Your mission: operation beautiful

Yesterday, Scooter and I got up early so we could lounge about with our coffee and breakfast, and just enjoy each other's company. It had been a long two weeks with having to deal with my mother's illness, but things are nearly back to what's normal for her, and she should be able to return to work within the next few days, taking it slow of course. Back to Scooter and I....we always have the best conversations! I have never met someone so knowledgeable about so many things. I swear the man could probably tell you the wing span of a certain type of moth. If you don't accept losing a game easily, then I wouldn't challenge him to a game of Trivial Pursuit, unless you're just aiming to broaden your information bank. I got off track here.....during the course of our conversation, we decided we should go take a look at some new furniture. One of our favorite places to go is IKEA. That place is the Disneyland of furniture, storage solutions, kitchen gadgets, linens, appliances. You name it, it's got it! My favorite part is seeing how they take a mere 362 square feet and turn it into a functional, attractive, and liveable space. Granted, in some of them, you would have to be a member of the Littles family (children's book), but what an incentive to keep yourself in good shape so you don't outgrow your living space! We have yet to leave empty handed, and the first piece of furniture on our agenda was a new dresser, or chest of drawers, whichever appealed to us for the guest room. As we were looking at different bedroom suites, I noticed what I thought were some cute (ok, maybe that's not the word a guy would use) nightstand tables that would fit in our room. The fronts of them had doors on them and when I opened one of them, I saw a sticky note someone had placed...that would be it up above.

What a fun discovery! I looked around to see if anyone had been watching me and it didn't appear so. Scooter asked me what I was saying "Oh WOW" about? I showed him the note and then explained to him about the movement I discovered a couple of weeks ago called "Operation Beautiful", and how it worked. I never expected to find one of these...and especially so quickly after learning about it!!! It definitely made me smile! I had been meaning to put a pad of sticky notes in my purse to join in, and just hadn't done it yet. I will be doing that today!

Anyway, this is the chest of drawers we came home with (picture below). This one is pictured in black, but we got it in white. We're pretty impressed with the quality of construction. It didn't seem any different in materials and workmanship as the pieces we saw at R.C. Willey's that were $200 - $300. more. Two weeks ago, we purchased two of these bookcases to go on either side of our fireplace. I love them!!! They have a real cottage-y feel to them, which is actually the look I was going after in our livingroom.
We completed all of our chores yesterday before we went shopping, so this morning, Scooter was able to pursue his hobby by going out to the firing range of the gun club he belongs to and killing some paper targets. It's perfect because it gives me a chance to nurse the head cold I woke up with this morning (hmmm...caught at the hospital maybe?), as well as enjoy some knitting time with my coffee. I'm working on some squares I have volunteered to knit for a friend's longtime companion that has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in both lungs. The squares will be joined to make an afghan for her, and every single one of them comes from the heart!

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of spending the day with two of my youngest grandbabies. While they are very busy little guys, I have to say it occurred to me that I had reached a point of contentment. By that, I mean to say that in the past, mainly in my forties, I was constantly thinking of things I needed to get done when the grandchildren visited. Those 'things' nagged at me constantly. Now, in my fifties, they don't seem important at all and I spent the time on Friday just playing, holding, and not worrying about what needed to get done. It all could wait until the next day, including my knitting. It was so fun watching them explore all the new things we have added to our home since they were last over, and once it warmed up, we even ran through the sprinkler in the backyard together. Their little giggles, the little arms around my neck, and their little kisses made me forget about anything else, because these are the things that I WANT to get done...making memories with them is now the most important thing in my life!!!

Have a safe and happy weekend...especially if you're in the U.S. where it's a holiday weekend!