What a beautiful Sunday it was in Georgetown, Texas. After two nights of much welcomed rain, the sun took center stage today. The vegetable and flower gardens look so much better after real rain. I think they know when the drink of water they’re getting is coming from the sky above rather than the faucet.

The seeds in the one tier of the flower bed that were slow to sprout seem to have awakened after the rain; I’m not sure if there will be enough to carry the tier, but it’s a start.

Looking at the flowers and veggies filled me with energy, so I decided to make the best of a day in which I had no other obligations. No soccer, no friends in town, nothing to do except what I wanted to do! First, I tried out a new dessert recipe I found on Pinterest called Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars. Then I headed out to the garage to work on the refinishing project that has been put on the backburner for awhile now.
I started stripping the hutch back in December, but then it got too cold in the garage to work on it, then soccer started, and well, here it is April. So today I finally was able to strip the top two shelf areas of the hutch.
It took a fair amount of scraping once I let the Citristrip stripper gel do its magic for an hour or so. I was glad I had bought some smaller wire brushes to help get the goop out of the corners. Those, plus the after wash, make all the difference in getting at the hard-to-reach places. I hope to spend a few more nights this week stripping more of the hutch. I still haven’t totally decided on how to refinish it, although I’m leaning toward a combination of dark stain and lighter-colored paint.

While I was working on stripping the hutch, I had to divert this lizard (salamander?) from trying to get in the garage. After a little Googling, I came to the conclusion it looks like a Laredo striped whiptail lizard. Hopefully someone will let me know if I’m wrong.

After a round of hutch-stripping, I headed back to the kitchen to try another new Pinterest-found recipe, Garlic Parmesan Chicken Lasagne Bake. It’s kind of like an alfredo chicken lasagne casserole with peas and swiss cheese. It was good, although I’m not sure I’ll make it again with lasagne noodles. Maybe a penne or rotini though. Regardless, husband liked it and divided the leftovers into a couple meals that he stuck in the freezer for meals when he’s at work.

All in all, it was a good Sunday. I wish I had more days like this.