Sunday, November 16, 2008

a fresh start...

At least that's what I'm hoping for. I have to admit that I have just been in a horrible funk the past week, and despite the fact that I knew I needed to snap out of it, I just couldn't. I've been so unbelievably stressed about school...I was already behind for the quarter, and losing everything on the computer made things exponentially worse. And our go-to computer guy let us know on Friday that he was unable to retrieve anything. He did give us the name of the one place he knew of that probably could...but I don't think we can afford it. Anyway, on top of that, it seems like we're dreading the phone ringing...worrying that it's the call saying that my BIL finally succeeded in his suicide by alcohol.

Okay, all of that sucks. But it's time to stop letting it drain the joy out of daily life. Heck, Annie decided Friday evening that she wasn't going to let loosing her novel keep her down...so with half the month gone, she decided to start NaNoWriMo all over again. You know, maybe she won't reach her 50,000-word goal, but I'm damn proud of her for trying! And with that kind of role model, how can I possibly keep moping around here, right?

So, Happy-Thing-#1:
The Book Bloggers Christmas Swap.



Nymeth is once again hosting the swap, this year with help from Dewey. (Two of my very favorite people!) I know most everyone has already signed up, but if you haven't go check it out. But hurry...the deadline to sign up is November 18th. It really was such fun last year. As much fun as receiving a package in the mail (thanks again, Lynne), was reading everyone's posts as their gifts arrived! So festive!

And Happy-Thing-#2:
Bellezza tagged my with the Kreativ Blogger Award.



Along with the award comes a meme of sorts:

7 Things I Did Before:

1. Made crafts to sell in a craft mall.
2. Hiked a piece of the Appalachian Trail on my honeymoon.
3. Felt as if I had a well-functioning brain.
4. Read almost exclusively thrillers.
5. Kept an immaculate home.
6. Smoked.
7. Worked as an optician.

7 Things I Do Now:

1. Home school my daughter.
2. Read just about anything.
3. Am thankful that I manage to keep the bathroom clean.
4. Wonder a great deal about what has become of my previously well-functioning brain.
5. Spend too much time on the computer.
6. Get up between 4:00 and 5:00 each morning.
7. Count my blessings!

7 Things I Want To Do:

1. Make more time to do the things I love to do, like reading and scrapbooking.
2. Sleep through the night.
3. Lose weight.
4. See my children grow into happy, responsible, caring adults.
5. Continue learning.
6. Remember to find the joy in every day.
7. Grow happily old with Rich, the love of my life.

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex:

1. A genuine smile.
2. A kind heart.
3. A love of learning.
4. A willingness to be goofy.
5. A down-to-earth manner.
6. A supportive nature.
7. A love of all his fellow creatures on Earth.

7 Favorite Foods:

1. Rich's awesome stir fry
2. tortilla chips with queso dip
3. my SIL's chocolate raspberry bars
4. stuffing
5. brownies with vanilla ice cream
6. chicken and dumplings
7. homemade waffles

7 Things I Say Most Often:

1. "I love you."
2. "Thank you."
3. "Enough!" (Baker's command to stop barking...it does little good.)
4. "Sweet dreams."
5. "You're so cool!"
6. "What do you guys want to eat?"
7. "Wash up."

And, now, 7 people to tag for this award:

1. Annie, who is such a talented creative writer...just wish she would share more of her writing on her blog.
2. Nymeth, who writes the most exquisitely beautiful book reviews I've ever read.
3. Carl, who writes more passionately about the creativity of others than anyone I've ever read. You cannot help but be inspired when you read his posts.
4. Jean, who has all kinds of creativity spewing forth from her, but I'm going to focus on her gorgeous quilts as she shares them on her blog.
5. Dewey, who is the most creative community-building guru in the whole of the bloggy universe.
6. Quixotic, who designs and make beautiful cards.
7. Ali Edwards. Okay, her blog is not one I've ever commented on, yet I read it faithfully. She has long been my biggest creative inspiration. And it's more than her amazing life art...it's her whole outlook on life, her personality, her willingness to share her gifts with the world. I absolutely adore this woman!

(By the way, I know some of you don't really "do tags"...and that's just fine...I just wanted to share those blogs that inspire me creatively.)

And finally, Happy-Thing-#3:
We finally started putting our "library" together. We've had the room emptied for the past couple weeks, and we'd been waiting for me to paint it. But I finally had to admit to myself that I just didn't have time to do it now. And I couldn't stand having bookcases and boxes and bags and loose piles of books stacked all over the house waiting to be put in their new home. So we hauled in all the bookcases, and started filling the shelves. Rich is going to put up some more shelves today, so we'll be able to make even more progress. But we need to get a few more bookcases before we'll be able to move everything in. Then we'll need chairs, if we actually want to sit in there to read. :) And we have a rug all picked out, and we want to find some bamboo-type blinds, but those things will probably have to wait a while. Anyway, it's just so very exciting to finally have it coming together! And hopefully, I'll have some pictures to share soon.

17 comments:

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

oh Debi--so many things to comment on! First, I'm sorry that it looks like there will be little recovering, but Go Annie! What an inspiration.

Please please please take pictures of your library! I am pea green with envy. I took some highly embarrassing pictures of my office yesterday before I did some overhaul, but it still is very cluttered and I had to make some temporary "shelves" from boxes. :P

I checked out Ali's site-how lovely. Sigh--just reminds me of the things I would love to do but don't have time for.

I LOVED reading your 7 things lists--have a good chicken and dumplings recipe you'd like to share?? :)

Ok, I'm done (sort of). Have a great rest of your Sunday.

Dawn said...

Debi, I am sorry you have been feeling down!! I think you are on the right track with a positive attitude. I know how you feel about your BIL. I feel the same way about my sister. She is choosing a life that is leading her down the path to destruction. I've discovered that I just had to let go and let her make her own choices. I, too, keep waiting for that phone call!

I am so proud of Annie's attitude with her novel. She is a great kid with great role models :)

I liked reading all those things about you. :)

I hope the library comes along quickly for you. I'd have to have a bed in mine. I do my best reading when I'm lying down :)

Speaking of reading. I tagged you on my blog. It's a reading tag!

take care,
Dawn

Jean said...

Sorry to hear about the disc, Debi! But way to go, Annie! I'm with you, Debi, she's a hero even if she doesn't make it to 50K this year. I'm with Trish--I want photos of the library! We have a dream about a certain area in our house and transforming it into a library. We'll see if we ever get there.

Dewey said...

Thanks for thinking of me!

I'm glad you can focus on the happy things when there are not-so-happy things going on.

And now I spot a tragedy in your sidebar! That villainous Nymeth has once again pulled way ahead of me in the blame game! I see her over there, twirling her mustache and cackling evilly! I might just have to put together a Debicentric Book Coveting post soon.

Ana S. said...

I'm really sorry about the computer and your brother in law, Debi :( Hopefully you won't get that phone call.

And how amazing is Annie's decision to start a new story? She's an inspiration to us all! I bet that in her place I'd have been too discouraged to go on. I really admire the fact that she didn't, and I bet that even if she doesn't reach 50k words during NaNo, she will finish shortly thereafter, and it will be a great story.

"4. A willingness to be goofy." --> this is definitely a must for me too.

I'm thrilled that you're joining the Swap again! And thank you so much for the award, my dear. You seriously do spoil me. I'm honoured to be grouped with all those wonderfully creative people.

I want to see pictures of the new library too!

at @ Dewey: lol! mwahahahahaha :P *twirls moustache*

Anonymous said...

good stuff :)

I read Ali's blog faithfully,too.In my studio, I have the poster that came in the Life Artist book hanging to help w/ the inspiration thing.

Tracee said...

Hope things start to look up for you! I am not sure if you would be interested, but I am looking for people to add to my distribution list for possible reviewers of books. If you would be interested, please email me at novelnoise(at)live(dot)com. Thanks and happy reading!

Anonymous said...

Annie rocks. :)

Great lists!!

Ali Edwards is fab indeed!

Thank you for tagging me! I've posted and answered the meme! :)

Bellezza said...

I connected with you on so many points of your 7 Things responses. (Wait, is that grammatical?)

I love the accolades you gave your fellow bloggers while tagging them. There again, you're right on every one.

This week has GOT to be better: for both of us! (I'm better prepared in my spirit to speak at this week's faculty meeting, knowing I didn't freeze at last week's.)

Melody said...

Oh Debi, I'm so sorry to hear you've been feeling down! But I'm so proud of Annie because she's so positive and not let anything gets in her way for her NaNo project! Way to go and keep it up, Annie! :)

kreed said...

I am sorry to hear there was bad news about your computer. We held onto one for a long time thinking we may be able to afford to recover the stuff someday. After a couple of years it seemed a little less devastating to lose it all and we finally got rid of it. But I only had some pictures and not a ton of homeschooling stuff and a novel. But I bet Annie gets the whole thing written again even with less time because you have an amazing daughter.

Also sorry about the BIL...I will continue thinking of all invilved in the situation.

How exciting about your library - it will be perfect for your bookworm family!

Hugs to you and the fam!

chrisa511 said...

Sorry to hear that the recovering of the computer wasn't much of a success :( But it's amazing that Annie is starting another NaNo novel!! I wouldn't doubt it if she finished it, but even if she doesn't, that's incredible!

I love all of your answers to the meme...way too much for me to comment on, so I'll just leave it at that ;)

And a library! A library!! I'm so happy for y'all! That's the one thing I want in my house whenever I buy one, a nice room dedicated to a library.

And Dewey and Nymeth's little feud is cracking me up!

Debi said...

Trish,
You know what--I don't think I've ever made chicken and dumplings in my whole life. Probably why it's one of my favorite foods...'cause I'm not the one cooking it!

Dawn,
Thank you! And you're absolutely right...we can't live life for someone else and you can't make their choices for them. Despite how much you'd like to sometimes.
I had to laugh at a bed in the library! As much as I love to read in bed, it always puts me right to sleep. Oooh, but a chaise lounge might be nice! Too bad the room's too small for that. :)

Jean,
Maybe if we actually get this library completed, it will inspire you to start on yours. Not that ours is going to be that inspiring, but we can already tell that it's going to be our own little slice of heaven in our home.

Dewey,
Don't give up hope yet...I have some inside information about a few books which are currently making their way to my little home...

Nymeth,
Yep, I seriously couldn't fall in love with someone with whom I couldn't be goofy...it's way too big a part of who I am. And for me "goofy" is probably synonymous with "dorky". :)

Jupiter,
Isn't Ali like the coolest person on earth?!! What can I say, I just have a total brain crush!

Tracee,
I'll get back to you...and thanks for the offer!

Quixotic,
Yay! I'm so excited to come read your lists!

Bellezza,
I just know you're right...this week is going to be a good for both of us! I'm so glad you're feeling so much better about the speaking thing. Seriously, that was no small hurdle to overcome. It must feel soooo good, and I'm just so happy for you!

Melody,
Thank you...you are always just so sweet!

Kara,
I could certainly see that happening here, too...it all seems so devastating to lose right now. But you know, I'll live without the homeschool stuff, despite the stress it's causing me at the moment. I'll be forever sad about the pictures, as I'm sure you are. But at least there's a handful here and there from that year (like ones I happened to post on my blog). I feel incredibly guilty about losing Annie's writing. But it does turn out she has a printed copy of her original novel from last year's NaNoWriMo (not with any of the editing she's done over the past year, but still it's better than nothing). And as for the one she started earlier this month, she jotted the basic ideas down in her "story ideas journal" so maybe she can write that one someday in the future. Yes, I'm trying to sound positive about it all...when actually I'm still devastated. But I do know deep down, that I'll reach that point you did. After all, there's a hell of lot worse things that could happen, right? Thank you...you are always so good at being the voice of reason...something I often need. :)
And hugs right back to you all!

Chris,
I agree with you...Dewey and Nymeth crack me up! Wonder which one is going to triumph...
Of course, the problem with those two is that Rich and I are probably going to have to add a second story to our library just to accommodate all the books they're responsible for!

Jean said...

Just signed up for the Christmas swap because of you. You lead me astray yet again!

Anonymous said...

I'm totally stealing the term Brain Crush. It sums up the way i feel for entirely too many people.

I'm LMAO at the comment Lis made referring your note on my latest blog entry. Omg...LOL

Bookfool said...

Debi,

You must have missed my post about memory recovery. Look for students!! We found a couple of students who recovered my laptop memory for $140.

Jean said...

Yo, Debi! I just did my lists of seven. Hope you enjoy them!