Indulge Your Shelf

We celebrated a milestone the other day when Ben earned the rank of Eagle Scout.  We are very proud of him and the hard work he did to earn it; it was a long road. His journey to Eagle began in 2nd grade, when he first joined Cub Scouts. He's been a Scout faithfully all the years since then. For a couple of years he belonged simultaneously to two troops because he joined a troop put together just to travel to the national Jamboree.  I blogged about that trip here . All through the Scouting years he's made some great friends, and they have grown up together. And he's had the chance to get to know and be mentored by a whole cast of wonderful adult leaders. Ben's Eagle project was a service project for a local elementary school.  They wanted a particular addition to their playground with decorated tires and a bean bag toss. Tires were collected and painted at my kitchen table... There was also a good bit of paperwork. It was difficult...

I bought a couple of grown-up coloring books to amuse me during my last days at a job where I could create/play in between phone calls. Coloring is so relaxing -- I highly recommend it for peaceful moments. I've even seen some guys at work coloring! In progress -- I finished this one yesterday, on my last day at work; I also finished this little stitching project from a kit. It feels good to be done with all of it -- but most especially the job! The best part of any experience is always the people, isn't it?  Two gals, Kim and Linda, came out to a restaurant after work last night to help me celebrate my last day.  We laughed into the evening.  Kim has also started a new job and we're rooting for Linda to make a change, too. Tomorrow I will start my new job working in an office at the beautiful  Broadmoor  in Colorado Springs.  I have high hopes for really loving it there. Summer seems to have finally really arrived around h...

After the wettest May on record, ever, in Colorado -- June is here and we are finally seeing some sunshine.  So this weekend I got out my garden chair for the front porch. I was thinking about how I have probably had this chair for about 10 years now -- since rescuing it from Goodwill as a chair and distressing it and adding an annual bloom. Do you remember this plaque I made from found scraps, spelling out our last name Jackson?  Well, this year it has become the centerpiece of the chair. I swiped some fresh white paint here and there over the already peeling paint from previous years. To me, geraniums say "summer"!  On June 1 my baby turned 18 and with the season comes even more changes -- including a new job for me that I'll be starting in a couple of weeks!