Super Summer #3: A Little Bit of This and That

Dear friends,

Happy Sunday! It's "a little bit of this and that" in this week's Super Summer post.

Do you like sleeping in? So do I when I can get away with it! I think I went a little overboard one day last week, though. On Friday, I posted on Facebook:

I think this is the first time I have slept in until 11 and woken up with no idea it was so late. I had to Google "what time is it" to confirm that no one had changed my iPhone time. I thought it was around 9, which is still way late for me to get up. 

Ha! So I was feeling under the weather for a few days and my sleep schedule got really odd. Last night I crashed around 8 PM. At least I woke up before 7 AM, and I had a lovely quiet morning. Yes, I'm feeling better.

Since I had some extra time before leaving for church, I decided to putter around at my desk. This may seem like an obsession since I've blogged about it so often, but since I am such a word person, any place that gives me unfettered access to reading and writing is a sweet spot for me.

My daughter Lydia recently snitched my desk lamp because something was wrong with our ancient piano lamp. I found a replacement in Walmart a few days ago, a blue clamp lamp to attach to the shelf of my hutch. The blue matches the stuff in that corner of the room quite nicely. Two other benefits: since it's up higher, it distributes the light in a wider beam - and - it doesn't take up any space on the desk.


The only problem is that the clamp wouldn't fit on the shelf if I kept all of my notebooks there. At first I just shifted the bulky notebooks over and put some smaller books there. That looked odd, though, so today I reorganized the whole shelf. I realized that all of those notebooks gave my shelf a heavy visual impression right at my eye level. I took them off and put them on another bookcase. Then I culled through all of the books on that desk shelf and pulled out ones I'm not interested in using any time soon.

I filled the wide empty spot on the shelf with other books that I've been meaning to read on various subjects. Maybe with them right in front of me, I'll get to them faster. The shelf looks so much nicer anyway. It has a lighter, more delicate feel to it.

The picture on the left was taken in March, and the one on the right, today.

One thing I pulled off my shelf while going through books today was the spring edition of Somerset Life. This quarterly journal is published by the same folks (Stampington) as Bella Grace, which I mentioned near the bottom of this Simply Spring post: Pretty and Practical Again. They aren't cheap, but I bought this copy thinking I'd get double use out of it by passing it on to one of my creative daughters. Now that I know where it is again, I'll take another good look at it and then it shall be sweet parting. Good to share!


As I flipped through Somerset Life this morning, I saw a page spread about decorating your desk using tea cups to hold small items.

That wouldn't work for me (that's what my desk drawers are for!), but I did think more about making my sweet spot even more delicate looking. I switched out my pen & pencil container (a big white mug) and replaced it with a flowered container from my dresser.

Then I retrieved a few things from my night table that I bought at Biltmore Estate two weeks ago. (See my photo posts: Biltmore Estate and The Gardens at Biltmore Estate.) I placed the bird coaster and the miniature blue and white vase on my hutch shelf.

Back to Biltmore for a moment. Since you can't take pictures of the interior of the house, I bought their book Biltmore: An American Masterpiece. I'm not sure how much of a design inspiration it can be for me, since Biltmore is the largest mansion in the USA and I have a cottage budget and cottage dreams, but hey...

On to other topics!

This past week, after a yummy (and probably fattening) vacation, I decided to cut out sugar again. I wrote last year about this here: A Change in My Eating Habits. I did really well for about three months, but then... Christmas. Oops. I said I would just eat sweets for a couple of weeks, but then I didn't stop. I wasn't eating as much, but little bits led to more. So I quit again several days ago. But then... Cheesecake Factory. So I figured, maybe I'll just commit to having something sweet only twice a month. I guess we'll see how that goes.

There are sugar alternatives, though. I visited my friend Jessica on Wednesday and brought no-sugar-added Klondike bars. They do have some sugar from the milk, but that's on my OK list. I also brought her some potted flowers as a little get well present. They went perfectly with the Independence Day decor that she still had on her table. We had such a lovely "chat" as she called it, but in reality we had more like a six hour conversation about everything under the sun - politics (which I hate), current news headlines, home schooling, family life, nutrition, ministry, yada yada. It seemed like five minutes. That's what kind of friend she is. I think we both came to the conclusion that what both church and culture need is less of religion and more of Jesus.

Which reminds me...

It's July 12, and though I'm not sure of the exact day, I think it's been 39 years today since this took place: My Story of Liberty in 1976. Once you read that, you'll get why it's related to this one that I posted last July: Hess Family Memorial Reunion 2014.

Also July 12, according to my news feed this morning, is the birthday of King Robert Bruce of Scotland (1274-1329), who is supposedly one of my ancestors. I love the legend and poem about the lesson of perseverance that he learned from a spider. I wrote about using them while teaching English class here: Medieval Legends and King Robert Bruce.

Other posts on my blogs from just this past week:

• Disentangle poem (My sister linked it on a major knitting discussion board which brought a good bit of traffic, though I'm not a knitter and it's not so much about that. It's one of my favorites.)
• Watauga Lake in Tennessee - another photo post on my North Carolina trip series
• Peace Be With You (a wee 43 word meditation)
• Top 20 Very Best Things to Say to Someone Who is Struggling a guest post by Susan Moore for my domestic violence series

And a few great mama articles by blogger Sarah Mae:

• How Gentleness Makes Our Children Great by Sarah Mae
• Dear Me: I Think It's Time You Clean Your House by Sarah Mae - so I'm not the only one! Phew!

Grace and peace,
Virginia Knowles