October Color

A ten-minute walk around the block tonight to take a few pictures.  Snow flurries swirled and stuck to my chest this morning as I walked, but tonight, post-flurries and then rain, it's cold but calm. 

The neighbors' gardens still show spots of color, although not many houses have pumpkins on their porches yet. 

This may be the fall I finally carve a cat jack o-lantern for our front stoop.  I have yet to live anywhere that gets trick-or-treaters--none of the houses I grew up in ever got more than a few, nor have any of my apartments--so the decorate-your-home-and-stock-up-on-candy parts of this month never really factor in when I think of October to-dos.  Maybe a big cat pumpkin for out front this year, though, just to add a bit of sweetness to the neighborhood. 

Ah, fall!  May Heaven turn out to be an eternal autumn.  I love it so. 

I also love the shade of green these neighbors have painted their garage door.  It actually looks a lot like our bathroom walls now.  

So much gorgeous, vibrant color.  Love, love, love.  ♥

Seven Nice Things

I was nursing a headache most of yesterday--yes, my turn, Lisa!--but am feeling better today for Day Off #2 and have gotten a lot done.  And am just enjoying myself.  Seven sweet things this week:

1.)  'Am still working on my 80s childhood memoir.  Loving!  It!  ♥  That pile of paper scraps in the photo above is all the remaining notes that need to be turned into index cards--which will later be turned into "real" writing.  The pile has shrunk so much since I started this in earnest earlier this year.  My goal for the rest of today is to get as many scraps onto cards as possible so I can move on to the filling-the-notebooks-with-rough-drafts stage of things.  Progress!

2.)  The building manager and a plumber had to stop by earlier this week for routine winter-prep radiator maintenance, and as I welcomed them in,  the plumber glanced around and unexpectedly greeted me with "Oh, I like it in here!  It's very family-oriented!" and moments later commented, "It smells really good in here too!" as he left.  I hardly knew what to say besides thank you, but both remarks made me laugh.  A sweet encounter.  

3.)  A coworker left a thank you on my note that accompanied the cookies I'd brought into work last week and later thanked me in-person.  A day-brightener for me. 

5.)  Chicago Cubs in the World Series playoffs!  I'm not wildly enthusiastic about any one team--I tend to wish them all well--and it would have been a treat for Dad if his Pirates had advanced in the playoffs, but how fun to see the Cubs and their fans having such a great ride this fall.  

6.)  This pup, an English Yellow Lab--

--is now my younger brother's dog.  So sweet!  ♥  My brother, his wife, and somehow-almost-two-year-old Bianca have all wanted a dog for ages, and this one looks so dear. 

7.)  Chilly fall weather has returned, and with it, a pot on the stove here of simmering cinnamon water.  Today's mix is simply cinnamon with vanilla, but as I finish my iced teas while I write this afternoon, I'll throw in the lemon slices too.  Snow flurries and a frost warning are in the forecast for the next few days.  Oh, fall!  Love, love, love.  

'Back to the index cards.  'A sweet weekend to you all. 

Video: 60 Seconds with Stuffed

Now that I (think I) have figured out how to share the videos from my camera--and even add music--I should take you on a virtual tour of my shoe-box of a kitchen, or along on some of my walks, or. . . !  The possibilities!  I feel mad with power!  ;)  

Thank you all for your kind responses to Friday's post.  ♥

Today is my day off and is supposed to be a sunny 74°.  We'll see where it takes me.  Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends here. 

And a sweet day to you all.  

You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. ~ David Viscott

The past two weeks have been wearying, and aside from a Saturday when a combined headache, kink in my neck, and day without sleep found me waving the white flag from my bed, I have plodded on and even have some good things to show for it.  The bathroom has been put back together post-painting, with new shower curtain and curtains too.  The bedroom wall-painting is almost done.  The headboard project is at least begun, with stars, string lights, and waiting-for-payday pillow shams next on its to-do list.  The bedroom curtains are up but lacking their ruffle-trim, tie-backs, and the hankie-patchwork-type sheers I'm planning to hang underneath them.  The 1980s childhood memoir-writing continues. The healthy eating continues.  It feels, though, like I've just been hanging on and getting through this fall so far.  Do you remember the brilliant exchange between the frustrated sheriff and his secretary in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men?  It keeps coming to mind this month.  "What is it that (Justice) Torbert says?"  he asks her.  "About truth and justice."  She distractedly answers, "We dedicate ourselves anew daily.    Somethin like that."  The sheriff responds, "I think I'm goin to commence to dedicatin myself twice daily.  It may come to three fore it's over."  Hear, hear.  I brought in Halloween cookies for my coworkers this week, and the cashier yesterday morning told me "I love your smile" while bagging my groceries, and I'm choosing to accept both gestures as signs that hope is not lost.  :)  Here's to the plodding-on.  

On a Four-Heart Day Off

As I was sitting down on my lunch-break earlier today with my oatmeal, Honeycrisp apple, almonds, prunes, cinnamon- almond butter, and walnuts--apple slices spread with cinnamon-almond butter then dipped into crushed walnuts is my latest addition to my lunches:  They're like a taste of healthy apple pie, so good--a bit of almond butter on my napkin appeared in the shape of a heart.  Maybe it is silly how much these found hearts delight me, but how could I not be charmed!  "There are only two ways to live your life," Einstein reminds us.  "One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle."  Indeed.  Each heart finds me saying, "Ah!  Hello, God!" and in this case:  "Thank You for the moment, thank You for this food, thank You that I have a job at all, thank You that it's a job that offers work I love and health insurance and good people, and thank You that I'm off the next few days."  It was a draining work-week, and the tiny almond butter heart reminded me to take a deep breath and regroup. 

As I finally reached my apartment building after work:  A heart on the front stoop's cement. 

Another heart, this one a bit of paper resting on the stairs' carpet, seconds later as I climbed the three flights up to my door. 

And then, in my kitchen, a heart-shaped raspberry.  ♥  And so began my desperately-needed stretch of days off today.  Truly, how could I not be (grateful and) charmed?!  

The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within: Strength, courage, dignity. ~ Ruby Lee

We are now two weeks into the start of my favorite four months of the year.  Glorious fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas preparations:  Love!  And today I am looking even farther ahead to May 2017, when--as I mentioned awhile back--the city's annual marathon will be held on my fortieth birthday.  I contacted the marathon officials this weekend to confirm the date, and yes, as I'd expected, 2017's race is slated for May 7th. What better way to mark such a milestone birthday!   Being able to finish the race would be a fine way to celebrate the good health I'm blessed to have and the dedication I'm hoping to have found in myself by then.  I haven't run at all since fall 2011, I think, and I've gained/lost some of/regained/gained even more/lost a good bit of the weight I put on during grad school, so it will be quite a challenge, but I haven't been able to shake the idea since it first occurred to me last year.   

For now, the plan remains to lose the rest of the weight needed to get back to where I was at my healthiest a few years ago--this morning's weigh-in shows I've now lost twenty-two pounds since rededicating myself to this earlier this summer, so I'm on track on that front--then slowly ease myself back into running, and eventually, really train to be able to handle so many miles.  It is still a vague plan, but seeing as how I'm only in the get-back-into-running-shape stage, I think vague is just fine at this point.  My aunt Jodie, Mom's youngest sister, started running in her thirties and is is now an avid marathoner at forty-six.  Obviously, people accomplish these things--and why shouldn't I be one of those people.  :)  

Spotted on the Sidewalk

One of my favorite found hearts, this whatever-it-is-or-used-to-be was spotted smeared into the wet sidewalk while I waited for a bus yesterday.  
 

View from the Bubbles

The view from the bathtub was too pretty not to capture this morning.  I've been having trouble sleeping lately so have been lounging daily in hot tubfuls of "relaxing lavender"-scented bubbles in the hopes that they will help me at least settle down for a nap.  I've really never liked the scent of lavender, though, and I'm still awake two hours post-bath, but it was worth a shot, and at least I've gotten to enjoy the combination of bubbles and sunshine in my newly-painted bathroom for the first time this past week.  Love, love, love this color. But back to vanilla bubbles for me, and now back to bed to try again for sleep too.  

The Taste of Summer 2015

This deli-bought penne salad with grape tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella balls has been one of this summer's small pleasures.  I have tried to replicate the taste by looking at the ingredients list on the deli label and at various recipes online, but the store-bought version still beats them all.  So far.  It seems like keeping it simple would be the way to go here, but the dressing and cheese mixture are evidently more complex.  Waistline-wise, it is probably for the best that I'm as yet unable to make up a big batch of this here at home.  This portion was my supper tonight, with a chickpea salad on the side, and my ever-present iced tea with lemon.  Ah!  So good!  ♥

Paintbrush-Extender for the Short Ones

I finally finished painting the bathroom this week.  I kept waiting for cool days that didn't come, so on a day with temperatures in the low nineties, I got out my supplies--and invented this one for the impossible-for-me-to-reach corners--and got it done.  Now, to move everything back into the room and hang the new curtain and shower curtain.  And to finish painting the half-painted bedroom, since I started both rooms the same (July!?) week and am eager to be done with these kinds of projects for awhile.  But what a color!  This is a real improvement, bold and fresh-feeling.  ♥