Blue-Footed Musings

This morning I woke up in my new bed. I looked up at the shelves behind my head and reached up to touch them. It must have seemed like a strange thing to do, because my husband asked what I was doing. I was admiring the shelves and feeling happy to be “living in a bookcase.” If I had known earlier in life that there was such a thing as a bookcase bed, I would have bought one years ago.

I slept in my own bedroom last night for the first time in weeks. It had been so long since we used the room that I felt as if I were in a completely new place as I was getting ready for bed. It was like staying at a hotel. I wonder how long it will take before the room feels like home again.

Probably longer than I’d like. The room still isn’t quite done. Even the things that are done are not done. Everything needs a little tweaking. The drapes, for example, are lovely, but their claim of 99% light reduction turns out to be sheer nonsense (pun intended). We’re going to need to install shades, too. The glass lamps we bought at IKEA are also lovely, but they’re so sharp on the bottom that we’re going to need to attach some sort of nonslip, nonscratch base to each of them. Currently they’re sitting atop coasters. The rugs curl up at the corners, still trying to conform to shape of the roll they were once in. Something will have to be done about that. We still need a hamper, a small chair, and closet doors, and perhaps some additional lighting and artwork.

But what I love is the feeling of harmony and purpose that the room exudes. The things in this room are not castoffs or leftovers or clutter. Most of them are new things, high-quality things, that we bought to go together. At random points in the day, I sometimes walk into the room, just to feel the calmness of it. Livia’s room has the same effect on me. It is also clean and new and intentionally arranged, so it feels good to be in. All the rooms should feel like this. So now I’m itching to fix up Marshall’s room, and the bathrooms, and the dining room, and . . . .

We have so much more work to do!

Today I had parent-teacher conferences with my kids’ teachers. The teachers were all nice. The kids are both doing well in school. That makes me happy.

I had some blood work done recently. The test results came in the mail today. My vitamin D level is bad (again), so I’m going to have to take megadoses for 8 weeks. But it’s hard to be upset about that when my other levels are so good, including my cholesterol. My numbers are higher than recommended on the good stuff and lower than recommended on the bad stuff. Hooray! That means I can continue my potato chip diet. 😉

It’s cold and windy today. We even got a little snow earlier. My husband said he’d heard that the entire country would dip below freezing tonight. I said, “Even Hawaii?” He replied, “Well, the Lower 48.” So I said, “But won’t Alaska be freezing, too?” Ha-ha. I’m such a pain sometimes, but the funny thing is, it’s warmer in Juneau right now than it is here, and the difference will only get greater as the temperature here continues to drop. Overnight we’ll probably hit a record low temperature for this time of year. If the temperature doesn’t reach at least 37 degrees tomorrow, that will also set a new record (the lowest maximum temperature for this time of year, set back in 1911). Brrr!