Today was a “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” kind of day. If you’re not familiar with the book, you will be when I get finished with this post. Because … I started out thinking I’d change my purse over to my travel purse in preparation for my trip on Friday. I went into the closet in our room and got my purse and wallet that I use when I travel (light, goes across my chest, RFID protected) and then stopped on the way to the dining room table to put in a load of laundry. Got the laundry put in and while I was adding the soap, I decided I’d wipe off the water heater on top of which it sits. Went to get the Clorox wipes and wiped it off and then decided I should also clean off the burner because every time I shake out clean laundry it touches the burner and gets dusty. Back into the bathroom for another Clorox wipe (three trips actually) before the burner is clean. Meanwhile I decided to empty the trash in the laundry room and sweep the floor … at least where I can reach. So I dumped the trash, and saw that one of my orchids was looking really droopy.

I got some newspaper out of the recycle bin and laid it out on the island in the kitchen to check the orchid’s planting medium and found it very compacted and very wet. Orchids don’t like wet feet. I pulled the moss off the top and found more moss underneath. One of the two orchids was completely dead. The second one, with two flower spikes, was not looking good – the roots were all rotting. I went out to the boat house to get the planting medium and repotted the orchid; carefully removing all the compacted moss from between the roots and cutting off the rotten roots, rinsing the roots off so they’re clean and ready to breathe. And I realized that the only good pot I had was in use. I got “Helen’s orchid” out of the dry sink, took the plastic pot out of the decorative pot and then moved “Helen’s orchid” into the decorative pot. I used the plastic pot for “Kate’s orchid” and got both orchids repotted, fed them some orchid food and gave them a light spray in the kitchen sink. And then back to the laundry room with the trash can and got the broom to sweep the floor. But there were paper bags stuck way in the back corner behind a piece of plywood that’s supposed to be on the wall covering wires that never got returned to its spot. I took the plywood out, finagled the paper bags out of the corner, and swept the floor as best as I can. I also noticed that the walls were spider webby and needed a bit of a clean so I got my mop out and gave the walls a good “dust” and then Swiffer dusted the pipes and connections (it was time after ten years.) The curtain that I made ten years ago also needed a good clean. I took it down, washed the window inside and out and tossed the curtain into the laundry pile.

Meanwhile, I’d washed and dried and folded a couple loads of laundry and put in a third. I moved hubby’s painting stuff for work, the piece of plywood and two buckets and scrub brushes that belong out in the woodshed out on the porch with the full bag of trash that needed swapping after adding all the moss from the repotting adventure. I put the new kitchen trash bag in and then emptied our bathroom trash because the Clorox wipes bother my allergies. Noticed that my lemon trees in the bedroom window was droopy and took them into the bathroom to water and then, of course, I needed to clean the sinks with more Clorox wipes. I hammered a couple of nails into the laundry room wall for my duster and my window squeegee and tossed in the final laundry load, took the dog out and toasted a bagel for lunch.

And all of this got done and my travel purse and wallet are still on the dining room table with my purse. I’ll change it over tomorrow. Now it’s time to sit and knit.

Postscript: After my hubby got home, I finished vacuuming the second floor, emptied the trash upstairs and brought down the towels I used for dusting the guest room (finally). I still need to wash the glass fish vase that lives upstairs and I’ve taken apart the curtain for the laundry room window. I need to re-work it because it’s not going back on the tension rod. Tomorrow I’ll run the errands I was going to run today. Ha! Ha! Ha! But after yesterday’s fiasco, I’m happy to be drama-free today and nothing was burned.

Gone knitting!