Library Tour

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

The weather was inclement but I decided to go for a walk to the library.  Before I did that I met up with a friend for coffee.  She's going in soon for knee surgery and I'm not sure if she'll be up to visitors or going out for awhile after that. I was planning on visiting her at the hospital but that depends on whether she is up to a visitor during her expected short hospital stay.

After we had a coffee visit, I made a trip to the bank, met up with my nephew for a few minutes and then took a walk to the local library. It was raining and cold but my jacket has a hood so I was fine and it wasn't raining heavily. 

I thought it would be nice to share some photos of the library's interior.  I visit the library often but I've never showed the inside.  It's a small branch but much larger than the one it replaced.  There are lots of nooks and crannies to read or work on a computer and a good selection of books and movies to borrow.

Interior entrance

Reception area

Featured books and fast read books

Non-fiction holdings

Newspaper and reading area.  There is a fireplace in the corner which is turned on during winter months. 

Movie collection

Magazine collection

Fictional collection, youth and children's books beyond

Fiction holdings

This area is reserved for teens and children

Another shot of the teen/children area

The sign says teens but everyone sits at the tables

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our little library. It's usually quite busy there but on Friday night it wasn't quite so busy. I noticed that the patrons that evening were all men. I think there was only one woman besides myself and no children. I was only there to return a book and pick up another.

The below photo shows the book I picked up. It's written by a doctor who wrote about many patients of his who over the years, told him of their near death experiences (NDEs).

What's Up in My World

It was a real treat to go to a restaurant on Monday night. I had so many errands to run and I didn't want to make a late dinner so I opted to go to a local Vietnamese restaurant. 

This dinner consists of pork brochette, roll dip, crepes and fried rice and though it was a tad over done it was still very delicious. (Click on each photo to enlarge).

I also made a library run. I picked up these three books which came up early on my hold request. I'm still working on 2 other books. I hope I can finish them all before someone else makes a request for them. That's always the challenge with popular books.

While at the library I took notice of their digital language services. Some day I've got to investigate further and use the service. 

Likewise with these free creative lessons also on digital offer. 

I haven't done anything crafty for awhile so I started this doily.  I love making doilies and have missed doing so. 

I've also been using the Instant Pot for cooking dinner these days. It keeps flavor in and makes cooking so much easier. 

Pot roast, cabbage, carrots, onion and potatoes with gravy.

Chicken (cooked in IP) served with roasted fries topped with chili, green salad.

I think I mentioned before that I try to follow the Fly Lady house cleaning routine system.  I've never been one who liked a lot of structure and routines but I found that with everything I want to get done, I needed more structure to my days.  The daily and weekly routines keep me fairly busy.  At the same time I'm also downsizing, decluttering, redecorating, bringing paperwork up to date, enjoying hobbies, working on Kenyan missions, following through with all the doctors appointments and doing all the things that arise with daily household and family life.

 

I've also started Christmas preparations slowly but surely. Last week I prepared most of my Christmas cards, printed recipes to include with some of the cards, made frequent trips to the post office to pick up parcels and send mail, purchased some artificial flowers for my yet to be made holiday bouquet.  I've also been scouring the on line shops for the last few gifts I want to send to loved ones and friends.  Hopefully I'll be done with all but three cards and gifts by the end of November.

With all these activities I can honestly say I'm never bored. I just wish I could accomplish things a lot more quickly than I seem to do.  But slow progress is better than no progress. 

How about you dear reader?  What is keeping you busy these days? Have you started Christmas preparations? Do you have a lot to do? 

I don't really have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas. I could get by with preparing a simple meal and putting up  minimal decorations. However, I like to reach out to others at Christmas and try to make a bit of an effort at the holiday.  After all they only happen once a year.  This means remembering people with cards and notes and often making hand made gifts if time permits, otherwise I look to buy something suitable.  Some years I give fewer gifts than other years.  A lot of that depends on what my loved ones need or what they may be going through.  Much of the time most of us in the family really don't need more things when we already have so much compared to those in the Kenyan villages where I've seen first hand the suffering and the hardships.  There is a great need for even the most basic of things (food, medicine, education, books, pens and so on).  One year I was fortunate enough to be in Kenya during Christmas month and I enjoyed visiting several villages and taking basic food supplies to many widows and orphans.

 

I would love to do a bit more baking at Christmas but I don't like to bake if I don't have more people to share it with so the past few years I've only made Christmas bark because we always eat chocolate and nuts. Since the pandemic began I have only visited with 5 people:  my nephew and his girlfriend (we visited outside in the park), my brother and his wife (we had dinner at a restaurant) and one friend (we've met for coffee a few times which we usually drink outside the coffee shop).  Of course I've mingled with others at the post office, the pharmacy and the grocery store but my world has become very small and I take all the precautions.  I have been fully vaccinated and all of my contacts have been fully vaccinated too. I'm due for a booster shot early in December.

Last but not least, I want to mention that I've put a new Pay Pal link on the blog for those that are able to donate to Kenyan missions. Perhaps some of you are thinking of a Christmas gift to the missions. It will be a huge blessing to those in Kenya who have no social safety net. You simply need to click the red flower on the side bar and it will take you to the right place. My friend Jo says to tell everyone that "it's dead easy!" Thank so much for your consideration.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers 🦃🦃🦃🙏🙏🙏

and 

Happy Season of Christmas preparations to all. 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Never a Dull Moment

After mostly two months of being away from home I've been madly scrambling to catch up to life. Unfortunately I first had to contend with a flu bug which made me more tired than usual, amongst other things. I think the bug is largely gone now though I am still tired. I am not complaining too loudly though. I am just glad to be home for awhile.  Before too long, I will be away again.

In addition to getting to the doctor and a diabetes workshop where we discussed the importance of sleep and the things we can do to try and achieve a sleepy state on a sleepless night, I have also been busy at the dentist. Unfortunately, I needed a tooth extracted. My poor tooth had been loose for some time and it takes the brunt of my chewing processes since I have a loose tooth on the opposite side of my mouth. The dentist informed me that it should be pulled and so I agreed. Yikes, I haven't had a tooth pulled since I don't know when. I had to have extra freezing due to my pain threshold. So now I am recovering from that. Next week, I have to get a root canal on the opposite side of my mouth. Thank goodness for dental insurance, although I hope I am not speaking too soon. When I got into the dentist's chair the receptionist informed me that my insurer had no record of me! One more thing to follow up on.

Now on to more interesting ways I've been filling my time.

I picked up these three books by Alexander McCall Smith; an author who hails from Zimbabwe but who spent much of his life in Scotland. These books are all part of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.  I quickly read two of the books in the photo and am now reading the blue covered book "Blue Shoes and Happiness".  Reading these books is a satisfying past time. They are like spending time with a good friend and at the same time, learning about the customs and ways of Botswana where Mr. McCall Smith frequently spends time. If you haven't read any of these books, I invite you to pick one up but start with the first one, called "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", before you commence reading the other 10 books in the series.

All of these books are wonderfully entertaining. Reading them gives me a sense of comfort and joy.

Next up are several books. The first one is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. I won't begin to tell you about this sweeping book other than to say that I enjoyed it a lot and I recently discovered that it has been made into a television series, co-produced by Canada (click on the underlined title to find out more about the book itself). I haven't seen the mini-series but I have seen the trailers and I will for sure want to watch it if it comes back on my television listings. It looks like a superb cast and a thrilling tale.  The Shack is a book that seemed to have created a lot of controversy in Christian circles though having read it, I cannot fathom why. It is after all, just a novel. I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would though I would certainly recommend it to anyone as it does have a novel and profound way of explaining the trinity of Christ and the nature of Christ. For that reason alone I will probably read it again sometime though I'll have to buy my own copy as this one was loaned to me by a friend.

I've read the two books on either side of the photo.  The book on the left is almost a 1000 pages but I read it much more quickly than the relatively short book on the right. I have started the one in the  middle but haven't gotten too far yet.

The three books in the next photo were purchased at the goodwill today for 50 cents each. I've read a few of the late Frank McCourt's books though enjoyed his novel, Angela's Ashes most. This book entitled, Teacher Man is a memoir.  The other two books are classics and I try to ensure I am working my way through the classics whenever I can.

The goodwill is a wonderful place to purchase books. I hate to part with books and it is much easier if I've only paid 25 or 50 cents. I can still give them back to the goodwill after I've finished reading them or give them to a friend who'd like to read them too!

Besides going to appointments, libraries and the goodwill this week, I made some time for shopping for new towels and facecloths. Long ago, I'd mentioned in a blog post on decluttering that my towels were over 20+ years old. Some of them have been raggedy for a long time. I finally broke down and spent about $20.00 Canadian on 6 towels and 14 face cloths.  I thought that was an excellent buy. The towels are just great and not too thick. I got over my fondness for very thick, white towels quite some time ago and now look for thin, absorbent, white towels.

I love the texture and absorbency of all these towels and facecloths. Several of these new cloths are in the wash so didn't make it into the photo.

Last, but not least, my creative mood is still in swing. I made two more dishcloths. It seems I can't get enough of them. These are for my own use and are added to the four I'm already using. I can now get rid of my purchased cloths which have some kind of oily odor to them despite being washed and disinfected. Does anyone know what causes the odor and the oil stains?

I'm loving the colour of these cloths.

Now it is the weekend and I'm trying to catch up on household cleaning, laundry, post office errands and experimenting with a new dish today for dinner. I'll post about that tomorrow if it turns out. In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend.