Not Quite Ordinary Observations

For Today...Tuesday, October 4, 2016

In the great outdoors...dry. Even the weeds are dying (I’m not complaining about that!). But, we do seem to have definitively turned the corner to fall, with highs not getting past the 80’s these days. Yay! We’re praying for rain, enjoying the cooler weather, and resting in the glad realization that the yard is not turning into a jungle overnight these days. 

Within our four walls...fresh air wafting through the house. I love when we can turn off the A/C or heater and get the fresh air!

A heart of thanksgiving...for the beautiful weather, for a week of fewer commitments, for the evidence of God’s hand in so many areas, both in our family and in others we know and love

A heart of prayer...for rain, for the Choates as they wait and trust for God’s perfect plan of provision,and for friends trying to buy homes; the strongest needs on my heart right now, though, are for several precious names on our prayer list in need of the blessing of salvation and for ministry families who are feeling an extra dose of the burdens of ministry right now.

Random observations...technology. Ah, technology. I have a love-hate relationship with it, and lately several aspects of it have decided to just not work for me, for no apparent reason. And when I go to try to fix it, all settings say it’s working properly. Go figure.

My silly children...have started teaching Cookie how to respond to the leash. He’s learned very, very quickly that the leash means the kids will take him to the front yard to play. He likes that. A lot! That also means he’s learning to “ask” for it very quickly as well. Yesterday our kids had come indoors, but he could hear other kids playing in our neighborhood, and he started fussing to go into the front yard. He doesn’t like thinking he’s missing something!! The kids are definitely all enjoying him. Olivia is doing most of the leash training. Angela loves on him, and Steven’s the playmate.

Thoughts from the kitchen...well, it’s apparently National Taco Day. Had I known that in advance, I would have planned tacos. But, instead I planned pasta e fagioli soup for today. And today is Angie’s cooking day. And I believe that soup might even supersede quiche as her all-time favorite meal! And that works just fine for the rest of us, because we all love it too, just not quite as much as Angie and Doug do (it ranks pretty high on his favorites list, too!). So, no tacos. But, we’re all good with that.

On my bookshelf...took another break from Sense and Sensibility (I’ll eventually get it done!) to read The Captive Heart, a new review book by Michelle Griep. She’s a new author for me, but I’m enjoying this one enough to check out some of her other titles. Obviously, the girl and the guy will fall in love. But, I got tired of books where that was the full extent of the plot. So, I’ve gotten picky, and I look for books where the romance is definitely a sub plot and other, less predictable factors are the main plot. This one fits the bill so far.

Projects...my desk is a mess. I have not diligently kept it clean. So, that’s project #1. Next will be finding a pattern so I can make a sweater with some really pretty sweater knit I have on hand. I’m also really trying to figure out the whole Christmas gift thing. Once I have a good idea, I’m all about getting it made. Just struggling with the ideas. 

Sounds of the moment...birds outside, keyboards clacking inside as Doug works (it’s his morning to work from home for a little while before heading to run a church errand then go to the office), Steven does his typing lesson, and I write…well, this!

From Hibbard Academy...trying to get caught up. Feels like we’ve had a couple of weeks of abnormal in school, and I’m behind on grading and reading with the kids. I think we’re almost caught up, though. Just a few more weeks and we’ll hit the time of year when it’s hardest to stay on top of all of that, so I want to be very much on track between now and then.

On the one hand, we are constantly thankful for the flexibility of homeschooling. On the other hand, we have a finite stretch of time in which we can get an adequate amount of work done for the year. Olivia definitely wants to finish her sophomore year before the summer busyness of the SBC, VBS, camp, mission trips, etc. all hit. So, we’re watching our days closely. Fortunately, we’ve seen several places where we scheduled to be off but actually haven’t had to. So, that’s been a blessing! But, we’re trying to guard very closely the days we just take off for this or that now that we have a high schooler and a middle schooler who really need to make solid progress!

A favorite thing from last week...attending the OBU pastor’s conference and working through Malachi. It was a great day from beginning to end, but my favorite part was when we pulled the kids in for the last session. They parked in the student center to do school work while we were in the conference (and it was fun to run into several friends on OBU faculty and staff who all said to let the kids know to come to them if they needed anything – I love that!). Then they played outside for a while. But, when Dr. Hays got up to do the last session (he did the first and the last while another professor took the two middle sessions), we decided to bring the kids in to listen, especially since Olivia’s Bible text for this year is one of the books Dr. Hays co-wrote. Angie enjoyed it and Steven did fine, but Olivia absolutely ate it up! She scrawled notes all over her note page. It’s fun to watch her love for studying the Word of God!

The planner...light this week, which is a blessing. Just the normal stuff of church, but otherwise we get a week to spend our evenings catching up on this and that and our Saturday taking care of the “at-home” list that we try to whittle down every time we’re home on a Saturday. It’s Doug’s first full week of school (French and German this term and next spring to prepare for full entry into the PhD program next fall), so it’s a good week to have evenings free.

Because visuals are fun...Angie finished her dress! It actually takes doubling up on her hoop skirts to give it the fullness she really wants!2016-09-30 20.09.43She also finished a special hat that Doctor Who fans will recognize. 2016-10-03 07.09.06

This has been her attire since Saturday (well, except for Sunday). Notice the slippers of choice!

2016-10-03 07.09.20

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