Thursday, January 14, 2010
Eh, never mind
Yesterday I did a lot in the dining room, pulling out enough books to fill three boxes. Some will go to the homeschool convention to sell at the used book table and some to the regular bookstore and others to friends. Still trying to get the Christmas stuff into the garage. Three bags of RE stuff have been gone through and mostly recycled. I swear, each year I teach, I just have a pile of papers and things left in a bag and I never touch it or go through it again. I just start a new tote bag every year! Not very efficient but then again, I haven't taught the same curriculum two years in a row either. Hmm, that could explain it.
Reading
1) My Daily Bread: A Summary of the Spiritual Life by Anthony J. Paone, S.J.
2) Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
3) still plugging through my third go-through of The Lord of the Rings...got waylaid sometime before Christmas and haven't really picked it back up since
4) the Percy Jackson books--finished No. 3 last night--fun but not great--sort of disturbing when the characters "pray" to their Olympian parents and offer sacrifices at mealtimes. Hmm.
Watching
1) Still trying to get around to watching the end of "Food, Inc." so I can return it to Netflix. Makes you never want to eat again. Or become a farmer and raise your own food.
2) Hoping to see "Fr. Damien of Molokai" this weekend. I think I can squeeze it in the budget!
Listening
1) CDs from Christmas--"Take Me Home" from Celtic Thunder (not as good as the previous CD) and "Celtic Woman" from...duh. We have some of these songs already on the greatest hits album but still nice.
2) Old CDs--Riders in the Sky singing songs from "Woody's Roundup"--still love that yodeling and cowboy music--Ewan likes it too! Take Six's first CD--had it 20 years!--Mary don't you weep, Get away Jordan!, David & Goliath...and the giiiii-ii-ii-ii-ant BOOM! he dropped dead...little David made a....goood shot! Hmm, I wonder if I have Steve Taylor on CD somewhere around here....
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Blogging challenge for 2010
I've chosen my blogging challenge for the new year and, no surprise, it's the decluttering challenge:
"Declutter and simplify every room in our house aiming towards minimalism, one room per month, taking before and after photos documenting the experience. Conveniently, we have 11 rooms in our house (4 bd, 3ba + LR, DR, KI & den/office) and the other random spaces (halls, linen closet, stairwell) could make up a 12th room."
Good thing I chose that one, because I've already started! Here's the schedule I am proposing (to be modified as necessary):
January: Master Bedroom (aka NW bedroom)
February: SW Bedroom (was Fiona's room)
March: SE Bedroom (was Helena's room)
April: NE Bedroom (was Ellie & Ewan's room)
May: Kids' Bathroom
June: Master Bathroom
July: upstairs hall, linen closet, stairwell
August: Living Room
September: Dining Room
October: Kitchen
November: downstairs bathroom, hall closet, understairs closet, laundry room
December: Office
The "official" name of this challenge is hereforth declared to be:
Happy New Year!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Preparing for Christmas





Friday, December 11, 2009
A year of blogging
- Wear the same outfit everyday for a year - Little Brown Dress
- Cook all of Julia Child's recipes in a year - The Julie/Julia Project
- Use the crockpot 365 days in a row - A Year of Slow Cooking
- Eat nothing but locally-grown foods for one year - The 100-Mile Diet and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
- Buy nothing "Made in China" for a year [a book, not a blog, but should have been!] - Sara Bongiorni
- Buy nothing at all for a year - The Compact
- Live without a car for a year - A Year of Living Car-lessly
- Go without electricity & other mod cons in a city apartment for a year* - No Impact Man
- Eat nothing but bacon for a month - Mystery Science Theater 3000 guy (honorable mention)
- Eat nothing but meat (& water, presumably) for a year - Vihjalmur Stefansson [no blogging in early 20th C., but would have made a good one!]
Search for "A year of" or "A year without" blogs for more examples. I asked my children what I could chronicle in my blog for a year. They came up with "sleep on the floor for a year," "sleep outside for a year" and "sleep in the living room for a year." Is there a message here? I swear, I don't snore! I replied that I wasn't interested in any challenge that would get in the way of family togetherness. (Fiona also offered up the idea of "wearing nothing but dresses for a year" but that didn't quite fulfill my desire for radical change.) Below are my own ideas for a 2010 blog challenge, ranging from mildly challenging to more severely so. Some are things you may do already, others are activities you might never wish to do or hope to try. All have some appeal to me, but not all are realistic to accomplish.
- Live without the microwave oven for a year
- Make 365 bentos, one for each day of the year
- Pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day for a year
- Go to Mass every day for a year
- Write down prayer petitions and praises every day for a year
- Speak nothing but German every day for a year (I think my children and the folks at church would get tired of this game real quick!)
- Lose X pounds in a year (easier said than done)
- Eat no gluten every day for a year (Wait! I accomplished that one already! ha ha)
- No TV for a year
- Read a book a day for a year
- Write a letter a day for a year (the paper kind you send in the mail, not email!)
- Draw or paint something every day for a year
- Stay within the city limits of Lake Stevens for a year
- Pay off all our credit card debt in one year (by radically changing our diet to beans & rice or similar, forgoing all unnecessary spending and severely curtailing all family fun)
- Declutter and simplify every room in our house aiming towards minimalism, one room per month, taking before and after photos documenting the experience. Conveniently, we have 11 rooms in our house (4 bd, 3ba + LR, DR, KI & den) and the other random spaces (halls, linen closet, stairwell) could make up a 12th room.
Monday, December 07, 2009
St. Nicholas Day, 2009
Fiona and Helena also put their wishlists into their shoes. In the morning, they found this....
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
For KK & RF & all other MS fans of the daily bento preview
Back by popular demand...David's lunch. GF spaghetti, Greek yogurt with honey, two apples and cheese. Pretty simple.Family life updates - Nov. 2009



