but the house is still standing

Halfway to our destination during a day trip last spring, I had a paralyzing thought.  Had I left the gas burner running when I made my tea? There was no way to turn back home, and I spent the rest of the day anxious about whether or not the house would still be whole when we returned.  It was.  I had remembered to turn off the burner, and had worried all day for nothing.

Today, when we opened the door of the house after being gone for eight hours, a strange smell met us.  It was like stale oil, but also kind of like burning plastic?  The whole house smelled like it.  My oldest had been home from school for a little while before us and she mentioned it, too.  I walked around for a bit trying to figure out where odor had started, when lo! I saw that the gas stove burner had been left on low.  Whoever was the last to make eggs this morning had forgotten to turn off the burner, and left the dirty skillet on top of it!  (Insert wide-eyed emoji) I admonished the culprit, and banned the child from future egg frying, at least egg-frying when we're trying to rush out the door.  But how funny that I went about my day in complete ignorance, while our house had an open flame of fire hazard and death lit for eight hours!  And nothing happened!  Praise God!

In order to clear the awful smell, I opened a window and burned some incense.  I have recently been burning it to cover odors in our first floor bathroom.  No matter how often I clean the toilet (inside, outside, and the floor beneath it), the bathroom smells like a guys' dorm.  It's the same with the third floor, where the boys live, but we don't generally offer our guests the bathroom up there!  Candles typically give me headaches, whether the food-smelling ones or the floral ones, so I can't use them to cover odors.  Throughout the rest of the house I use essential oils, but this particular tiny bathroom is tricky.  So I thought of incense sticks!  I really like this kind and this one is ok.  They definitely help to fumigate the house!

Fr G took another class at the woodworking studio last night and surprised me with the finished product--the lovely bowl in the picture above is entirely handmade by him!   He thinks we need a lathe now ;) I'd support that purchase! The yarn above wants to become two pairs of socks, as soon as I've finished a few other projects.  Yarn on top is Woolenboon sock in Peach Perfect.  Their website is currently down, so I'm not able to link to it.  Yarn on bottom is Madelinetosh EuroSock in the colorway Librarian's Dream.