Current temperature: 17F. Current status: hair washed, breakfast eaten, coffee in process of being drunk. Mass readings read. Dog and husband still asleep. House slowly warming up.
I'm anticipating a nice day, though. We'll go in to the 11 a.m. Mass at the Abbey, and then the Fire Son is coming down to spend the day with us, and maybe the night --- he says he'll be here for dinner, and this is nice. I could really get used to having progeny nearby. NOT so nearby that we'd be all up in each other's business: that is called being enmeshed, and it is not, I repeat, NOT a good thing. I really don't want or need to know my adult children's every thought and move, and I certainly don't need to be involved in those thoughts and moves. They would have every right, if not an actual duty, to tell me to jump in the lake if I did think that. But it sure is nice to have somebody text to ask if we're going to be home so he can come over, and it sure is nice to anticipate making a steak for him as well as for his father (and me: I make steak for me, too).
In other news, last night I worked a little more on the hall bookshelves, bringing down books to fill them. I still have a little space on the shelves, and also along the top, which I'm just using as more shelf. I've moved down a good many children's books from the shelves upstairs, and I think while the Fire Son is here I might urge him to shelve some of his books that are currently stacked on the hall floor up there. That's the other good thing about having progeny nearby . . . I'm not up in his business, but I can make my business his business when I need to.
Meanwhile, there's one more shelf like this in the garage. The husband's plan is to move it up to his office (cue the Fire Son once again) to free up a couple of smaller shelves, which we can then shift to the upstairs hall, where we don't have a space as big as this for a larger shelf. With freed-up shelves already there, and two more smaller ones, I think we'll be in good shape. But I love this shelf. I love how big it is and how many books it holds. I love how it transforms this dark back hallway into a library, instead of just a holding space for stuff we don't have other places for. I love to look from my study, where all my own most needful books are shelved, through the open door to the hall, and have my eye fall on: more books.
That hall shelf is a total mishmash --- aside from the study shelves, which are loosely categorized, if not actually organized, our books all over the house are a jumble of things, children's books mixed up with histories of the British MI5. At least I've laid my eyes on them all recently, in the process of shelving them, and I do carry with me mental pictures of where things are (the problem is that I'll think a book spine is a certain color or size, when in fact it isn't --- for years I couldn't find my Don Paterson 101 Sonnets because I thought it was a bigger book than it is, and every time I looked for it, I saw it on the shelf without seeing it). BUT AT LEAST MORE THINGS ARE ON SHELVES. I'm also culling out a few books to take to Goodwill, mostly children's books that came our way that I don't think are worth hanging onto.
I've already been out with Dora in my pajamas (yes, it was cold, even though my pajamas are a wool dress, the Aran cardigan, and yesterday's leggings and wool socks, AND I wore my puffer jacket). I think I'll finish my second cup of coffee, play my New York Times word games, then get dressed for the day --- warmly.
OK, wearing today:
The basic outfit:
*Wool& Willow dress (M/Long) in Ocean Teal, bought October 2023, worn as a base layer
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (S/M) in Dark Gray-Blue, bought December 2023
*Secondhand Allbirds leggings (L) in a slaty blue whose name I don't know, bought January 2024
*Devolt wool socks, bought in Norway, June 2023
*Secondhand Birkenstock Melrose boots, bought summer 2023
I really like this basic outfit, actually. I'd wear it just as it is. In warmer weather, I'd switch out boots for sandals and wear it. I wasn't sure how nicely the teal would pair with the gray-blue, but I think it does pair beautifully.
BUT it's cold. I'm going to want more layers than this, even with a coat.
If I were just sclumping around the house, I'd put my Aran cardigan back on:
I mean, this is fine. I could wear it to church. But I'm kind of feeling a little more color, rather than a completely tonal look.
So . . .
Here's another of my very-warmest cardigans, this secondhand Talbots merino blazer-cardigan. I kind of feel that I'm rushing Lent here, but really --- as I own purple clothes, I do kind of want to wear them, not just in the penitential seasons. And I like this buttoned over my loose dress, for a little definition. Colors still seem to be fine.
For a finishing touch, because it is Sunday, and also I want my neck to be warm:
*Teal silk-velour scarf, bought at T.J. Maxx in Memphis roughly 20 years ago, still a winter favorite, always and forever.
Time to finish drying my hair, which has almost air-dried by now, even with some gel glazed on fairly late in the game. I find that that works a lot better for me, to wait until my hair is almost dry, THEN glaze and scrunch with the gel, when the wave pattern has had a chance to form itself. My hair dries a lot faster without the layer of gel, and by the time I do use it, it doesn't slow things down that much at all. I wind up with better hold and, again, much faster-drying hair, which is key. I do not want to spend much time doing my hair, so anything that assists me in achieving that end is a win --- especially if it looks as though I did spend time, which is also a win. Who doesn't want to look better without trying that hard?
Anyway, off to the races.
AFTERNOON OPERATION-LIBRARY UPDATE:
It's finished for now. I've done everything I can do without having more bookshelves available for my use in the upstairs hall. And honestly, I'm very happy with this stopping point.
What have I accomplished?
*Filled the downstairs-hall bookcase, including its top surface
*Brought down some of the best of the children's books to keep available on the shelf and in crates, because I want to keep them dusted (boy howdy, have I not really dusted upstairs in a long time), and you never know who might stop by and want to read them
*Moved all the National Geographics I could find to what used to be THE National Geographic shelf at the top of the stairs, but had become piled up with other stuff and just generally a mess (also very dusty)
There are probably a few more squirreled away in other places, but as I find them I'm going to add them to this shelf, so that they're all in one place. I didn't take a before shot, but trust me, it was a mess, and now it's so much better (also dusted and vacuumed). The contents of this shelf represent about a century's worth of issues --- not literally every one from the last century, obviously, but we do have issues going back that far.
*Shelved a lot of books more neatly on the tall shelf next to the dudes' room.
I could move those ones stuck in sideways to the bottom shelf, now that I think about it, but I'm not going to get up and do it right now.
Here's a shot of the whole hall looking toward the front dormer window:
And here's a shot from that dormer alcove looking back down the hall, where Dora is examining my work in a spirit of skepticism:
As you can see, there's still stuff stacked on the floor, but not as much. In a final stroke of tidying fervor, I removed a John Le Carre novel from the red Brio train bin shown here, and put it on top of one of those stacks. It's all a lot neater, at any rate. And if the husband can get that other big shelf moved into his office (I don't know where he's going to put it, but that's his lookout), then I'll have some smaller ones to put at right angles to each other, one on the wall and one with its back against the stair rail, to make a real book nook. I've always wanted to put a reading chair in that spot, but there's no electrical outlet for a light . . . I will have to ponder that. You could run a cord into the dude room, because there is an outlet right inside that door, but I dunno.
The Fire Son is home, and it's lovely to have him, not least because he hauled the vacuum cleaner up and down the stairs for me. I can carry it myself, but it's heavy, and I appreciate not having to haul it up and down stairs.
Mostly I'm happy to have accomplished all this. The house looks better. More books are more accessible. There's less dust. Now I'm lounging on the daybed with Dora, who's kind of peeved that I've spent all day doing this un-fun thing which she has had to supervise.
It's been worth it, Dora. Believe me.
