Not Quite Ordinary Observations

For Today...Tuesday, November 18, 2014

In the great outdoors...beautiful, wonderful, invigorating COLD! (Okay, so it’s so wonderful because I like winter but I get to enjoy it from the comfort of my warm house. Yes, I’m spoiled.)

Within our four walls...a renewed dedication to getting up and going in the morning with diligent exercise. Ugh. (We WILL feel better. We WILL feel better. We WILL feel better…if we just go back to bed. Oh, wait.)

A heart of thanksgiving...for my incredible husband and precious children. For the cold. For a working heater. For the sewing machine sitting beside me and the inspiration to sew that hit me last week. For a real week off from school next week. (It’s been a while since we’ve had time off that hasn’t been tied up with something.)

A heart of prayer...it seems there are continually health and relationship needs all around me (and right here with me). There is need for wisdom. There is need for clarity of mind and open hearts. And I know I’m being vague – we can always pray for these things. But in this moment I can think of specific ways to pray these prayers over a dozen people – and more come to mind with every word I type. Oh, the needs are so real. Will I be diligent to pray?

Random observations...growth spurts. Angie has officially hit her big pre-teen one. Big time. She could potentially catch her Aunt Alli by Christmas. This is her first height goal. Her second will be to pass her mommy.

My silly children...are pinging. They have been for a couple of weeks. Now I realize why it is that people in the north hate the winter so much. It has nothing to do with the cold, really. It has to do with the children who cannot be sent outside to work off the massive amount of energy pent up inside them. But, we don’t really want to grow calloused toward our sweet children, now do we? So, we determine instead that we hate the cold. I could see that happening to me, too. Yes, even cold-loving and heat-hating me. But I still love winter.

Thoughts from the kitchen...today will be Spicy Orange Chicken, a Chinese dish. With Angie’s help. Yum! Almost makes me excited about cooking. Almost.

On my bookshelf...oh yeah, I did plan to be reading. Oops! I started sewing instead.

Projects...I have the cutest projects going on! But, I can’t show you yet. Not until after Christmas. All I can do is share pictures of the first few stacks of fabric. Think maybe I’m doing some girly sewing first? I’m still waiting for a couple of notions for the project, so I’m not 100% if my idea (I would choose a project without a pattern!) will work. But, it looks promising! And cute!

Sounds of the moment...quiet. The kids are finishing chores. There is music in the background and the tapping of keyboards. But otherwise, it’s just quite. For now. The pinging will resume as soon as chores are done, I’m sure.

From Hibbard Academy...conversions for Olivia. Thanks to Steve Demme and Math-U-See, I now can remember how to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius and back again. In fact, I can now do it in my head. It’s amazing!

A favorite thing from last week...the freedom to spend Saturday indoors because all of the yard work was done.

The planner...busy week. Doug has a meeting tonight, and I will hopefully dig either into writing or sewing while he’s gone. Church tomorrow night, providing a meal and childcare for a foster parent meeting on Thursday, and our Hibbard Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday.

Because visuals are fun...Let’s see. Should I share this one?

All ready to hunt…or maybe not QUITE all ready.

Or this one…cowgirl keeping warm on a cold day (even though there is a heater right under her – I think she just wanted the coziness).

Or maybe even this…learning to use flint and steel to light a fire.

Happy Tuesday!