Monday Daybook {October 13, 2014}

Outside my window . . . .

lots and lots of rain!The sun may have been out five minutes today.

I’m thankful for . . . .

helpful attitudes from teenage boys . . . . when they appear out of no where and disappear just as they came. 

Some much needed energy! It sure has been lacking and then it kicked in when I was about ready to make a doctor appointment. I really think it was allergy attacks.

I’m thinking about . . . .

lots of stuff that needs to be done around the house. It's a little overwhelming! I recruited Scott to give me a hand next Saturday on some projects around the house.

On a similiar note, my vocation as mother and wife and this path that God has me on.

In the schoolroom . . .

It's the last week of term 1!! (out of 3 total for the year) The boys started the end of term examinations today and those will continue all week with just a small list of other assignments. Next week is a break! 

From the kitchen . . . .

I've been working hard to avoid eating out during cross country season since we don't get home until 6:30 from a meet (and we usually eat at 5:30). I had planned some fast food last week since Tyler had a scout meeting at 6:30 and he was going to eat on the drive home, but it was rained out. I think we might make this goal now!

I've been working on keeping a "pantry list" and that is going well. It still needs work. I have 7 meals planned for the season and a list of stuff I need to make them all. I just purchase from this list at the grocery store. This saves the trouble of planning out new meal ideas each week and saves me a lot of time trying to come up with a grocery list. I stock up on those items when they go on sale. I change out the meals with each season. 

I thought I would get tired of the same thing but really there is a lot of variety. We have a Mexican night every week (if not twice) and really all the dishes take the same ingredients so we usually just pick what meat we have on hand and make it into a taco casserole, tacos, nachos, or soup. That is the variety I was looking for!

I am creating . . .

schedules! I've been reading A Mother's Rule of Life and this has been very helpful in giving me ideas for the school schedule.

I'm also working to finish plans for term 2. I still need to work on morning basket and science.

I am working on . . . .

enjoying the daily grind of housework. Responding with cheeriness instead of gruffness in the trials of motherhood.

I am reading . . .

I already mentioned A Mother's Rule of Life, which I recommend you read too. I have a stack of other books I want to start and then I have a stack of the boy's books for term 2 that I need to read too. I have a lot of reading planned for the near future!

Around the house . . . .

I really would like to paint the living room (and main hallway) and kitchen/dining room. I've had samples taped to the wall since spring. I narrowed it down to 3 colors today. I took pictures off the dining room wall in August to get ready to paint. I'm really dragging my feet on this project!

We are needing to replace some doors and a window before winter hits and that is sneaking up on us too! We've been talking about it for way too long and it's time to get it done!

I put away the boys summer clothes and pulled out the winter clothes today. It was easy enough since I went through all the clothes in storage in August (to prepare for a garage sale). Tyler's was just a move around job. Caleb though has grown since August and we had to try stuff on, again. It looks like we will have a shopping date next week while on break.

Laundry! I'm not sure what happened but there is just so much laundry right now! I did five loads today and I will probably be doing 3 loads each day the rest of the week. I'm not even behind and did all the laundry as scheduled last week. Yikes!

A few plans for the week . . . .

all the project listed above. Cross Country meets! The one for today was canceled so we may have another one next week but that is the end of that. Scout meetings and other miscellaneous meetings. Looking forward to a good weekend though and plans for Scott's birthday on Sunday and Monday. Our calendar will transform after this week into something much more reasonable and we are looking forward to that.

A picture (or three) . . .

Caleb's shelfie with a sleeping cat (the cat never woke up either). That cat is spending a lot more time in the house lately. It started with an injury and now with all this rain (he thinks he has the right to come in out of the rain and I don't have the heart to disagree with him).

Tyler has been into balloon art lately. This was a hat he created.

 

This is my niece (my brother's daughter) from about three weeks ago. Tyler and I got to visit for a few hours while they came to visit family about a half hour away from us. I'll get to see her along with the rest of the family next weekend! Looking forward to this!! You can find more pictures of that visit on my sister-in-law's Facebook page under September 2014 album. You will see my Dad, Mom, Tyler, my niece and nephew, and farm life at our cousin's place.