The Simple Woman's Daybook -- July 25, 2011

Hosted by Peggy.

Outside my window... Jen's gorgeous green yard and lots and of sun -- I was very hot when I was hanging up laundry!

I am thinking... about parenting choices and how to talk to those who've made different ones.

I am thankful...for ice cubes.

From the learning rooms... reading Destiny Disrupted:  A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary and recommended to me by Jon.

In the kitchen... I made another batch of crackers, did lots of dishes, and cut up beets and beet greens.


I am going... to take a cold shower when I'm finished with this post.

I am wondering...  why I'm so hard on myself these days -- It feels like a new (and not awesome) thing.

I am hoping... to go see at least one potential apartment this week.

I am looking forward to... feeling more stable.

I am hearing... Bach's Suite for Lute in E Minor playing on my Pandora QuickMix

I am pondering...songs that are less depressing to me now than they would've been 3 years ago.

One of my favorite things... feeling sleepy and cozy with people I love.

A few plans for the rest of the week: working tomorrow afternoon/evening, book club at Sara's on Thursday, working Saturday and Sunday.  Fiona is with Jeremy this weekend and I'll try to be good to myself while crossing things off my list.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Fiona and Sam had a lemonade stand on Saturday --Sam's already counting his loot!  :)  Thank you, Elise, for spending the day with them!

Book Beginnings & Friday 56 -- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence, or two, of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading.

Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents' house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog.  Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday.

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice. Check out the rules and join in the fun.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog. Post a link along with your post back to this blog.

"Before the Marquess came with her lions and her great old panther with his ivory collar, Fairyland dwelt in the eternal summer of Good Queen Mallow, the Bright and the Bold."

This was a book I read with Fiona.   I didn't love it or hate it. 

The Simple Woman's Daybook -- Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Hosted by Peggy.

Outside my window...a cooler day with thunderstorms likely for the foreseeable future, sunny and green after all the rain we've already gotten.

I am thinking...about how little I'll see Fiona once school starts.

I am thankful... that we caught the earlier bus home last night from work -- so we didn't have to wait another hour or more!

From the learning rooms...picking Becoming a Life Change Artist back up -- it's one of the few books I've read where it's so rich and dense with goodness that I have to keep coming back to it -- still haven't finished it.

In the kitchen... all the dishes clean -- maybe I should ponder making bread tonight or tomorrow.

I am going...  to work Friday, Saturday, & Sunday this weekend.

I am wondering... what tomorrow will be like.

I am reading... The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making, with Fiona.

I am hoping... to be able to see my out-laws a fair bit when they are here in August.

I am looking forward to...last time I did the Daybook I didn't have an answer for this one so I posted on facebook that I needed something to look forward to -- now I have a letter coming from my friend Beth -- a good thing to look forward to.

I am hearing... Fiona playing happily outside, the kitchen clock ticking, and Song of the South by Alabama playing on Pandora -- always reminds me of road trips with my grandparents.

Around the house...needing to unpack the clothes that are in a breaking cardboard box and wash the sheets.  Kellan, Josie, and Jen will be home soon.

One of my favorite things...rain


Here is picture for thought I am sharing...  Fiona with the three things she bought with birthday and Easter money from Grandma and Grandpa Carlson, Grandma King, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Don -- A new sun hat (the skulls were her choice), a stuffed animal/monster she's named Cross-Eyed, and a stencil art book (and one of the pictures she's made with it)!  She really loves being able to pick things out and buy them with her own money.  Thank you to all of you!!

Lots of laughing with Kellan, Josie, and Fiona

Kellan (6 years old) and Josie (3 years old) are our housemates for the summer and they, along with Fiona, were pretty sure this exciting drama needed to be recorded.

Things my seven-year-old has said lately

• When asked how she is feeling about the divorce and living in two different houses, after thinking for a minute, "Well, it's not what I was expecting to be doing in 2011...
• To a friend we'd just moved in with, "Since the divorce, I've realized that kids dream of living with their friends, but when they do, they just fight and fight."
• After a long discussion of what the term "biological father" means, "So if you got married again, I could have two biological fathers because, maybe, the man that you married would also combine his sperm with your egg."  Me: "Well, but it wouldn't be the egg that made you."  Fiona:  "Oh, I get it." (And that was the end of the discussion.)

Teaser Tuesdays -- The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading. To participate, all you have to do is the following:

• Grab your current/upcoming read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2-3 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!

Mister Grumholdt and Miss Wool had seemed to be talking about a treasure hidden somewhere in the east wing of the hotel.  But what kind of treasure was it?  If It was lost, did it belong to anyone?

page 31, The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby

Fiona and I read this together.  The chapters alternate between three characters -- (from the front cover flap) -- "Giuseppe is an orphaned street musician who sees no way to escape until the day he finds an enchanted green violin.  Frederick is an apprentice clockmaker with a past he cannot remember, who secretly works to build the most magnificent clockwork man the world has ever seen.  Hannah is a maid in a grand hotel, whose life is one of endless drudgery, until she encounters a mystifying new guest and learns of a hidden treasure."

Fiona says, "I thought that it was very interesting because you didn't have to be concentrating on any certain part of the story because sometimes that's hard to do -- there were many different parts of the story."  

Last bath at Tim and Amy's

Fiona and I moved in with our friends Amy and Tim (and Mark and Lilly) in October.  On Sunday we moved much farther north -- from Highlands Ranch to Lakewood -- to our friend Jen's (and Josie's and Kellan's) house.  We are blessed with wonderful and supportive friends.  We will miss being with A, T, M, and L, and we will like being with J, J, & K. 

Our last night with Mark and Lilly, the kids had a final bath together.  Fiona and Mark were doing some sort of "cool thing" and Fiona wanted me to take pictures so I headed to the basement to get my camera.  However, when I got back upstairs, Lilly had pooped in the bathtub and bathtime was over.  :) Here are two pictures of what I saw instead:

A trip to Redstone Park with Gemma, Digby, Ned, and Beatrix

An important diamond is missing

Fiona asked me to record she, Mark, and Lilly -- she has movie director plans in her future.

A trip to South Valley Park with Aunt Vinnie, Uncle Craig, and Cousin Oliver

My cousin Oliver moved to Boulder in January and his parents came to visit this month from Indiana.  I was so glad to be able to spend time with three of my very favorite family members, and so was Fiona.  After our walk we went to lunch together and I totally forgot to get pictures there.  But a lovely time was had.

Sitting in the driveway pretending we knew where we were going.

Cheerful women in the back seat.

Aunt Vinnie & Fiona

My super cool cousin

It was a rainy, muddy day which made everything very green -- or very green for Colorado.

That's a really loud print I'm wearing, isn't it?

Uncle Craig and Oliver mirroring each other.

Fiona in the wilderness.

Cousins together.  Fiona really enjoys Oliver -- though it takes her a while to start talking when she hasn't seen him in a while...

Saturday Snapshot

Welcome to Saturday Snapshot event, hosted by Alyce, At Home With Books.
 
To join in, just click on the link.  Share photos snapped by yourself or family/friends.

This is a picture I just snapped this morning.  My seven-year-old daughter and her friend, morning after a sleepover.

Fiona and her friend Caroline -- C. has the solar system on her face.

Just checking in to say goodnight

Cover of Fred Rogers

Fiona is back with me tonight and feeling pretty much herself -- just a little bit of the sniffles.  We are settling in at the house-sitting house and it's lovely to be here.  We took a steam shower this afternoon which was nice for both of our noses!  :)  We've had some dinner (modeled after Mr. Rogers' sandwich on the library dvd (first time Fio's seen the show)) and Fiona is enjoying exploring our young friends' toys.

Tomorrow we may see some friends and I'm thinking I'd like to at least walk by a restaurant that's here in the neighborhood -- they are looking for servers and I'd like to see what it might be like to work there. 

I'm feeling quite sleepy -- didn't sleep much last night -- and we will probably head to the warm covers of our bed in the next hour or so.   Blessings to all of you tonight.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Hosted by Peggy.

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...much cooler weather -- Colorado remembered it's actually spring, not summer, I guess.

I am thinking... about my dear seven-year-old who is with her dad and feeling very sick.

I am thankful for... 35 years on this planet and the opportunity to try again today.

From the learning rooms... house-sitting for a friend starting on Sunday -- always learn new things in a new house..

From the kitchen...Brown Cow Cream-Top Plain Yogurt --  makes me very happy.

I am wearing...an over-abundance of pastels -- I look like an Easter illustration.

I am creating...ideas for what to write for Fiona's (over-due) birthday letter -- I have a book I write her a letter in every year, for her to have when she is older.

I am going...to a sunrise service on Sunday with friends I've known since I was about 12.

I am reading... The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan -- I'll finish it up today and start The Weird sisters.

I am hoping...that Fiona will feel better soon.

I am hearing... "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne on the CD my friend Kacy made for me <3

Around the house...packing for house-sitting, doing laundry, and trying to get everyone well.

One of my favorite things... somebody willing to scratch my back.  :)

A few plans for the rest of the week: thinking about what to get with my Amazon birthday gift certificates from my mom and my aunt (!), send a letter to my brother, trip to the library, settle in house-sitting.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Amy took this picture of Lilly, Fiona, and I -- sharing the love. :)

Pictures from Fiona's 7th birthday -- Book Club at Beth's

Fiona and Sofia

Fiona asked me to make "my" brownies --- and we put frosting on them for the first time ever.

Fiona reading a draft of a story Mikaela is working on.

Mikaela reading and pretending there aren't are bunch of kids getting ready to attack.

Sophia, Fiona, Sofia, and Jess -- what a great pic

Amy made deviled eggs and Fiona was thrilled.

Beth with brownies :)