A Writer's House

Although I admit that there are many other voracious readers out there whose houses are overflowing with books just like mine is, I'm sure every writer out there can relate to my current dilemma. Books are overtaking my house. I love it, but it is a bit of an organizational nightmare. In fact, the last time we moved when my brother-in-law was helping and carrying out his fifth box of books, he couldn't believe it "How many books do you have?". "Another one?" he said as I hand him a large bin marked books.
Now I am more than completely glad to have this many books in my house and always will, but I'm running out of room to store them :I :) Which makes me both annoyed (in the organizational part of my brain) and ecstatically happy (in the creative part of my brain).
So here's a little peek into the overflowingness of books in a writer's house. :D

My wonderful writing books smack dab in the centre of my desk,

 as I need to refer to them, a lot!

My overflowing bookshelf beside my desk

The bin of books which don't fit on the shelf, 

currently underneath my desk

Book I'm reading right now, on the edge of my desk

Another book I'm reading right now, 

in the pocket of the rocking chair

Books in my bathroom that I'm chipping away at

More books in my bathroom that I'm trying to chip away at

My cupboard of cookbooks 

(which overflows into the bookshelf by my desk)

My Narnia books on display with their fabulous bookends

The books currently on my bedside table

I'm also very proud of how much my children love books!

This is their little bookshelf

Plus the overflow of more of their books

And even more overflow into the drawer of the above bookshelf

Plus a couple of my random books on the same shelf

Yeah, I've got a ton of books, and I want even more. Ideally I'd love to eventually have my own library. But for now I'll just let the wonderful pages upon pages overtake my house :D

Recipe Recap:

Dinner From Last Week: Beef Barley Soup

Went really well (and this was actually made a number of weeks ago, but I'm just catching up now :D). I had to use actual tomatoes because I didn't have any canned tomatoes. But it was quite tasty and warm and hit the spot on a cold day.

Dessert From Last Week: Cranberry Bars

So for these after I started mixing the dry ingredients, I realized that my cake mix package was only half the size of what this recipe called for. I had to half all the other stuff for the crumble. Plus all I had was chocolate cake mix, so it was quite different than the actually recipe and only had half the crumble it was supposed to, but they were so tasty! Loved them with the chocolate. And I might just have to make these again with the full crumble instead of halving it!

Dinner For This Week: Slow Cooker Venison Roast - This sounds good, but the reviews seem pretty divided. I'm going to follow a lot of reviewer recommendations and sub potato for the fresh onion and use garlic powder instead of garlic salt.

Dessert For This Week: Chocolate Shortbread Sandwiches - Even though it's not Valentine's Day, I gotta try these!

WAM Moment of the Week:
- my husband was playing a lego videogame with my son and had moved the remotes of my daughter Kaia's reach. All of a sudden he said he felt something on his back. He looked around and Kaia had climbed up on the couch to get to the remotes! :O So yes my daughter is quite the climber now, but I had to laugh at how surprised my husband was at her determination to get to those really fun remotes :D

Cheers!

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The Saviour of My Soul and a Merry Christmas to All

On this day many are celebrating a variety of things, I myself am celebrating Christmas with a special focus on my Saviour Jesus Christ.

It doesn't matter to me what you may or may not believe and may or may not celebrate. Personally? Wish me whatever you please, Happy Holidays, good Kwanzaa, Hanuka or Christmas, if it's said with a smile and good intentions then I'll smile right back! :)  This is a time for people to come together and spend time sharing and caring.

Although for some, this is a particularly hard season as they may not have family or feel like anyone cares. If you notice one of these people please reach out and give them a smile, invite them over to join in your family celebrations, be inclusive, be kind. It can not only make someone's day but keep them going and in good spirits for a long time. We all need those happy memories to hang on to when the hard times come. If you happen to be someone who's feeling all alone and unloved and you're reading this, please reach out to those around you. So many people care that you may not think do. I care too and hope that you find peace and happiness.

For me this is a season of family and good tidings and giving, but it is also a time for me to Honour my Saviour. I know that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and that He died for me and that He Lives. At this special time of year I hope to show how much I try to follow him, both in how I treat others and in the smile and kindness on my face.

I hope each and every one out there has a very wonderful season, filled with joy, laughter, good company, and snuggling into the warm blankets on a cold morning. (Or trying to stay cool and still enjoy the season if you're in the Southern Hemisphere :D)

Merry Christmas! Laugh and Love and Please Drive Safe!

Cheers!

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Let's Be Honest. I Bit Off WAY More Than I Could Chew.

So I went to the most amazing Writer's Fair at the beginning of November. I got all motivated and excited about my writing again. Therefore I readjusted my deadline for sending out my manuscript, and I decided to do NaNoWriMo which for those who don't know means you start a new novel at the beginning of the month and try to write 50000 words in that month. Both of these on top of my day to day chores with a house and two kids, plus teaching a women's class at church and being a single mom for three weeks out of the month because my husband was taking a longer shift at his job out of province. Then my health tanked, problems that not the least of which was severe exhaustion (despite 7-10 hours of sleep most nights) and some huge issues with postpartum depression. See How I Deal With PostPartum Depression

How did it all end? I still didn't make my deadline and I only got about 1000 words into the book I started for NaNoWriMo. Now a part of me really thinks of this as a failure but another part of me realizes that I still tried, and that you have to tackle life as it comes. Am I upset that I didn't make my deadlines or meet those goals that I wanted too? Darn right I am. However, I am honest enough with myself to know that my health and exhaustion contributed to this. I actually finally began to feel like myself again (for the first time in months) in the past couple weeks.

As much as I would've loved to do everything I tackled it didn't happen. But at the same time I can still keep working towards those goals, just because I didn't finish them when I wanted to doesn't mean I should just give up on them. I will accomplish my goals, it may just take some extra time.

The end result is that day by day I'm slowly becoming more of the person I want to be. With the aid of good doctors and friends and family my health is getting back to normal. When I take bites of the proverbial sandwich I'm going to take smaller bites for the next little bit, and once I swallow those begin to take bigger and bigger bites. Time marches on, but so do my trials, and hopefully my strength grows as I take them on and work and push past them, because I know I can.

So if you're having a bad day, or week, or month, remember that if you get help and understand yourself and keep working, a good day is on it's way to you.

Cheers!

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p.s. If you are also dealing with depression like I was, please talk to someone and get some help, one of the best and most informative and truthful videos about this that I've ever seen is this one here:
***Make sure to watch the whole movie all the way through