Life: It Goes On - November 23

Yikes! How did this week pass by so quickly?? Between a cold, book club, time with my girl, and a lot of work on "my" room, we've worked our way back to Sunday.

The Omaha Bookworms met Tuesday and had a great discussion about The Paris Wife by Paula McClain. We'd definitely recommend it for other book clubs. You've gotta know a book's discussion worthy when we spent as much time talking about the book as we did talking about other things!

It finally warmed up enough this weekend that we were able to finish our outdoor work for the year. Just in time to put up the Christmas lights next weekend! Have any of you ever wintered a strawberry plant? I've brought in one in a small pot a month ago I'm going to try to keep alive with my herbs over the winter.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: I'll finish Sea of Poppies this week then I'll be listening to podcasts for a while since I've neglected to get over to the library to pick up some new reads. Have any of you started listening to "Serial," the podcast launched by This American Life? I think I'll download that to listen to next week.

Watching: We rewatched the final episode of season one of Benedict Cumberbatch's "Sherlock" on BBC America and caught up with "Manhattan" in addition to our usual rounds of football, "The Voice," "Person of Interest," and "Elementary."

Reading: I read both The Paris Wife and Jane Austen's First Love this week and now I'm back to The Secret History which is definitely starting to pick up. For some reason, though, it just doesn't call to me to pick it up and fall into it for a couple of ours at a time. Too many other things on my mind?

Making: Omelets, skillet barbecued chicken and mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies. I know we were more productive in the kitchen than that this week - we actually made a plan every night before we went to bed for dinner the next night.

Planning: On continuing work in my new space. The goal is to get everything in there and organized so I can start using it the next week. The books are largely in and organized; shelving and cupboards are almost all in place; and the sewing, crafting, and scrapbooking supplies are making their way up from the basement. Come spring I'll push it all back into the middle of the room so I can paint and then I can finally make curtains of fabric I've been holding on to for 20 years for just the right space.

Grateful for: A pantry full of food. This time of year I definitely become more away of how many people are not so fortunate. My sister has challenged me to do some grocery shopping for a worthy cause, take a picture of it and post it to Facebook. I'll be planning meet that challenge this week.

Moving photos mean I find things like this!

Enjoying: Time with all of my kids this week. Had a two-hour lunch with Miss H on Thursday then she spent the night Friday night and spent most of yesterday with me. Today Mini-me came out to spend the day. Mini-him was around a good chunk of the time so he was happy to get to spend time with his siblings as well. We are blessed that they are all such good friends.

Feeling: Content and confident. I'm getting used to Miss H being gone (heck, I've seen more of her since she moved than I did when she lived here!), my house and yard are mostly in order, and I've got a plan to survive the holidays. Although, I kind of hate that I think of it as "surviving" instead of "enjoying."

Looking forward to: Spending time with our families...and cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and Grandma's beans!