled the way I prefer it spelled. And the cows? They came from some church craft night when we all got together and learned how to paint magnets. Yes, I rolled my eyes, but it was fun to get together with several women and do some sort of crafty thing together. I keep the cows because they’re sort of like oxen to my little covered wagons. Really.

The daisies were inspired by Ferdinand the Bull.

It really doesn’t cover all the stuff I’ve done in the past three days, but I’m proud of the front of my refrigerator anyway.

There are more magnets on the side, but aside from FolkAlley.Com – they were pretty boring. So I spared you.

Have a great night and ignore the Fly Lady: I think magnets on a refrigerator are a MUST. 😉

Jaci