Slowly getting back to the new normal...

What a beautiful Sunday morning!  I had barely gotten used to my new home when I headed to Brazil, since being home I have had three wonderful days to focus on making this house my home.  I am still pressed for time, will be until after the role out of our last new system in mid-August.

This morning I am sitting out on my deck, it truly is like a tree house (as my daughter calls it), surrounded by trees and my mini-garden.  No veggies this year, just ferns and flowers.  Realizing that as much as I love the miniature sunflowers that I have around the deck, I won't put them in next year.  Evidently the squirrels and chipmunks love them as much as I do.  A pair of squirrels are impatiently watching for me to go inside as I type.

The steamy mid-west humidity hasn't set in yet today, so I am going to treasure this morning.  Reset my mind and relax for a few minutes with my coffee.

Hubby decided we needed to celebrate my birthday a day early... he is famous for that.  I wanted to wait, but how do you tell a guy that's just fixed you a nice hot tub, coffee with buffalo trace, a candle and your favorite country station standing there with an impish smile and two beautifully wrapped bags no?  Answer, you don't!

My wall of treasures... one a gift from my girl, one a gift from my hubby and the rest - gifts to myself!

He's was worried that tomorrow would get crazy and we would not have time to celebrate, likely sure... the actual reason - NO!  He is so funny about presents and celebrations, he cannot wait.  It's cute.

It's going to be a busy day and I really should have already accomplished more than I have, but that tub felt amazing on my sore leg.  The flight from Rio to Atlanta was too many hours of not being able to move, but it's almost back to normal.

I am hoping to finally get the dining room set finished - or at least the tables and chairs.  And get at least one of the two hutches finished.  My goal is to have both houses where they need to be by Labor Day... my confidence factor might be a bit high, but we'll see. We made amazing progress yesterday, almost completing one full room.  And we managed to empty almost the entire main floor of our old house.

She haz box, she sits! 

I am truly ready to have just one house to manage - not sure how people with multiple homes manage, because this is making me so tired! I am not OCD - that would be the girl, but I am a very linear thinker.  I need things to go from A - Z, I can handle change, but I do best when things are completed before something else pops up.  So having all this unfinished around me is feeling a bit stressful.

Now she has a basket so she sleeps.... funny kitty

While I was gone my girl painted large portions of my downstairs - it looks fantastic!  Before I left her and I fell in love with this rich brown paint, I am so in love with it now, that there are not words!  It's rich, warm and inviting!  All the things I love about her house, I now have in mine.  I am an earth tone person.  I have a new favorite room in my house.  My family room.  It's so... perfect! Ignore the trim work that isn't done... I am being good and not interrupting the artists work!

I also need to find a space to start working on a baby quilt.  Before the little one makes his appearance! Maybe today I will at least bring over my quilting machine, if not the whole system, because I am definitely going to need to get busy.  I have a couple of weeks... maybe... those first ones are so unpredictable!

Well, my two little squirrels are getting even more impatient, and more poor sunflowers are going to be ravaged yet again... So I'd better get busy, darn chairs won't stain and wax themselves and the boxes didn't unpack without my help either... so much for magical elves, but then I'm not a shoemaker...

Time to stop watching butterflies and humming birds and work...