This morning, on my friend Aileen's Facebook page, I saw a photo of a bouquet of Lily of the Valley. Instant JOY! My mother's favorite spring flower. When I moved into my new house, she brought me some plants from her patch and every year I am filled with JOY when their fragrant tiny bells bloom.
After seeing Aileen's beautiful bouquet - as soon as I had a free second - I ran up to my parent's homestead - now their estate - and started picking as many blooms as I could. I knew this was the last year I would be privileged to do this so I wanted every single one. I planned to come back in a few weeks to dig more up but for now, I needed this last bouquet.
The patch is about 4 feet x 2 feet and I was very intent on making a big vase full. Suddenly, this came into focus. It was the weirdest thing. I had been in the patch for a good 5 minutes and never saw it. I swear, it just "appeared".
How cool is THAT??? It's a Red Tailed Hawk feather. I'm thinking it's a wee gift from my Mama...
BTW - can someone please explain to me why my family can't THROW THESE AWAY?????? Is there an arts and crafts project looming that I don't know about? EVERY WEEK? Just askin'...
Just another day here at JOY central.
Remember - you gotta...
At exactly 9:17 this morning I finished a very LONGGGGG 9 week strength and conditioning session. Normally my classes run for 6 weeks but due to circumstances beyond my control as in - ACTS OF GOD - I had to make up 25 classes starting with the mess of class cancelations that Hurricane Sandy left me with back in October.
Now you may think - what is she bitching about? 9 weeks? I work 50 weeks in a row every year - 40 hours, 5 days a week. Yup, I know. But the universe doesn't revolve around YOUUUUU. Helllloooooooo. This is MY blog???
At ANY rate - next week I teach one early morning class every day and I get the rest of the day OFF! How excited am I????? EXTREMELY excited! The kids are in school. The hubby is at the office. I'm ALONE for hours!!!
Now usually that means - catching up on housework, yardwork, grocery shopping, etc. etc. etc. And that is not so bad. I still don't have to gear up for the evening classes. I'm FREE every evening for the next 11 days!!! And I don't have to get up at 5AM for 11 mornings!!! In a row! Life is good.
So - I was at the public library yesterday and I ended up selecting 4 books which I added to 2 library books I was still hoarding at home. As I'm walking out of the library, I'm all excited because I found a book that one of my favorite authors put out last year and I didn't know it. Eureka!! I love Nicholas Evans! (no! Not Nicholas Sparks, whose sappy books I just can't get into)
Then I said to myself:
Now how am I going to get all these books read? Why do I do this? Check out a sh*tload of great books and then only have time to read 1?
And then it hit me! I'm OFF this week! I don't HAVE to clean, cook, do laundry, grocery shop, blahblahblah. If I want to - I can read all week! BOOKATION!!!!!!! I mean - if I was away on vacation at my beach house, I'd be sitting on the beach all day - reading. It's what I do! Why do I have to be away?
BOOKATION! Here I COME!!!!!
BOOKATION mission? READ READ READ!!!!!
these 6 books:
The Brave - Nicholas Evans
The Panther - Nelson DeMille
The Racketeer - John Grisham
The Secret Keeper - Kate Morton
A Week in Winter - Maeve Binchy
What? That's only 5 books?
That's because I wanted to tell you something. I am a huge fiction fan but I rarely read memoirs etc. I'm definitely an info junkie and I read tons of fitness, nutrition and lifestyle material but for some reason memoirs don't do it for me.
BUT, included in my 6 books, is a memoir called, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming. I have NO idea who Ruthie is. None! But the inside front cover summary was appealing so THAT book got added to the list.
I'll let you know how I make out! I am really looking forward to my BOOKATION!! Afterall...
And to all my Words With Friends and WordFeud opponents? If you don't see much action this week - you'll know the reason...
See you on the other side after my JOY-filled BOOKATION!!! Adios!!
PS - Did I tell you about all the books in my personal "library" I need to read?
OY!!!!!
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| BOOK JOY |
