The Simple Woman's Daybook ::: Sept 1

Do visit Peggy's to see all the other daybook posts this week!

FOR TODAY

Outside my Window ... a sunny beautiful Labor Day!

I am thinking ... that Labor Day creeps up on me every year. (I think it's because it's one of those floating holidays without a set day, i.e., December 25, February 14, etc.) It's always a fun surprise to remember that we have a long weekend with Travis all of a sudden!

I am thankful for ... our relaxing Sunday yesterday. My folks came over for lunch after church. After they left, the little girls and I took naps; when everyone woke up we took our bikes over to the park and played for a bit. It was a refreshing day after being on the run for most of Saturday. (Not that Saturday wasn't a great day, too, but it wasn't as conducive to relaxing!)

From the kitchen ... massive menu list and our main once-a-month grocery store run last week so I am excited about that. (I may post that later if I get time). Today will probably be sandwiches and leftovers for lunch and the plan is to grill hamburgers tonight. Provided I get out and buy hamburger buns today. There is always something that I leave off the list! :)

I am creating ... joining in on Shimelle's Learn Something New class (more info here). I did this one last year, so since I'm alumni, I can take it again for free. Who knows what I'll create, but I love the inspiration and prompts that fill my in box for a month. :)

I am going ... to buy hamburger buns today. :) And, if time and husband permits, I'm going to sneak off to Target and do a little perusing and shopping for an upcoming birthday event we have in about a month.

I am wearing ... my jammies! Must. get. dressed. :)

I am reading ... Just finished The Willoughby's by Lois Lowry last night. Cute story. I started Harlen Coben's The Woods and had to put it down last night only because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. Also reading Elizabeth Foss's Real Learning.

I am hoping ... to get invitations for a baby shower in the mail this week. At the top of my to-do list!

I am hearing ... munchkins playing and chattering.

Around the house ... the big girls are coloring at the kitchen table and E is playing at my feet. T is in his office working on his seminary class homework - he's taking Greek!

One of my favorite things ... putting a new month of pages in my calendar.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week ... I'm working on implementing our fall schedule this week. This is my game plan for using less gas, consolidating errands, and being more frugal with our time and money. (Lofty goals! LOL) The gist is that I try and do any and all errands on Tuesdays. We generally get out on Tuesdays and eat lunch with my Mom and sister and N1 also has dance on Tuesday afternoons. I'm going to try and keep my errands to those afternoons when I'm out and it would be a wasted trip to come back home to just turn around and leave again. Any errands that don't get run at that time will be done on Wednesday evenings while T and N1 are at Awana at church (and eventually N2 starting in January after she turns 3). This means I need to be more organized about what we really need, what T can pick up on his way home from work if it fits, and hopefully have more time at home. I know there will be days where we will get out to do some fun things (like the zoo or the park) but I want those trips out to JUST be for fun, and not tacking on errands every time we walk out the door.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...



Doing school work together ... T is working on Greek and N1 trying her hand at it. :)

Friday Felicities ::: August 29

Things that make me happy.

• flowers from Travis ... just because

• being done with grocery shopping!


• pepper jack cheese


• twitter


• connecting with old friends of Facebook (I was found by a friend from high school today, and several dear friends that I used to go to church with recently!)


• watching this one grow up ... when did she get so big?

(She's on the phone with a dear woman from church who offers to come over and watch the munchkins every so often.) :)

It's late in the day, but there's still time to link over at Becky's!

Monkey Bread

This is not low-fat. :)

4 tubes of buttermilk buscuits, cut each biscuit into 4 pieces (with scissors)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 stick oleo (butter)
1 cup brown sugar

Take all 4 tubes of buttermilk buscuits, cut each biscuit into 4 pieces (with scissors). Coat each piece with a mixture of 1 cup sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Stack in greased bundt pan (spray is okay). Melt 1 stick oleo and one cup brown sugar. Pour over chunks. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Turn out of pan at once.

Devour, licking lips repeatedly.

'Tis the Season

• dance started back up yesterday for the oldest (as did my exercise at keeping the littlest two occupied and out of trouble for that hour)


• Awana starts up in about a week!


• my husband steps in to some new responsibilities at church with our community outreach and tutoring program


• and also starts his seminary course for this fall


• women's Bible studies kick off in about two weeks


• trying to figure out a new daily routine ~ where Noelle gets a little one-on-one time to do some pre-K and the others are into mischief


• scheduling dentist appointments and dr. check-ups for some


• trying to find the balance in the "want-to's" and the "need-to's" that make up my day


• re-prioritizing a few things ... things that I want to do are getting the back burner because I spend too much time frittering away at other things. Changes need to be made.

And a fun picture, just because:

What's on Your Nightstand ::: August

This month I stumbled upon a WONDERFUL treasure in the children's department of our local library ... Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson. I grew up with Anne as I know so many did. She was a kindred spirit of mine as soon as understood what the term meant and my books have been read ... and read ... and reread ... and I am thoroughly looking forward to presenting my 10-year-old niece with her own set of the books in the near future.

This book tells the story from the beginning. It starts at the marriage of Walter & Bertha Shirley (Anne's parents) and concludes as Anne is arriving at the station house at Bright River ready to step into the lives of Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. You meet Mrs. Thomas who took her from the first after her parents' deaths and also Mrs. Hammond (who had twins three times in succession!)

I enjoyed this book. I did have to remind myself that it was NOT written by L.M. Montgomery. It is missing that spark that is in an L.M. Montgomery book that makes it magical, whether you are reading about Anne, Jane of Lantern Hill, the Story Girl, or Emily of New Moon. That said, I think Ms. Wilson did a good job capturing the flavor of Anne's personality and spirit, so that makes the book very believable and enjoyable for me. If you are a kindred spirit of Anne Shirley and have not stumbled upon this book, I would encourage you to add it to your nightstand. I know I'll be looking to add my own copy to my home library shelves soon.

To find out what is on other nightstands around the blogworld, head on over to Five Minutes for Books!

The Simple Woman's Daybook ::: August 25

Do visit Peggy's to see all the other daybook posts this week!

FOR TODAY

Outside my Window ... steamy warm weather. Rain is in the forecast and I wouldn't be upset for a reason to hunker down inside with books and munchkins.

I am thinking ... that I have an enormous amount of printing this week to do for church.

I am thankful for ... the fact that my children all finally sleep through the night, consistently! This has been a loooong road, and there are exceptions, but I am getting at least 7 hours every night in a row for the first time in several years. It is good.

From the kitchen ... lunch was grilled cheese, applesauce and a few chips. Dinner tonight will be potato soup, I think.

I am creating ... lots of little forms / postcards / handouts for church. With everything kicking off for the Fall in the next two weeks, it's been busy.

I am going ... no where today. :)

I am wearing ... baby blue knit (athletic-y) pants and a white t-shirt. My mommy-uniform when I am going to be doing lots of cleaning and laundry.

I am reading ... The Bride Bargain, The Willoughbys, and rereading Elizabeth Foss' Education in the Heart of My Home.

I am hoping ... my friends Lauren and Christina have their babies very soon!

I am hearing ... the washing machine and dryer running.

Around the house ... major purging in the girls' room in the last week. My 2yo and 15mo have entirely toooooo many clothes. I will say - I do think that having several extra dresses in 2T/3T are very handy when potty-training. We do lots of dresses these days for N2 because she can manuever in the bathroom easier than with shorts or pants on. However, and don't think that I am not EXTREMELY thankful, we get LOTS of hand-me-downs, and I need to be more ruthless on just keeping what we need and not everything. Their room and clothes are already looking so much more manageable and cleaned out and I have a huge pile of wonderful little girl clothes to take to Goodwill.

One of my favorite things ... Mondays. Fresh week. Fresh plans. Fresh goals. And lots of clean laundry.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week ... Tomorrow is N1's first dance class of this year and she is EXCITED!!!! She is taking the 4/5yo ballet/jazz/tap class and is giddy with the thought of making loud noises on the floor with her new tap shoes. They are very loud. That is all I will say about that. We are also grabbing a quick bite on Wednesday night with some friends that are flying through town as they move to a new city and job. Thankful that they are coming this way. Those are the big weekly events - the family has been invited to a lakeside birthday party on Saturday; Travis and I also get to go out to dinner on Saturday sans munchkins. There are several couples in our church that all have August anniversaries so my sister organized a night for us all to go out to eat and celebrate our anniversaries together.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...


My Mom (Grandma) with 4 of the 5 grandkids. E spent the afternoon with Grandpa while we all went and saw the Backyardigans Live show on Saturday!!

Friday Felicities ::: August 22

Things that make me happy:

• friends that are coming to town for a quick visit


• buying new coloring books at the Dollar Store


• sitting outside on the deck and reading and watching my munchkins play


• Diet Coke!


• a quick morning trip to the zoo


• hearing my littlest one say "luuuuuu uuuuu" (love you)

Link up your Felicities over at Becky's!

Posting ... or a lack thereof

I've tried to start my Daybook entry several times this week, but just haven't had the time (or the focus) to get at it. Things have been hoppin' over here in our little world and not enough hours. :) So, of course this must be summarized by a bullet-point list.

• potty-training. Still working on this with my #2 girl. Part of it is going really well and part ... not so much. However, the promise of a brand-new Dora nightgown has been revived and reminded and there has been renewed enthusiasm and effort. On tap today is to make a little chart for the wall so she and Daddy can check it off each evening. My girls are all about checking off the chart.


• our women's Bible studies at church are kicking off in about 1 month so every free moment on the computer has been spent doing proofreading and layout design for one of the studies. (If you are a local and interested in an expository Bible study for women, I cannot speak highly enough about our women's coordinator. I would love to give you details about it!) This fall we are going to walk through 1 Peter. As I emailed our women's coordinator when I sent her back some proofs last night, it's not really fair that I get to see all these study sheets because now I wish our study started this week instead in another month - it's going to be good (and hard!) I am looking forward to the challenge ... once we get them all proofed, finalized and printed (the next project).


• pre-K is still going well with N1. We hit a wall with our Olympic lapbook last week, but the beauty of homeschooling? We just left it there and have moved on! (It was a VERY cool lapbook, but the concepts - Olympic oath, the olive branch wreath the athletes wore - a bit much for her). This week is all about FARMS and very fun. We are reading farm books from the library and will hopefully go to the zoo on Friday and visit the farm there (if we aren't rained out). We've also started our first chapter book, Farmer Boy, and the girls play and draw while I read.

Anyway, there's more, but I have about 30 minutes before the girls are out of their beds (I've put a clock in their room and they are to stay in their bed until they see the "7" - a huge help to me!) Back to work before they appear and hopefully I'll be checking back in soon. :)

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things that are in this pile on my desk...

• a cookbook that I bought at the library sale today - "Our Favorite Casseroles - Favorites from Home Economic Teachers." How cool does this sound??


• a postcard from Lee Company saying that it's time for our bi-annual a/c / heating service call. (Didn't we just do this?)


• Isolation by Travis Thrasher ... to review.


• a sales flyer from Joann's


• a free issue of Memory Makers that came in the mail today


• postcards for our church's 20th anniversary homecoming celebration that need to go in the mail this week.


• an old picture of the girls


• old letters that I cleaned out of a cedar chest.


• two cards that I received from students when I worked at an elementary school. I need to scan them in and share them ... they are precious to me. :)


• graduation cards that I *blushes* never sent.


• the Managers of Their Home book ... I've read this. Now I just need to put some of it in practice.


• E's birth certificate info that I need to put back in her file.


• Look at that! There were only twelve "catagories" of things in that pile. Better than I expected. :)

Big Words

One of those all important words and getting it on video for the first time. :)

Friday Felicities ::: August 15

Things that make me happy...

• coffee (and I notice this is a staple on many a Friday Felicity list!) :)


• staying home all day on a Friday and just being


• organizing and shuffling to make things work better


• a plan for doing Bible consistently (and making it fun) for my big girl


• writing with pen and paper


• my job for my church - it's been busy this week and will probably stay that way for several months with new projects and events, but I love it

Link up over at Becky's and tell us what makes YOU happy today. :)