Seagulls in Flight by frances robson

Good evening, ya'll. Come on in but watch out for the mess for the kitchen is under construction and I am not having fun. I wish I was with the seagulls and could fly, fly away across the ocean for this is hard and I don't like "hard." Making decisions is not my forte.

Picking paint, tile, counter tops and other decisions is not easy for me. Mama could look at a room and see in her mind what needed to be done, what was needed and what would match and look good together. On the other hand, I pour over magazines, books about kitchens, paint samples, tile samples and all that other stuff and still can't see it in my mind. I have to go on instinct and hope I'm right. Thank goodness I have our builder and his wife who have excellent taste and know what will look good and are willing to make suggestions. I am looking forward to having a new kitchen but wish I could go to the beach and fly with the seagulls until it is done.

We are also discovering that you can eat pretty well if you have a microwave. There seem to be several good frozen meals you can just steam in the microwave and they taste fairly good but I will be glad to be able to cook on a stove again and having and oven will be great. Isn't it interesting that you don't miss things until you don't have them.

Have ya'll noticed how many cleaning and personal items are now available you can toss when used? I bought some cleaning items today and I mop and toss, dust and toss, use a salad bowl - toss, eat off a plate- toss and I got spoons and forks to use and toss. Now we don't usually eat off of disposable plates and silverware but these are the times which try my soul so throw-away is necessary now. I can just hear daddy telling me now that is wasting money for he would wash plastic plate, spoons and forks if I didn't get them in the trash can first.

When we were growing up we didn't ever use paper plates and stuff and mama and daddy used everything at least twice. I can remember when aluminum foil first became available and it was rather expensive so you know what mama did - you used it, washed and dried it and used again and again until it was slap worn out. It seemed to have been thicker way back then for it didn't tear easily and you could use it several times before tossing.

There was also no plastic bags to store food in and you used glass bowls or jars and washed them and reused them again. You covered everything in waxed paper for saran wrap had not been invented and she did toss that after using it. I wonder now how we cooked, and stored without aluminum foil, saran wrap and plastic bags. It's amazing what we take for granted now.

Now my daughter and niece make fun of me for saving my plastic bags, washing them and drying them and reusing them. Like mama, I just don't see any reason not to use them more than once for that is wasting money. I do toss them if they had raw meat in them so I am not totally stupid- just stingy.

We also use cloth napkins, not paper for now you can get the ones you don't have to iron and that saves a chunk of money and using dishcloths not sponges are healthier for you. Do you know how many germs set up housekeeping in a sponge? I do pop it in the dishwasher but still feel like the little rascals are living in those nooks and crannies of the sponges. I really like using dish clothes for they seem to clean better anyway and you can toss it in the washing machine.

I am finding that more and more younger women are turned off by throwing away everything. Many of them are becoming more conscious of how much we throw away and are beginning to use less of these items. In fact, in looking at the shops on Etsy it amazes me of what you can buy to save money and resources.

You can purchase reusable sandwich bags, lunch bags, cloth diapers, crocheted and knitted dishcloths. Some of the most unusual are the swifter sweeper cloths which are made to use, wash, dry and reuse. Why bother buying a swifter if you are going to keep on having to wash the cloths, why not use a regular mop.

Then there are the washable intimate pads that women have to have. I can't imagine washing and reusing those things. You can take this too far and that is just too far. There are just some things that need to be thrown away.

Saving money is good and I am glad that many of the younger people are beginning to realize that you don't have to throw away everything. It's interesting to observe the younger generation wake up and smell the money they can save.

Well, I have rambled enough for tonight and I am tired and tomorrow is another day of decisions. Have to try to get those paint people to get the shade of paint I want and try to figure out how to trim my back splash tile on the edges. There seems to be something called a bull nosed tile that you put on the edges and there are none to match my tile so I am going to have to be inventive. Ya'll pray for me, OK?

Be careful going home and ya'll come back to see me and maybe I can locate a tea pitcher and make some iced tea.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach