I just found a new one called Home Organizing Idea Book-500 + Design Ideas for Organizing your home. I especially appreciate all advice on storing things because I have such a small house and if things are out of place,everything looks messy.

I did a check-by-check of each room since the book is divided into chapters by room. All was in pretty good order. I have new storage drawer and door units covering the full lenghth of the kneewall in the bedroom and floor to ceiling bookshelves in the quest bedroom(N's room). That is a lot of storage and I haven't completely filled them up. The book advises to put little used items into storage( nothing new) and so rather than put them in the basement, I think I will put them upstairs.

The bathroom is small, but usually pretty neat with a nice towel closet and under the sink storage. The best thing to do there is clean out outdated makeup. I don't own much in that area so it shouldn't take much effort.

My living room contains an amoire, a large closed bookcase, and a small cupboard. I would say that is sufficient storage. I couldn't fit something else in anyway. Again, it would be weeding out the books, accumulated papers, magazines, catalogues, and maybe finding some smallish baskets to put the sometimes used tapes in. I'm not much for knicknacks, but I do like to display my flower oil paintings. The book uses shelf/ledges for decorating and displaying treasures. I might think about adding another ledge to put my paintings on.

I'm always moving stuff around in the kitchen. I recently moved the plates to a drawer which is very convenient if I can remember that I put them down there and not up on the shelf in the cupboard. This idea book has great ideas for the kitchen.

The worst spot in the house is the entry. Booy, the pictures in the book are beautiful. Even the mudrooms made with kids in mind are great. I have followed the suggestions with racks to hang up coats, coatcloset dividers, and containers on the shelf to hold junk in the laundry closet. Unfortunately, the shoes are out, the slippers are out, the garbage to be taken out is out, the recycling bags are piling up, and it just isn't, as the book suggests, " a welcoming entry".

So after all of that, the book says that if you are not good at keeping things orderly in the open, you should have doors on storage. O.K., I can do that. In fact, the entry looks nice when the two closet doors are closed. Of course, all the shoes and coats look like the photos in the book when they are placed in an orderly fashion.

At any rate, I really enjoyed looking through this book. I give it a 500+ rating.

Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende is historical fiction based on the life of Ines Suarez a conquistadora who helped conquer Chile. The story is definitely amazing. Inez, in Spain, is a seamstress who marries a shiftless, but great lover, who disappears to the New World. Inez goes hunting for him and meets up with Pedro de Valdivia who goes on, with her help, to conquer Peru.

This story is about the role women played from battle to dowsing in the conquest of civilizations in S. America. Actually, very interesting even with an epic poem. Allende created a bibliography of her research while writing this book and notes that, "the feats of Inez Suarez noted by the chroniclers of her era were nearly ignored by historians for four hundred years".

One thing I didn't like(even though it has to be a major part of the book) is all of the battles. I guess it wouldn't be a conquest without them. I think I liked Daughter of Fortune better.

Friday, we were blasted with snow again. Now I know it is December and I live UpNorth, but I'm getting so I have little patience with winter like there is anything I can do about it.

But, here is/are my biggest gripe (s). I can't believe people. The snow is falling at a steady rate at high noon. The traffic is backed up at the intersections in town, the roads are ice covered, the main highway leading out of town is closed and the drivers? People don't have their lights on, their mirrors are covered with snow, and many vehicles are covered with snow so the back window is useless. Of course, let's add to the mess the people who speed around the traffic going 2 mph and are in the ditch a few miles up the way (har, they deserve it). Then there's the poor shmuck that doesn't have snowtires and is fishtailing it up the hills with a crawling line of cars behind them.

The good news is that we made it home the twenty miles safe and sound. The bad news is that our plowtruck died with one tire freezing up so Big Fred had to finish plowing the driveway with his little snowblower. Merry Christmas- we are getting a new plow for our Jeep. The old truck will be put out to pasture in the backyard after 18 years of service. So I really shouldn't gripe about that.

But, I still should do something about my bad attitude toward winter and the crazy drivers.