Simple Woman's Daybook

For today ... Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Outside my window ... I see some cloud cover. Will we get the rain that is predicted?

I am thinking ... about my baby brother whose 36th birthday is today. Wasn't HE just 10?

I am thankful ... that we did not move Dawson into a dorm room this week but that, instead, he will be attending a local community college and living at home for the next several years.

I am wearing ... my pjs (Girls on the Run 5K t-shirt and striped pj shorts).

I am creating ... a purged basement! Yes, I am finally doing it, with the help and motivation of my mom. Yesterday we cleaned out all of the toys we have accumulated over the past 15 years or so. Ten trash bags of junk and six cardboard boxes of items to donate to our church's garage sale and we have a totally revamped one half of the basement. (I have plans for that empty space!) We are working on the other side of the basement today, and it is not nearly as daunting a task.

I am going ... to have additional scans of one of my breasts today. This one always produces questionable results in the routine mammogram. Hoping for a good report.

I am wondering ... what week we will get to go to Florida. We are waiting for the volleyball schedule to finalize our plans.

I am reading ... Grange House by Sarah Blake.

I am hoping ... that Kyndal feels better today. She's ready to be done with the pain and discomfort from her wisdom teeth extraction.

I am learning ... that too much activity in my life causes me to isolate myself from my relationships. I get so worn out that all I want to do is spend my free time alone! I know this, of course, but don't take the necessary steps to avoid it. Sometimes lots of activity is unavoidable. There are just those times in our lives. Let's just say that I am glad to be out of one of those times so I can have the energy to concentrate on my relationships with my husband and family.

In my garden ... Last week I spent two afternoons cleaning out my gardening area. I pulled tons of weeds out of the mulch surrounding my raised beds and cleaned up my beds. Then I got out the tree trimmers and trimmed back some shading branches and unwanted vines and pokeberry bushes. It looks so great now!!

In my kitchen ... some changes are getting ready to be made. Well, really in the dining nook portion of the kitchen at our back door. Right now it is the back entryway where we have a table and baskets. It's our dump-everything-off area. We are making moves for Rick to work from home half the time so that he is in Missouri as much as he is in Oklahoma. But he needs a dedicated place to work during those weeks he is home. We are cleaning out the nook area and turning it into a small office for him. It will give him the privacy he needs during the day, gives us the room we need for schooling, but allows us to all be home together.

In the homeschool room ... the countdown to the first day of the new year is approaching. In the meantime the kids are taking some much-needed time off and just concentrating on some reading every day.

A favorite quote for today ... "Realizing that this is more about how they learn, than it is about how I teach ...." Shawna at Not the Former Things.

A peek into one of my days ... 

I took Dawson to a doctor's appointment yesterday and we stopped in Hastings
afterward. He was in heaven, and came out with another beanie. He has a
beanie fetish.

One of my favorite things ... Saturdays and Sundays with nothing to do. I enjoy fixing meals for the whole family, watching recorded tv shows and movies, and taking naps.

From the board room ... Still working on lesson plans for our enrichment class, so pinning gardening ideas and activities. I came across this chart that tells which crops are not good planted together. Thought I might put together a lesson about good and bad friendships.

Post Script ... "How to Get the Laundry Done and Not Hate Your Life", again by Shawna at Not the Former Things. Oh, I am totally doing this!!! I haven't worked out all the planning details yet (it may have to actually be a lunch hour activity to get it fit in consistently), but I am going to do a load of laundry each of those days and escape to my bedroom for an episode of Gilmore Girls while I am folding and then a little 15 minute power nap. What a great idea!