WHERE AM I?

Just thought I'd let everyone checking out this blog of mine, that I am on a temporary leave of absence for three weeks (for this blog that is), while I travel to Joplin, Missouri to volunteer in the tornado relief efforts. In the meantime, take a look at my Joplin blog.

http://theresalandthativeheardof.blogspot.com

I'll be returning around the 10th of July. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer

HOW TO USE THE WORD "SHARDS" IN A SENTENCE!

This morning I was picking up clutter in the back entry and wiping off fingerprints on the kitchen door when it hit me that I have almost forgotten about the lack of glass in said window. And don't get me started on the ever-present fingerprints in my house..... that's another blog in itself!  NOTE TO SELF:  replace glass before winter rolls around again.

~ this is the back entryway looking toward the kitchen ~

Let's go back 6 months. Reminisce with me. We had just been living in the new house a couple weeks and the boys and I were on our way out the back door to go to their Boy Scout meeting. On the way out, Spencer shut the interior kitchen door..... the one with the window in it. What was that noise? Oh, the sound of breaking glass. Seems the motion of shutting it too fast for an old door caused the lower left corner to crack and break some glass out..... also sending a long crack all the way to the top. We picked up the glass that had fallen out on the floor and off we went to scouts. Two hours later, we walked back into the house and having momentarily forgotten about it, there was the broken window to greet us. Of course everyone had to leave their shoes on when we got home because you never know how far glass will travel when shattering out of a window. It was close to bedtime when we got home from scouts but I couldn't just leave the huge jagged pieces hanging there in the window, in differing degrees of attachment (todays made up phrase).

~ the windowless door seven months later ~

What to do? Gotta break it all out I guess. It was going to take some work. So I got a towel and had to go to the neighbor to borrow some duct tape to hold the towel in front of the window. I still didn't have all the important things at hand since the move. Found the hammer but it took a little courage to start hitting. A little tap.... nothing. OK then, maybe try a firm, well -placed tap....and there goes a tiny little piece about the size of a matchbox. Stand back boys, mom's gonna put some wrist action into it. Wham and crash..... there goes a chunk. With each hit, more fell to the floor and with each piece that fell, the glass under it broke into smaller and smaller pieces.

~ lovely damage to the door ~

Now once the glass had all fallen out, there were many small pieces still embedded into the window frame. I had to hack and chisel away at that for about an hour. When all was finally free of the window, I looked behind the door and there in the corner were hundreds of SHARDS of glass. At this point it was midnight and do you think my sleeping brain could figure out where to find the dust pan. OK, several minutes later I found it in the bedroom that I had decided to demolish the previous week..... which all started when I lifted up some carpet and then just kept going. Anyway, with dustpan, broom, and vacuum finally at my disposal, I had to begin project Hazmat. By 12:15 a.m. I was taking a drawer full of glass..... SHARDS of glass, out to the garage. A pile of shimmering shards.

If I remember correctly, I had planned to go to bed early that night, magazine in hand, as I had just the day before gotten the mattress off the floor (I am so happy to have children..... young men..... who can put things like bed frames together). But isn't a magazine a bit boring when you can be having fun with glass mosaics......SHARDLY!