Warning, long post grab a drink first!

My glorious peonies!  Along the east side of my house.  I took this photo last week before the deluge hit.  Since Wednesday it has rained every day, the humidity has been horrid enough that I turned on the a/c just to keep it at bay.  Last night sleep was interrupted by rounds of thunder, driving rain, dog barking and head scratching "Is that the tornado siren I hear?" followed by hitting the local weather app on the iphone to see if there's a tornado warning.  (There was but apparently east of me and I basically slept through that. Think I need a weather radio with the alarm built in as I am pretty far from the poles with the sirens on them, add in the house being closed up, thunder, driving rain and said dog barking-yep I need to go buy one.  I have two crank up weather radios but they don't have alarms in them and they don't plug in.)  Needless to say my peonies don't look this mag now!

I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's book on habits (Better Than Before) which at the very least has made me think.  For example, I CAN NOT keep the top of my desk clean. Sigh.  So, I had to identify the problem, which in this case turned out to be shopping receipts.  Then, I had to figure out a solution to that problem-enclosed file folder in upright file holder on desk for temporary storage as well as an envelope thing for my purse,  that done I simply had to USE those two things!  So far-so good!  Following another of Gretchen's Rules of Adulthood-Outer order creates inner calm - I determined to "Get Organized" (I've been trying to do this for what seems like eons but following the identify the problem, identify a solution approach is helping.  Although, it's too soon to tell.) Also, to streamline my possessions for the move.  So for this week I have been working almost exclusively in my office.  Done so far:
                            Desk drawers purged-hey there's actually room in some of them!
                            Books inventoried, spreadsheet updated as I've added and removed books since I moved into my office-also added a location for each book as there were some I KNEW I still had but couldn't find, not true now!
                            Ordered DVD case, moved my many dvd's into it (only to discover I'll need another one soon!) Updated the DVD spreadsheet.
                            Ordered CD case for my music cd's, in the process of locating and ordering the cds into the new case-I don't think it's going to be big enough either, sigh.
                             Three and one half bags of shredding done.
                             Began a purge of the two 4-drawer file cabinets.  This is going to take a while, but I'll be able to eliminate at least one cabinet.  It does make a temporary mess though!
                             Began scanning material in family history files into Family Tree Maker-also had to learn the scanner software.  Once scanned the paper is being recycled or shredded but it's outta here!  Also going to take a while but should get faster as I get farther back in time, also creating a temporary mess.

Also for fun, I Beta read Suzie O'Connell latest book Forgotten Angel  which I loved AND I have a cameo appearance as a character!  My alter ego can ride a horse (I can't but it's on the bucket list) and got to see the Northern Lights (also on my bucket list)!  How cool it that?

Then Ave Miles released a new book as well The Bridge to a Better Life,   Had to read that one and it was another great one from her-I swear she writes heartache better than any other author I've read (And I read, A LOT!)

Not much sewing but I'll get there this week.

Ryan had his second dilation this past Friday.  They stretched him to 9mm this time, at least one more.  Scott and Bri have had him out shopping and he has new toys!  Normal.  So blessedly normal.