GRATITUDES:
1. The smell of coffee in the early morning
2. That spot of late afternoon sunlight flickering on the kitchen wall that only appears in the summertime.
3. The smell of the plants in our front yard: santolina, Copper Canyon daisy, rockrose, Cleveland sage, lemongrass

Yep, I live by my nose some days. Those plants I mentioned above are guaranteed to put a smile on my face. I’ll gently rub their leaves and then just stand there and inhale the fragrance on my hands. Pure bliss! Best of all, the deer leave them alone. Too stinky. Win-win!😄

Today will be a busy one so I’m trying to knock out a post now in the morning before I dive into my chores. Tonight is Movie Night so we’ve got a lot to do in the house and out on the back patio. We haven’t done any real housecleaning in… well, an embarrassingly long time, and it shows. We’ve got roving packs of feral dust bunnies colonizing our tile floors and you can write your name on just about every surface in the house. I’ll have to put the critters to work to help me, there’s just no way I can finish all of it on my own. Thankfully, one critter already cleaned the second bathroom, so that’s one less task to deal with. Yay!

Right. I’m completely wiped. It’s after 6pm and this is the first chance I’ve had to pause for a bit and put my feet up. Feeties huuuuurrrtt. I’m pretty chuffed with the amount I got done though. The kitchen, dining room, entry hall, and kids’ bathroom floors are now swept and mopped, the toilets are clean (oh dear Lord you do NOT want to know about the guest toilet), the guacamole is chilling in the fridge, all happy, tasty and full of itself, and now we await our guests. Not many folks are showing up, mostly some friends of the critters, but it should still be an enjoyable evening. We’re showing “Labyrinth” so we’ll all be geeking out on the strong 80s David Bowie vibes.😄

Oh yeah… The next time Basil tells me they’ve cleaned the bathroom I’m going to check before I take their word for it. I think they wiped down the counter (sort of) and cleaned the mirror, but that was it. The sinks were a disaster and I’ve already alluded to the state of the toilet, not to mention the floor, which was fuzzy with hair. Eewww! Both critters shed as badly as the cats and Lauren’s incredibly long hair forms killer dust bunnies that, I swear, reach out and try to kill you.