The Nightstand Revisited

I have recently discovered that through no fault of my own, I have somehow missed the entire first quarter of 2015. I guess that old expression "time flies when you're having fun" is true, although the past three months seem to have flown by in such a blur that I'm not sure whether I was having fun or not.

In glancing back over the last few posts my beleaguered brain has figured out that I neglected to recap the second half of my June Writing Challenge, thereby leaving unfulfilled the promise I made to expound on the benefits said challenge brought me. It has also figured out that there are definitely those times of the year when I function at a higher level than others. Vitamin D supplements notwithstanding I had a very rough winter. However, my current self-challenge is to leave the past in the past and keep plugging away at the future, whatever it may bring.

To that end, let me bring you up to speed on the goings-on in my busy life since last we met.

Fall 2014. The highlight of our autumn was, obviously, our son's wedding. I am now very proud to call myself a mother-in-law, and one of an exceptional young lady whom we are delighted to have in the family. She was an exquisite, classic-looking bride (and I'm not the only one who thinks so), and yes, I looked good in the dress. My hair was professionally fixed and everything.

Christmas 2014. Lots of family, lots of food, lots of really nice gifts. Lovely candlelight service at church. 'Nuff said.

New Year's, 2015. When I originally attempted to begin this post I mentioned something about the "ringing in a few nights ago." Four months later, I'm remembering that for us it was an early one--for the first time in years the WGH and I did not toast the dropping of the ball. It was a busy week for both of us, and we decided that 2015 would arrive whether we were awake to see it or not. We did, however, spend most of the day Thursday participating in our favorite New Year's activity: watching college football bowl games, pretty much nonstop. It was a good day.

Reading Lists. I fell just a tad short of my Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014 goal, with 28/36 on the completed list, but I'm not altogether unhappy with the accomplishment. As you can see from the photo, the TBR/currently reading pile has reached a rather dangerous height. (I think part of my goal this year is going to have to be to not read so many books at once.) The next thing on this week's to-do list is to hop over to Goodreads and get started filling in the 2015 Reading Challenge list. We're 14 books in and I'm not sure I've listed a single one to date. Hmmm...for that matter, I guess I'd better check to make sure I listed all of 2014's too.

Sigh.

You might be asking yourself at this point what in the world made me decide to jump back into the fray at such an odd time? Well, the simplest answer is, it's Monday. After a crazy-busy two weeks at the day job getting oriented on brand-new software while fighting an upper respiratory infection from you-know-where, it seemed like a good time to sit and enjoy the view out the bay windows for a change. That, and one of the items on the never-completed task list is to "clean the study"--moving things around for reasons best left unexplained has caused an avalanche of STUFF to overtake my little 10 x 12 room and there is serious work to be done. Some of which I have managed to accomplish over the past week (translated: *gasp* there's carpet in there!). My ultimate goal is to be able to move the laptop back up to the writing desk, which is currently laden with piles awaiting my sorting skills.

So, it's back to the grind and my many attempts at this pretending I'm a writer thing. Pray for me, if you would be so kind.

And read a book--it's good for you.