Today I'm thankful for:

I'm linking up with Company Girl Coffee this morning. Come play along!

1. Being able to work part-time. Brian makes enough to support both of us, and this is kind of a big deal to me. My part-time income is completely voluntary and it helps make our life a little easier. I'm not sure I'm cut out for full-time office work, as we've learned over the past three years. I'm so grateful to have a husband who provides enough for us. I'm not sure I tell him this enough. 

2. NOT living near forest fires. Tornadoes are scary, but they're here and gone in a flash. You know whether you were hit or not, pretty much immediately. Hurricanes are scary too, but you generally get lots of warning, and they can be tracked. Forest fires don't work that way. They move slowly and are difficult to monitor. You might not know for days or weeks whether your house survived. We see and smell the smoke from the nearby Boulder County forest fires, but the fire isn't a threat to our home. I hear stories every day from people who have lost their homes, who don't know if their houses are even standing, and who don't know what is going to happen to their family when they can access their property and learn the damage.

3. The chilly mornings and evenings. Midday here is still a little swampy and miserable, but the mornings and evenings are nice and chilly. I love old sweatshirts, and there is now a place for them in my wardrobe again. Another thing I love: walking on the cold, dew-covered grass in the morning. My Grandovie used to fuss at me for going around barefoot when it was chilly (for the love of Pete, you'll catch your death of cold) and she bought me I-don't-know-how-many slippers. But to no avail. I'm still that girl who won't wear slippers in the morning.



What's ringing your thankfulness bell this morning?

The Maybe-Minimalism Project

For a long time I've thought about becoming a minimalist. Not a scary owning-50-things minimalist with a mattress, a laptop, and a fridge, sleeping with one sheet and eating a raw diet and having nothing in my life solely for the purpose of bringing beauty on the scene. I always thought of a minimalist as the creepy bald dude who wears only white and entertains himself by chanting and is so focused on simplicity and meditation and becoming one with the air that you can hardly hold a conversation with him.

Right. Not so much me.

In my efforts to pare down the embarrassingly huge amount of stuff in our belonging, I became drawn to blogs about organization, and later, minimalism.

The organization blogs never really cut it for me. There's only so much organizing you can do. My obvious problem was organization, yes, but my real problem was having too much to organize. As Flylady says, you can't organize clutter. And that's so true.

Having too much stuff is frustrating! Knowing I have something but can't find it, or not being able to use closets or entire rooms in my house because they are too packed full of stuff, tripping over things, not having any floor space.... It wears on you. There's the physical inconvenience, which is frustrating enough. But then there's the guilt. Guilt for having so much that isn't used. Guilt for wasting all that money. Guilt for repurchasing things because you cant find the original one you know you bought. Guilt over the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and the fun times you know you're missing. Wasted time, wasted money, wasted energy, wasted life.

That was me for years.

Moving to our current place and having to unpack each and every belonging was the fresh start I needed. Making countless tiny decisions to 'keep, sell or toss' made me feel like I was getting my (OUR) life on track, maybe for the first time ever. We've taken truckloads to donation centers and more belongings leave every couple of weeks.

It's like losing weight, or like coming out of hibernation.

We're moving again next month, and our sum total of possessions will be reduced even further.

We've trimmed so much that at this point that I can see - feel - the benefits. I keep wanting to trim more, and more and more and more.

Hence the consideration of minimalism. And I'm talking pragmatic minimalism, not radical minimalism. I'm married to a collector, after all, and there's only so much I could do away with without landing in divorce court crossing some boundaries. My stuff, however, is under review. Same goes for general house stuff, as long as I consult Brian before tossing.

Whenever I touch something or see something around the house, I wonder how easily I could do without it. Most of my paring down efforts are in the kitchen and in my wardrobe. Those are tough!!

Will I ever have a minimalist wardrobe with 30 clothing items to my names? No, probably not. But I certainly don't need everything I have - wardrobe and beyond.

It's time to change.

I'm going to be giving period updates here among the random whatnot on the blog. I invite you to join me on this journey if you're in the same place. You can do a search for the minimalism tag any time to find posts on this particular topic.

I'm excited! The idea of having less to pack is a nice one!

Up first, clothes. Oy.



(This post is a part of Company Girl Coffee. Click here to play along!)

Learning Search Engine Optimization

There's something so refreshing, and satisfying, about learning a new skill.


Recently I began a new learning journey, and if you paid any attention whatsoever to the title of this post, you know what I'm doing. Or at least, you know what what I'm doing is called.

Search Engine Optimization is what it's called, or SEO for short. SEO makes a website more noticeable on search engines. The more you're noticed, the higher up in the results list you are, and therefore the more hits you get. For many websites, it's all about the hits.

In practice, SEO means making changes to things like your page title and 'meta descriptions' (your page's subtitle, in a way) so that keywords are present.

I've been a writer for many years. I've been an internet user since 1997. Learning SEO feels like a natural extension of those two attributes. It's something I've wanted to learn basically since I first found out about it more than a year ago, and to be learning it, and getting PAID to learn it, is pretty awesome in my book.

It's also pretty cool to be learning all about a subject that interests me anyway - the company whose website I'm "SEOing" specializes in a product that I consume on a regular bases. (Twenty bonus points if you can guess what that is.)

Can I get a witness?

So I totally ripped this post's title from the title of Brian's sermon of a couple weeks ago.

I should also add that there is nothing of value in this post, at all. Unless you're into side-abs, in which case, read on.

I was out of town last week. Well, for like half of last week. And I am still recovering from my having left and having returned. Apparently April was really busy and got really out of control without me really noticing. And then I disappeared for a few days for everything to simmer and fester and (in the to-do list's case) grow exponentially. I left feeling a little overwhelmed, and then I came back feeling a LOT overwhelmed, and pretty tired, and with a few new things rolling around in my brain JUST because I needed to be a little more distracted this week.

Also. Four days without an adolescent border collie = bliss.

(Although I must say that she doesn't get up earlier than 7am these days, which is good for my Sleep Recovery Program but detrimental to my Get Stuff Done And Stay On Track Plan.)

Brian and I have worked out a Border Collie Management Plan, which I think is going to benefit every single one of us (including both dogs) in a few different ways.

I'm still working on the Life Management Plan. Not to mention the Kitchen Management Plan and the What Is All This Stuff All Over The Carpet Management Plan, which I expect will be twofold, with one prong addressing the mysterious black stains and the other prong addressing all the bits and pieces of chewed-up whatnot that make my vacuum tremble with fear.

My real frustration is that I don't even really have anything that I can point to and say Look, THIS is why I feel like I'm drowning*. There are some smallish and mediumish things, like a 30-page paper I'm editing, some contract work that's about to be kick-started, VBS planning, blah blah blah...but nothing big and hairy and loud. It's really weird to feel so overwhelmed for no apparent reason.

But to be completely honest, I am happier right now than I've been maybe EVER. My life is so good right now, y'all, and I know and acknowledge and am deeply grateful for how richly God has blessed me. I'm in a tizzy, but I'm also deeply immersed in something that used to be called 'bliss' but might be called something else these days.

ALSO. I was adjusting the waistband of a skirt I wore yesterday, when I felt...SIDE ABS**! I've been doing the 30 Day Shred for most of April and the side ab confrontation was the first real evidence that something is happening under all this skin. Note to anyone about to do the 30 day shred: Weigh yourself in the beginning if you want, but ALSO take some measurements, because your weight probably won't drop all that much for a while but things will be changing! I think I've lost two lbs on the scale, but my stomach is flatter, I'm starting to have calves and ankles instead of cankles, and my clothes are fitting better. And also: SIDE ABS!


*Drowning, or suffocating. One of the two.
**Normal people call these 'obliques'

I've linked up with Company Girl Coffee this morning. Company Girl Coffee is a fun weekly link-up at Home Sanctuary. Check it out, and come on in!

One hundred forty

Note to my dear friends: I'm still really tired, but I'm also tired of not talking to you! This blogging thing has made the world MUCH easier on some of us introverts. Posts might still not come three times a week as usual, but they are coming!




 

I am a reader. If you know me or anything about me or my work, this is probably no surprise to you. I am not a super duper major reader who reads 4 books at a time per week, but I AM a reader. I try to read at least 50 books a year. Now that I'm not working, you'd think I'd be able to plow through at least 100 a year, but you'd be wrong. I've found other stuff to do.

Stuff like trimming about 1700sqft worth of stuff down to something much more manageable in our 1100sqft apartment, cooking, knitting fancy lace, dreaming up quilts, and oh yeah, surviving various new afflictions including high altitude, back spasms and a border collie. 

I've always been 'a reader' and definitely 'a book lover.' I've always had WAY too many books. Like, way too many. Except for maybe when I was in elementary school, when I read so voraciously that I had basically every book on my shelf, and in my classrooms, practically memorized because I'd gone through them so many times. I was insatiable. (Incidentally, I was also afraid of the library, though I have no idea why. Hence all the re-reading.)

So while I'm still not reading as much as I would like to be - that is to say, while I still feel compelled to get stuff like laundry and dishes and grocery shopping done rather than read all day - I like reading ABOUT people reading. Weird, I know. What I'm trying to say is, I like reading Reading Blogs. Right now my favorites are At Home with Books and Chick With Books.

These gals are great. They keep me apprised of some of the major book-y things going on and they provide so many reviews and recos that my To-Read list (which is not the same thing as my TBR pile - that will be addressed later) has probably doubled from 250ish to 500ish in the past...3 months. (I also like to read blogs from the publishing side of things, namely Editorial Ass [-istant].)

Not long ago, when I was still really tired, Alyce (rhymes with peace) at AHWB posed this question: 

How many unread books do you have? (aka, how big is your TBR pile?) 

And I went, and I counted. And I got a number. A big number. A really big, scary, kind of overwhelming number.

Wanna see it?

Brace yourselves.

140.

That's the number of unread books* in my apartment.

This doesn't count the stack of about 7 library books in my dining room, still waiting to be read, nor does it count the 4 books I am reading at the moment. (Generally I am a monogamous reader, but right now I have 4 going - one on theology and doctrine for one bible study, a little study book for the other bible study, a novel I've wanted to read for a while now [Jarrettsville] and the Simple Abundance daybook, which is more like a 'devotional' than a 'book' per se. If you asked me what book I'm reading right now, I would say Jarrettsville, for simplicity's sake.)

*Here are the caveats:
- I didn't count reference books like cookbooks, pattern books, fix-it manuals and the giant book on homeopathic care of pets.
- I didn't count Brian's books. Just mine. (I might faint.)
- I didn't count the 4 boxes of books that I am trying to swap or sell. Some of those I've read, and some I haven't. I'd say it's maybe 50-50.

So you could say my TBR pile is...HUGE. At least, it feels huge to me. But that might be because I am hyper-sensitive to money right now, and that's a lot of tied-up money. Like, a lot.

Where did I get them all? Well, the answer will make me hyperventilate less. I love authors and I want to support them, but I've never been on a budget that wasn't super-tight, so I rarely pay full-price for any book. I hit up the sale tables at book stores a lot - especially local used bookstores. Thrift shops are another culprit. A while back I bought a big box of interesting-looking novels off Ebay, and I am still working through those. I get some books from Amazon too, and I get a LOT of books these days from PaperBackSwap.com - which is more or less free, but there's the cost of postage...hence the 'less' free. And of course, my birthday is tomorrow (yay!) so gifted books are always an option, tee hee

And now, I turn to you, my friends, to make me feel better. Tell me I'm not the only one with a 3-digit list of books that I own that I have not yet read (the Scrooge in me cringes at all those dollar bills sitting around). How many unread books do you have?

Engagement Story

Company Girl Coffee is a fun weekly link-up at Home Sanctuary. 

Lately I've been thinking about those days, so long ago, when Brian and I got together, got engaged, and got married. (All in the span of about 10 months. Yes, we are one of those couples.)

The year was 2007. I know. So long ago.

It's August. We'd been dating since the end of January or first of February (depending on your definition of dating) and I'd moved up to Richmond, where he was in school, that June. 

Brian's sister Kelley had been planning to attend UNC-Chapel Hill (GO HEELS!) and we'd planned to help her with moving into her dorm over the weekend of the 18th. But at some point beforehand, she'd decided to attend a nursing program in (well, near) Charlotte instead. Incidentally, I'd signed a lease on the house I was renting, and my move-in date was August 15. So of course, since we didn't need to move Kelley in, I wanted us to move ME in. Makes sense, right?

Brian protested. He'd made plans for us to go to a Japanese steakhouse with his college roommate, Barnes, (we call him Barnes) and he didn't want to bail on that since they don't get many chances to see each other. Ok, whatever. I wanted to hang out with my dog anyway, since he hadn't been able to make the move to Richmond yet. So we went to Chapel Hill that Friday. 

So it's Saturday now. We're going to hang out with Barnes. We had fun. Barnes is a funny guy. And who doesn't love hibachi chicken? I don't really remember what else we did that day. We had dinner plans with my (former) pastor Dave and his wife Angie, so we went back to my mom's place to get ready for that. At some point we stopped at a grocery store and picked up a chocolate peanut butter cake thingie to take. Somewhere along the way, I misplaced my cell phone - which is such a frequent occurrence that nobody bats an eye.

Brian insisted on wearing a suit for dinner. Here's the thing: when I'm over at Dave and Angie's, I usually end up rolling around on the carpet playing with their beagle. Ours is not really a 'dress up' kind of relationship. So I thought this was weird. Brian said that he had planned to talk to Dave about maybe doing our wedding (because we were planning to get married at some nebulous point in the future) and since that was a serious conversation, he wanted to wear a suit. Or something weird like that. By then I'd already learned not to ask questions because the answers tended to be odd. (Not much has changed.)

So he's in his suit, and I'm in some 'Sunday clothes' and only a little irritated by that. We're on the road. Brian's phone rings. He doesn't recognize the number and takes the call. It's Angie. Her son Taylor, who I think was 9 at the time, had injured himself on the trampoline and they needed to bail on dinner. So sorry. Hope you guys can have fun, maybe go to campus or something.

So we go to campus to scrounge up some fun. (In our dress clothes.)

We decide to park on Franklin Street, the north border of campus. We walk onto the upper quad, aka McCorkle place. It's an August afternoon in North Carolina, which can be translated in one word: muggy. Kids are milling around. Freshmen and their helicopter parents are overdressed and a little panicky. Folks are sitting on the grass, playing frisbee, shouting at friends they haven't seen in months. Not a bad place to be. I thought about how much I love that place and how much I miss it. (For those of you who don't know, the upper quad is the oldest part of campus. It's a big, sprawling quad with green grass, brick walkways, ancient oak trees and the occasional monument, all bordered by beautiful classroom buildings. They don't make campuses like they used to, that's for sure. The south edge of the upper quad is home to the Old Well, which might be the most well-known spot on campus. The north end is where Silent Sam stands, a monument erected in honor of students who left their studies to go fight in the Civil War. We had drumline practice by Silent Sam most days. Happy memories.)

We get approached by what apparently is a student journalist. She says she's writing a story about campus landmarks, and would we mind posing for a picture? Ok, sure, makes sense. I worked for the school magazine and I'm pretty sure I edited that story once or twice. She takes us over to the Davie Poplar bench. (Rabbit trail: the Davie Poplar is named after one of the founders of the University, William Richardson Davie. The legend is that Mr. Davie stated that as long as this tree stands, the University will stand, but when the tree falls, the University will crumble. The Class of...52? put a cement bench under the poplar, and the bench's legend is that a couple who kisses on the bench will be together forever.)


You see where this is headed. Sorta.


So the student (her name is Anna) asks us some questions and writes some stuff in her notepad, and then she asks if she can take our picture sitting on the bench. (I might have been suspicious by now.) She walks off, and I stand up, ready to go. Brian has stalled out on the bench, still holding my hand. He's fidgety. Lingering AND fidgety.

I sit back down and ask him if something is on his mind. (VERY SUSPICIOUS!)

He proposes. It was very sweet and heartfelt and made me love him so much more, and I don't remember a word of it. He wraps up by kneeling in front of me and offering an engagement ring while asking me if I would marry him.

I say yes. (Duh.)

We are...hugging? standing? sitting? I don't remember. And those students who were playing frisbee end their game, start humming, an assemble in a semi-circle in front of us, do-wopping and bee-bopping and whatever else it is that a capella groups do. I recognize some of them. Then, from behind us, out pops BARNES! Because, you see, Barnes was in an a capella group in college! And he'd been in on the whole thing.

So they sing our song and everybody is staring, and we're SO happy and it's glorious.

So there are hugs all around, phone calls, and then it's time to get dinner. Except we're too excited to eat. And then Brian calls Dave and says everything went off without a hitch, and we're on the way over with dessert. They were in on the whole thing. Which means, Taylor did not actually injure himself at all. And, the phone call from 'Angie' was actually from Kelley. She had a script. Brian wrote her a script. He had also taken my phone, so that it would make sense that 'Angie' would be calling him and not me. Over dessert, Brian said to me, 'and you even got your chocolate.' Because at some point, I had mentioned to him that maybe chocolate should be involved in our engagement. I was probably kidding. He did it anyway. He's a smart boy.


Aside: I had one of those moments - SO excited and happy, thoughts racing about what to do or say, wanting to make sure I actually say yes, wanting to make sure I look at him and not the bling, etc. etc. Actually, I didn't really even look at my ring until we'd finished our phone calls and everything. He'd designed it with a local jeweler. I love it.


Do you have a fun engagement story? What was going through your mind when your husband proposed to you?

Company Girl Coffee 3.19.10

We are having a snow day. And it's wonderful.

Brian has the day off today (finally) and we've made it count.

I had some dog duty early this morning, but after that, Brian stepped up and let me sleep until 9. Did you see that? 9am!! I can't remember the last time I slept that late!! It was glorious.

We watched some of NCIS season 3 while Brian made some breakfast for us, and then... we went ice skating! DU has a rink that is open to the public for about an hour and a half weekday afternoons, and this afternoon we made our first of what will be many trips there.

It started snowing last night, and it has not stopped yet. It's been pretty quiet around here. Nice and slow.I love snow days. Have I mentioned that?

I think it's time for some hot chocolate, with real whipped cream on top. And later, some Tuscan-style potato soup. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Happy weekend to you!

Company Girl Coffee is a fun weekly link-up at Home Sanctuary. Check it out, and come on in!

Company Girl Coffee 3.12.10

So I have been awake for about an hour and a half now, and I have only just realized it's Friday.

This week has been endless. And not in the good way. Some good things happened and more good things are on the agenda, but I've had this overarching feeling of down for days now. And I feel bad about that.


The good: I went to knitting group. I played djembe at the Wednesday night service. I got a lot of stuff done. Last night was a fun book group meeting. This afternoon I am going to a quilt shop with one of the 'church ladies.' This evening we have dinner with friends. Tomorrow I am finally going to the mountains. I might even make it to the oil change place today!

But I couldn't help but feel like there's a grey cloud over my head this week. The problem is that there is some real discord in a relationship that is important to me. I feel like I'm drastically underestimated - I'm not getting a fair shot at being the good, caring person I know I am - I'm seen as the same person I was before I knew better. I have grown and made changes, but this person still chooses not to see that, still chooses to put me down and not to respect me. We've clashed. We've insulted. Wounds gape open. I've spent a lot of time crying and in prayer (I can't speak for the other person on this. I can only hope.)

This person is very valuable to me, and I've sacrificed a lot to keep our relationship going. I have grown a lot - especially lately. But the other person doesn't seem to see that, and I am having trouble seeing how (or even if) the other person has changed too. It's like we have hit a brick wall. I am frustrated, hurting, and so very discouraged. I don't know what to do. I want so much for things to improve, but I don't think the other person does. I think it's easier to dismiss people from your life when they challenge you to do better, be better, than it is to do the work of compromising, of self-evaluation -- of growing up. I feel like I have been dismissed - tossed aside - demeaned and belittled. Given up on. I don't like to give up on people like that. So it's hard to deal with being given up on. 


If you've made it through my doom and gloom, I'd like to ask you to pray for me today. Pray for me to find compassion. Pray for me to be strong without being aggressive. Pray for me to have discernment as I move forward. Pray that God continues to work in this person, too, that their heart be softened toward me. Pray that humility would become part of our interactions. (And maybe pray for me not to cry so gosh darn much! I'm a crier, and it has worked to my detriment. Tears are weakness, in this person's eyes.)

Thank you.

Company Girl Coffee 3.5.10

 

Happy Friday, everybody. Is it just me, or is Friday feeling particularly good today?

It's probably just me.

I'd like to offer a special welcome to any Company Girls visiting today. If you don't know what Company Girls are and you'd like to know more, you can click on the button up top and learn more. Basically we're a group of women who gather each Friday to talk about what's going on in our lives and share with each other. It's pretty rad, if you ask me.

This week has been kind of a weird one for me. I've been on antibiotics for about a week now. This is - as far as I can remember - the first time I've been on antibiotics in many years, and I have to say, I am not convinced. Next time I feel a need for the drugs I am probably going to turn to holistic methods. I feel like my general condition has worsened rather than improved. Yes, my sinus infection is mostly clear, and yes, my ear infection appears to be gone. But the exhaustion, the inability to sleep, the dryness in my mouth and throat, the brain-fog, and a couple of other 'fun' side effects have made this a negative, rather than positive, experience. There's got to be a better way to clear an infection. I'm thinking massive doses of garlic.

Happily, though, I woke up this morning feeling much better than I have in a while. So here's hoping that the month of sickness has passed, never to return.

Despite being sick, I've had a pretty good week. Not much knitting has happened, but those days will be returning shortly. Remember the socks I was working on a couple of weeks ago? You know, the ones I ran of yarn while making? Well, yesterday the extra yarn I'd ordered showed up. I am a pretty strict 'knitting monogamist' which might dictate that I finish my shawl before I finish the socks, but I am considering putting aside the shawl in lieu of having a new pair of squishy warm fun colorful socks. I mean, who wouldn't?


In other news, I have made progress inside my head and inside my home. You can read more about that, and see a small pocket makeover, here. Bit by bit, my home is starting to look like actual grown-ups live in it!


Speaking of grown-ups...Brian posted a funny comic as his Facebook profile picture. I think it's hilarious. See for yourself:

In case you couldn't tell, I handle the finances in our little family. Fine by me - I like to know what's going on, and he would rather just help with goal-setting and know what he can and can't do. I am in the beginning stages of working some hard numbers for our home-buying plan. If you have any pointers, let me know! And no, we will not be buying a home with the 8,000 tax credit ending April 30. We just aren't there yet, financially.

I also managed to get my etsy shop back up and running. I'd love it if you took a look and let me know your thoughts. Y'all know I love knitting - so if you've got something in mind, I'm your gal!

That's it from me, for now. Did anything exciting happen to you this week?

Company Girl Coffee 2.26.10

 

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Oh dear. Is it Friday already?

Then again, what am I talking about? I have been up for hours. Rory decided that today would be the perfect day to get up at 4:30. Four thirty. In the morning. Despite my best 'let's be sleeping' campaign, she proceeded undeterred. And in border collie language, undeterred is best translated as barking one's fool head off until one gets what one desires.

In this case, 'one' desired a romp or two outside. (At 4:30am. In the 20 degree icy weather.)

Have I mentioned that we live in an apartment?

So wait. It's Friday? Ok, fine. I believe you. Maybe I should make some tea. With honey. Honey makes everything better, am I right?


So what's been going on with you this week? I have nearly nothing to report. Much to no one's surprise, I have been sick again. Being sick is SO lame. I have a doctor appointment today to figure out why the heck I have been sick on and off with the same thing since approximately November 10 (the day we arrived in Colorado). If he tells me to get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids and run the humidifier, I might cry. Because I've been doing that, and I'm still getting sick.

I did manage to find my sewing box, which means I've been working on a couple of small projects that I should have finished...oh...last summer (Hello, Kim!). And I made some good headway on the quilt I started last fall (my first quilt!). For those of you who are curious, it's a 9-patch of batik prints. No sashing. Just chaos, colorful chaos. It was inspired by my love of batiks, a stack of 20 or so fat quarters of batik prints that I'd received as  gift (thanks again, Cathy!), and the chaos that was my life last fall. I probably won't get photos until it's finished and we can go outside. Anything else wouldn't do these prints justice!

Ok, now that my brain has turned on, I can get to the think-y part of what I wanted to share today.

Last week I posted about Lent and how I don't have a good understanding of it. Since then, I've found a few interesting reads online. I'll share those with you here, because a few folks expressed interest in learning more about Lent:

Katie at Kitchen Stewardship had a really interesting thought on Solemnity and Lent.

Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience (if you are a Christian and you don't read this blog, I would highly recommend you DO) has had some interesting posts about Lent. See here, here and here. The last link contains a suggested reading list for Lent.

Elizabeth Esther wrote here on fasting and its significance, and why she practices Lent.

And our very own Coffee Girl, Cari, offered me this link on one man's thoughts on some "less traditional" Christians coming back to the practice of Lent - in short, I agree with him that it is a very good thing.

If you've come across any other blog posts about Lent or fasting or anything related, I would love it if you shared with me!


Now I'd like to ask something of you. Compliance is optional! But if you don't mind, would you say a prayer for my husband today? Part of his new job entails putting together a new, third service. The church staff, along that line, thought it would be good to hold a (new) Wednesday night service during Lent, to sort of 'test the water' so to speak. And Brian has been putting these services together. The first service, on Ash Wednesday, went well and was very well-received. This week's service didn't go as well. In short, he is feeling discouraged right now, and he is tired. I'm not complaining and neither is he. He's just feeling very discouraged and dealing with pressure and frustration right now.

No photos this week, because I'm cranky and I don't feel like messing with them :) BUT, to make it up to you, here's a video of the dogs - and Rory's enormous grown-up teeth in her tiny baby mouth!

Company Girl Coffee 2.19.10

 

It's Friday! Time for another Company Girl Coffee. I've got a nice mug of green/white/peach tea (it's REALLY GOOD, I promise) and there's snow on the ground and the dogs are going crazy. A proper Denver morning in February, if you ask me.

Eli says a proper morning begins at 10am, no more of this 5am business.

This has been kind of an interesting week, what with Lent beginning and all. Brian has been ordained for all of 3.5 months and on Tuesday he went and got himself his first collared clergy shirt to wear to the Ash Wednesday service. YOW. I'm still getting used to this Pastor's Wife (PW) thing, but seeing him in the same shirt the 4 (four!) pastors at my home church wore every single day was a little...odd.

I've thought more about Lent this year than I have in years past. Growing up, I went to a Lutheran church that wasn't exactly oppressive, but very steeped in doctrine and kind of strong-willed in a socially conservative way. In other words, there was a definite right and wrong way to live. And one of the right things to do was give up something - something significant - for Lent. You weren't bad if you opted out, but you were very very good if you opted in. The problem was, I don't remember receiving much info on why we were making a sacrifice. I got that Jesus fasted for 40 days (and the guy who actually fasted for Lent became a small-time celebrity of sorts) so we should give up something too, but I didn't learn much beyond that. Lent in my childhood was essentially a competition to see who could 'give up' the best.

It should be no surprise, then, to learn that when I went to college (and started going to a very different kind of church) I never really 'did' Lent. Now, at age 26, I am finally a part of a doctrine-oriented church again, and I have come back to the practice of Lent. I hope to learn more about this part of our spiritual journey - really experience it the way we are intended. If you know of any great reads on Lent, or fasting in general, I would love to hear them in the comments!

We have had an extraordinarily busy week for us, with meetings and activities every night Sunday-Thursday...and then watching the Olympics after that keeps us up even later. (We don't have a DVR.) I am tired; Brian is exhausted.

Tonight, we sleep.

Rory says sleep is for the weak and that she would much rather be chewing on this blanket here. Because that's what is supposed to be going on at 6am on a Friday.

A couple knitting updates:

I realized sometime in the past week that the fun stripey socks I'd begun required more yarn than I had for the project. So...I've finished one of those and I have found some more of the yarn second-hand (it's discontinued). I'm hoping to get that yarn before the end of Feb, so I can finish up this second sock and have some fun new foot-sweaters.

In the meantime, I decided to start a shawl I've had my eye on for many months. It's more or less a triangle shape, knitted in three 'stages' of sorts. I've finished the first stage and I'm in the transition part to the second stage. This is my first real actual lace project with real actual lace-sized yarn. I'm pretty stoked about it. I might be able to finish by the end of the month, but it might take me a little longer than that. We'll see.

Beginning stages of lace. It's much bigger now.

So tell me, what are you up to this weekend?

Company Girl Coffee 2.12.10

 

Happy Friday, everybody!

I'm afraid I'm not facing this particular Friday with the kind of pep I usually have. I'm still sick - and it's been almost 2 weeks. I am really tired of being sick. I'm not as sick, but still enough to be prevented from normal activity levels. I feel like I'm behind on everything. This bout of illness has made me really really grateful for having a husband who provides enough for us that I don't have to work outside the home. As much as I sometimes struggle with being 'just' a housewife - not even a mom - I really am so grateful to be able to have this time to build a home-based source of income without having to worry about the finances. We might not be able to save up for a home as quickly as I would like, but that's ok. The work I'm doing now will pave the way for me being able to stay at home if/when we have kids. That's worth delaying the purchase of a home, in my book.

Speaking of books! I had the pleasure of working with fellow Company Girl Cari on a book she's now published. And girls, it is AWESOME. Cari has such great insight on the topic of friendship, and it was such a pleasure to work with her...She has a real heart for women's ministry and I'm so happy to have learned about her work. Cari posted an excerpt from the book here - please have a look and leave your thoughts in a comment. You can buy a copy of the book here. I would really encourage you to do so - it's really really good. And I'm not just saying that! There's nothing in it for me at this point!

And of course - if you are in the market for an affordable editor - might I suggest me? I do just about everything - including blogs. And I'm still running a special - mention why you hate Duke and I'll cut you a deal. Seriously!

I don't really have a whole lot to report - I haven't been up to much in the past two weeks...including (excluding?) the Small Things - meaning, I haven't done many. My mom and her husband came and went - and I was an invalid for the majority of their time here. We did make a nice trip up to Boulder before they left. I found a mirror in the art coop that I fell in love with immediately (too bad it's $770) and some prints by Karla Gudeon that were so wonderful I was afraid to look at their price tags. We had some good times at the Redstone Meadery (mead, like what they drank in the middle ages - it's like wine but made with honeyed water instead of grape juice) and at the Celestial Seasonings factory (if it could be called a factory). I discovered that I like mead a lot more than I like wine (I don't really like wine that much), and I love the African teas that Celestial makes. In fact, I'm drinking their pomegranate rooibus tea right now. YUM.

I finished those two socks I was working on weeks ago, but I haven't managed to send them to their new owner yet, so I can't post pictures. I worked on a shawl but I drastically underestimated the amount of yarn I had, so the shawl is 'hibernating' until I can afford to get about $50 worth of yarn (so...maybe this summer?) I made a funny neckwarmer with a mustache embroidered over the part that sits just below the nose - Brian hates it, but I think it's hilarious! If he sighs at it one more time, I might have to put it in my moribund Etsy shop. I'm currently working on some socks for me. 

The Olympics start tonight! I love the Olympics and I especially love the opening ceremonies, with the torch and the parade of nations and all that, so I'm really looking forward to this evening. Does anybody remember the opening ceremonies from Torino - with that mob of people moving around in the shape of a skier? That was so fun. We'll see what Vancouver comes up with!

I hope you all have a great weekend and you aren't stuck with the sniffles like me!

Company Girl Coffee 1.29.10

 

Good morning! It's Friday and I got to sleep in until 6:30 this morning with only 3 interruptions between 5am and then! In my book, that's pretty sweet. I've got some Yogi Tea to sip on (free sample from like 6 months ago) and some bread I baked yesterday. How's your morning?

For no apparent reason, I am in a really good mood. The dogs were quiet for almost 7 hours, which is awesome, and yesterday I woke up feeling like I'd recently been hit by a deer. But I got some good knitting (one of the socks has a heel!) and reading done, and I saw the newest episode of Project Runway, and all in all it was pretty low key and recovery-oriented. I am still feeling really sleep-deprived from last weekend, and there's no respite in sight, but I'm beginning to understand just how important it is for me to get to bed at a decent hour to compensate. The early mornings were kind of a bust this week, and that's fine. Maybe next week. On today's docket is getting heels on both socks, updating some of my sidebar stuff right here on the ol' blog, and venturing out to put up some fliers... because...

...in great big giant potentially life-changing but definitely life-enhancing news...

My website is live! And it features a cute birdie I made! And, you know, all my business stuff.

Which means... I'm open for business! And I am stoked. Client-less so far, but stoked.

(In case you're new here, I'll add that my business is editing.) (And there's something on there for bloggers who want to build their street cred.)

The direct link is www.ashleydaoust.com and I would LOVE it if you would visit and let me know what you think. I still tweak it a little bit most days. And right now there are two unadvertised offers for those of you who might be interested in my services:

1. Mention that you found my site via my personal blog (aka right here) and I'll cut you a deal.

2. Tell me why you hate dook (that's Duke University for those of you who don't follow college sports) and I'll cut you an even bigger deal. (GO HEELS!)

Self-aggrandizement over. On to this week's Small Things! Don't you just love the names Rachel comes up with? Playing with matches, ha! When I read that post's title I had an instant flashback to my childhood, at a time when my brother and I played with matches - the bad kind - and I ended up accidentally lighting the edges of my (very long) hair on fire. Ooops. My teenage candle obsession diminished a little after that.

(Yes, we were teenagers at the time. Old enough to know better, for sure.)

And...guess what! Maybe this is why I'm so pumped today...I did EVERY small thing mission this month! I felt a little lost and misdirected after the holidays (who am I kidding - I've felt that way for like 3 years) and I clung to the Small Things with an iron grip as a way to find some kind of focus and keep moving. It's been really fun. One of my first thoughts upon waking consciousness is usually I wonder what today's small thing is. Yes. My life is THAT exciting.

One more thing. So you know how there's this giant ice storm moving across the country? It is going to be sitting on top of Nashville, which is fine except Brian is supposed to fly out of Nashville at like 5:30 tomorrow morning, and I would like him to be able to make that flight. The storm will be hours gone by 5:30am, but I don't know how adept that airport is at recovering overnight from an evening snow/ice storm. And then the storm moves to NC where it's expected to hang out all day Saturday, where my mom and her husband are supposed to hop on a plane to Denver (that's where I live) and...well...we Southerners don't always know how to react to snow. And I don't know that they'll be able to make it out, either. So really, my weekend plans are all up in the air (or not) and I would like everything to work out with too many tears shed.

So I think I asked you this before, but I'll ask again: how was your week, and what are you up to this weekend?

Company Girl Coffee 1.22.10

 

It's Friday!!

I've had a pretty good week this week. I started getting up early, I went to my church's knitting group for the first time (and it was AWESOME) and I stuck pretty well to my housekeeping schedule from last week. I am so grateful to be able to be at home right now, and be able to focus on building some web business and raise the kids dogs.

SPEAKING of business and dogs...

Rory, the toilet paper monster of doom, has been much much MUCH easier to deal with this week. She and Eli have been zonking from about 8am to 11am and again from about 1pm to 3pm every day this week. I am beside myself with joy for all those hours I'm getting back. I have hit the web design hard the past couple of days, and if the trend continues, the site will go live next week. I am so stoked. And SO ready to be contributing actual monetary value to the bottom line again (although I racked up about $75 worth of ebay and half.com sales this week)! AND, I've been able to make good headway on a volunteer project I committed to doing back in November, in the days immediately preceding our acquisition of the puppy.

The socks I mentioned last week are coming along, though not as quickly as I would like. I've finished the foot (the part from the base of the toes to where the front of your leg meets the top of your foot) of one and am almost finished with the foot of the other - which puts me close to the half-way point. I'd like to get this and the other pair in the mail to Holly by this time next week. I can't post pictures yet, because they are a surprise! But I will post as soon as they arrive. If you are really super interested in seeing some things I've knitted, you can check out any post with the knitting tag (or click here). There's at least one photo of a completed pair of socks in there.

So that's my life these days week. Dogs, website, knitting, housework. Maybe next week I'll get to some fun things like decorating the mantle and hanging artwork!

That's all for me. How was your week? What have you been up to? Any big projects just itching to be completed and then unveiled??

true confessions

It's Friday morning! Time for another Company Girl Coffee. Welcome!

So...I'm exhausted. How about you? This week has been really draggy for me - one of those weeks when I feel like I'm moving underwater or something. My capacity this morning for intelligent, cohesive thought is somewhat limited. What follows is, essentially, a bullet-point list of what runs through my mind as I reflect on the past several days. Like stream of consciousness, but easier to read because it's punctuated.


Our Christmas tree, which has been bare for several days now, finally left our house last night. There is a trail of dried up pine needles showing the way to the car. You can sweep sidewalks, but you can't sweep gravel...

The puppy has decided that maybe she doesn't need to be housetrained after all.

Brian is almost off for his first of 3 weekends away, and I am dreading all that time alone with the dogs going to miss him.

I did all of the Small Things this week. Actually, I've done all of them this month. I'm pretty proud of that. This week's big task was setting up a housekeeping schedule. And I'm happy with mine. With the Small Things every day, the schedule to give me some overall structure, and the Flylady missions, I think I'm pretty well set up in the 'get stuff done around the house' category.

I am currently reading People of the Book. I have been reading it for more than a week, and I'm only about 120 pages in. I love it, but for some reason it is very slow reading for me.

I also finished a pair of socks and started a second. These are for a barter exchange with my college roommate - she bought tickets to a football game for us, and I am in return knitting her two pairs of socks. (I won't mention here that the game was in September and I am just now finishing the first pair. What can I say - I guess I was a little busy in the past few months.) I really liked the first pair I made, but it was a pretty challenging pattern. This second pattern is not as challenging, but the socks are man-socks so they'll be much bigger than I'm used to. The yarn colorway is called Ripe Banana and I love it - it is various shades of yellow with the occasional brown speck.

This weekend: I am looking forward to some down time - lots of knitting and lots of reading. I am also looking forward to some solid hours of making progress in the unpacking and getting settled departments. I don't know about you, but I've got a 2-foot stack of things to be filed/sorted/listed on eBay.

We'll see who wins - the grasshopper or the ant.


I might also let the dogs sleep on the bed with me.


How was your week? Do you have any plans for the weekend, fun or otherwise?

coffee, etc.

I have never liked coffee. I have never liked mocha, or coffee-flavored ice cream, or tiramisu. I have always, however, liked coffee shops, and hot teas, and the coffee drinkers these shops serve (Starbucks not included - I get headaches in there for some reason).

On this date two months ago, we packed up our car and our dog (we only had one dog back then) and began our cross-country journey from Richmond, VA, to Denver, CO. Brian had just finished seminary and was about to start work at a church out here. I was facing a new first for me - being a housewife. We got married while he was in school, and I worked to support us. The plan for when we got out here was for me to get everything unpacked and then start bringing in some web-based income from home quickly, as a freelance proofreader and editor (and YES, I am for hire NOW! and YES, I DO edit theses/manuscripts/articles/resumes/blog posts!). Quickly hasn't happened as quickly as I had hoped (see posts tagged Rory) but it is coming, and I imagine that once work starts rolling in, I might spend some time in coffee shops. Especially when the weather gets nice, and I can sit outside with the dogs.

I haven't found my coffee shop here in Denver yet, but that's ok. Moving was expensive, and Christmas was expensive, and Eli had to have four digits worth of dental surgery, and all three of those things happened within about 6 weeks of each other, and I am still working on amassing a winter wardrobe (it is 0 degrees outside according to my thermometer) and we just plum don't have play money right now.

I've got plenty to keep me busy, though. Designing a website, for one. Setting up our home, for another. And then there are the dogs, who need feeding, and grooming, and training (lots of training) and walks and potty breaks outside (where it is 0 degrees) every 10 minutes or so, and cuddles and pets and ice cubes.

Busy hasn't proven to be quite the wonderful thing for me, though. I am lucky if I talk to a non-family member more than once a day (I'm counting librarians and grocery checkout people in that number) and, while I am fairly introverted, I am also very lonely right now. I send lengthy responses to 'hey what's up' emails; I linger on the phone a little too long; and the mail man (whose name is Jim) might be the closest friend I've made out here so far. Don't get me wrong - I have made some wonderful friends at church and I know those relationships will grow, but we rocketed right into the holidays when we got here, and everyone was busy doing holiday things. There was lots of good cheer to go around, but a shortage of the 'let's get together this week' kind of thing. So I have found myself doing a little bit of that one thing I thought I would never do, or need to do: finding community online.

One of my very very favorite blogs is called Home Sanctuary. I can't say enough good things about it, and I imagine that a large portion of folks who are reading these words came here because of Rachel Anne and Home Sanctuary. I've only recently begun commenting and reading the blogs of other visitors to Home Sanctuary, but I am so encouraged by linking with other women like me. And, I feel a little less lonely.

WELCOME! to any visiting Company Girls. And to my friends who are reading - please leave a comment and let me know you were here. I could use a little wave, some friendly words, and maybe your best joke on hand :)

In the meantime - I have some new girlfriends to call and some little get-togethers to try to set up. I hope you have a great day today and a good weekend ahead. Happy Friday!!