Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

We've been enjoying some beautiful gardening weather here in southeastern Virginia.  Not too hot - not too cold.  And hallelujah for low humidity! My family all came together early Saturday morning to help reign in the vegetable garden.  The winter crops had gone to seed while I was recovering from the transplant and weeds had taken over everything else.  Being immuno-suppressed for the time being, I'm not allowed to dig in the garden.  It seems that my beloved soil and compost are teeming with bacteria, which being healthy for growing plants, is not healthy for me to touch or breath.  Bummer! I could only sit on a stool in the middle of the garden and orchestrate the work being done.  Within a few hours the gardens were weeded and Hubs was ready to plant the tomatoes and peppers we had grown from seed.  Remember the lazy garden we put in awhile ago?  It's been cooking under the weed block and will continue to do so all Summer.  Hub...

Whenever I do a consultation with a new client, I find that nine times out of ten they have messy closets.  The rest of their home might be tidy, but their closets are a mess.  Why?  Because closets are behind  doors.  I guess you could say "out of sight - out of mind". So, this month we're going to open those doors and weed out the junk.  Speaking of junk. . .  what do you think about preparing for a yard sale?  You're going to be getting rid of a lot of stuff and you may as well make some money from it.   For out final Monday Motivation of May, I'll give you some tips on holding a great yard sale.  Where do we start?  I recommend starting on your neatest closet.  Yes, start on the least messy closet because it will be the easiest and quickest and will give you instant gratification and prompt you to keep going. Here we go: 1.  Prepare a clean area near your closet to place items you'll taking out...

When I arrived home from the hospital last week, I was greeted by a smiling chicken next to the front door. My sweet daughter and son-in-law had picked up this cutie and brought him to The Wren. I put him on the back porch so I could enjoy looking at him more. After all, who can resist a smiling chicken? I hope you have a great weekend - and keep smiling!

After my recent 6 day stay in the hospital, I was more than ready to return home and eat nutritious foods.  It seemed very weird to me that I was in a state of the art teaching hospital, having a miracle kidney transplant, but being fed inferior food to nourish my body. The first foods I was given were of course "clear liquids".  This consisted of chicken broth, Popsicles, and apple juice.  I have to admit that after not eating for 48 hours, the first few tastes of the artificially flavored, orange Popsicle were divine.  The chicken broth literally tasted like they had dipped a whole chicken in some water and added a spoon full of salt to it.  I couldn't choke it down.  Every day, a very pleasant young man would walk through my hospital room door and announce "Nutrition" as he slid a plastic tray of food onto the table next to my bed.  I would peer under the domed lid and wince at what I saw.  White bread french toast with maple flavored ...

Yes, this Monday Motivation is being posted on a Tuesday.  Better late than never, I say. We're just about finished with organizing the bedroom.  All of the big areas have been covered in previous weeks and now all that is left is figuring out what to do with those little accessories we have in our bedrooms.  I've discovered that if I don't have a place for my accessories to "live" they just pile up on any horizontal surface in the bedroom.  Here are some creative ideas that I've saved in my idea file.  I don't personally use all of them, but they are good solutions to check out if you have a particular need for storage. First, is jewelry storage solutions.  Here is a wall-hung necklace holder.  It looks like a wall hung mirror but you can open it and store your necklaces, tangle free.  Two of them, side by side, could replace a large mirror over your dresser. source Next, is an almost free solution.  Little bowls or dishes se...

Easter will be a bit subdued this year as we won't be having a large celebration in our home.  But, thanks to a few decorations and lots of flowers from friends and family, we can still celebrate the holiday with a little bit of festiveness. Begonias and pollen African violets in three different colors. I love this color. My bunny Easter basket greets visitors on the front porch bench. This is the newest addition to my Easter tree this year (I didn't decorate with it this year).  It's a hand painted egg just for me with a little Wren on it.  It was a gift from a dear church where I was a guest speaker.  It was painted by one of their members who is 92 years old - a very special gift.  I'm displaying it on a napkin ring set on it's side.  I wish you all a very happy Easter. 

Ever have days like this. . . ? This makes me giggle every time I look at it!