Morning Meanderings…


I woke up to a thunderstorm.  I heard the low rumble that shook me out of a pleasant sleep and listened as the first drops tapped the roof, slip down the windows, and covered my world.

It actually seems to be appropriate today as I am planning to be in the office tying up loose ends and finishing projects for the Annual Meeting on Monday.  It is the beautiful warm and sunny days of late that make me wish I was outside.

So now I sit typing up this post, sitting my Coffee and glancing at the darkness outside that has covered Brainerd Minnesota.  It is really a perfect day for a good mystery style read.

The back yard this morning

Tonight is date night…. my pick.  And I have no idea.  If Al gets home early enough maybe we can do a movie.  As far as where to eat…. I will have to think about that.

One last thing, my son Justin wrote a post for The Heart Is Not A Size blog about his experience with poverty in Honduras.  I would be forever grateful if you could pop over and read sometime today and leave him a comment.  (It would make his day!)

Any big weekend plans for anyone?

New Books In My Home

Morning Meanderings…


I am in a bit of a crunch week.  Actually a crunch double week.  At work, we have our annual meeting coming up on Monday evening.  This week has been dedicated to prepping the annual report, entering survey results for about 400 responses, agenda prep, and trying to keep up on the basics as well.  Going into next week we are planning our annual potluck picnic that this year will take place on July 4th.  This has resulted in meetings the past 3 weeks planning the food prep, and more.  Gah. This too will pass.

So… to lighten the office mood I created a little stress reliever yesterday:

I told everyone who works in the office that it was fair game to whoever needed it.  I just sat it out on the counter and left it.  😀

Today work – blade – and tonight read.  Hope your day is super!

Morning Meanderings…


1st word of the day, “meh.”

This was said at 4:42 am this morning when my two shih tzus bounded off the bed.  This means, they want to go outside.  Groggy and disoriented I make my way tot he sliding door that allows them to escape to the back deck and to their little fenced in area of the yard.  I then made my way back to bed until 20 minutes later their barks to come in wake me for the second time.

Sometimes… I think I am the pet.

Now at a more decent hour, I enjoy time with Coffee Cup and gaze out the window to what looks like could be an overcast day.  I am inside all day so that’s alright, and after work I need to (MUST) go to my Group Power class, so its nice not to have an outside draw that makes me think of skipping school, or in my case… life.  😀

This afternoon Sarah Pekkanen, author of Opposite of Me will joining me here to chat books and life, and along with that will be a giveaway that I am super excited about, directly from Sarah.
Also – do not forget to pop in at Devourer of Books where Jen is busy with Audiobook week. You can win some cool audios, and learn a little more about the appeal of books on audio as well. 🙂

Have a super fine day (for those of you who follow my work out rants…. I have biked 18 miles this week and rollerbladed 12 miles this week.  Now if I could just quit coming home and having ice cream….. 😉

Books that have recently graced my doorstep:

Morning Meanderings…


Good morning.  I am scrambling this morning but Coffee Cup is here and we are moving right along.  I slept well…. I feel good… the weather outside is gorgeous…. I may go bike riding this afternoon.

A couple of days ago I went to the local laundromat – probably for the first time in 20+ years.  I had all the sheets, blankets, comforters, and pillow cases to wash for the 18 people we had in the IHN program last week.  I wasnt about to do 18 sets of bedding in my home…. I would still be doing laundry now!  😀

In my head, I had this picture of how the laundromat scenario would go.   I would have all the laundry put into many (many) washers.  Then I had brought my laptop so I would proceed to grab a cup of coffee and sit in a quiet space and do a little blogging throughout my afternoon.  I was actually a little excited about this outing.


This is not the way it went down at all.  Nope.  Instead I pull up with my laundry and find a crowded area where you wheel in your laundry on a basket with wheels… and start grabbing washers wherever you can.  This is when I discovered I had not thought ahead to bring soap…. so instead I purchased all those little boxes of laundry soaps… one at a time out of a machine.

After I figured out how to make the coin operated machines work I ran back to get the rest of my stuff I had yet to pick up, the pillows, the blankets we did not use, food we did not finish, etc…  I ran into a woman there that would be serving this week and her and I proceeded to chat for about an hour.  She had many questions, I was willing to help.

I learned in Laundromat language being late to move your wash is not cool.

I get back to the laundromat and find all the bedding has been removed from the washers.  People need the machines.  I have been hogging them with my tardiness.  They are right.

Then I put the laundry into the dryers and I am surprised that they are only a quarter.  I use 5 large dryers.  Put a quarter in each, and run home to pick up my hubby and take him up town where he is going to drive a piece of our excavating equipment home.  I then hurry back to the laundromat to avoid another mishap…. I find all the machines have stopped, but my laundry is still wet.

An elderly gentleman calls over to me “Your never going to dry the sheets that way – you have the dryers too full.  I tell him I am new, hoping that excuses my lack of laundromat knowledge.   He tells me to use more dryers, which I do then spread out to 12 dryers.  Then he tells me that a quarter in a dryer equals 6 minutes.  I need to put in several quarters… he advises me to put 3 quarters in each machine.  I take his advice and do so.

I am then going to relax with my laptop but see there really is no place to sit in this laundromat.  The tables are for folding laundry and there are no chairs.  I prop a hip on one of the tables and try to answer a few emails but the distance between me and lap top is not working for me.  Its awkward and hard to see what I am doing.  As for the coffee… no…. get that idea out of your head.  I did however have a nice diet Pepsi and all in all the laundry project did not take me nearly as long as I thought it was going to thanks to one man.

Today I work.  I will have a review up later and possibly more audio talk.  It is audio book week and if you did not see yesterdays post on audio books, please check it here.

Here are a few books that have come my way…

Morning Meanderings…


Happy Sunday!  Looks like today going to be a good day – sunny and warm here in Minnesota – even at 7 am!  Al and I went out and had dinner last night to celebrate father’s day early.  Today I need to tear down from our serving week for the homeless, which means I will spent many hours today at Giant Wash, washing all the bedding and then putting it away for our next serving dates in September.

On the upside… I am taking Laptop, Coffee Cup, and a book….

Speaking of books….  I think at least for the summer I will add books that have come in to my morning meandering posts.  I just don’t have the time to create the long one I usually do for In My Mailbox this time of year.  I will just put a few on as they come in daily, if there are any.

I really want to keep my focus on the reviews, the pondering moment book discussions, meanderings, and of course the Monday, What Are You Reading.    On that note…. here is a little of what I seen come in this week:

Ehhhhhh?  I know, right?  The sequel to The Farfield Curse.  Woo Hoo – thank you Sourcebooks!

FSB and Associates sent this one over… it is supposed to be written in a Janet Evanovich style, so a funny, mystery.

I recently read Kris Radish for book club, and would like to see how this book is.

Later I need to – I have to put a review up….  I must catch up on these!  🙂  Hope you have a wonderful Fathers Day everyone!

Morning Meanderings…


Good morning!  We finally had a gorgeous day in Brainerd on Friday after some severe storms in the area on Thursday night.  I met three of my good friends on the bike trail and we went for a morning ride.

Heidi, Cindy, Sara


These three friends of mine are girls I used to work with.  To stay in touch, each month we take a turn choosing an activity we do as a group.  Sometimes it is as simple as getting together for lunch or a movie.  Other times we have spent weekends doing murder mystery parties, Wisconsin Dells, camping, weekends on the North Shore…  We have done this for years.

We each have a charm bracelet that we add a charm to for each event.  Doing this for years, we now have three charm bracelets of memories.  (The picture below is not any where near as clear as I wanted it to be, but you can see some of the charms):


  • The banana:  when we pretended we were all too busy to do something for Sara’s birthday and then donned masks and kidnapped her from her home by banana point.

  • Two hearts:  Ole and Lena’s Wedding – a play in Duluth Minnesota, a surprise event for my birthday

  • The flag:  4th of July camp out at Cindy’s with food and a camp fire and lots of laughs

  • Wine and Cheese:  Is our formal overnight stay at the mansions in Little Falls

Each charm tells a story, and yesterday we added a bike charm to our bracelets.  I love spending time with these girls.  Next month (July) is my month to plan.  I am hoping we are going to be able to go to the Blueberry Festival up North and stay at our cabin for the weekend.

Upper left: Heidi, Sara Lower Left: Me and Cindy

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Others stay awhile, make footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same.


Tornadoes swept through Minnesota Thursday night doing severe damage in Wadena , a town about 45 miles from where I live in.  There will be a lot of work needed to be done in that area and at this time they are not taking volunteers until they can assess the damage better.  Thank you to those who checked in on me… the blogging community never ceases to astound me – thank you to Sharon (Sharon’s Garden of book reviews) who checked on me through Facebook and Esme from (Chocolate’s and Croissants) who called me to make sure we were ok.

Morning Meanderings…

This one is a brief one… I was hoping to have more time this morning, but I am not at home, stayed over night for our homeless program and have been running since 6 am.  I am cleaning up here and then on the trail with my friends for a morning bike ride and then a late breakfast to catch up and chat.

I will be back later with a review and maybe a giveaway…. have a few I need to get posted.  Have a wonderful start to your weekend.   Any fun plans?

Oh… I will leave you with this picture.  This is what happens at my house if I bring the laundry upstairs but do not fold it and put it away right away:

Morning Meanderings…


I am up.  Vertical is good.  Coffee is good, and my light croissant with peanut butter is good.  Last night I came home and fell asleep on the couch about 7:30 pm.  Then woke up at 9:00 and read…. then asleep again at 10 and didn’t get up until 6:45 this morning.

I am stretched, pulled, tired out, over booked, over whelmed, and over committed.  And… I am pretty sure I have lost my muchness.

Yup.  There it is.

Am I the only one that does this?  Says “Yes, Sure!”  “Oh absolutely!”  “Let’s see I have four minutes between 6:15 and 6:19, yeah, count me in!”

Today I work until 3.  Then I need to go to the post office because I have much to mail.  At 4:20 I pick up the people from the day center who are part of the program I am working with this week.  I make sure the people coming in to serve dinner tonight are comfortable before I make a run for it  home, shower, grab my clothes and a blanket and hurry back, because it is my night to stay over night for the homeless program.  Then I take them back to the day center by 8 am where I will then hurry home, load up the bikes, and meet my girl friends on the bike trail at 8:30 am where we are biking to Nisswa (18 miles one way) to shop and hang out for the afternoon and then bike back home.

I picture this version of me (I think it is me) with a smile plastered on my face laying passed out next to my bike.

Ok… I am done whining.  It is another gorgeous day in Minnesota.  I believe the forecast called for severe storms but I don’t see it.  Its sunny and welcoming and exactly what I need.  🙂

I have what I think is a fun post coming up later today…  hope you will pop in for it.

Morning Meanderings…

Go Coffee Pot Go!!!

Is it wrong to rush the coffee pot?  I am zipping around this morning as I have a full day and I am starting it off with a big 9 am meeting that I want to look brilliant for.  I have a couple of things I need to prep prior to this meeting in order for the “brilliance” to have full effect. Part of this meeting is I need to have read chapters 19 and 20 out of the book the me I want to be by John Ortberg.  Love Ortberg so this is no homework assignment at all…. this is – dessert.

😀

And when today is all said and done I am going to enjoy what is supposed to be a beautiful day by rollerblading with my friend Wendy.  The last week has been rainy, drizzly, damp, overcast, gloomy, cold…. and darn right frustrating.  I have roller bladed and biked in this last week in rain sprinkles.  I really want to be done with that.  My final award of the day being this:

My favorite reading spot

This is my back deck and this is where I love to sit and read when the sun is out.  I took this picture this morning – pre sun….  but it is coming.  The weather man said, so it has to be true right?  Right?  Oh please let it be true….

Before I rush out the door I want to say that yesterdays discussion about Bookaholics was so fun!  And you probably (hopefully) have seen I have the survey up now.  I will leave that as top post for a while and then move it to the sidebar.  I hope each of you will take a moment to fill out the survey so I can get an idea of what sort of reader base I have.  It’s very short and I appreciate your help.

Have a super day!  I am back later with a review… maybe something more.  I have a couple drafted discussions that I can’t wait to pull out but they may wait….. 😉

Morning Meanderings…


Good Morning!  My name is Sheila and I am a bookaholic.

Symptoms:

  1. Inability to leave my home without a book in my purse, one tucked between the seats of the vehicle, or an audio in the CD player.  (In many cases – all  of the above.)

  2. The ability to pick up on other people “book conversations” at great distances.  Almost like bat ears I can tune into a book related topic.

  3. Most often (in case #2) being able to walk up and join in the conversation without having to know these people.

  4. Skipped out on meetings or other events because you were in a really good part of a book.

  5. Own a t-shirt that says “I’d rather be reading” – and it is true.

  6. Have misplaced a book and unable to find it as quick as you had hoped, went out and bought another copy so you could continue where you left off.

  7. Refer to Barnes and Noble as my “Mother Ship” and all my friends know this.

  8. Can not pass a bookstore without jonesing a little.

  9. All the Librarians know you by name.

  10. Stay up way too late into the wee hours of the night (which has now become morning) and discover you only have a few hours of sleep before you need to go to work.


And the point of this conversation this morning is #10.  I stayed up way too late reading last night.  Then I woke up at 7 am (I never use an alarm).  I sat up, and thought – 5 more minutes, and layed back down.  I woke up again at 8:05.

I go to work at 8.

AND – and, I had a commitment to deliver keys to a van to friends of ours this morning on my way to work.  They needed the keys by 7:30 – 7:45 am and I said “no problem, It’s on my way to work!”

GAH!

So…… yeah.  I have issues.  Please make my day by adding to this list of bookaholic symptoms, or share your stories from the top ten here.  Oh you know you have them…. 😀

(P.S.  for those of you who received a survey in your email box last night but couldn’t link to it here…. it is coming yet today, I meant to draft it and instead published it….  yes, my madness continues….  perhaps I need coffee…)