Simply Monday - February 23rd

for today...

outside my window - it is sunny in the early morning light and it seems rather windy still. i do like that there are only five houses on our road so far but i sort of wish they would at least build a few around the corner as a windbreak. the wind just rolls through here and takes everything with it. last fall it got so bad one day that it picked up our gas grill and through it out into the middle of the yard...breaking it into quite a few pieces.

i am thinking - about lent starting on wednesday and what i am personally going to do, as well as what we are going to take on as a family, to make this season a holy one.

from the learning rooms - i believe we are going to do the one last week of february (wow, where did that month go?) with the same old stuff while i try to find time to read all the resources i picked up at the library on the civil war, various science topics and hands on music so that we can do some more interesting unit studies to get us through march.

i am thankful for - so many things and the way the Lord has provided them.

from the kitchen - if all goes as planned, today will bring a baked chicken for dinner with red potatoes and also a king cake to celebrate mardi gras tomorrow.

i am wearing - green and purple flowered pajamas. i am done with exercising, had a shower and breakfast and now just need to get dressed and get the rest of my day started.

i am reading - ...ok, skimming, through "tales from shakespeare" by charles and mary lamb and "the children's shakespeare" by e. nesbit to see which one i like better. i checked them both out from the library and they are due today, which means i need to make a decision. i will be using one of them with my oldest to introduce her to shakespeare. anybody have a favorite?

i am hoping - to finish two quilt blocks so i don't get labeled as "the slacker" in the virtual quilting bee. and well, that would take first cleaning off my sewing desk...so make that hope number one and move "finishing the blocks" to number two.

i am creating - a big ol' pile of boxes filled with stuff to get rid of. i did this before we moved here last january and now i'm ready to do it again. i just get tired of stuff. i want even more minimalistic order and so...it must go...for my sanity.

i am hearing - my five year old and three year old playing happily without arguing, for the moment. that is music to my ears.

around the house - there is the ever present laundry and tidying to do. it's not too bad since we had people over on friday, we weren't here on saturday and had people over yesterday. but, it needs to stay nice and clean through wednesday when the builder is coming to check on the warranty items we sent in on our one year check list.

one of my favorite things - is getting things organized into a very usable manner...and keeping them that way. now just to find the way that works for the family. that's the predicament.

a few plans for the rest of the week - a diocesan norms for weddings presentation tonight (since i cantor for them and we're a mentor couple i thought it would do me well to attend), mardi gras, mass for ash wednesday and all the other random classes and errands. then, a saturday completely free. i'm thinking the garage needs big time cleaning and that's the day to do it. :)

here is a picture thought i am sharing with you - thanks to cookie crisp for the happy morning pick me up. and just an aside, no, this is not what i eat in the morning while trying to lose massive amounts of weight. this belonged to my daughter. :)

don't forget to stop by peggy's and check out all the other daybooks. have a great day!

Simply Monday - February 16th

outside my window - i am just beginning to see the first tiny rays of daylight. it's a little later than it normally is when i'm sitting here writing this. 5am has been coming just a bit too early, so i've been lingering in bed until 5:30. i need to work on getting it back to five.

i am thinking - that i am discouraged with this whole weight loss thing. for the past month i have been exercising my brains out and consuming quite little on the caloric and carb end of things and i'm not seeing too much progress. my husband keeps urging me to go and see a doctor again but i'm afraid it's going to be more of the same, "i don't think you are trying hard enough." i don't really feel that i can try any harder. i'm exercising two times a day, seven days a week and watching every little morsel. this is nerve wracking.

from the learning rooms - i am strongly considering scaling back on everything else and just really focusing on history and science for the next month or two. i have been studying the civil war with my oldest, she really likes it and there are so many cool activities to do, books to read and places to visit. we are sorely lacking in science so i think that awhile of concentrated study could really help in that department. but can i survive an entire month of planning for hands on days....:).

i am thankful for - a husband that stands by me no matter what.

from the kitchen - i am trying to come up with new interesting things to cook that don't involve and carbs but those that come from fruits, veggies or whole grains. growing up in the midwest my cooking in the past has tended toward casserole-ish or at least combine your meat and veggies in a dish with some sort of noodle or cool typ of rice. that just doesn't work so well when you are trying to make sure you have enough protein to balance out your carbs.

i am wearing - ye ole' workout clothes. nothing too exciting today.

i am reading - the mater amabilis syllabus over and over to make sure there aren't any glaring omissions in our work this year.

i am hoping - that our car loan comes through today or tomorrow with a payment that we can handle. i know the Lord will work something out right when we need it...i'm just getting impatient after a year or more of waiting.

i am creating - still the quilt block. it's all cut out and waiting for me, it's just finding the time to get to the sewing machine. i think part of it is that i have so much stuff to do but also that i'm afraid when i get going...it's all not going to match up. but, i need to get a move on because i have another one to finish too.

i am hearing - my youngest whine about being up for the day and my oldest two playing star wars (sure it's not even 7am, but they don't seem to mind).

around the house - there is much to tidy. all weekend long the kids continued to bring things down to the living room from their bedrooms and then leave them there. the floor is clean, but good luck navigating the chair, the couch, the love seat or the bench. and of course, i can hear the laundry calling my name from down the hall. the kids haven't said they are out of underwear yet though so things are at least good for one more day.

one of my favorite things - is reading all of the nice comments that people leave for me about my daybook. i try to get around to all of those who visited me at least but sometimes that doesn't happen. thank you all for the lovely comments about my picture from last week. it's one of my recent favorites.

a few plans for the rest of the week - hopefully purchasing a van, maybe a kids day at the super market today, spanish, piano, no gymnastics this week, but we have art, irish dance, dentist for the kids.

here is a picture thought i am sharing with you -
i wish i could just hide under my bed when things started going badly. :)

don't forget to check out the other daybooks for today. have a great week! (i have to say that now because who knows if i'll get back here before next monday).

Simply Monday - February 9th

for today...

outside my window - it's still dark (that seems to be a recurring theme, darn) and not too chilly. it's not supposed to be quite as nice today as it was this weekend but hey, it's about freezing and supposed to be sunny...so i'll take it. it's actually supposed to be about sixty on wednesday. i hope all of this mud dries up by then so the kids can actually play out there without ruining their clothes in the red clay (where no grass will grow because the builder sold all of the topsoil...but i digress).

i am thinking - that it's going to be a long week. this weekend was extra busy and that never makes the week get off to a good start.

from the learning rooms - we will hopefully be picking up some more art, music and geography this week to change things up a bit. we'll see how that goes.

i am thankful for - friends that help your very mechanically challenged husband change the brakes on a car that they gave us so it will hopefully pass inspection...without paying $1,000 to the mechanic, for friends from college that make a point to stop by and see us (unfortunately just for a couple of hours) on their way back to rhode island and my husband's wonderful and giving aunt who sent me stamps and $20 to "buy the kids some fruit" (she has to be one of the most wonderful women in the world, we are really blessed with her little acts of kindness).

from the kitchen - i need to bake up my hamantaschen (if i even spelled that somewhat close to what it's supposed to be). today i am presenting to the oldest group of girls at little flowers. we are talking about initiative (i guess you don't have to possess the virtue to teach about it :)), st. margaret of scotland and esther. esther showed great initiative when she went to talk with the king and ended up saving her people. this is where the jewish fest purim comes from. so, i am taking "haman's hats" for snack time.

i am wearing - my purple striped jammies. i started this daybook after my workout and then took a brief hiatus in the middle of "from the kitchen" to shower and eat breakfast with the family. now i'm back and just not quite completely ready for the day. could i just go back to bed? :)

i am reading - a slew of snippits from different books trying to decide what our family is going to do for lent this year.

i am hoping - that we are able to purchase a van that runs well that is also within our price range this week. we went out for quite a few hours on friday and all i have to say is...salesmen. it just stresses and tires me out trying to keep up "the game face" and get the best deal. we looked at an '02 and an '04 honda odyssey that we really liked (but the salesman didn't seem willing to budge), an '05 chrysler town and country (that the salesman seemed willing to do quite alot of wheelin' and dealin') and an '07 toyota sienna (that i think i must have slobbered on with delight but seems to be way out of the price comfort zone). anybody have any thoughts? do you have a van you really like? i have heard that the siennas run like nobody's business but their price tag is also rather hefty.

i am creating - a menu plan for the week and a quilt block for the virtual quilting bee. michele, i promise it will be there soon...maybe not really soon...but soon. :)

i am hearing - the satellite radio on some kid's channel (my dad got our family this for christmas and my kids love the children's station...my husband and i love the 80's first wave station, but anywho...) and sounds coming up through the heating vents of my oldest practicing piano in the basement.

around the house - it's surprisingly tidy around here since we had company for a bit this weekend.

one of my favorite things - is checking off "to-do" lists. i can't say i get much accomplished around here but when i do i make sure to scratch it off the list with a really nice pen and much gusto.

a few plans for the rest of the week - presenting at little flowers this afternoon, i think i'll go to our parish mom's group tomorrow since spanish and piano are not meeting this week and then sing for praise and worship that night, wednesday i am watching our friend's little boy so they can lay some flooring, thursday is gymnastics and dance and friday is nature study and a valentines party with the homeschool group. oh, and on saturday we are hoping to take a trip to nearby gettysburg to give our oldest a visual on some things we have been studying in history.

here is a picture thought i am sharing with you - our youngest marveling at the new kinex exhibit at a local hands on science museum.

have a wonderful day make sure to stop by the other daybooks. have a great monday!

It Missed Us

last night our weather was clear, not a flake in the sky. but just a few miles to our east...and also to our south come to find out...it looked like this. i guess in some places the snow was coming down at a rate of two inches per hour. of course, it's always nice when you don't get severe weather but, we are without a car today and this would have kept the kids occupied rather nicely. oh well. have a wonderful wednesday, wherever you may be and whatever the weather.

Who Would Have Thunk It?

well, i certainly didn't when i set out this morning to celebrate the feast of the presentation (candlemas) and groundhog's day. but bless The Lord is His great and unbridled mercy to me...there is a connection. you see, we watched this movie and i highly recommend it. in addition to all of the great 1980's sky high bangs, mullets and quiet riot t-shirts, it does a great job of telling all about the town of punxsutawney and how they became so famous for groundhogs telling the weather. in the 18th century german immigrants, commonly referred to around here as pa dutch brought this tradition to pennsylvania and the town of punxsutawney. in germany they had used the badger as their weather predictor. but since badgers were in short supply in their new home they assigned the duty to the plentiful groundhog. and all of this happened, you guessed it, on candlemas because "if candlemas be fair and bright, winter has another flight. if candlemas brings clouds and rain, winter will not come again." in other words, if it's sunny...he sees his shadow...and if it's not...well, you get it. so we had fun celebrating candlemas and groundhog's day that flowed out of this holy day. we made candle cookies out of pepperidge farms cookies with some red fruit roll up for the flamelike i saw over at catholic cuisine. and we made groundhogs
that "pop" out of their burrows.

overall, a great, very informative and enjoyable...yet very low key day. and those are the kind i love! :)

Simply Monday - February 2nd

outside my window - it's sunny and clear. i'm not sure of the temp but it's most definitely brisk...and can't possibly compare to our lovely weather yesterday. they say we are supposed to have snow showers this afternoon.

i am thinking - that i can' believe it's february already. where did january go? and december for that matter? but, i guess that's good because that means i've gotten over one month of the winter blahs pretty much unscathed with only two (or three, depending on the good ol' weather) months to go.

from the learning rooms - i am trying to figure out what we will be done with in the next week or so in order to size up the holes that will be left to insert fun things like sewing, more hands on science, music and art. my hope is that this transition of material will help us to get through the previously referred to few "blah" months left.

i am thankful for - friends of ours who gave us an old car they had sitting in their garage. it won't go through inspection until the end of this week, so we aren't out of the woods yet, but at least we are getting there. it's amazing to know my husband is at work and that i still have a car to go to the grocery store. :)

from the kitchen - not much except a boatload of fruits and veggies i bought at costco yesterday. my kids were excited to see the ten pound bag of apples come through the door. i was happy that they cost less than eight bucks.

i am wearing - striped knit long sleeve shirt, jeans and slippers. nothing too exciting.

i am reading - still the stuff on insulin resistance. rereading and rereading.

i am hoping - that everyone is finally on the mend from the nasty respiratory thing we had pretty much all of last week. i know my husband and i are much better but i'm afraid my poor little boy with the dark puffy circles under his eyes who is coughing his head off is not.

i am creating - a bit of a unit for today on groundhog day. i picked up a quick movie and a book from the library. we will be making a craft this afternoon.

i am hearing - coughing and the rustling of star wars figures from down the hall, the washing machine and a certain somebody asking me if they can play instead of doing their writing assignment...uh, no.

around the house - arrgh, the laundry. the first load is in and i think there will be about three or four following close behind. today is one of my usual laundry days so there is usually two loads but i just couldn't function last week with the respiratory thing so the others didn't get done on thursday. oh well, at least we will be home all day so i can get them done. will they all get folded? yeah, right.

one of my favorite things - is being able to breathe through my nose. you don't know how good you have it until you can't.

a few plans for the rest of the week - spanish and piano, band rehearsal, gymnastics and dance. oh, and an extra dance inserted on tuesday. can't forget that.

here is a picture thought i am sharing with you -after playing in the snow, nothing feels quite as good as a warm blanket. ok, hot chocolate possibly...but the blanket is alot easier for me to clean up. :)

make sure to stop by peggy's to take a gander at all the other day book entries.

The Mostest Awesomest Recipe Ever!

well, as i think i have shared a little bit, i am trying to lose weight and battling out of whack hormones and insulin resistance. in reading i have been doing there has been much talk about how important it is to "link" all of your carbs with the appropriate amount of protein so as not to cause your body to go into the "carbo crazies." ok. that's a term i just made up, off the cuff, right here, right now. but, that's what it feels like. it takes over your body and screws everything up. i'm not eliminating all carbs. i'm just trying to eat the ones that come as close to their natural state as possible. you know, whole grains, veggies, fruits...and the occasional pita chip (i'm addicted). i'm not quite adjusted to...or excited about eating like this for the rest of my life but this recipe did quite alot to help me change my mind. you see. every saturday night since who knows when my family has been having pizza. it's quite the volpe tradition. but, with the whole carb thing i can have one half of a piece of pizza and still stay balanced. whoopty doo. so, in an effort to find a lower carb alternative i found a recipe for low carb, no flour pizza. this is definitely a keeper. i'll warn you, the texture is a bit more like lasagna. but, the taste is definitely pizza and is phenomenal. i firmly believe that if your kids don't do veggies, they would do this...as long as they don't see you assembling it. i topped mine with low fat ground beef, plain tomato sauce (not all the added sugar), mushrooms, more mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, a few more mushrooms and some mozzarella. wow. yummy. that's all i have to say. i couldn't wait to have some of the leftovers for lunch today. go. try it now. let me know what you think. i don't think you'll be disappointed.