House of Yoko~Home of the Elusive Moonflower: In One Accordance

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself." ~ Maya Angelou

This past week has been nice. I've managed to get quite a few things accomplished and under control. I have 3/4's of my bedroom uncluttered, the last hold outs are the bottom of the closet, and the small bookshelf. After I accomplish these last 2 trouble spots then I can do a final uncluttering purge, then clean, and paint the room. I'm wanting burgundy colored walls, cream color for the door, window trim and ceiling, wooden floors, and a border between the walls and ceiling that is antique looking, and has dark green, burgundy, cream and yellow in it. I'll have pale light yellow lace curtains for the window, since I no longer work nights I don't have to keep the light out during the day, and I do LOVE light. In celebration of all of my hard work I'm gifting myself with some sort of beautiful antique lamp. As my dogs had an incident a while back resulting in part of the glass globe missing on my current lamp and a new fancy bedding set. It will be quite lovely when I'm done.

This past week I have been able to catch up on a lot of paperwork and start delving into my various projects. For instance, instead of going to a local thrift store for work shirts and some more clothing for my little girl I asked a friend who is a frequent shopper there if she would keep an eye for those items for me and I would reimburse her the cost. Altogether a smart idea as I'm still learning how to resist temptation, just because a person COULD do something, doesn't mean that they will have the time or energy to do EVERYTHING. A person has to pick and choose the things to invest their finite amount of time and energy in.
I also used one of my days off to putter around the house, uncluttering and chipping away at my to do list, and having a Spa day. My little girl and I painted our nails. Mine were just my toenails as long painted fingernails in the field I work are impractical and a hazard. My Moonflowers are also thriving; I think I'm going to have to repot again, very shortly, at their current growth rate.

I also realized that I should probably give a better description of where I live. I live in a tiny county in Oregon called Wallowa County. For people that are unfamiliar with U.S. History, when settlers moved West in the 1800's they crossed on a trail that is known as the Oregon Trail. The county that I live in is also called "little Switzerland" given our mountains and harsh climate. In the Summer we have HOT dry heat 80-105 F during the day, 40-70 at night. In the Winter we have COLD temperatures anywhere from -20 to 50 F. The weather has quite abrupt mood swings here. We usually have active snow from late October or November through March. From September through May or Memorial day there is an active chance of snow. The blizzard on July 4th back in the 1970's still provokes comments when the topic of weather is brought up. Every January there is a dog sled race that is a qualifying race for the Iditarod dog sled race up in Alaska. Due to the differences of elevation in the mountains and the valleys between them there is quite a drastic climate change. A friend of mine grew up in Imnaha, one of the lowest elevations in the county and her parents were able to grow Avocados at their house, due to no snow, lots of rain, and warm to HOT weather year round. At some of the highest elevations in the County 4-wheel drive is required, a lot of times with chains or studs, and snowmobiles and skiing are an active part of the community. Road closures during the Winter are not uncommon. Below are some beautiful pictures I have taken of the Valley in its' different moods, on my various journeys.