Comments

It's been brought to my attention by several readers (thanks!) that they've had trouble posting comments to the blog. I believe that I've addressed the situation. So please, comment away! I love hearing from you all! Feel free to send me organizing questions that you have or ideas of things you'd like to read about too. You know, things that would be useful for you.

A mother's observation

I used to find money in my pockets whenever I switched coats. Now I find pacifiers.

More Storm Damage

Whilst lounging in the living room last night, Matt noticed a slight drip...drip...drip onto the coffee table. I had already settled my little head in bed and kind of grumble grumbled to be rousted out to come take a look. After a little investigation, we discovered a 12" hole in our roof! Yesterday's rains had finally dripped through the insulation, floor boards & ceiling. The slight drip...drip....drip was growing by the minute, so we quickly moved the furniture out of the way & put down plastic & a trash can. More (and heavy) rain is in the forecast for today, so we did our best to cover the inside & outside of the hole with garbage bags & duct tape (yay duct tape!) until we can get somebody out to take a look this morning.

You may be wondering why we didn't discover this hole until the rains made it apparent. I have no good answer other than our deck is still out of commission with electrical wires hanging low from the tree damage so we haven't been terribly excited about walking around out there to survey the damage. The roof was covered with 6 inches of snow when our project estimator was out to take a look as well, so he couldn't see anything either.

So we'll be adding roof repair to our insurance claim first thing this morning & hoping for some quick assistance to get things taken care of as soon as possible!

Back in Business

Whew...what a week. We were without internet & cable a good part of last week due to a pesky tree that landed on our deck. Luckily, we escaped the incident with minor damage to the deck & house and no loss of electricity. Our insurance company has been very helpful and responsive thus far, so things should be cleaned up & back to normal in no time.

Sorry to have been out of touch for a while. Hope you're all weathering the winter storms well!

Growth - Part 1

I'm taking a big step today towards one of my growth focus areas for the year - growing my business - and am enrolling in pre-licensing classes in order to earn my real estate license. It's a natural extension of my current business, Really Neat. Additionally, as we're in our third home in seven years, it's also an area in which I have a fair amount of personal experience. I've set a goal to sit for the the state license exam by February 27 - I'll keep you posted on my progress!

I love the library!

This may seem painfully obvious to most of you, but do you realize how great the library is? Seriously! I'm in love with the library! Over the past several years, we've developed the devilish habit of buying books - lots of books. We love books. Funny thing is though, there are only a few cherished volumes that I refer to more than a handful of times. Most of the books sit idle on our shelves - good for decorating, perhaps, but not so much for learning. So anyway, I've recently re-taken to the idea of borrowing books instead of buying books.




And most library websites are so user-friendly these days. Just yesterday - in about 15 minutes - I was able to search for books via keyword, title, author, etc. I requested 5 books be put on hold for me (for some research I'm doing) & created a list of another 10 or so (casual reading & more research) that I'm interested in checking out, but can request for hold later. The library will send me an email when they've collected all of my requested titles and they'll be waiting at the checkout desk for me to pick up. Simple as that. Wow!


If it's been a while, go re-discover your library today. I don't think you'll be sorry.

Quote

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"Paradise is where I am." ~ Voltaire

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How many times have we found ourselves mesmerized by the grass, that distractingly bright green - surely greener than here - grass, on the other side of the proverbial fence? Stop. Consciously take stock of your position and count the blessings you have with you here and now, on this side of the fence. I'm not saying don't take risks or make changes. Be assured, both are necessary for survival & growth.

When you do make changes or take calculated risks, however, do so with an understanding that easing the burden of everything you carry with you over the fence will often require much more than the greener (that's strange; the color change seems almost imperceptible now from over here...) grass your heart seeks.