The Night Sky

Day Four - Thirty Days of Thanksgiving

We live in an area that is relatively dark at night. I'm grateful I can see the moon, planets and stars. At least, I can see them when the sky is clear, and not cloudy. I love seeing the moon no matter what phase it's in; all's right with the world when I can see the moon.

Our daughter has a wonderful pair of binoculars that we used to look at celestial phenomena when she lived with me. The Psalmist knew the truth: The heavens declare the glory of God.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here. I finally got some painting done, although it wasn't the walls yet.

My bedroom has suffered from a bad case of piles for as long as I can remember. My goal for the past year has been getting all the piles off the floor. I want to be able to sweep easily.

Earlier in the summer I asked my hero, TopDad to build me a bookcase to fit between the two closet doors. He finished it before school started, last month, but it took me awhile to get around to painting it.

After three coats it was ready to install!

Including a special shelf of all my Korean goodies.

I've painted the new front door also, but it's not installed yet. When it's done I'll post the before and after pictures.

Now for the ugly:

I took the trash and recycling out to the alley and as I walked back my left ankle rolled under and I came down on my right shin on the edge of the cement. Just call me Grace.

We had a visitor on Friday, for the high school homecoming:

Yes, that's Dandylion, the college student.

And finally, an early morning moon heading for the western horizon:

Inch by painful inch, I'm making progress on my home. Each little step fills me with joy and gratitude as I get my house in order and make it beautiful.

NaNoWriMo

Day Twenty of Count Your Blessings - 2013

Noble introduced me to the NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth or NaNoWriMo in 2009. TopDad and JET had already moved to Iowa and it was just me and our other four children wrapping up things in Utah. She cajoled and wheedled and I gave in. I wrote a novel (that I'm still working on) and had a lot of fun doing it. The next year I attempted it again, but didn't win (making it to a 50,000 word count is considered winning) and hadn't participated again. November is just too busy a month for me being right before December and Christmas. But Noble did it again (cajoled and wheedled) and I'm again feverishly writing when ever I have some time. Last night she arranged a "Write-In" over Skype. We simply sat together and wrote in 25 minute bursts with five to ten minute breaks to relax and chat. I had a blast!! And I got 4,000 words written in the three hours we did it.

Thank You Noble aka Te Ah Rheum in Korea.

The other thing I'm thankful for today (I need two things because I missed yesterday) is the beauty of the night sky. For the past few days the night sky has been clear and the Evening Star is just gorgeous and then the full moon rising over the bare trees is another beauty to behold. Moonlight and star shine! Hey, maybe that can be the title of my next novel. Or should it Moonshine and Starlight?

Early Morning Beauty

Moonset at about 7:00 AM on Monday, January 9, 2012. A little tender mercy on an otherwise bleak midwinter morning.