Outside my window
Dark. Cold. Welcome to nearly-winter in the cozy Midwest!
~~~
Room to ramble
You might notice I keep tweaking this daybook template – I’m trying to find a format that isn’t sooooooo long, but yet covers what I’d like to cover on a Monday morning. It’s a work in progress.
~~~
In thanksgiving
For Tips for New Bloggers and The Cutest Blog on the Block (though I daresay I wasted time that I just won’t ever see again)
For friends who comment and email and pray and call
For that guy I married, Killer of Wasps and Creepy Crawlies and Protector of the House
~~~
Kitchen meanderings
The menu plan is working wonders in my life. I know, this isn’t rocket science…but it feels like it to me. The hardest part was getting started in a new habit, that of sitting down on Sunday and planning out the week ahead. I’m not sure I have it mastered completely, but slowly, ever so slowly, I think I’m getting the hang of it.
~~~
Nose inserted
Guilty pleasures confession time: I’m reading Twilight, and in one evening of having my nose inserted, I’m completely hooked. It’s not the kind of book that will probably be remembered in 20 years, but it has a fast pace and elements that just drew me right in. This is in relief from the sloooooooooow pace of Anne Rice’s memoir (which I haven’t picked back up since I wrote about it in #3 here) and as a break for fiction (my first reading love). I’m also reading Apple Pie, by John Edge, and really enjoying it (as I drool all over the pages). Oh yes, and the second volume of Charlotte Masons’s Homeschooling Series…which I read in chapters here and there (my brain has to be turned on for that one). I’ve been thinking about something for Advent reading, and I’m still on the fence. Any suggestions?
~~~
Folded hands, bowed head
I have felt, in the last few weeks, like something needed to change – grow? – in my prayer life. So, I’ve been trying something. Instead of squeezing my daily rosary in where I can, I’ve been including it in that part of the morning where I sit down and pray prior to doing anything else (except making coffee). I’m using a book form of the scriptural Rosary. It’s not making fireworks in my days, but maybe it’s helping to prevent them. This came about because I had noticed how differently my days seem to go when I have prayed my Rosary before things get really rolling. I wondered how that could be further tested by actually sitting down, making time, taking the “plunge” into 20 minutes more for God.
~~~
In my ears
I’ve been binging over the weekend on The Secret Adversary, read by Julie at Forgotten Classics. I had forgotten just how much I love Agatha Christie. When did I last read one of her mysteries? Junior high? Well, it’s been entirely too long!
~~~
Around the house
We have a new addition to the clutter of our home: a piece of exercise equipment rescued from a friend’s trash-intentioned pile. My goal is to get it set up and to use it. The walking thing just. isn’t. working. (And that’s my fault, for the record.) We also have a blazing fire, and with the snow flurries over the weekend, and the promise of more this week, we’ll be keeping comfy in front of the fire!
~~~
A favorite thing
The scrip program at church: we buy gift cards for our normal purchases, the parish gets a percentage, and we don’t spend anything extra.
~~~
For the rest of the week
I have some packing and organizing to do, some long-overdue thank you notes to write, and Christmas presents to figure out. (I know, that last has been on my list before. It just won’t seem to take care of itself!)
~~~
Worth a thousand words