Bloggy love

This girl is amazing...another genius homeschool entrepreneur, only she's also got a ton of style...and she's giving away a cute headband!

I am going to make this with Sweet A some snowy afternoon...

Easier

Well, as any organizational guru would tell us, the more we maintain habits, the easier they get! Habitual, you might even say.

Did you know you can pan fry meatloaf if you accidentally turn the oven off? And I think I may even prefer it that way, with all the crispy edges. My favorite meatloaf recipe is 1 lb. ground beef, 1/3 lb. ground sausage, 1 cup of dried bread or cornbread, with sage, italian seasoning, and garlic salt (or you can use a cup of pepperidge farm stuffing and skip the bread and spices), recipe credit G.B.

Well, my family and I have been sugar-free all this month (with the exception of a couple family birthday parties and our weekend at home) and it has been a very good experiment. I have an unfair advantage in that it makes me sick to eat any kind of treat, but we are in this together and even my husband has done well. Although we did make the exception that he needed only be sugar-free in our presence. But he's around a lot so I still think of it as an accomplishment on his part. As for me, I'm learning to love savory foods, and plan to make these for my next special occasion. And if you love peanut butter and chocolate, you have to try these gluten-free brownies from the Spunky Coconut. I've been making them every week and they are mostly protein/fat, so it's a guilt-free food as far as I'm concerned.

And speaking of Valentine's Day decorations, I caved today and made a coffee filter wreath. Even though it was one of the Top 10 Decorating Trends of 2010, and if you've ever met me you KNOW I'm not trendy. But I had a 75 cent thrifted wreath on hand, and a pack of coffee filters were only $1. My home goods budget is shot until March due to the purchase of a drying rack (which is super useful in the winter when you have a wood stove) and a new iron (which is also nice to have, but it's never as fun to replace things, even if the new one is exactly like the one my grandmother had) so I did what I had to do. I was tired of not having any decoration on my door, especially since I have that lovely 1960's diamond window greeting everyone. Now you have to look closely to see the retro-ness of the (unpainted) door. I had to go with what I had, so I didn't use any specific instructions, but The Nester has some step-by-step guides for making all sorts of coffee-filter inspired decorations.

Are you feeling the love?

The truly independent woman

"I have spoken of an independent mind as it discovers itself  in forming and holding fast its own opinions. Let me add, that it is not less conspicuous in reducing principles to practice; in other words, in steadily persevering in what we believe to be duty. It irequires far less strength of purpose to avow good principles, even in times of trial, than practically to exhibit those princibiples in an unyeilding course of action. But as principles are nothing without practice, so it is the noblest ofice of genuine independence, to carry the mind forward in a course of action corresponding with its own convictions; to keep the hands nerved for effort when there may be a thousand pleas for relaxing exertion; and to give to this activity that direction only which conscience approves, when the strongest temptations offer themselves to an opposite course. You may dream of your own independence as much as you please, but unless it be of this practical kind which influences conduct as well as opinions, and which is carried out into all the departments of human duty, you have much reason to believe that neither you nor the world will be the better for your having possessed it....

"...As the most effectual means of making the attainment to which I have been urging you, let me counsel you to cherish a deep sense of the constant presence of God, and of your accountableness to him for every part of your conduct. An habitual impression of this kind will make you comparatively  indifferent, both to the censures and applauses of mortals, and will lead you to regard every other question as unimportant, in comparison with the simple question of duty."

From Letters on Practical Subjects to a Daughter, William B. Sprague

Finally here

Hello! It's 10:04pm on a Saturday and I can say that I accomplished all the essentials on this one day, and here I am! And now I'm too tired to write anything but hello...and silly me for thinking that I would use the month of January to send out all sorts of wonderful simplifying posts AND focus on accomplishing the main things. Who'd have thought those few things would be so consuming! I guess that's the very reason I needed to refocus.

Anyway, highlights of the week include:

• finally feeling better and shaking off The Cold after four weeks- a huge answer to prayer
• giving said cold to my husband and son... husband stayed home from work Monday-Wednesday
• Little T gashing his head on the adorable bread box I was using in his reading corner; he needed stitches but since it was hidden in his eyebrow and he's a boy, a butterfly bandage did the trick
• consistently getting 4-6 eggs a day (yes, that's a highlight! I've only purchased 2 dozen eggs in the last four weeks)
• trying aerobic exercise for the first time in about 4 months...and found out my body isn't quite ready for that (but I'm ready to get back in shape)
• purchasing One Thousand Gifts...so excited for that to come on Monday
• seeing our phonics lessons pay off with the older two- both are reading and it won't be long before they will be reading to Little T! 
• Feeling well enough to start caring about my appearance...a good sign that I'm healing! :)

I'm off to bed...my father-in-law let me borrow his Kindle to read a book on thyroid disfunction (lucky me!) and I need to finish it before tomorrow (it is actually quite interesting). Oh, I do heart the Kindle.

A romantic weekend at home

After a long bout with Ye Old Winter Cold, we took my inlaws up on their offer to give us a weekend at home sans kids. I planned a special dinner for WH and we had a grand time reminiscing over fancy meals and other relaxing times we'd spent together. We are like any other couple: we enjoy an occasional candlelit dinner where we complete our sentences and don't ever think about cutting up anyone else's food. We talked about house renovations and church matters, and I confess we did bring up funny things the kids had said or done recently.

Oh, and then we slept in until 9:45am (and we only got up then because someone was knocking on our door to borrow something) and had a leisurely omlet and multiple cups of tea.

And since our definition of relaxing is "working at a slow pace" we also did this:





I say "we" but really I was just committed to watching and providing moral support (and I brought the laptop out on the back porch when at one point it seemed like the neck would never come off...what did farmers do before the internet?). But I did cheer him on, and dutifully stuck that guy in the crockpot for tomorrow's lunch.

And I made my first liver pate using this recipe from the Healthy Home Economist. It's mostly bacon, so how bad can that be? I have only tasted it- I'll have to report back later once it's fully chilled and I pick up some gluten free crackers.

I cleaned out the desk drawers and our kitchen junk drawer in attempt to organize my paperwork, and WH vacuumed out my car (since there were no carseats in it). Then he cut down the row of Christmas trees that were supposedly serving as landscape for our front lawn. They were beautiful covered in snow during the month of December, but they looked ridiculous in June. But they are gone and the meager azaleas that were grasping for life in their shadows now have room to fill in and make our entry way presentable.

The leisurely work is finished, my hair is curled and makeup is on, and we are off to Chipotle for a fun dinner. We're in the middle of the BBC version of Emma so we'll watch that when we return. How's that for a perfect romantic weekend?

See, we're just like every other couple.

She always says it better

Ann, at A Holy Experience so perfectly explains the simplicity I was aiming for in maintaining the essentials, and provides this great printable chart for being faithful in a few things. So good!

ETA: SHE always says it funnier. 

Surviving the Cold of Death

Well, our first week of sticking to the main things went fairly well, except that the main thing turned into "survive colds and coughs." This two-week cold seems to be going around, and I've passed the two-week mark but the kids are only at one week. I think I accomplished everything on my Essentials list one day this week, and we've managed to do school several days in a row despite mounds of kleenex.

Family Goals

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

I looked back through my 2009 list of goals for the kids and laughed when I read "transition to a big potty" and "learn to sleep without duck/thumbsucking." It's easy to forget that those things actually took work and purposefulness on our part. It feels like they just happened, and was it really only a year and a half ago?

A few things done faithfully

A very happy New Year to you all!

We spent the evening at home with the kids and some fun food (the pan seared prosciutto wrapped mozzarella was a hit with us, and chips and apples and dip were enough to wow the kids). At midnight we were technically awake, but only because of sick children.

Christmas night I sat down with my journal and thought it would be fun to review my goals from last year. It was no surprise to see "What Matters Most" on one page, followed by a list of things that easily creep into my days but don't really hold much value in light of eternity. Those items on the first list are still as true today as they were last year, and yet it seems like this refocusing on the main things is a "common to man" problem.

I've been giving these ideas a lot of thought since my health took a nosedive. At first I was just surviving; then I was living in a state of waiting for the season to pass so I could get back to "normal." (Here we are again.) As an extreme optimist, I usually set high goals for myself. For the first time I am facing my new year with very realistic goals, although keep in mind that realistic doesn't  mean easy. I don't have any extra energy or mental capabilities to spend on the less important tasks. I am determined to be faithful in a few areas vs. bemoaning my inabilities to come up with a spectacular (or even mundane) plan to conquer new things.

The truth is, most of us are in a season that seems less than ideal- even the women who have multiple semi-famous blogs and provide loads of inspiration (they just have a surplus of energy). I am thankful for all those great ideas...some of the links on my sidebar this week are amazing. So there's no begrudging another person's list, or even comparing, because God is writing each of our stories and they are different. Last January my sister came up with a great list of goals for her year, something I hope to imitate in the future. In fact, I wonder if I am distracted by the tyranny of the urgent and that keeps me from getting the basics down, which is keeping me from moving forward and accomplishing greater tasks. But that is a question for later...

So, while others are laying out their list of resolutions and goals, I'd like to spend the month of January sharing about this effort to refocus, and passing along a myriad of helpful links that continue to push me in the right direction. Care to join me?