I want to list here the things that will make up a good life for me in my "new life" which includes being a full-time caregiver for my mom. I will check them off once they seem to be a part of the pattern. (10/28....goodness, not much progress on my list to be honest...all the renovation and building has rather taken over our lives, but I have been adding tiny layer to tiny layer in my learning of the art of routine)

  • 8 minutes in the morning every morning
  • walks through the woods and fields a few times a week
  • a home-keeping routine (have decided the Fridays will be house cleaning day, the rest to come...)
  • a quiet time everyday
  • finding a blogging routine
  • gear up for starting Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day
may 16 2010 ∞
oct 28 2010 +
  • the bats swooping in the dusk against the gorgeous pastel skies in the Autumn evening when I shut up the hen house.
  • while putting the dead flowers (still so lovely against the dark compost) in the compost tumbler the other evening and hearing Caleb and his friends through the study window above me making music together for their latest film endeavor and glancing over to see Doug and Sam working on the car together before Sam went back to college, Mom peacefully reading inside....everyone home for just a little while.
  • the cornflowers at the edge of the tasseled fields of grain
  • the layers of birds to be seen from the porch sofa this evening...hummingbirds just outside the screen at the feeder...barn swallows swooping through the air just beyond the hummingbirds...the pairs of woodpeckers noisily calling and flying in an...
may 27 2010 ∞
oct 28 2010 +
  • Little Women
  • Mother Carey's Chickens
  • Vicar of Wakefield
  • nearly gave up on Pilgrims Inn by Elizabeth Goudge

(sacrilege!)....but I think it may show up on the other list soon...

  • Jane Austen-A Life
  • Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
may 16 2010 ∞
jun 7 2010 +
  • Quality Street

(One of Katherine Hepburn's early movies...charming...Cranford-esque)

oct 28 2010 ∞
oct 28 2010 +
  • The Language of Bees by Laurie King +
  • Locked Rooms by Laurie King +
  • The Game by Laurie King +
  • Justice Hall by Laurie King +
  • The Moor by Laurie King +
  • A Letter of Mary by Laurie King +
  • A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie King +
  • The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King +
  • A Year By the Sea by Joan Anderson +

(Tho' I went on to read a few more books by J.A. and found them too repetitive, depending upon solitary get-aways for spiritual renewal and her thoughts on elderly folk in a later book turned me away from her writings)

  • Wise Child by Monica Furlong +
  • Colman by Monica Furlong + (if only to find out how MF wanted the Wise Child stor...
may 27 2010 ∞
oct 28 2010 +
  • A Rather Lovely Inheritance-C.A. Belmond
  • A Rather Curious Engagement " "
  • A Rather Charming Invitation " "
  • Linnets and Valerians-Elizabeth Goudge
  • Pilgrims Inn-Elizabeth Goudge (but she doesn't want to read the rest of the trilogy!)
  • Murder on the Orient Express-Agatha Christie
  • Bel Lamington-D.E. Stevenson
  • The Marriage of Katherine-D.E. Stevenson
may 16 2010 ∞
jun 29 2010 +