Muscadines!

Salaam ya'll! There was a muscadine vine here when we moved in. They are indigenous to the southern US and are like grape's wild cousin. Most people here make jam or wine with them. I am going to try my hand at some refrigerator jam (doesn't have to be pressurized but only lasts a week or two) because the deer have eaten most of them! However I did manage to pick several handfuls today, about 3/4 pound I believe. Look how beautiful the colors are!

Oh and we have a voluntary tomato plant growing by our front door which has yielded 2 tiny tomatoes. :) It is a miniature tomato plant apparently and it either grew from the previous owner throwing a tomato out by her door or she planted it. Either way, there are several more ready to ripen and they are totally organic as we use no fertilizer or pesticides. Aaminah was in heaven! 

This is from a couple of weeks ago; it's much larger now! I would say please forgive the state of my little garden but I'm sick and can't handle weeding, etc in this heat so we are waiting for cooler weather to get out there and weed the flower beds. :) 

Oh I'm about to start working again also! Amazon.com hires work-from-home representatives to help out with their holiday rush. I worked for them from Nov. last year to March of this year but quit when I needed to start getting things ready to buy the house. This time I am doing the reserves which means I pick what days I want to work instead of being locked into a schedule. With my health issues it makes much more sense for me. I can work anywhere from 1 hour a week to 30 and up to 60 during the holiday season ma shaa Allah. I worked a LOT of hours last season and it was hard but I can do anything for a short while. And I really want to get some work done on our house. :)

It was built here in the 40s for the Manhattan Project (nuclear warheads) during WWII. It was called the Secret City because it was kept a secret from everyone until after the war! There were tens of thousands of employees here and the first residents of Oak Ridge. My house was built for an engineer and his wife and 2 sons; the wife just died this past year and the sons were selling it. So there is loads of history in it! We have these old-fashioned awesome glass "crystal" doorknobs throughout:

And these super cute, retro handmade curtains which I adore! The blue matches the color I am painting the doors. :)

And we have hardwood floors throughout EXCEPT... the living room was covered in old carpet. The first thing we did was pull up the carpet but unfortunately the padding had stuck to the floor so we have to have them refinished. Le sigh... we haven't had the money yet but that is one thing I am working for because I really want to get the floors finished and the living room painted. I'll def show pics when that happens in shaa Allah. Just not sure exactly when! Maybe early next year. 

Alrighty, well that's all I've got for now. Li'l Miss is home and I had to do a few things to prepare for my job and thought I'd pop on for a quick post. If I make it a habit I'm less likely to slack off again. 

Salaam!