Random #68 - Looking Forward to 2016

I can't believe it's almost 2016. One year seems like a long time, but it can go by so quickly. Especially when so much as happened. Time doesn't just fly by when you're having fun, it can escape you when you're not looking. So, what happened in 2016? The children are a year older, 4 and 6. My youngest started Junior Kindergarten and my oldest is in Grade 1! I got a new job. I started an online writing class. I decided to rework and hopefully in 2016, finish a novel. And so much more! I celebrated birthdays and visited old friends. I lost loved ones. It was a year of ups and downs, but aren't they all? I'm looking forward to the future, while trying to remember the past.

I am also looking forward to the Holidays being over and getting back to a normal routine. December often tends to shove regularity out the window. I miss my old habits, which I have temporarily lost time for. I don't do resolutions, I never used to meet them, so I stopped making them years ago. Instead, I just continue to strive for balance.

Happy Boxing Day! - Merry Day After Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate. We've had a great, though busy time so far. My children got a ton of Lego.  I didn't realized when I mentioned it, that every grandparent was going to get that for them. We also got some for them, so I imagine we will be stepping on tiny, pointy pieces for the next few months.

I am really excited by the presents my husband got for me.  I tweeted it yesterday.  

My husband knows me so well! Merry Christmas! #DoctorWho #CaptainMarvel #winelover pic.twitter.com/M9Xkb9AXHX

— Loni C. (@LoniStorm) December 25, 2015

Look at how well my husband knows me. Every present I opened was a gasp or squeel of joy. It was so thoughtful.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and is relaxing with their wonderful new gifts, friends and family.

For those of you braving the malls today, Good Luck!!

Last Week #51 - Holiday Season

The Holiday Season is in full swing. Busy time, shopping, dinners, parties. Plus, all the stuff that goes along with having small children, kids' parties, holiday concerts, special days. Yay for the fun, boo for less time to write. I wrote just a little this week, just enough to make myself happy.

I'm stuck with my reading a bit though.  I'm finding it hard to move forward.  I'll be concentrating on Emily Dickinson's poems soon, so we'll see how that'll change my writing motivation, as I often find my writing and my reading connected. Looking forward to good reading, writing and fun times this month.

Random #67 - Book Storage

I have run out of shelf space. More than run out. I have 4 bookcases, with shelves doubled up with paperbacks and others fronted by hardcovers. I don't need just one more bookshelf, I need at least two. To try to alleviate the weight and allow my book buying to continue, I thought I'd make a "book tower". Basically, I stacked a bunch of hardcovers up to my chest. I made the tower two books wide, to try to distribute the weight and leaned my husbands Ivanhoe sword against it (yes, we have some replica weaponry), to try to hold it up. After a couple weeks, it can tumbling down. (I'm going to blame the children.) For a while now, they've been left in small stacks on my living room floor, behind the rocking chair. 

What do I do with them?

I think they're going to end up on the shelf in my room. On the bottom of the shelf I have boardgames. I love boardgames, but these are ones we haven't played in ages and they're just sitting there. Do I remove them to the basement and put the books there?  I might be able to jigsaw them into fitting. The games would go into the storage in the basement. Why don't the books go there? Well, I've realized that it's about emotional attachment. When I see the games, I don't really feel anything. I don't even really notice them. When I look at books, I think about their stories. I think about what happened, what they mean and how I felt when I read them. I remember and it makes me smile. Having the books closer to me, might just add a little happiness into that corner of my day. So, I move the books, right?

I was browsing Pinterest, when my sneaky daughter came up behind me and announced, "We should do that!" What did she see? A book Christmas tree. I told her that would be nice and we have more than enough books to do it, but not enough space. We'd have to get rid of our actual Christmas tree to do that and no one wants that. I could build one in her room, but there wouldn't be much room for anything else. Plus, this doesn't seem like the permenent solution I want.