Scoutie in the tunnel this morning. A month or so ago, after repeatedly seeing her land with a thud (it’s become impossible for her to effortlessly ease her body to the floor as she could when she was younger) I put a quilt by the chair. It provides a bit of a cushion for her. I also put one in front of the loveseat in the living room because she often sleeps there at night. Scout has always been a restless sleeper. She’s here, she’s there, she moves around a lot. And as much as I would love it if she slept on a cushy dog bed, she simply won’t. She likes the floor.
The addition of the quilts certainly won’t get the rooms in a decorating magazine, but I don’t care. Little girl’s comfort is what this is all about. Just as the addition of mats throughout the living room and kitchen helped Riley get around. They were unattractive, but they worked and they made his life easier and safer.
She’s getting a bath next week in honor of her father’s homecoming which will be a week from this coming Monday. I anticipate lots of father/daughter cuddles.
(See? The flowers have been there for two weeks and they’re still going strong.)
I’m reading a very good police detective mystery, The Keeper of Lost Causes, by a Danish writer, Jussi Adler-Olsen. I don’t remember how I learned about it, but one click later, it was loaded on my Kindle. At a discount. I see why these gosh darned eReaders are so convenient. Don’t worry. I’m still reading and buying real books, but space is limited here at the cottage, as you well know. I can only bring so many books in here. Anyway, I really like this book. The writer has a dry sense of humor and the story is really compelling.
Oh, I love reading. Love, love, love it. The ultimate escape. Life saver, imagination soarer, invitation to another world, delightful, insightful – reading is one on one. One being me and my imagination. The other one being the words on the page. We are in our own little world, the book and I. And no one will see the world created by the writer in quite the same way as me. Isn’t that wonderful?
Reading has always been and continues to be one of the greatest pleasures in my life. A thank you to my mom and to Miss Brown, my first grade teacher, for instilling a love of reading in me.
When I realize that my mom, who has dementia, cannot read anymore, it breaks my heart. She has always loved to read and could polish off a book pretty quickly. It has been a constant in her life. Not being able to read seems to be especially cruel. I love you, Mom. I hope your imagination is taking you to worlds we cannot see; vivid and beautiful and peaceful.
I also seem to have inherited from my mom a tendency to leave stacks of reading material and paperwork all over the house. See above. My mom always had two end tables in the living room and each of them had a lower shelf. There were stacks of magazines there. One table held my mom’s magazines. The other table held my dad’s magazines. I have the same sort of thing going on here. I have a stack of reading material under the end table in the den. I have a stack of books under the table next to my blogging chair. I have a stack of things on the ottoman. And I have the stack you see on the coffee table. At some point, I get sick of it all and go through each stack, ruthlessly sorting and tossing.
But on some level, I find it enormously comforting to have stacks of things to read surrounding me. Thank goodness, Don doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he’ll have his own stack on the coffee table in the living room when he returns.
Cheerful clutter. That’s what I call it.
Happy Friday.
Books! I have them everywhere. Years ago in the Sunday newspaper living section there were pictures of the home Paul Allen built for his mother. She had been a school librarian. There were book shelves in every room. She even had a “library”. It was wonderful. I think you would have been right at home there. Me too. I wouldn’t need to have stacks of books on the floor in every room.
Lucky Scout to have such lovely quilts to call a bed!
Tana
Oh, that would be heaven – bookshelves in every room!
:- )
xo
I have the same love of reading, but I dislike clutter! My magazines and books are neatly stacked. ;-)
Oh, so are mine – unless I’ve just been digging into the stack. Besides, I like artful stacking – (Whatever that means!)
I feel the same, about books! It’s like opening a new gift. I don’t know if this would be much help, for your mother, have you considered books on CDs? Right now I’m listening to the biography of Tom Thumb’s wife. It’s so interesting. Just hearing a calm voice reading a great old book might help to take her to a happy escape?
Best Regards,
Kathy
She tunes out, Kathy. She’s doesn’t even listen to the television the way she used to. My dad usually tries to play some of her favorite music for her.
One of the greatest things about being retired is having more time to read. I’m steadily working through all the books I bought years ago and haven’t had time to read yet. And re-reading favorites too. I have them all on a wonderful huge Amish-made oak bookcase I bought 12 years ago and is probably my favorite piece of furniture. And I thank God each and every day for being able to read – it has educated and enlightened me to places and experiences I’d never have known otherwise. PS – my first grade teacher’s name was Miss Brown too!
My Miss Brown was a tough old cookie!
Cheerful clutter all over my house too! books and magazines everywhere…and articles torn out to send to our son (they are in a separate pile on the steps). We’re lucky we don’t trip over the piles. Your flowers do still look wonderful. Enjoy your weekend…and only a week till Don comes home — that’s great!!
Yippee!
Cheerful clutter! Love it. That describes my whole home I think! We start working on the what to take to Georgia this weekend. I think Mom is ready to make a few decisions. So hard for her, but she is determined to let go of things!
Hugs to you and Scout!
Linda
Linda, I must have missed something – is your mom moving near you?
As Dr. Seuss says: “Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.” A wise man!!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I hope you can get a picture of sweet Scout seeing her Dad when he arrives home! Only days now…….
I love that quote from Dr. Seuss!
I love that…cheerful clutter! We’ve got that going on too…all over the place. Sometimes I corral my reading material in baskets…or stacks….bedside tables…you know the drill. Sometimes they act as lifts to heighten a lamp, after I’ve read them of course…so that I have better light for the next read! I am an only child…and I guess I was lonely…so books kept me company…and became my friends. My Mom can still read…but it either has to be large print…or she uses a magnifier. When you got to read…you got to read! I am running out of space for more books…and I’ve already done some purging…what to do? Perhaps it is time for a kindle. I’ll have to mull that one over! ;)
The Kindle has certainly has helped me – I have boxes of books in the shed that I have no room for!
Congrats on Don coming home soon. I know it will be a splendid homecoming for the both of you :) Oh, your flowers still look great!
The alstromeria last such a long time!
I love to read too Claudia thanks to my third grade teacher Mrs. Woods who read to us from Tom Sawyer before lunch everyday. I have spent my entire life in one county and thanks to books I’ve enjoyed countless great adventures all over the world. It bothers me so much to hear a young person say they hate reading. Life has recently thrown us a curve ball and I just haven’t been able to lose myself in a good book for several weeks now. Yet I know all that adventure is waiting for me. It’s a beautiful blustery sort of day here.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a curve ball thrown your way, Janie. I hope everything is all right?
Cheerful clutter is a good thing! I have that at home also. Scout looks very comfy, been such a hard winter she deserves it. My Lucy has beds all over the house too, dogs have it made! Flowers are very pretty. Have a wonderful day. We have had rain here in Maryland on and off all day but at least its not snow!! ((hugs))
Rain here all day, too, Nancy!
I love seeing Scout all cozy and pampered. My kitties also have warm and safe areas scattered around the house for their comfort. Whatever they need.
I am totally with you on the reading! The whole thing on bookstores and such slowly disappearing, for any reason, is so depressing! I have loved to read my whole life although I’m no sure where it came from. I always loved the library and being surrounded by books. I really don’t love reading on any device, yet anyway.
I know exactly what you mean about your mom because I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t read.
Cheerful clutter indeed!
I love libraries and bookstores, Donna. My favorite places to go.
Funny, the girls were just talking about that author at my pottery class this morning. I guess I better check it out. The universe is obviously telling me to. J
He’s really good, Julie.
She looks so sweet lying at your feet on a warm quilt..she loves you and Don so much..I know all about the stacks of books and magazines..I must tell everyone that is my “cheerful clutter”..lol
Yes, you have my blessing!
We have the same train of thought today. Books and book shelves. I went to get my camera, and the batteries need charging. Oh, well the topic can wait another day or two.
My mother had Alzheimer’s disease and it prevented her from reading her favorite cookbooks. She could read them like a novel. I was so sad, when she stopped reading ….it was early on in the disease, but she was going blind too.
This is such a strange story….The librarian in our little town had Alzheimer’s too. She was in a care facility… near the end of her life. She didn’t speak to anyone, but after lunch they would let her sit in a comfortable chair and they would give her a book, and she would read to the residents. When the book was closed….she was silent.
Oh my. What a touching story, Balisha! Bless her heart.
I so love books as well. I wanted to let you know, Claudia, that after your post about your Kindle, I had commented that I was having problems reading at night and was thinking about a Kindle. You said that you though it may help because I could adjust the light and font size. I struggled because I too love the feel, smell, comfort of an actual book! Well, I broke down and bought a Kindle and I absolutely love it! It has offered me many more hours of reading at night when I would not be able to read a book! My same imagination can get involved whether it be a book or a Kindle! Thank you, Claudia!
I’m so glad you got one, Melanie! They are very reader-friendly, aren’t they? I know it’s easier for me to read on one.
If a décor magazine ever came to photograph my home there would be cats draped hither and yon, dog beds scattered about, and books would be on every surface. (probably with a cat perched on one of the stacks) A house bunny would be scampering about, and the hair…oh the hair!!! I love the pictures of Scout happily snuggled in one of her “spots” as much as I love the pictures of her with a mischievous look on her face. She is a treasure. :-)
She is indeed, Teresa!
Few things make a house as cozy as stacks of reading material. I’ve been making more time to read lately. I’ve always loved reading but for the last several years it has taken me forever to finish a book. I’m on quite a roll though this year and it is making me happy.
Oh good! Reading makes me happy, too, Jen. I’m glad you’re on a roll!
I work in a little branch library , and I love it. I wish I were younger and could get an MLS. I do have a masters degree in counseling but my first love has always been books. I even owned a bookstore for a few years. But after amazon came in in the early 90’s that was the end. I read a lot and right now I’m reading on kindle ” the goldfinch” by Donna Tart. I think you will like it . Books and the library saved me as a child. I grew up in a similar circumstance as Jeannette Walls, in ‘ Glass Castles’ although not as severe. We didn’t move a lot but were very poor. And reading took me to many a wonderful place where children were happy and had parents who took care of them. As a parent many years later, I made sure my children were readers(and secure and well fed). My oldest daughter is in graduate school for her MLS, and works for the same library system as I do.
I have always had artful piles of books etc. now with striving toward minimalism , I try to keep it to a few.
Your doggie looks happy!
I am never happy unless I have a big stack of books and I do love my kindle for the times when it is late at night and I seem to have run out of reading material. I left my mom with three books to read on Tuesday and she has already made her way through one of them. She loves to read, too. I know you and Scout will both be glad to have Don home. xo Laura
I’m sorry about your mom, Claudia. What a sad thing to not be able to read any longer. I totally understand what you mean by cheerful clutter. We could move into a much smaller house if it weren’t for all the reading material we have here. And that doesn’t count the Kindle! CUTE photo of Scout! :-)
I love books, the e readers, magazines, cookbooks, everything. They are in every room on shelves and the floor, on tables and in baskets. Books make a house a home. I visited a new friend last week, beautiful designer home with not one piece of reading material anywhere! We will not make it as friends, sad.
Scout is the number 10 girl dog’s name right now!
Well, here’s hoping Scout lets Don fit in a little cuddling with you too! (I just saw him 10 minutes ago on an old L&O: CI — felt like I “knew” him which was kinda cool)
And loved your description of the nod tables with the lower shelf — sounded just like my parents house. Brought me a smile — thank you. Dad had Parkinson’s related dementia, so I can relate in many ways to what’s going on with your mom. Loving who she is now doesn’t negate your love (and loss) of the mother who was.
So glad for you and Scoutie, Don Is almost home, do you tell her Dadddy.s coming home before he’s scheduled to arrive. I always told Daisy& Candy had the would to stand at the window waiting, now Candy stands alone. We have little beds in every room too, it’s onl fair when you have pets.
I know Mon will be a happy day.
Stacks of books and magazines is the very best decoration in any house, Claudia, at least in my book! (I even have books stacked on each stair going upstairs…. something that drives family members nuts when they visit but, oh well.) So glad you will all be home together, soon! Huzzah!