Eating with the Family and Just A Thought

Recently during my break from blogging I gave some very, very serious thought about giving up my blog. It takes a lot of time for one thing but there were several other things I considered also. I don't have a great following like some do. But some who have thousands of followers are rather quite boring in my opinion, i.e. there are some who rarely blog even with several thousand bloggers and when they do it's maybe once a week or they don't give much thought to their blogs just posting the same "event" over and over and over each week without any thought as to the people reading it, or something like that. I truly don't waste my time following them and only occasionally look at their blogs when I'm at another blog and they recommend going to that blog for something interesting. But it's their blog and they can do with it as they wish and I'd never discourage that. Mine is probably boring to a lot of people also. Of course, there are those blogs that do nothing but whine about their lives. I've stopped reading those as I can't stand whiners. Your life is what you make it! Grow up.

I'm enjoying Pinterest and pinning there, so I thought I'd do that instead of blogging. It takes much less time to pin an image and since I've only been doing it for 6 months and have over 6,200 followers to see the 10,000 images I've already posted there and post several more each day that would be a lot easier to maintain as beautiful images are what I love the most as they are truly candy for my eyes. I'm very visual.

Then, as I was giving it a lot of thought on quitting blogging, I remembered that I love it. I miss it when I take a break. I enjoy reminiscing about things in my life and that hit me mostly because of my daughter's visit this past weekend and how we laughed and talked about some old memories, not many, but a few. Her hubby laughed at the dynamics of this family and just kept shaking his head. We're a very interesting family with a very interesting dynamic that intensifies when at least 2 of us are together. (Drives the hubbies to distraction but who cares.) I wish some of you could be around when that happens as you'd just stare at us in awe—look up the true meaning of that word; it isn't what most people think it is and use it inappropriately 90% of the time. (I learned that in 10th grade English class by a very wise teacher.) We yell at each other in a loving way. We're boisterous (look up that word also as it definitely applies to us in the proper way of using it). We are absolutely funny. But we're also a loving family although we don't exhibit it as much as some families. There was also an event that just about tore us apart, but it will be rectified in the coming days. But that's the way families are.

So my decision is to keep it up for as long as I feel it's appropriate for me. Yes, I absolute LOVE blogging and I sincerely hope I bring pleasure, a bit of humor and interesting family stories to all of you.
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A dinner with friends a while back brought up the subject of bars for eating, the counter top kind, I mean. They said that's where they eat all the time. I told them we took out the original bar in our house and had it walled in separating the kitchen from our living room. I wanted the extra wall space and don't like people entering our house to see into our kitchen, plus the smells of cooking permeate easier. I like it much better. They were abhorred at that. I told them that people sitting at a bar can't converse well and the stools would have been in our living room. Ain't happening in this house! How in the world can a family sit side-by-side like that when eating? Conversation would be stilted as you couldn't see the person unless you looked over the other person.

There was a General Conference talk years ago at our church about the decisions that are made in a family are generally made around the proverbial "kitchen table". What has happened to our families who eat in a straight line without chatting about the days activities across from each other? I just don't get that concept. I want my family around the old-fashioned kitchen table looking and talking to each other. I think the kitchen table is extremely important to our society.
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I love this tablecloth and think I'll make one someday. Adorable.

A stunning small living room made gorgeous with its colors.

This gentleman must love gardening...and he has his own well. Beautiful garden.

Susan Rios is absolutely my favorite artist. Her paintings appeal and speak to my heart. She's a kind person also and her granddaughter, Rosie, the subject of some of her paintings, is a U.S. Marine. Need I say more!

Loving the stripes and flowers together in this room.

An arbor we all wish we had. I could have one, but then the smell of territorial bloom of testosterone from hubby talking about how HE would make it for me would quench the desire quickly, and since he does enough for me, I don't have the heart to ask him to do this.

An ideal afternoon party with cool fruit, cakes and beverages in lovely bottles. I love beverages in glass bottles as they are colder than the one in cans.

A very clever way to store extra bath items.

A long stool in a gorgeous pattern provides extra seating without the cost of extra chairs.

All of my clothespins are decorated. I think this is washi tape, which is adorable on the clothespins.

Another gorgeous way to decorate a small dining area in a kitchen.

Gorgeous roses.

Another room typifying American cottage style.

A beautiful decanter.

This dramatic living room is actually very simple but packs a lot of pizzazz with only color. Gorgeous!

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Tidbit:
A homing pigeon became a star after completing a 3,321 mile journey across the Atlantic.
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