Ponderings - with pictures!

I know some of these I'd already posted on Facebook, but thought I'd actually get around to providing a few pics of real life at our house :)

• Earlier this month, Hermine was a little tropical depression that we weren't paying much attention to - and then overnight it worked its way up to Hurricane Status. We pretty much had a direct hit from Alex back in July, but no "real" damage on our property. Well, Hermine left her mark by taking a tree down in our backyard, landing less than a foot from a large window. So thankful that it didn't damage our house - and also praising God because it was a tree we wanted to take down anyway, and this method is much cheaper ;)
• I'm still missing many things about Pennsylvania, including the hydrangeas planted all along the back of the house. I broke down and actually bought some fresh ones a couple weeks ago, and now have this dried one hanging in my kitchen.
• Our daughter is fully recovered, and thankfully no one else got sick. The day that she was home from school (and was up in her room playing Polly Pockets) she decided that her hair really should be more lustrous, so found some Vaseline (which I didn't even know we had!) and proceeded to add it to her hair. Shiny? Yes. Attractive? Not so much. I googled for the best solution, and most sites suggested using cornstarch. It took several treatments, but her hair is back to normal now.
• I'm so thankful to have a handy hubby! I have a closet (past my laundry hallway) that I use for extra food storage. The shelves were quite far apart, though, so I would stack things up, they'd fall over, I'd get frustrated when I couldn't find something so would just buy another can/bag of whatever even though I *knew* I had it somewhere. Well, this past weekend we emptied it all out and he added extra shelves for me! Hooray! It's really full right now (but hey, that just means less to buy in the next month or two!) but it feels so great to have it organized.
• Piles. I hate 'em. This is what my kitchen table looked like last night. There were the few remaining items to be put away, combined with fliers, school info, bills to be paid, etc. Organization is such a struggle for me, and I know all the shtuff stresses me out. I'm trying very hard to reduce the flow coming into the house (removing our name from mailing lists and really thinking about purchases rather than impulsively throwing things into the cart, for starters) but there's no way I can stop it all. Continuing to struggle in this area, but making progress.
• Lastly, this is my snazzy new polish. Nope, it wasn't an impulse buy - it was my celebration for losing 10 pounds! (much better choice than ice cream, LOL) Silly, yes, but my toenails now project a bit of sassiness... and well, it was on sale AND I had a coupon :)