Mrs. Black

Back in the Saddle and a Drawring

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Jill

Probably no one will see this because I have been not remotely good about posting for months. I’m pregnant, a few weeks away from birthing my first child. A little girl. Last night, I said to Mr. B., “We’re about to have a real baby!! What will we do with a baby? Other people have babies. We don’t have babies!” He tried to act like he’s not nervous in the least about this new venture. We’ll see.

I have another little project to keep me posting–at least something. My sister and I are taking a drawing (or DRAWRING, thank you, Simon) challenge for thirty days. The challenge is this:

: I’m not sure where this originated, so forgive me for not giving credit where due.

I actually started the challenge yesterday, at the beginning of the month, and I did do my first drawring yesterday, but I couldn’t post it until today. Without further ado, I give you my drawring of myself:

I could call this one, “Heavy,” or “Weighed Down,” or “Puffy.” We’ll just call it “Summer Pregnant.”

And for today, the challenge required a drawring of my favorite animal. Well, I had to draw my little girl:

We’ll call this one, “Fuzzy, Yet Expectant of Treat.”

So, there are my (non) skillz! Now that I’m getting the groove back, maybe I’ll actually keep putting stuff on here!

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Trying to change

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Jill

One of the most difficult things to change is your mind.

No, really, it is.

I don’t mean changing your mind, like, “Oh, I wanted chicken for dinner, but now I want beef.”

I mean those thought patterns and impressions and habits that have carved their little grooves into your psyche. I mean, literally, they make patterns on your brain. It’s crazy.

I basically live in a type of inprisonment to these patterns, and the night before last, I was really impressed to do something about at least one strain of them.

(I have plenty of patterns and habits that need to be changed, trust me.)

It occurred to me that I was not a good housekeeper.

I want to be a good housekeeper.

I used to be a fantastic housekeeper.

Remember, Donna Reed is my hero. I greet my husband at the door with a kiss each afternoon (well, almost each afternoon), but I just don’t have the clean and sparkling necessarily going on behind me when I do it.

Anyway, Mr. B. and I were having a conversation the other night, and I thought, “I have just let the house run amuck almost the whole time we’ve been married.” Don’t misunderstand, I do clean, and I will straighten, but just not to the level that I used to do.

I have been told that I suffer from a perfectionist tendency, so yes, I want things the way that I want them, but if I can’t get them that way, I won’t try.

Enter the old house in need of repair. It is being repaired, but not quickly–at least not as quickly as I would like.

What I want is sparkle, and it is difficult to get sparkle out of cleaning when you are working on a very rough-hewn diamond.

And we have STUFF. Stuff everywhere. I was 31 when we were married. Mr. B. was 39. That’s a lot of living as an adult and getting stuff with no one else’s opinion involved. We have been slowly thinning out things as we lose our affection for, need, or desire to keep them. We are both extremely sentimental, especially for anything our grandparents touched, held, had sitting on a table in their houses, drank from, etc. It has been a difficult process. Most of what we have let go, though, have not been family heirlooms, but just things. Oh, to not be ruled by things! Ack!

We are working on living intentionally, and ruling our stuff, not letting our stuff rule us.

All this to say, yesterday, I began my mission to get my cleaning mojo back. At work, because I knew it needed to start somewhere, I began the process of clearing my desk, which had become a small mountain range of things I just had not moved in months. It’s almost completely clear this morning. At home, I scrubbed our pantry (which, at the present time, is a temporary shelf on the wall in the kitchen), and put all of our foodstuffs neatly back on the shelf. I started clearing things out of the kitchen that I don’t want in there anymore. I moved things from the counters, I eliminated certain items from the room altogether. I put all the bathroom construction items (almost all) IN THE BATHROOM WHERE THEY ARE BEING USED. I swear, we pile more stuff up in rooms that aren’t using the stuff and then leave it there because we don’t see it anymore. I moved the dining room table closer to where I wanted. If I had had more energy, I would have moved it a completely different way to see if I like it.

Last night, I entered the future nursery, which is being used as a holding area for STUFF. I started combining and removing. All those painting materials that have been in there since we moved in? OUT. All the stuff that needs to be returned to a certain home improvement huge store? OUT. I cleared about 12 square feet of floor just moving those things.

I walked in there this morning as I was walking around brushing my teeth, and thought, “If I could sigh without spitting out toothpaste, I would sigh a sigh of pleasure, just to see that bare patch of floor.”

I am not always the most lighthearted of people, but I desire my blog to be a lighthearted place. However, I need to be accountable, so if it is to one person at a time that might stumble upon my musings here, I figure I’ll be accountable to them.

Before and after pics on their way.

Furiously fighting dust bunnies,

~Mrs. B.

Long, long ago

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Jill

It has been ages since I have posted anything. It isn’t as if nothing is happening over here in the world in which I live, but I haven’t felt compelled to share it. Well, in some instances, I have avoided sharing.

I am now 15 weeks pregnant. This is, of course, an exciting time for me and Mr. Black and all our family. The weeks have been fraught, however, with extra worry and doctor’s appointments and testing, and a 3 day hospital stay in my eighth week to get some things leveled out. I had worry before eight weeks, and then a different kind of worry after eight weeks as each day was spent waiting to see if something bad would happen because of my condition. Several doctor’s visits, an extra ultrasound and fetal heart monitoring later, and everything seems to be fine so far. We have a level 2 ultrasound scheduled on May 23 with a paranatologist to make sure baby’s heart is developed properly, though from the sound of that ticker every time we’ve heard it so far, it seems to be doing just fine.

I feel pretty special when I go to the doctor(s), though. I’m a VIP.

I also feel pretty special that I felt our little poppyseed swimming around in there at 11 weeks. I know many people would probably poo-poo that, but I absolutely know that I felt the baby moving that early. I believe God gave me that earlier than a lot of first time mothers to comfort me.

Our house is not much farther along since last I mentioned it. It is difficult when you are doing the work yourself and life gets in the way. Neither Mr. Black nor I want to be constantly working on it with no break, so sometimes we have people over for dinner, or we go out for date nights, or we have functions to attend. These past weeks have seen first my getting sick, followed last week by Mr. B. getting sick, and he still isn’t over it. We did, however, break out the tiller and start tilling up our garden plot on Saturday. We transplanted some roses and hydrangeas, and everything seems to be doing okay so far following those transplants. I’m hoping I haven’t killed them. Anyway, now that I’m getting a little more energy here in my second trimester, I have to work as much as I can to get the plot cleaned up, because I have baby plants waiting to be planted. I can’t wait to get my garden going.

As far as the house, my parents came and helped us on the bathroom and will be coming again this weekend to help us some more. If I am to be honest, I must say that renovating an old house is not my idea of fun. I do not want to do it again. Our next house I want to buy in a condition that may or may not only need a new coat of paint or I want to build a new house that looks like an old house. I want a house with back stairs, or a sleeping porch, or nooks and niches on stair landings. I love that kind of stuff.

Anyway, I have dreams of our next step and try to enjoy them while enjoying and working to be content where we are.

It’s amazing that, while I am introspective usually, I am much more so during this time of expecting a baby. There are the fears, of course, which I attempt to turn into prayers; but there are the wishes and the hopes of what I (we) will be able to accomplish with and for our child.

I have also really been convicted of how aloof I am. I have a wonderful church, with a wonderful church family, but I have been “content” (not really) for years to just float on the outskirts, pretending that it is everyone else’s “fault” that I don’t really know anybody, or its the fact that I wasn’t married yet, or then I didn’t have children yet, or whatever else I could think of. I used to be in the choir, but since having to work full time, I have not been able to go to rehearsal like I would like. I do work in the nursery periodically, so I have that, but I always work these days with someone that I already know. I love our church. I moved here to attend it. I want to be more enmeshed in it, to love its members as family, and to know them as such. I want more friends, because I need more friends, and also because I do not want to handicap my child because of my poor tendencies. I have prayed for opportunity and for the ability to recognize it when I see it, whether it be to just chat in a friendly way briefly in passing; or whether it be a chance to really minister to someone else. I do not want to be withdrawn anymore.

Well, this is not a very entertaining posting. It isn’t flashy with pictures and such, but it is true and where we are right now. I want to pretend that a million people have been missing me here, though I know I haven’t kept it up enough to have much of a following. However, that’s another thing I need to change.

Over and out for now.

~Mrs. B.

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Gotta get in gear . . .

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Jill

So, Mr. Black and I had big news almost two weeks ago when we discovered that in about nine months we would joined by a third member to our party. This news, of course, has set us in a topsy-turvy sort of spin–nicely, of course. We are overjoyed, but apprehensive, as changes will be presenting themselves daily.,

This has set many things in motion; one, being the finishing up of projects inside our little fixer-upper, so that we can move to the outside once spring hits. The thing is, spring is hitting today, and it is mid February. When it is warm in the morning, you know spring has sprung. Mr. B. has announced that he plans to finish the inside projects by the end of March. We discovered that the countertops we liked several months ago but were out of stock are now back in stock, so we plan to order them next week. My mom came last weekend and helped redo the tile on the bathroom floor. She got about half done, cut the pieces for me to do the rest of the edges and all I have to do to finish is basically adhere those to the floor and then do about two rows that require no cutting or anything difficult. I am wary of tiling the floor since I botched up the last session of it on this same bathroom. Demo was involved.

I am not much of a DIY-er. There. I admit it.

I am excited about my countertops. As soon as we can get the kitchen worked on, I imagine lots of baking and things of that sort. Good times.

Things I have observed as of late:

1. I had never heard of matcha powder until about a month ago. Now, with my subscription to Foodgawker, I read about matcha powder all the time.

2. Scones are delicious. Especially savory ones.

3. My weird pregnancy cravings: Buffalo chicken tenders or nuggets. It’s all I want to eat most of the time.

4. Scrolling through Foodgawker is not fun when you have morning sickness.

5. I’m writing a lot about food here.

6. My fingernails look terrible.

7. I need to go shopping for clothes.

8. I need to go shopping for shoes.

9. Those aren’t really observations–more like statements of fact.

10. Buffalo chicken sounds awfully yummy for lunch.

Something I’m really crazy about right now? Bunting. I want bunting everywhere. In my living room, in my office, in my kitchen, in the baby’s room. Bunting, bunting, bunting.

Like this:

Bunting and photo by Meg Deurksen, http://megduerksen.typepad.com/whatever/

The bunting makes me feel like everything’s a party.

I’m pretty creative, though my creativity has been a little stifled by life getting in the way (i.e. work, the house, etc.), but I have as yet to really make my way with a sewing machine. However, a few weeks ago, before I knew about the baby, or anything like that, I determined that I was going to carve a space out for myself at home to keep my “creative” stuff where I have easy access. I am currently working on a little corner for that very purpose, and I can’t wait to get it all set up. Journal, sewing machine, paints, camera, recipes that need to be filed–all of that will be right where I can get to it. I hope that will help me be more productive .

Anyway, enough of all this rambling. I have to go eat!

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Posted in Slapdash and tagged Around the house, baby, bunting, creativity, Kitchen, Renovating. Bookmark the permalink.

Dreaming of kitchens

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Jill

I like to cook. I am learning to like to bake. In our new house the kitchen is about three times as big as the kitchen in our old house, with lots of natural light.

These are good things.

However, the designer of this new kitchen did not really think about a cook’s needs when they mapped the whole thing out.

First of all, the sink is in the wrong spot. They have it almost in the absolute corner at one end of a counter. (The fact that the previous residents installed a dishwasher in the corner which opens directly under the sink doesn’t help.)

Secondly, there are not enough outlets at the counter. With mixers, coffee makers, food processors, toasters, etc. that all need to be plugged in, you gotsta have lots of outlets.

I think the kitchen needs a little island.

I think the kitchen needs to look like this:

Photo courtesy of The Lettered Cottage. (http://theletteredcottage.net/) I’ve found the knobs, so I’m pretty excited about that. I want a sink just like that one, but that will be difficult to find without paying muchos, muchos money. And, I might add, this kitchen is a local one, so it seems that it would just be regionally responsible to make mine look similar.

Looking at this picture makes me feel good. It makes me want to stand in there.

And over at {The Cottage Nest} (my link-er button is not working for some reason, so here is the site http://thecottagenest.blogspot.com) Jen is also dreaming of a white kitchen, and I thought I would make a little song because I felt inspired:

(To the tune of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”)

I’m dreaming of a white kitchen,

Just like the one I’ve never had,

Where the pots are shining,

And no one’s whining (what?),

And all the bacon’s in the pan . . .

Okay, it breaks down poetically after a few lines, but you get my thought . . .

Hey, I have a little blue glass bottle like the one on that shelf! I’m halfway there!

Hey, I like to drink PG Tips Tea! I’m halfway there!

(I don’t understand what is going on today with my stupid WordPress, but nothing is working right. Or it’s operator error, which I suppose could be possible.)

Anyway, these kitchens make me want to get in there and get my hands dirty, making scones like the ones I made the other night that were fabuloso (recipe and a photo coming) or cooking stock, or making my mom homemade oatmeal cream pies.

But first I have to get my hands dirty (literally) getting that place ship shape. Removing cabinets, moving them around, painting, moving the sink, putting in new countertops, installing a new floor, wiring . . . actually, Mr. Black is going to have to do a lot of that, but, well, I’ll be in the house when he’s doing it, managing the dogs, running for lunch food, that type of thing.

I’ll see if I can find some pictures that I’ve taken of the kitchen as it is now, so that when we get it the way we want it, there will be a comparison.

Until then, keep me in your prayers.

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Posted in The Renovation Chronicles and tagged Around the house, Coastal decor, Cooking, Kitchen, Renovating, White Kitchens. Bookmark the permalink.

A not so secret side

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Jill

I’m trying to be better about posting. I think I have an “eyes are bigger than my stomach” problem when it comes to blogging. I look at all the bigger, older kids and I get nervous, and think I need to be just like them, so I can’t post until I can be just like them.

Oh, the second guessing!

So silly. If no one reads, if two people read, if 1 bajillion people were to read, I gotta be meeeeeee, I gotta be meeeeee . . . .

Enough of that.

Anyway, I wanted to share with whomever might stumble across this mess something that is important to me.

The A-Team.

Yes, I said it. This pearls-wearing, apron-styling, biscuit baking housewife LOVES the A-Team.

I love this A-Team:

Image courtesy of www.discdish.com

And I love this A-Team:

Image courtesy of www.entertainmentwallpaper.com

Mr. Black gave me the DVD of the recent movie for Christmas. I have watched it, I think, 437.23 times since then.

My love began in the second grade, when I would watch the orignal tv show, then reenact the episode on the playground with some classmates. Now, I was not a tomboy AT ALL, but somehow these four little boys and I all discovered that we could play A-Team together and that would be all fun and stuff. We played A-Team on the merry go round, and on the slide, and on the swings, and in the big cement pipes that graced our school playground.

It was glorious, and dramatic, and wonderful.

I have this memory that we played A-Team, like, all school year. We probably didn’t. We probably played it a few times, but those few times have stuck with me.

They were the members of the A-Team, and I was the girl that they rescued in every episode, it seemed. So, I guess it wasn’t all that non-girly a role that I played, but here’s the thing: what I really wanted was to be a member of the team.

Let me shoot a gun, fly a plane, launch a grenade, punch somebody in the mouth! Let me have a turn!

Mr. B. teased me upon finding out my affection for the A-Team that I must have loved Faceman, but I said no, my favorite had always been Hannibal. He couldn’t believe it, but it is true. When I first saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s, my thought wasn’t “Hey, that’s George Peppard!” It was, “Hey, that’s Hannibal!” You see, Hannibal was the draw to watch one of the great classic films, oddly enough.

Mr. Neeson’s Hannibal is nothing to hiccup at either.

My frame of reference: First, the A-Team. THEN, anything else that those people were ever featured in.

Anyway, I feel a little lighter now that I’ve shared such a deep, dark, secret. (Not.)

Another facet to this old-fashioned girl.

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Catching Up

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Jill

So I have not been around here lately. I have not felt inspired to post anything. I’ve been feeling flumpish (yes, I said flumpish–it perfectly describes the feeling I have had).

Mr. Black and I had a lovely holiday season, though, truth be told, we were sickly through most of it. I went to my beautiful sister-in-law’s (and new brother-in-law’s) wedding on New Year’s Eve and was suffering from a horrible case of laryngitis. At the moment of the New Year when I was trying to well-wish my family members, I couldn’t speak, and my larynx and esophagus were hurting badly. Not good for a singer. Not good for anybody.

You can see the pics of the wedding here. Tres cool and beautiful.

And needless to say, since I’ve been starting to feel well again, I am horribly afraid of catching anything.

Did I mention I was sick on my birthday in December?

I was sick on my birthday in December. Blick.

Did I mention I was sick the day after Christmas with a fever?

Yes. Double blick.

God bless the Purell manufacturers. And Lysol. And Clorox. And the makers of Sani-Wipes that we have here at work.

Moving on from that troubling subject, I have to mention some important family members:

This is Donner Jerrold Black, Esquire. He is not smart, but he is very sweet. And smelly. No, he is not named for the reindeer, but for the Norse god of thunder for whom the reindeer was also named. Sometimes I wish he could fly as can said reindeer.

This is “poor” Donner with Mr. B., a.k.a., Daddy.

Donner had a horrible hematoma in his left ear. It cost Mr. B. and me a pretty penny to have it fixed last Friday, and it is horrible and graphic. I will absolutely not describe it.

Here is Donner on this past Saturday, the day after surgery:

He only wanted to be at Daddy’s feet. Very pitiful. He got lots of treats.

There is another family member that very much needs to be mentioned. Our newest.

Please forgive the skewed focus. I am not a great photographer . . . yet.

This is Roxanne Blitzen Black, a.k.a. Roxie, and she is our new girl, and we cannot imagine ever not having had her.

Anyway, this was Saturday morning, and my little bird had to help Momma carry in the breakfast, and the girls must wear aprons when they do this important work, so she wore her own.

Sometimes, she gets hurt feelings.

Like when there is dinner cooking and maybe she might not get a crumb, Momma.

She gets lots of crumbs.

Anyway, I love doggie muzzles and I wanted pictures of noses and lips and teeth, so we had a mini photo session in the pretty afternoon Saturday.

Anywho, an update and doggies. Happy Wednesday!

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Long, long ago

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Jill

I have not posted in a long time for many ~~excuses~~ reasons.

1. Traveling

2. Thanksgiving

3. Traveling

4. The House Renovation that is–well, let’s be positive and say we have made a little progress.

5. Sickness for both Mr. Black and me.

6. Christmas shopping

Now that we’ve cleared the air with that, let me offer my apologies to anyone, even the very few of you who might happen upon this little ole’ blog and wonder why in the world someone is taking up domain space and not writing anything.

Life gets in the way, and sometimes I am not confident enough to write about it.

Or organized enough.

Anyway, we will do better on our end, and hope that many visits will come from yours.

Updates from the homefront

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Jill

1. The bath~~room~~ tub is grouted, and almost all the way caulked. We can finally (at least) take a bath at our own house.

Small victories, folks. We’re all about the small victories.

2. We set up our table and have eaten two meals not sitting on our bed in the bedroom.

3. Mr. Black mudded the drywall in our living room.

4. Mr. Black also put more stuff in the attic.

(Nothing reminds you of the burden of having earthly possessions like moving to a new house and trying to find a place to put everything.)

(This does not mean we will throw away most of those possessions.)

5. I’m ignoring the bathroom floor at present.

6. The kitchen is the scene of a nuclear blast, I think. The sink went from having a slow running drain, to a no running drain, and the dishwasher will also not drain water, so it started dripping out the front until someone was smart enough to turn it off.

7. I want to unpack my great-grandmother’s dishes and put them away.

8. Where will I put them?

9. What was I saying about earthly possessions?

10. If someone can keep our laundry and dirty dish situation in their prayers, we would be eternally grateful.

The Gasman Has Cometh, and Mr. Black Saves the Day

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Jill

We waited for a few weeks to have our gas turned on in the new house, all the while shivering now that days and nights have gotten cooler down here in Gawgia.

The Gasmen cameth last week, turned on the gas, then announced, “You have a leak, but it could be anywhere, and we have other jobs to do, and we can’t find it for you, so you’re going to not have gas until you can find the leak, and we’re putting a valve on there so you can turn it back on once you’ve plugged your leak yourselves. Good day.”

We were feeling a little deflated.

However, Mr. Black crawled under the house (under which the term “tight fit” is an extreme understatement), battled holy smokes kind of closterphobia, and found the leak, and capped it.

So now we have heat, and the ability to cook.

I love my husband!

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Mrs. Black

Back in the Saddle and a Drawring

Trying to change

Long, long ago

Gotta get in gear . . .

Dreaming of kitchens

A not so secret side

Catching Up

Long, long ago

Updates from the homefront

The Gasman Has Cometh, and Mr. Black Saves the Day

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