Not Quite Ordinary Observations

For Today...Tuesday, September 18, 2012

In the great outdoors...a crisp, clear sky shining down on sparkling green and brown, wet from recent rain and waving in the brisk northerly wind. We had to close our windows after only a couple of days last week because the air became so still and humid, even though the temperatures remained in the 80’s. This morning a new cold front pushed through, and we could tell when it happened! Around 8:30 it went from muggy and still to breezy and dry in a very short amount of time. So nice!

Oh, and my children are in the great outdoors!!! To let you know what a big deal this is, you need to realize that people around here have said that they have never seen a horde of mosquitoes as profound as what we’ve seen the past few weeks. And, we live in mosquito country! Our typical feisty brown mosquitoes that were bad enough have been replaced with monstrous, vicious, black vampires that can drill through the heaviest of clothing, even thick denim or double-layered socks. Many have guessed that these monsters came up from Louisiana with the hurricane. But, wherever they came from, today they are drastically reduced! Still around, especially as the day warms, but not nearly as numerous.The kids are ecstatic, and they have been outside every moment they have not been doing school work.

Within doors…windows flung open wide. On Saturday we took an inventory of all the screens, found the ones with tears, pulled the torn screen out of the frames, and replaced it with fresh screen. So today we can open every window. Yay!

We also did some other reorganizing and minor rearranging on Saturday. We cleaned the piles of dead mosquitoes, both on the floor and in the numerous webs along the walls and ceiling, out of the garage. We also moved a few things around to make the garage more manageable. I love the results! (And yes, the skeeters were still around on Saturday, but we did manage to find some repellent that seemed to work. We doused up with this…

and we didn’t get a single bite…well, until we came inside, showered the stuff off, and began to fight the skeeters inside the house. Go figure! But, I’m convinced that stuff works for Almyra (and apparently Louisiana) mosquitoes – nothing else has!

And back to indoors…we rearranged a bit in our bedroom as well. Just a little bit. We have two closets in our room, one that we share for clothing and then a second one that housed a couple of storage tubs, all of my sewing and craft supplies, and a few other things. Meanwhile, my sewing table and some supplies shared this wall, leaving it a bit cluttered (ignore the laundry baskets of unfolded clothes, please!!). The chest was squeezed in beside the rocker and the sewing table took up a little more space than the chest is taking up. I do have nice recessed lights above the area, giving me a lot of light for sewing, but it was cramped and cluttered…now I have a relaxed reading corner, with nice lighting and lots of space!

We accomplished this by cleaning out the closet, finding new places for anything that wasn’t sewing related, and moving my sewing table into the closet. Immediately needed supplies and resources on the shelf to my right.

Other supplies to my left, and fabric on the shelves above. Oh, and the lighting is actually phenomenal in there, too. Now I have all of my sewing supplies in one place, I can hide projects easier, and our bedroom is much less cluttered. Ahhhhh!!!

And now that I’ve rambled much more than usual…

A heart of thanksgiving...for fall!

A heart of prayer...for needs within my extended family.

Random observations...I thinking I’m feeling rather verbose today. I’m sure you hadn’t noticed.

Thoughts from the kitchen...a pot of turkey rice soup, our first in months. The kids were so very excited!

And this book.

We’ve had it for a while, and we’ve heard it talked about for even longer. But I finally cracked it open just recently. The Oat Flour Bread alone (pg 104) is worth the price of this book. Oh…my…goodness! And it really is five minutes a day for fresh bread every day (well, plus resting time, but only five minutes of active prep). And mixing up a batch of dough to last a week or so only takes about fifteen minutes. Now I just need an extra fridge to store all of the doughs I want to keep made up!

On my bookshelf...halfway through Love Finds You in Victory Heights, Washington and can’t wait to get it finished! (Have I mentioned how much I love being a reviewer? I could just focus on the homeschool essentials and keep my review load way down, but it’s historical fiction – and Tricia Goyer, no less!!! It’s like icing and ice cream on the cake!) Also reading Third Grade Detectives: The Puzzle of the Pretty Pink Handkerchief, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and Water Sky to keep up with the kids’ school reading. Oh, and Olivia and I are very much enjoying her read-aloud, The House of Sixty Fathers while I’m taking a stroll down memory lane with Steven and Angie as we read Greek mythology. I loved those stories when I was their age! Yes, I think we enjoy reading!

Projects...starting on Christmas plans! I had a powwow with each of the kids this week to make their creative plans, and we have most of our ideas nailed down. I have a few up my sleeve, too. I’m getting excited!

Sounds of the moment...a child rummaging around the kitchen for a water bottle. The hums and clicks of fans around the house.

Last week we learned...about China and the Mongols, proteins, and basic geometry (Olivia); finished up Egypt, continued with what goes on underground (both of nature and of man), and a lot of math review (Steven & Angie).

A favorite thing from last week...the delight of productivity.

The planner...Angie had art class yesterday, today Olivia had an eye appointment (she’s outgrowing her current glasses, and her eyes have worsened a bit with growth, as expected), and Thursday Olivia has art class. This weekend we pull out fall clothes to see if anything fits. Yikes! Looking forward to a week off school next week, including a visit from Grandma & PopPop!

Because visuals are fun...I know I’ve shared several pictures, but here’s one more – my sweet girls and me.