Friday Browsing

These dishes are gorgeous! My birthday is coming up... :) Why oh why do I love dishes so much?

Keeping a Visual Journal Someday I'll show you pictures of mine.

Currently Reading It came today and I can't wait to dive in!

1 Hour Bag Tutorial

If you can't go to the museum you can at least browse their website.

And just to show you that anyone can make jewelry, here is a picture of the necklace that I made last week.

Spring Cleaning

Do you do a big Spring Cleaning or do you just deep clean as you go along? I usually focus on one room as I can find the time (preferably when the sun is shining).

I've been working here and there as I get a chance on my kitchen. I've been in checklist mode lately so I thought I would share my list with you. :) These are not in a particular order.

* Dust ceilings and corners of walls
* wipe down walls and touch up paint where needed
* clean baseboards
* dust and clean all wall art and pictures
* dust and clean light fixtures
* clean blinds and windows
* clean oven and top of stove including knobs and those thingies under the burners. (what are those called?)
* clean refrigerator and toss anything that's gross
* take everything off counters and clean
* clean toaster, microwave and other small appliances
* wipe down kitchen cabinets
* Clean out drawers
* dust and clean all decorative items on top of upper cabinets
* sweep and mop floor
* wash trash can
* sort pantry, wipe down shelves, and throw away anything expired

I won't be getting all these done at once (it may take weeks), but the important thing is that my list will eventually all be checked off.

Good Morning!

Mornings are always a little hectic around here. The kids are at two different schools, and the method for getting them all to school varies depending on the day of the week. Sometimes I take them, sometimes Mike takes them and sometimes they ride with the carpool. Everyone is waking up with an alarm clock now though, which helps tremendously.

I recently printed off a school night checklist to help our mornings go more smoothly. The more we can get done the night before the better. The checklist is mostly for the girls (Bobby is in high school and pretty much has his mornings under control) and I hung it up on the back of their bedroom door.

Here's our checklist:
*Brush teeth
*Pick out clothes for tomorrow
*Make lunch for tomorrow if you aren't eating a school lunch
*Gather homework, backpack, tennis racket, band instrument, etc. and place by the front door
*Clean up and put away
*Put on PJs

Now all I have to do is ask them if they've finished the checklist instead of asking about each of these things individually. This is especially working well for Cindy because she loves any sort of checklist.

You're probably all so much more organized than I am and have had this sort of thing in place for years, but maybe this will be helpful to someone like me who takes a little while to think of the obvious. ;)

Reading the Bible

The Bible offers so much wisdom and has helped me be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. I would not have survived 24 years of motherhood without it. :)I struggle with worry, weariness, anger...so many things that the Bible has answers for.

To make it easier for me to spend time reading the Bible, I have learned a few tricks over the years.

* I keep a notepad nearby so that when those distracting thoughts of things I need to do that day or items I need to pick up at the grocery store come up I can just write them down and move on.
* Play some music. Having classical or jazz music playing softly in the background helps me to concentrate.
* Have a favorite drink nearby. If it's early morning I like to have a cup of coffee while I read.
* Keep the Bible nearby. Obviously you'll be more likely to read it if it's handy. I have one on my bedside table, one near my favorite chair in the living room and I also have a small paperback copy of The Message that I carry around with me. I can read while I'm waiting for the kids to finish with after school activities or while I'm waiting in the drive through line at the bank.

Love,

Be Mine

Do you have big plans for Valentine's Day? We're not the type to spend lots of money, but that doesn't mean we let the day go unrecognized. We'll probably go to the bookstore and browse through the books with a cup of coffee. That's something we both enjoy but don't do as often as we would like. Maybe we'll watch "our" movie (Casablanca). I made a card for Mike and I'll probably get him some little useful something to go along with it.

Yes, Valentine's Day can be overly commercialized and tacky, but it's always good to be reminded to be sweet to your sweetheart! Even if, or maybe especially if, you've been sweethearts for 20 years or more! :)

Simple Joys

Telling a clean joke.

Taking a nature walk

Reading a favorite Psalm.

Playing a board game with your family.

Reading a good book. (I'm currently reading this and I love it! In a way it reminds me of the Mitford series because the town is such a big part of the book.)

Writing in a journal

Folding clothes warm from the dryer.

Watching old home movies.

Talking at the table after supper is over.

Dreaming of Spring

I can't wait for some sunshine and flowers! We've been flipping through the garden catalogs and trying to decide what we want to plant this year. I'm sure we'll have tomatoes and peppers like we did last year, and maybe we'll expand our garden area a little to make room for more variety. I would also love to plant another couple of rose bushes and maybe a grape vine. Our old house had two grape vines and we loved them, even though I made the mistake of spending hours (and lots of sugar) making jelly only to have it never jell. I think the grapes were too ripe...lesson learned.

I'm looking at these pictures from last year with freezing fog outside my windows...sigh. I have to remind myself that Spring is just around the corner!


"For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers have already appeared in the land;
The time has arrived for pruning the vines,
And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along! "
Song 2:11-13 (NASB)

Sometimes You Get What You Pay For

This has been the wettest and coldest winter that we've had in years and because I tend to buy whatever is cheapest I bought my umbrella at the dollar store. The slightest gust of wind turns it inside out, it's not very big and it's already coming apart. There's no point in having an umbrella if it doesn't keep the rain off.

So I guess I'm going to have to spend a little money to get something that really works. I'm thinking about this one because it looks like it would be easy to carry around and seems much more sturdy than what I have. I would love some recommendations from those of you who actually have to carry umbrellas on a regular basis. What do you look for in an umbrella?

My Poor Husband

As most of you know, or could probably guess, I love "I Love Lucy"! That sounds a little weird doesn't it? Maybe I should just say I Love Lucy? Anyway, you know what I mean.

Last night, after a long, cold, wet day I needed a laugh, so I started watching Lucy on Youtube. I got SO tickled that the kids had to come over and see what I was watching. Pretty soon we were all laughing. Then we decided Mike needed a laugh too, so we all plop down next to him and start showing him Lucy videos even though he's in the middle of some action packed, testosterone fest of a guy movie. Bless his heart, he turned down the volume and watched with us. Isn't that sweet?

And now that you're here, you want to watch Lucy with me too don't you?

It's Still Winter Isn't It?

Meatball stew in the crock-pot (notice the liner...I love them).

Trying to decide if I'm too old (and fat) to wear my jeans tucked into my boots.

Chicken and Noodles

I made The Pioneer Woman's homemade chicken and noodles Saturday night and they were delicious! Just the thing for a cold winter weekend spent mostly indoors.

I did have to venture out to buy groceries on Saturday with everybody else in town (I could hardly get my basket down the aisle), but other than that we had a nice weekend. How was your weekend?