the cleaning ritual continues...

It's 10:15 PM. I've taken to writing my recent posts sitting in my bed with DH snoring and 2 cats cuddled close by.  I usually read at this time... and may still do so in a little while. And since I no longer have a laptop and the only tablet I own is an old Nook Color... this leaves my trusty iPhone4 to write on. The keypad is a bit small for general writing, but it works.

We finished cleaning what *used to be* the dining room today (Sat).  It's now the game-room for the grandkids. It has a bay window with a window-seat... and we washed the windows inside and out... not to mention the Plantation blinds that cover the panes, and the ceiling fan. Only thing left to do in there is to go through the glass encased bookshelves and clean them out. They have accumulated too much junk among the toys, books, and games. But this will take a day in itself...

Tomorrow we tackle our bedroom.Once it's gotten a thorough going over, we plan to start looking for the right paint.  It has a multiple recessed ceiling - at least I think that's what it's called (see pic below). We don't plan to paint that... just the walls.

our crazy recessed ceiling

And if you'll notice the windows on the sides of the bed... they have white Plantation shutters... (I think I mentioned this before) but my friend and I are working on quilted valences to match the quilt she made for me last year.  It's not on this bed now as the bed is generally covered in cats... and I'm trying to *keep it safe* as long as possible (if you have cats, you know what I mean... they are prone to upchucks, shedding and general clawing - basically hard on furniture and fabrics - but we love them so we endure!)

Since it's now Sunday and I'm continuing this post after cleaning the bedroom, I'm pretty exhausted.  Didn't get my nap today, but should sleep well tonight.  Most of the downstairs is now thoroughly cleaned (except for Master Bath and Closet... which I left to almost last as we need to go through there carefully and throw things out... or give them away. We should have a ton of stuff for Salvation Army or The Kidney Foundation. There are clothes in there that neither of us have worn in years.

I did take the time this morning to make DH some blueberry scones. Hadn't made these in a while and had come across a recipe that was a little different than my normal one. They were good... and we ate them of course, but we both prefer the old recipe.

One of Shiney's kittens

And Shiney's kittens are getting big! They are coming to the back now. I'm hoping to get them friendly, but we don't stay outside long these days as the mosquitoes are really bad (and West Nile virus is still a prob).

The mama raccoon that has the 2 kits (we have one that has 5, and one that has 2) came by yesterday and her kits were enjoying the water bath.  We used to fill up the larger pool, but found that they preferred the smaller tubs.  We had originally used these as large water bowls, but now we just added another - and they can use them for whatever.

BTW, my BRAC1/BRAC2 genetic testing came back *negative*.  This is good news!