Sistah Pat

I think I’m recovering today. At least, I can function halfway normally. Yesterday, I spent the entire day in my pjs eating aspirin and lying on the couch watching a marathon session of What Not to Wear, Snapped, and finally sending DS to rent Twilight.

I tend to think through the coming week on Sunday. Take stock and figure out what I’ve got coming up. If I look too far ahead, it’s overwhelming. One week, one hurdle at a time:

Monday: work, come home and bake coffee cakes
Tuesday: Coffee Cake training session for teachers all day, faculty meeting after work
Wednesday: Work, after school ESS until 4:30, dinner date with friends (rescheduled from yesterday)
Thursday: work, come home and pack RV
Friday: work, come home and jump in the RV and hit the road for Florida for spring break

I’m thinking about what we have to do in Florida. I need to buy some kind of paint sprayer. I want to get the upstairs of the cabin painted and there’s a whole lot of ceiling up there. I also need to make up my mind on what color I want. Do I take advantage of the big open windows that provide a view of the woods and pick a color that flows right into the view such as a light tan or green or do I bring attention to the view by painting a totally contrasting color like a vibrant gold or terra cotta. hmmm…decisions, decisions… Think I’ll try to find some pictures.

1:30 - ARRRRGGGHHH! Having one of those days! The heating element went out in the spa. We’ll have to drain it, remove the old one, order a new one, and then replace it and refill. Looks like the spa is out of commission for at least a week. Oh wait, we’re leaving for Florida Friday. Guess it’ll be out of commission for at least two weeks.

The twins DGS’s say they don’t want to go to Florida with us for spring break. I suspect that means they’ve heard us discussing how much work we have to do and have decided to play it safe and just stick around here. That’s fine but that means it’s pretty senseless for DH and I to take the RV to Florida. If it’s just the two of us, it seems like a lot of wasted effort to take the RV and pull the car. We can just drive the car down and get a hotel room on the way down Friday night. Of course, that means we’ll be roughing it in Florida when I tile the downstairs and we can’t walk on the tile for 24 hours and when we disconnect the toilets to redo the composting unit. This particular toilet system works really well for a cabin in the woods but it’s designed to be installed in a unit that has a crawl space. The cabin is on a concrete slab so we had to dig the composting unit in and elevate the downstairs toilet. Good enough for a temporary fix but it’s time to do it right.

Decided to steam clean the couch in the family room and move it to the living room to replace the crappy, cheap couch we bought for the living room last year that’s now sagging in the middle. Of course, the hose to the steam cleaner has developed a hole in it. Sent DH to the store to rent a Rug Doctor.

4:00 pm. - My house is a disaster.  The Rug Doctor that DH rented has a serious leak in the hose that leads to the upholstery cleaning attachment.  I got so aggravated I just decided to use it anyway.  Of course, that was a sloppy ass, irritating experience.  On top of everything else, I thought I got the couch halfway clean and had DH and the twins move the couch in the living room downstairs and out the back door and move the one in the family room upstairs to the living room.  That was a major job because the couch that was in the family room is a huge, heavy piece of furniture.  As soon as they set it down and breathed huge sighs of relief, I realized it wasn’t going to work.  It looks like total crap!  As soon as the light from the big picture windows in the living room hit it, it showed how filthy the damn thing really is.  I couldn’t very well say, “I changed my mind.  Take it back downstairs.”  They may do that on sit coms but it’s much more dangerous in real life.  So…I tried to cover it with a king-size sheet and it’s too big.  I’ll probably go out and buy a couch cover when I get a chance.  It looks totally gross.  That’s what happens when you finally get all the birds out of the nest and spend a hunk of money on a beautiful, good quality, cream colored couch.  I didn’t count on all the grandkids moving in with us and starting over.

On top of that, the washer quit working and ducks are swimming and crapping in the pool.

I did make a decision about the cabin paint, however.  Having dealt with stress all day, I’ve come to realize how much I count on the serenity of my little cabin in the woods in Florida and have decided to go with light tans and greens for the paint.  I want everything soft and serene.  Not the kind of colors I usually go with.  Usually, I love bright, vibrant color.  My family room is bright gold and the window treatments, tile, and accessories are all orange or terra cotta.  My kitchen is trimmed in bold blues and the wall behind the sink is done in blue tiles.  The living room is sage green and my bedroom is done in burgundy and navy.  A little softness and serenity may be in order…