As I've mentioned before, I love to rearrange and make an old space new again.  At the beginning of the summer, I had the bright idea that I'd do that with our school room. This room is actually our sun porch and serves many purposes.  One side is for Emma (age 2 1/2).  All of her toys, books and bed are here because it's just off of our bedroom. 

First of all, I decided to strip the wood floors.  They're pine and had several layers of white paint on them.  I alloted myself 1 week for floors.  I must have been dreaming!!  2 months later and I was finally finished. (Not all of this time was spent working.  2 of the girls had a fever for a couple of days then a stomach virus plowed through the whole family.) I went through several cans of stripper and lots and lots of sand paper.  I ended up doing a light "pickling" to cover some of the blemishes in the wood.  You do this by diluting your white paint with water.  I did this in a small plastic bucket.  You want it pretty thin.  Then, take a cotton cloth, dip a corner in the paint and rub on the floor.  Immediately, take another clean, damp cloth and wipe the excess paint away.  Then I completed it with several coats of poly.  I'm pleased with how it turned out, but I would NEVER do this again.  LOL!

Next, I moved to the walls.  I wasn't going to paint, but then decided to go ahead and tackle it.  We chose a pretty green.  I even let the girls help a bit.  I also freshened up the trim with some new shiny white paint.  WE have 10 windows and french doors in the room.  The green paint makes you feel like the whole room is part of the outdoors.

I also decided to make table cloths for the school tables.  I used white denium trimmed with pale pink pom poms.  I covered the whole thing with thick plastic, so I don't end up washing them everyday.  I was going to make cushions for the chairs, but then came across these at Target (my favorite store).  I made the chair back covers from coordinating cloth napkins.  The rug in the center of the room is part of this whole "Simply Shabby Chic" collection.  Usually I never find anything to match.

We finished off the room with new organizers for the table tops and little rolling carts with drawers to sit beside the tables.  After washing all of the windows, dusting all of the books and putting them back on the shelves, we're finally finished.  We're all extremely pleased with the finished project.  It made the new school year even nicer to start off with a clean, fresh, "new" room.

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  This morning my kitchen smells fabulous!  I just finished making some pickled okra.  The scent of dill and garlic is still lingering in the air.  This is my first time to make pickled okra.  I grew up eating it almost daily!  We had a huge garden every year.  The okra that mom didn't fry ended up being pickled.  I absolutely love it!  Why I haven't made it sooner, I don't know.  It's so easy.  The only hard part is waiting for it to "pickle."    Here's the recipe I used:

2 lbs small fresh okra

9 small fresh hot peppers, your choice

9 garlic cloves

3 Tablespoons dill seeds

4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)

4 cups water

1/2 cup salt

1/4 cup sugar

1.  Pack okra in 9 hot pint jars filling to 1/2 inch from top.

2.  Place1 hot pepper, 1 garlic clove, and 1 teaspoon dill into each jar.

3.  Bring the vinegar and remaining 3 ingredients to a boil; pour over okra filling to 1/2 inch from the top.  Remove any air bubbles.

4.  Wipe the jar rims and cover at once with the metal lids and screw on bands.

5.  Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

My friend says they have to "pickle" for 10 days before opening.

Yesterday we did my other favorite vegetable- sweet corn!  One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting in the back yard with my parents and my Granny doing corn.  I would eat and eat corn.  Mom would always say, "you're going to have a stomach ache eating all of that corn!"  I never did!

This year was time to make some new memories.  Granny's no longer with us, but I sure felt her presence yesterday.  I know she was looking down from heaven smiling as she watched my 3 girls shucking corn.  We sat on the side porch of the barn with a fan blowing to keep us cool.  Corn silks were flying everywhere!  I blanch my corn for about 5 minutes.  We have a huge pot and gas cooker.  It was so nice because I could blanch a whole bushel at a time.  As soon as it had cooled, Emma (2 1/2) had an ear in her hand, chewing away!  I let her eat until she was full!  No, she hasn't had a stomach ache!

We put bag after bag into the freezer and even had enough to share with friends.  Last night we had a big pan of creamed corn.  It was delicious.  There's nothing like fresh veges!  The only thing better is the time spent with my girls, talking, laughing, and sharing-making our own memories.

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