New Project

We started a new project last week. Now mind you, we've been talking about this for months. It is still always a shock to the system when we make these kind of messes. I get kind of grumpy about not getting done more quickly, too. Though I should know better. We took up all the carpet from this room. It really needed replacing. Ugh. I could virtually see the dust mites flying out as we hauled it out. (shudder shudder) We pulled up staples, took out the carpet takes, swept and swept some more. We moved furniture as we pulled things up, so the big pieces all will stay and we'll ( I say we, Ron does the practical stuff. I give advice) work around them. We are putting down a hardwood floor. Hickory. I will show more pictures as we go. With all the wood already in there, it will be a very 'woodsy' room. I hope it looks ok, though. But, when you think about it, in the woods, walnuts, oak and hickory seem to get along just fine. Hopefully they will in the house, too.

HICKORY FLOORING

I have been slowly reading Francis' Chan's book, Crazy Love. So many people have said how much they have loved it and have been challenged by it. I haven't made up my mind yet. I can be easily overwhelmed by guilt. Overwhelmed by all the ways that I fall short when it comes living out an authentic faith. One of the things Chan talks about is living within our income, or even better, living within the median income. That's around $40,000. (Well, it was when he wrote the book and I didn't double check his figures) He was talking about living within that median income and giving the rest away. Wow! Now that's a concept. So it's been on my mind. There's no doubt I spend too much on stuff I really don't need. Take the grocery shopping thing. My cupboards are full and I hit the grocery store for more, before I've even finished off what I got last week. Probably should refigure that. Then this afternoon we finally got new flooring for our "fireplace" room. Now I wonder if somehow we couldn't have gone a different, less expensive route so we could give more to where there are huge needs. It's easy to justify redoing the room. Much harder to put off something for self...

And in other things. I have not been blogging as much here I guess because of all the writing I've been doing lately. If you're interested here are a couple of links. The newspaper article comes on Wednesdays and if you're a fan of the Le Mars public Library I ususally post that.
http://www.lemarslibrary.wordpress.com
http://www.lemarssentinel.com

On Blizzards, wind and other such winter joys

I headed to work early this morning. After all we'd gotten more snow and the wind was blowing to beat the band! I was leaving early, though, because I had to open the doors for our cleaning crew. Ooooh, it was a really awful drive. Getting on and off of hwy 60 was a bit tricky since I couldn't tell if there was any traffic coming or not. Once I was in town, though, it looked like every thing was clear and fine. I settled into work. Phone calls, grants, sad news about county funding, etc etc... Then I start getting information about the fact that my little snowstorm illusion (i.e.that being in town made it fine) was just that-an illusion. Schools called off. Patrons in to describe blinding whiteouts. Husband telling me to get a room or head home..now! I think I've mentioned before that I have promised myself not to drive in blinding blizzards anymore. But I headed out anyway. It was worse than my trip down there. Oh boy. This is turning into a very long winter.

Ready

I am ready.
1. For an ice storm. Though I really don't want that. I think I could drive the pick up through it.
2. For supper. For some reason I feel hungrier today than yesterday when I didn't eat from noon til 7 p.m. and it's not quite 5 p.m.
3. To stay on the job. This morning I wasn't quite sure about that one. Nothing to do with the library, but everything to do with the library.
4. To not take it personally. Though I do think there must be something wrong with me, or it's my 'bull in the china shop' personality. Hmmmmm
5.For our Winter Reading Program. I have tons of prizes. All the hand outs are printed.
6. To watch NCIS tonight with supper on my lap. (What's for supper?)
7.For February. What? We have another whole week of January left? It's going awfully slow this year.
8. To have a dreamless sleep. Last night I woke a lot filled with dreams of concentration camps, death that was my fault and lots of other running amok stuff. ugh.
9. To run a quarter mile without stopping to catch my breath
10. For my meetings with the City Council and planning committees.
Off I go!

Morning Fog Commute

I have a whole year of driving to and from work under my belt now. Again. Funny how it doesn't take long to not be used to ugly roads, but, well that's a sad reality. But I have done blinding fog and blizzards, pouring rains, freezing colds, boiling heat-driving-with-the-window-down, icy-slippery-really slippery road, distracted and tired driving. Oh yes, and driving while talking on the cell phone. I have not however, done any driving while texting. I have driven next to the texting driver, though. Does that about cover the NW Iowa gamut of road conditions?
This morning there was "freezing fog" south of us. (what?) but I just got to drive in the fog. Not too bad. At least there was some visibility. And acutally, the result was quite pretty. I did stop and take the pictures. I discovered earlier it doesn't work so well to drive and get that camera up to your eye to get a shot in. (aren't you glad) Anyway, if winter days continue like this I will enjoy the variety.

Mom

Mom has a birthday coming this week. I wil just say that it's a birthday that ends in a 0. And she was brave enough to try something big and new. Something that will challenge her brain all the way. A new computer! She had to relearn how to get the internet up, how to get to different things that she does on the computer. I challenged her to facebook but I think that might be going a bit too far. When you consider all the things she's learned in her lifetime, and all the things that have changed-even in the last 10 years, not to mention in the last , well for her whole life time! It makes what she's trying to stuff into her brain nothing short of amazing. I hope I can keep on with that learning when I'm her age...
wait. She was my age not that long ago.... I think time will fly by.

Vacation's end

sunrise in Sun City

This is a first for me. Blogging from the airport. The Phoenix Airport. I am sad at having to leave such fine fine weather and head back so I can start a diet. I suppose the cold should help though. Staying warm requires more energy so hopefully I'll burn some of this excess off quickly. But why am I obsessing about this? Goal this year: to accept myself as I am more than I have before. Is that Possible?


The airport is busy busy, but we flew through security much faster than we did in Omaha. Even checking in was quick. Hopefully our flight will be on time and we'll wing our way back to the cold quickly. Like diving into the water. Best to do it fast, all at once. Adust quicker that way, right?