1. Mom and Dad were so helpful last weekend – they watched the girls while we moved thousands of books on Saturday night. They watched Disney movies and read stories and played with the girls. Dad also did an electrical project at the shop on Sunday while Mendy picked up Mom & Cate & Jane and took them to church and then out to lunch with Nana. It was nice to have them here although I would like a repeat visit on a weekend that’s not quite so full of work.

2. This picture was taken on Monday. Saturday night we moved all the books. Sunday Telfer and Tony (a good friend) laid down the new flooring while Mark (our favorite painter) painted and I ran around doing errands and supplying food and putting the children’s section back together. On Monday we put the shelves back and moved all the books back into the main shop room. On the floor. They were sort of piled by section but obviously completely out of order. At one point Mark said, “You guys have a lot of da**ed books.” Yes, Mark, we do.

3. This is another shot of Monday. Now that it’s Friday, all of the books are off the floor but there is still much work to get them all back in order. My hands are so tired from moving books and arranging books and shelving books. But! Everything we did looks so wonderful and we have received a lot of positive comments from our customers this week…it feels good. Our two employees were also very helpful and hard-working and it gave me hope that we can continue on as is.

4. My one St. Patrick’s Day trick is to color the girls’ milk green and proclaim leprechauns have invaded the refrigerator. After that I am out of ideas. Even in the age of Pinterest. They seem to enjoy it though. Yes, Jane is rolling her eyes in the picture. She has learned this from a really good eye-roller (me).

5. I did manage to finish the Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You. It’s really fun concept – alphabetized ailments and descriptions of the novels you should read to aid the cure. I love reading derivative literary types of things.

Oh boy friends, I am here to tell you I am tired on this Friday evening. The girls are singing and playing around me and this whole week they have been so sweet. We are up to a variety of things this weekend. Tonight is the sacred PJ Party at our gym – every third Friday night! Sometimes Telfer and I go out to dinner or to a movie but tonight we are getting Indian takeout and watching The Theory of Everything. Telfer is working part of this weekend and Eleanor is going to be here and we are going to our old friend Keegan’s installation service at Gig Harbor Nazarene on Sunday morning. I am planning to read this and this and make my very favorite vegetable soup – I have been eating far too much takeout and I am craving something warm and healthy and good-for-me.

1. Cate lost her second front tooth during Sunday School last week. It was hanging by a disgusting thread and Cate agreed to let me try to pull it. Right before I tried, Telfer told me he didn’t think I could do it. Two seconds later it was out! I deny my competitive streak at times…but it’s so there! Anyway, the tooth fairy remembered to come this time and Cate has lisped her way through the week.

2. This is the front desk/checkout area at the shop as of yesterday – we (ahem, Telfer) got all of the electrical done this week so I could take the pictures. J.T. Scott, a customer and talented woodworker, built it for Browsers as a total favor. I can’t get over how beautiful the whole front area is now…I can’t even explain how much of a difference it makes…

3. All of the light makes me so happy! I love having time after dinner to go for a walk or bike ride with the girls. It makes such a difference. Lately, I have been doing our family walk by myself. A puppy who pulls at the leash and two girls on bikes that need to be pushed over curbs and helped down our steep driveway. Of course we look a little comical at times.

4. Hey Natalie Jean is one of my favorite bloggers and I read her new book this week. It was just what I needed – light and fun and positive and mentions two of my favorite things: You’ve Got Mail & Anne of Green Gables.

5. We have our work cut out for us this weekend. We are moving several thousand books out of the way, replacing carpet, painting the whole front of the shop and then moving everything back on Monday. My parents are in town for the weekend to help and watch the girls. For some reason, I am craving oysters and so we are all headed to the Oyster House for dinner tonight. My dad is so not complaining…

And whoops! I hit publish instead of draft earlier today on WordPress. And now it’s 8:30 pm and I am finally getting back to this…here is the text to go along with the photographs.1. Cate lost her first front tooth on Sunday morning in Sunday school. She was chasing a balloon and ran into a table…the other front tooth is hanging by a thread. I packed an apple in her lunch today in the hopes that it would finish the job but no such luck. Jane had the croupy cough on Saturday night (she slept with me – Telfer was gone – and man, I am so not a fan of that sound – pretty scary). So this is me and Jane and George on Sunday morning. A whole lot of snuggling going on.

2. The logo is painted on the front of the building! It looks so good. Anecdotally, we are getting quite a few more customers coming into the store because of the changes to the front of the building…it looks like a bookstore now. I am waiting to take good pictures of the new counter area until all the wiring and electrical and cord management is finished.

3. Telfer is my personal handyman / therapist. Here he is this morning, fixing the cords and electrical at the shop. He worked a bit in the morning at the hospital, then came straight to the shop until Cate was out of school. He’s just a pretty wonderful person. He also advises me in about everything. Inherited employees have been a challenge for me and his advice has been thoughtful and very helpful. I also had a mini-meltdown over lighting choices for the shop last night. He basically had to tuck me into bed. He deserves a medal, or at the very least, a beer.

4. The shop website has been one of those projects that I spend a lot of time thinking about, worrying about, writing on my to-do list, but have had a significant mind block against actually doing it. Do you know what I mean? Web stuff takes so much time and effort even though it’s not that hard. Today was the day I meant to be completely finished with round one of the site. Not quite there at all but somewhat close. I still need to figure out the header and a few other things (like a blog posting schedule. Sigh). Comments? Suggestions?

5. I am about twenty pages until finishing On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss. Predictably, I fall into the pro-vaccination camp but I realize that many others, including family members and close friends, are far from agreement with me. This is such a timely and essential topic and Biss is a writer to pay attention to. She is both nuanced and intelligent and comes at the issue of vaccination sideways – this is good writing and good thinking, not just a pro-vaccination series of articles. It’s never that simple.

Tonight was pizza and movie night! We just finished watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with the girls for the first time. Telfer is putting the girls to bed as I write this – Cate is pretty fun/amazing to watch anything with, she watches with her whole body and her whole mind. There is so much concentration- she was completely entranced with the whole idea of Harry Potter and his world. Pretty great parenting moment. Telfer is gone all day tomorrow but the girls and I have a good day planned I think (hope). It’s Judy and Sarah’s birthday (the girls’ babies) and we are going to have a little birthday party in the afternoon, complete with cupcakes. I like to have at least one thing planned on days that Telfer is gone. It helps anchor the day in the very best way.

1. I really try to write these on Fridays but yesterday was just packed. Jane woke with a croupy cough so she came with me to the bookshop (she did so well, I was both proud and a little surprised). The rest of our new counter was also installed yesterday and we were in such a complete mess. I will take more pictures this next week once we get completely settled (and I get over the shock and awe of how beautiful everything is now) but first! 80 years in business! Nate, my tireless brother-in-law, designed it and it looks so nice. I think I have said this before, but we are only the fourth set of owners in eighty years and all of the previous owners have been women.

2. One of my most favorite things to do is walk this dog. George is such a good walker. I love walking in Olympia during all the seasons and weather. It just does not does get old or less beautiful.

3. At Ikea last weekend, we got the girls two little tables to put in the guest room (replacing a really small orange table). Our hope is to contain all of the art supplies and resulting mess in the guest room. So far this week this has not happened – the mess is in the guest room and in the dining room – but the picture is very cute.

4. Telfer and I sit down weekly, usually on Sunday afternoons, to go over our respective weeks. Telfer has a complicated call schedule and quite a few other commitments so the more we talk about our week – the details to the dreams – the more intentional we tend to be. The conversation is full of logistics – “so you might be able to pick up the girls on Tuesday?” – but we have the props – red wine and lit candles – to make it all seem more romantic. Somehow, it works and we really do feel like we connect even if it’s over really mundane stuff.

5. I just finished The Storied Life of A.J. Fikrey by Gabrielle Zevin this morning. The first book off my new shelf project. It’s a really sweet bookseller story. I just fell into it – if you want something easy and bookish with a lot of heart, totally pick this one up.And I can’t help it. Two more quick pictures of the girls. This is Jane on her way to the bookshop with me. She brought some color stuff, her marbles and we stopped on the way for a morning roll. Then, last night, Cate had her yellow belt ceremony for tae kwon do. We all went and it was so cool to watch what she has learned in two months…

Telfer is in Portland for a class today and then working tonight. Chris and Mendy took Cate and Jane on the train with their cousins to Centralia. So I have six hours to myself today. I took George for a long walk, finished a novel, am writing this, and then the debate within is heating up. Do I conquer the mess that is my house, go to the bookshop where projects continually await or do I just take a bath? Knowing me, I will probably try to do all three which means nothing will quite get done fully but I am so thankful for these hours of quiet…

Almost every morning, I get up early enough to read a bit in my home office (and almost most importantly, drink my first cup of coffee). I read the psalms and then a little of this and a little of that. I also try to get my to-do list going before, inevitably, I have little visitors who want to cuddle in my chair with me. I am now reading the very last book on my first read-a-shelf project from last year (Ann Beattie’s New Yorker Stories).

Last week, I was looking at the original shelf and marveling at how it is now completely crowded with a different set of books, all of which I desperately want to read. And you know I love a project. I kind of love telling myself what to read. It just works for me. So here’s the next batch of books on my shelf. Two books entitled Goodbye to All That (Graves & New York versions). You can’t see one of them – it’s stuffed on the far right side of the shelf – out of sight but still, two books with the same title!

It will probably take me about a year to read through the list and no, I won’t be writing big essays on each book. I am over even attempting stuff like that. I will keep taking pictures of book covers and writing about what I have loved every week. Seems so manageable and part of my daily life at this point.