the giraffe life

Elise mentioned this article on Slow Reading last Friday. It's about groups of people who meet weekly to read silently together in the same room for an hour, with cell phones off, and no interruptions. (It also reported some surprising stats - only 76% of Americans read at least one book in 2013.) I like the premise of this group's meeting - carving time out of everyday living for reading. Plus there would be a ton of people there to get book recommendations from. But I'm used to reading at home. Where basically only my cats and a full refrigerator distract me from my book. But reading in a public cafe? Or even in a large room with other people reading? I think I'd spend a lot of time thinking about how much I like that woman's sweater, and if I know that guy from somewhere or if he just has a familiar-looking face.  I'm also not the best reading companion. I read the whole of Me Before You yesterday and the only reason I didn't stop once to babble...

Monday was the official last day of summer. I spent some time outside on the patio just relaxing and cloud watching. Hard to believe I'll need to wear a coat every day soon but I am looking forward to all the beautiful leaves, warm soups, and snuggling under a blanket on the couch. Are you ready for the next season?

In my profession and among friends, I often feel my less-than-packed schedule is considered odd. Ask me Monday morning what I did over the weekend, and my answer is usually - I relaxed. Which is true! I sleep as late as Capone lets me, read a lot, cook for family dinner and our weekday lunches, and clean a bit. Then come the walks with Mr. G, unaccounted for hours of leisure, and more reading.  Strange maybe, but it suits me.  And over the past ten days, I've been reminded of just how much I love (and thrive in) my relaxed schedule.  It all started about two weeks ago when my husband was reassigned at work. (You may remember that he worked night shift .) His new position should be temporary, but with it comes longer, daytime hours and a nightmarish rush hour commute. To compensate for his reduced time at home, I volunteered to take on some of his work around the house.  But that was short-lived because we then had (unexpectedly) a week full of extremely late ...

She hopped right in when I opened it to put away laundry. linking up for wordless Wednesday

Usually my garden is winding down in September (the cucumbers are certainly finished). We've already had cool nights in the 50s (10-15° C) so I know the end is near. But! I have bean plants and strawberries that aren't ready to call it quits.  The strawberries I planted are some odd variety that produce fruit twice per season (I had no idea they even existed until I started to notice a lot of fruit on my plants and looked it up). They've put out a ton of runners this season so I think the harvest will be even better in 2015! And the bean plants I planted in late July are still growing. No signs of bean pods yet though. I knew I would be cutting it close by planting mid-season, so next year I will definitely plant them in the spring. Check out this volunteer tomato plant - it's growing out the side vent on the compost bin! It has 8 green tomatoes on the vine, ha! Mr. G is pumped. Oh, and while this isn't from my garden, it fits nicely here:  I bought...

One of the women I follow on instagram occasionally posts "Transformation Tuesdays." This is one of my favorites: Impressive and inspiring! I love how stunning a visual her progress makes.  I know I've improved since I started yoga just from being able to reach a bit further or hold a pose longer, but both are difficult to quantify. So I took some pictures of myself in various yoga poses . . kinda like the one I took in tree pose a couple months ago. And in another few months, I'll take some more and see if I notice anything. It also got my wheels spinning . . how else could I use this? W ouldn't it be nice if the bank put all the money from my retirement account in a big stack and sent me a photo of all that cash? :)

Hello September! Time for a goal check-in. Not much to report on this month, just the mortgage and what I've been reading. I was able to work a few extra hours this month and decided to put that toward the mortgage payment for September 1st. It's not money I normally have (or count on) so it won't be missed! My 2014 total is now $2600 - far more than I thought I'd have paid by this time in the year. August was a superb month for reading. I read 9 books, so I've officially passed my goal of 50 for the year! My secret? Get poison ivy on your face, take off from work, and hole up in your house, reading all day ;)   Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - Anna is forced to spend her senior year of high school attending a boarding school in Paris, and she's not happy about it at first. But then she meets  Étienne St. Clair and things start looking up. All in all, a well done romance.  What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World b...