Linette Marie: My Room

Today I thought I'd take you on a tour of one of my favorite places. My room. Not my bedroom. My other room. It used to be Mandie's bedroom, but I claimed it in the summer of 2008, to help me get through my mid-life crisis. (See my blog posted on Nov. 21, 2010 - "M" is for Mid-life Crisis.)

My room is the place where I go to think, write, pray, play and just hang out amongst my things. As Maureen O'Hara put it so well in The Quiet Man, "I must have my things about me."

(Remember, you can click on any of these pictures to get a closeup. Just click your back arrow to get back here for the rest of the tour.)

First stop - my bulletin board. Yeah. There is a bulletin board under there, but it's mostly covered by the butterfly calendar Mandie got me for my birthday last year. She knows what I like.

Next stop, my laptop. I got it for $50 from my local Thrift Store. I actually use it more than you might think. Of course, I can't go online with it (it only has dial-up Internet access), and there's no port for flash drives. But it does have a floppy drive. So I got an old A-drive from the college junk pile, and Zack installed it on our family computer. Now I can work on documents here, save them to a floppy, and upload those files to our other computer to save, print, post... And the other thing this old girl can do is play old computer games. Hey kids, remember The Puzzle Collection? It came with our very first Gateway back in 1997. It includes games like Color Collision, Mixed Genetics, Fringer, and my personal favorite...Rat Poker. Still addicting after all these years.

Here's my little make-up corner. I can blow dry my hair, curl it, and slap on my make up in 10 minutes flat.

This spot on the top of my stereo is pretty special. The framed Matthew passage was a gift from back when I taught Sunday School in Sleepy Eye. Mrs. Halvorson always gave the best gifts. The plate was also a gift. I had seen it at the thrift store and later told my daughter Danica how much I loved it. She snuck off and got it for me. She knows what I like too.

Here's the bookcase Jeff built. The top shelf is pretty much all kids books. I'm saving them for when I have grand kids. The other shelves hold an assortment of reference books, albums, devotionals, and a few novels. I know it's not a very impressive personal library, but the public library is only a few blocks away. Why buy when you can borrow?

On top of the bookcase are a few pictures. The big one is from when my kids were 8, 6, 3, and 2. They all look so sweet and innocent. The photo on the far left is from Mandie and Dan's wedding, a very special day. The picture of the rose was a gift from Jeff's Grandpa, a very special man. The box behind these pictures was made for me by a true artisan, my dad. In it I have assorted memorabilia such as old newspaper clippings, and my collection of old drivers licenses. Do you save yours? You should. They're fun to look at. And back in the corner is an old jug we used back on the farm to bring milk up from the barn. Mom would pour it through a piece of cheese cloth into glass bottles. We may not have had a lot of treats growing up, but we could have as much fresh whole milk as we liked. Yummy!

This shelf is for labeled containers filled with office supplies. I love labeled containers filled with office supplies. You'll actually find quite a few of these throughout the house. We're remodeling our basement family room where the office is supposed to be, so all that stuff had to be moved upstairs. I'll post before and after remodeling pictures once that transformation is complete, hopefully in a month or two.

Here's a little spot that makes me smile. My parents bought the smiley mug for me at a church silent auction back when I was a kid. It's not a real McCoy, but I still treasure it. The card brightened my day one time when I was feeling down. Nothing like kind words from a friend to make you smile. The friendship candle was Mandie's but she didn't want it so I took it. I'm not above taking hand-me-downs, even from my kids.

Here's my window. Unfortunately, the scene from it today is rather colorless, but in summer and fall our backyard is full of color, thanks to my handsome live-in gardener. Look for a blog featuring the fruits of his labor in July or August. Perhaps you've noticed, there are no curtains. I prefer curtain-less windows. I like to see as much of God's beautiful creation (and my studly gardener working up a sweat) as I can. You may also have noticed the butterfly sun catcher. It was a gift from my friend Norma. She knows what I like too. If you're very observant, I'm sure you noticed a few more butterflies in my room. I have several of them hiding in here.