Christmas Gift from Wilma

Look what Steve's late mom gave us for Christmas yesterday! These are two bookshelf units that were lined up with two more in her living room. Steve's brother & family are taking the other two. Sister-in-law Sue brought her truck over yesterday so we moved ours to our house, even though it was raining a little bit. It's a work in progress but this is the first go-round at arranging. And I didn't notice until I posted this photo, Reggi's tail in the lower left! Silly dog, she follows me everywhere.

We have an interesting dynamic about books, Steve and I. I go pretty minimalist, not buying or keeping many books. Steve has kept every book he's ever owned, I swear. We're both major Internet users so our books are rarely touched, honestly. I'm sentimental about some books, he's sentimental about every book. Books have that effect on people, I know.

The upper left shelf contains my books - a few novels but mostly personal development books, what used to be called "self-help" books. It's the usual collection of subjects that any self-respecting 50-something woman would own - relationships, weight loss and finance.

The noteworthy items on the next shelf down on the left are two very tattered, held together by tape, books on television shows - everything that's now contained on IMDB.com. Steve uses imdb.com pretty much daily, I'd say. When I pointed out that everything in those 2 books is contained in his left pocket (where he keeps his iTouch), he insisted he wanted to keep the books.

I on the other hand, filled a re-usable grocery bag to the brim with books I'll be taking to the Freecycle table at work tomorrow - mostly gardening, canning, bread baking and other types of cookbooks. My life has gone in other directions now.

And there's another level of books that I'm almost ready to let go of but not quite. Same thing happened with old record albums - took a good two or three go-rounds to purge to what I have left now.

Next to the old TV books are home repair books which we used a lot when we first bought this house 9 years ago, but now our time is more valuable and we hire professionals for anything beyond painting, putting up shelves, minor repairs, etc.

The big books on the bottom shelf are all sports-related, arranged by sport. They are "coffee table" books for the most part and while I never see Steve look at them, I understand why he wants to keep them.

My dad made the wood mushrooms on the left and the shaker box on the right. The basket is a Longaberger basket I bought years ago; it holds books of matches.

Second shelf down on the right - the right side is Steve's collection of yearbooks. He has his sister's year books too, I think. I'll add mine to that collection someday, they are currently in a box in the basement. Steve and I went to high school together so there will be a few repeats.

To the right of the yearbooks are all cookbooks. A surprising number of them belong to Steve. We both seem to be a bit sentimental about cookbooks - must be because food holds such strong family memories for humans. It's interesting because Steve never cooks and I always look for new recipes on the Internet, not in a cookbook. But now that my memory has been refreshed, I might peruse those books now and again. Trouble is, I rarely feel like cooking anymore these days.

The two boxes on the shelves are recipe boxes - the white one is Steve's and the little wood roll-top one is mine. I don't know if that white one was Steve's mom's at one time or just his - I think just his. He's had it as long as I've known him. His and hers recipe boxes - aren't we cute??

The stacking trays on the bottom are our mailboxes - one for each member of the family, whether they live here or not - and for DJ, our nephew who does live here. We just gave DJ his own mailbox recently - he knew he'd been accepted when that happened. I'm kidding, he's been a member of the family for ages, of course. But that mailbox system is perfect for sorting the mail as it arrives each day. Steve and I tend to "process" our mail our weekends. Simon empties his mailbox several times a year after I've asked him to about 5 or 6 times, because it so full.

There's nothing behind the doors on the bottom of the units yet. It's a work in progress, like I said.