Wilderness Quilter

Well, I’m finally back at it!  I boxed up 33 books today and they’re going to the local 2nd hand book store.  What a relief!  I’ve been gone so much the past 4 months that I hadn’t made any more progress toward getting rid of 100 things.  Of course, it would have been to my advantage to count the books as 33 items instead of 1 group but my goal is to eliminate as much stuff as possible so . . . 

I also found a cool book swap site - http://www.titletrader.com.  So I actually have several more books hopefully destined for other homes soon.  But if I then get a book in return, I guess it doesn’t really count, right?  So I won’t add those books to my 100 Things Challenge list.  Anyway, I’m feeling like a success as I already had my first request.  And I feel good about being able to send good condition books that I no longer need to folks who really want them – and it’s all free except for the cost of postage when you send a book out.

Just realized I have another 7 books set aside to give to various family members so I guess I’d better add those to the list.  Now I Just need to decide if I’m going to count it as 1 group or bump my numbers up by counting each book separately – hmm.

It’s so easy to miss the positive when being slapped in the face by the negative.  This year has been a real challenge so far.  First we had Mother Nature bless us with repeated snow which built up to over 5 feet which translated into being snowed in for about 11 weeks which is unusual even for us.  Then we had fires start all around in June and spent the (non) summer without sun due to the heavy smoke.  Top that with a serious family issue that has been raging for about 4 months now and some personal health stuff (and these are just the BIG things) - it’s no wonder I’m anxious to move on to 2009!  But will it be any better?  Yikes!  What a thought!

On the bright side – we had some new additions to the family through birth and marriage.  And nothing says “I believe in hope for the future” like a new baby!  Although we had weeks upon weeks of continuous smoke that was a significant health hazard and stunted our gardens, we didn’t actually get flame here this time around.  And quality time was spent with kids/grandkids despite the craziness of what all else was going on.  Everyone seems to have weathered their personal storms and things are looking up.

My desire for the 4th quarter of this year is resolution of family and health issues and to catch up on what has fallen by the wayside during the crisis control mode of the first 3 quarters.  Is this too much to ask?  I hope not!

Almost 7 weeks since my last post!  How did that happen?  It’s been a busy several months around here, that’s for sure.  Our fire is gone – finally – full containment earlier this week.  Quilting has been completely on hold (4 months now) while I deal with family issues but resolution is in sight.  The fruit is falling from the trees and the tomatoes are finally getting ripe now that the sun isn’t blocked by all the smoke.  So fall in the wilderness is nearly upon us once again.  And life is good.