Currently

 Reading ... it shouldn't be much of a surprise that I'm once again reading the Psalms. It seems I come back to them between other books of the Bible. I find them to be a balm to my soul, a place of rest, comfort, and praise.

In fiction I started Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery. I'm liking it, but it seems I always approach her books with the subconscious idea that they have to be as good as the Anne of Green Gables series. That's not really fair, so this time I'm trying to make more of an effort to simply read this book without those expectations attached.

The best book I've read in a long time is The Remember Balloons. It's a children's book and takes less than five minutes to read, but it's so, so good! It's a beautifully written and illustrated story of a young boy and his grandfather. They each have balloons that hold memories, and gradually Grandpa begins losing his balloons. The grandson is dismayed by this, and begins sharing his own balloons with Grandpa.

It's achingly beautiful, and I admit to getting misty eyed. It's short, and sweet, and I'm so glad I read it. I'd recommend it to everyone. Request it from your library, buy it from Amazon, or listen to it being read on Youtube ... here. I prefer to have the sound off and just read it, but that's only me.

Writing ... Sharon convinced me to join her in doing NaNoWriMo again this year. I have been making progress on a book that I've been thinking about writing for years already. It's fun seeing it come to life, and I look forward to getting to read it once it's done. I have no idea if it will ever be published, but I was wanting to read this story, so I'm writing it. :)

In the meantime, Sharon has been writing circles around me and passed the goal of 50,000 words in November by week two. 

Watching ... the girls and I watched The Most Wonderful Time of the Year recently. It's our favorite Hallmark movie and we watch it every year. So far we have not started getting tired of it.

Listening ... to the ticking of the clock, the sound of laughter and conversation drifting down the stairs from Sharon and one of her friends, the furnace humming away in the basement, and a neighbor's dog barking loudly at a mooing cow.

Baking ... this afternoon I want to try making some lemon blueberry cookies using the same recipe that I use for our favorite holiday cookies (Cranberry Orange) and substitute dried blueberries for the cranberries and lemon for the orange. I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out. In my head it seems they should be delicious.

Cooking ... tonight I'll be making a soup with leftovers from the fridge. It will include rice, hamburger, and poblano peppers. I'll also be making some fresh herbed dinner rolls to go with it.

Feeling ... shooketh. (Let's go ahead and pretend that's an actual word.) After one of the girls had the misfortune of having to deal with a stalker we invested in self defense - we didn't want to be paranoid, but prepared. My own preparedness was a joke earlier this week when I had a run in with a creepy dude at our local commuter parking where I was waiting to pick up LV. Everything I thought I knew and was prepared for flew out of my mind and I froze. Thankfully I'm fine, but the whole experience has left me shaken. So disturbing!

Disliking ... the ruts that are being created in our yard by someone driving through it to feed their cows. I'm trying to remain sweet about it, but inside I'm feeling less than sweet. I'm thinking it's time to pray extra blessing on them every time they drive through the yard. The ruts will still be ugly, but hopefully they will no longer annoy me as much.

Loving ... the lights we wrapped around the bannisters. They create such a happy twinkly glow.

Playing ... a variety of games, but Skipbo seems to be our current go to. Sleeping Queens, Chess, Battleship, Trouble, and a few others have all made an appearance this past week as well.

Cleaning ... I'm wrapping up the fall housecleaning. I still want to do the four lazy susans in the kitchen before I officially call it done. I did them in the beginning of fall cleaning, but they're lazy susans and need constant attention in our house it seems.