MORE GOOD READING

This picture was made by my step son on the beach in St. Augustine FL.    

A few more books to enjoy.....

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks    By, Rebecca Skloot
The Last Train for Hiroshima    By, Charles Pellegrino
What the Dog Saw   By, Malcolm Gladwell  

Books To Read

 I Thought I would recommend a few books I have read and enjoyed.  I realize books are like food, often what you think another will enjoy is not at all to their liking.  But, maybe someone will find some enjoyment and even be enlightened by one of these reads...
The Undertaking    By, Thomas Lynch
And the Trees Clapped Their Hands    By, Virginia Stem Owens
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek    By, Annie Dillard
Isaac's Storm    By, Erik Larson
Searching for Jesus    By, Virginia Stem Owens
The Jesus I never Knew     By, Phillip Yancey
The Good Earth    By, Pearl S. Buck

"I am so beautiful, Oh, SO BEAUTIFUL."

The journey of self discovery continues...

SOPHIA

Vincent and his family

My youngest son with his family; Toni, Cohen, Sophia and Vincent.

This is my son, Mauro, when he joined the Air Force at 18.  He turned 41 on the ninth of this month.












Here I am with Mauro's son, Patrick, he is 18. He will leave for the Air Force at the end of this month. What can I say?  God, how I love those " boys "!

OUR FLAG

I pass this shed whenever I drive into town, and, I've been meaning to take a picture of it since it was painted this past spring. I finally took several shots this morning on my way to my cardiac rehab. The picture looks cheery in spite of the cold and gray morning. I love seeing our flag on display and for some reason this particular one is special to me. I think it is because of it's size and it's beautiful backdrop. It looks so...American. I love this country!

It's Sunday....

It's  late afternoon and although I've been up and down several times I'm now back under the covers in my bed!  It is still cold out, there is plenty of snow on the ground and ice on the roads...just enough to look out and say I think I'll stay in bed and read awhile.   The 'awhile' has stretched into the length of a day!  I have been upstairs to eat and visit with the dogs and Cyrus.  Margaret brought lunch home when whe came in from church and we are all napping,  she has the dogs and Cyrus is asleep on his stand in the den. 

See, I'm still in bed! I know I should be knitting....

Another view of Jim's room

This will become my bedroom.  It took 3 solid days of hard and steady work for Margaret to clear out her sewing materials and sewing machines so we could start to clean.  As you can see, there is still more to do...remove shelves, (those in picture follow the wall not shown on the other side of the picture), clean carpet,  move out a club chair and the dresser.  Not to mention painting and decorating.  But, boy, am I excited and pleased!  (The drapes cover patio doors leading to the pool.)

Working Hard! Cleaning my sister's downstairs space.....

This is the before picture of Jim's room.  This will become a TV room when Margaret and I get it cleared and cleaned.

Lord..I don't believe I've ever worked this hard before!  It's not my age, or lack of conditioning, that has added to my having to take longer to complete a task.  The tasks are more intensive and time consuming than I've experienced before...Even more than the time I helped a friend clean and paint the interior of a house a body had been in for several weeks before it was found!  And, believe me, in the summer heat of North Carolina that is not good!  But, I see a light at the end of this tunnel and the cleaning is moving along much faster now.  The cats, all 7 of them,  and the 9 dogs, have been banned from the premises and I will have to be vigilant on my watch to keep them upstairs, but, I believe I am up to the task. 
Margaret and I are going to fix the garage up for the cats by making some runs on the shelving and making some nice bedding.  The dogs will have to be put out from upstairs and no longer use the doggie door (now blocked off) in the basement. 
My daughter, Marian, is coming to help paint next week.  And, my other daughter, Anna Marie, will be in to help also.  They are my life raft in this stormy sea.  Lord knows what I would do without them.

Sophia with her new baby brother, Cohen.

Moving Day..and a mention of snow

We have had a good bit of snow on the ground and a lot of very cold weather.   The snow has not melted and turned to dirty slush as it usually does.  The normal chain of events is a slight covering of white clinging to the house tops, trees and grass , then it's disappearance by the next day.  I've not been out except to carry a few loads of trash from the house to the end of the drive, so I have no pictures to post.  (Of the snow..not the trash!)
I have been cleaning my sister's basement and getting it ready for me to move down.   It will be my own little apartment.  Margaret's husband, Jim, lived down there until his going to Kansas, YES KANSAS!!  Jim is setting up a 911 system for Butler and it's surrounding counties.  He visits here....lives there.  We assume he will return to us when his contract is up!!!!
The basement has a full bath, a large laundry room, a work area for my desk, a bedroom, and living area with a large wood burning fire place.  There is a storage area and several closets too.  All I need to do is add a toaster oven and I'll be set.  There is a  small refrigerator  in the laundry room.  Actually the living area is the exact size of the upstairs.  I'm going to use the room which has patio doors leading out to the pool as my bedroom.  Can't wait for summer!   Jim has a huge, and I mean huge, flat screen TV down stairs too....now if I could figure out how it works.....