Summer Reading

                            There's nothing more relaxing then reading a good book!


I've loved to read since I was a young girl in grade school. Fact is I would love a small library to fill with books I'd love to read over and over, but alas I don't have that except for 3 bookcases full of good books.   I find nothing more relaxing then sitting on my lounger on the patio reading, but, unfortunately, there are not enough of those days
 
 As you may have read in a previous post I am decluttering my house.  I've actually stopped doing the declutter until my wonderful exchange student goes home in June.  I've enjoyed having him live with me for the past 3 months. When the weather co-operated we've been going to places in Oklahoma for him to see.  It's been an experience with him in my home.  Aitor, he's from Spain, is a vegetarian, so I've been learning to cook and eat vegetarian.  I couldn't eat that way all the time.  Love my meats way too much to do that.  When he goes home I intend to start going back to Keto way of eating.  I felt much better on it than I do eating any other way.  All that aside, here's what I am going to read this summer.


                                      

The Magnolia Story - Chip and Joanna Gaines

Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff  - Chip Gaines

The Paradigm - Jonathan Cahn

The Circle Maker - Mark Batterson

The Trump Prophecies -

I figured I'd balance two secular books with three spiritual books.  I've learned to enjoy life by balancing out my God time with rest of my time.  Put Him first and the rest seems to fall into place.

I know this is not the most exciting post, but since I'm an avid reader then I figured why not write a post about what I enjoy reading.  I'll throw in some books I just purchased on organizing and decluttering along with these, but figured that would make for a very long post! LOL

Everyone have an enjoyable summer and try not to get too sunburned.

Brenda aka Oklahomaredhead

Living Room Redo 2016

Life has been full these past months! I haven't posted in a long while.  Several months ago I stated I would post 2x a week but life interfered, and I haven't had time to do so.  I decided if I was going to do a blog post then I'm going to set aside some time each week to do one.  Things are beginning to slow down enough for me to sit down once a week to write a post.

For the past year and half I have been decluttering my home.  After helping some with my Mom's house after we had to put her in a nursing home it made me realize I needed to declutter mine.  It's taken me 4 years to start, but I started after my second knee surgery.  I got rid of a bunch of stuff I no longer needed then decided this year to go through it all again.  I'm not completely finished with this second time around but have 2 rooms left plus my garage. It feels good to let go of stuff. I tend to be too sentimental about some items, but I'm learning to let go.  I haven't taken too many pictures, but the ones I will show you are a few weeks right after my second knee surgery.  My youngest DD was taking care of me, and she questioned me on how I wanted my living room to look.  All the pictures she pulled from Pinterest that I liked were of images of cozy libraries with sofas and chairs around the fireplace and bookshelves. These are similar to what we saw on Pinterest. I love the idea of a cozy chair next to the bookcase and fireplace to curl up and read.

I love books.  I'd rather have a real book in my hand then my Kindle, but Kindle is much easier to take with me than a book. Plus if I finish a book I'm reading I always have another one I can start on.

This is what my DD did to my living room.  She had already decluttered it by the time she woke me up to help her.  What a day we had.  I loved what she did with it.  It felt cozy and comfortable and me!!  The couch and rocker have been sold.  I purchased a couch I have been wanting for a long time.  I got it on sale. Can't beat that!! But because it is a much bigger couch. I had to move my little "Jesus chair" from the corner to where the rocker is in the below picture.  But the essential coziness still exists.

Would like to get a different shelf to put on top of the wood red shelf. Maybe I'll have one made special to fit perfect on top of it.  It's the only thing in the room that is not real wood.  I love real wood and prefer that above what you purchase in stores now days.  Here's a picture of the before.  My DD had already removed everything out of the room before she remembered to take a picture.

And here is everything removed.  I love books so I had a boat load of them. I went through everything and pared it down to what I knew I really wanted to keep. I'd love to have a library similar to one of the above pictures. Fireplace, cozy chair and a good book. 

So one room done. I've been working on the other 6.  I'm down to 2.  Hopefully in the next month I'll have those completed.

Everyone have a blessed and fun weekend.

Read a good book and stay warm

OklahomaRedhead

How Time Goes By

My, I looked back at my last post and it was done in June 2016.  Since then has been a roller coaster ride, but I'm on the upward climb.  Each day get's better and better.  For the first time in almost 5 years I have a clear thinking mind.  That is awesome.  Life is not a cloud and fuzzy anymore!!

 My little Mama in the middle with my sister and I on either side. My sisters girls and husband behind her and my girls and their families behind me and Mama.


On Aug 30, 2016 my Mom passed away.  It was hard, but a relief.  Mom had dementia.  She could remember some things and others she didn't remember at all.  My sister and I are just happy she is with the Lord and with family who have gone on before her. She went easily and without pain.  Neither my sister or I made it to the nursing home before she died, but we had said our goodbye's the evening before.  The nice thing was when my sister got to the nursing home she stated the nurse was just sitting by her side and the room was full of the presence and peace of God.    I'll miss Mom, but happy she is in heaven whole and with a sound mind and with family.


On Dec 13, 2016 I had surgery on my left knee to have a full knee replacement.  The pain had gotten so bad that shots in the knee did not help anymore.  2017 started out with me at home recouping from knee surgery.  My oldest daughter stayed with me for 3 weeks until I could get on my feet without a walker to take care of myself.  It all happened at a perfect time.  She had just gotten laid off from her job, so she was able to help me after surgery.  She was such a blessing to me, and  I thank God for her and her help.  3 months of therapy and the left knee did much better than the right at getting to where they wanted it to be, so I was finally released from therapy.  All that's left is for the knee to flatten out and swelling to go down, but they stated the flattening would probably take about a year and the healing of the knee about 1- 1 1/2 years.  Now if the weather would co-operate and not get cold I'd be doing great. 


Finally got back to work on March 15th which was really great.  3 months off and I realized I was ready to get back on schedule with my life.  Love my job and supervisors and manager of the dept.  They have been good to me through all the issues with my Mom, my health (mental and physical). I couldn't ask for a better bosses.  Plus I love the work I do even though there are days the work is slow coming in.  I thank God for my job slow work or much work.  I realized while off I only have 3 more years before I can retire.  Just pray they go by as fast as the previous years have flown by.  My girls have been wanting me to move up to where they are in northern Oklahoma.  I told them lots can happen in 3 years.  So we'll see what happens in the next 3 years if I do move up there are not.


I'm in the midst of de-cluttering my home. Sheesh, you don't realize all the things you've collected until you start getting rid of stuff. My youngest daughter came down in February while I was off and we got the living room and 1/2 the garage done.  Next week I work on the kitchen and dining room then as I clean a room I'm going thru every drawer and closet and get rid of all the accumulation that I've acquired.   I figure by July 1st I'll be done with de-cluttering every room and the garage then I'll start on painting my kitchen walls and cabinets and redoing my counter tops. 


My intentions is to start blogging again, so here's praying I can get at least 2 posts a week done.


Glad to be back!!