Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... I am looking at some very tall grass - tall enough to wave in the wind!! Time to mow. I see no storm clouds brewing over the front range, so that means no rain tonight. Boo. I'll have to water.

I am thinking...  about my mom.  Two days ago she had surgery to remove her gall bladder and a surprise benign tumor on an ovary, about the size of an orange (they were expecting a small cyst).  I will do some shopping for her today.

I am thankful... that Jordan's swim team ended yesterday.  Today is the final meet, the big City Meet, which is a very large event that we will not be attending.  It will be a madhouse of activity, and there is no way I am willing to try and keep track of three little ones in all that hub-bub.  Jordan is not a very strong swimmer, so he would have come out on the losing end of every race anyway, so I think it is better this way.

From the Learning Rooms... We get to do a full day of school today!!  We did about 3/4 on Monday, and snippets of time during the week.  It has been quite a productive week, actually.  Yesterday Rylan received a sight word book with about 80 magnetic words in it from a retired teacher friend of my mom's.  Her granddaughter is about two years older than Rylan, so she frequently passes on some of her granddaughter's things when she outgrows them.  Several of the items are educational in nature, and have been wonderful surprises!  We brought the book home and added all of the words to our All About Spelling magnetic white board.

We spent a good half-hour organizing them all sorts of ways.  By color, by letter, by favorites and by length.  We settled on a combination of length and alphabetical as a good way to keep track of our words.

We worked our way through a couple of pages in the reading book the magnets are used in conjunction with.  Rylan read through the sentence, selected the missing word from her organized word list, and placed it in the book.  I can see a multitude of activities that we can do with this.  Many thanks to Margaret for the wonderful gift!

In the kitchen...I have some pretty bare cupboards.  It is time to go grocery shopping!  The kids had instant oatmeal for breakfast, and Rylan had some cottage cheese.

I am wearing...robe and pj's.  As soon as I am done it is shower time.  No idea what I will wear tho'.

I am creating...a beautiful ceramic pasta bowl!  Look what I made last night at Mom's Night Out!!

It will look much different after it is fired in the kiln.  I will pick it up this coming Tuesday.  Last night was our homeschooling group's Mom's Night Out.  We chose to go to Artisan You.  We spent a very lovely two and a half hours creating wonderful, functional pieces of art.

It was nice to hang out with fellow moms Gail and Shawn - we haven't seen each other in awhile!  Picture if you can:  A long, rectangular working space with brick walls and wooden floors, in an old, downtown building.  We were surrounded by displays of finished ceramic and glass artwork, supplies and lots of tables for other groups.  Soft 'coffee shop' music in the background, an evening breeze blowing through the building as both back and front doors were open - as well as a fan... We could bring in drinks and food with us, so I brought a Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat with some cheese and crackers, and munched as I worked.  It was heaven!!  It as quiet, peaceful and I could actually concentrate on something!!  It has been so long since I have been able to engage my brain like that!  I miss that part of my brain... glad to know it is still operational.  There is hope for the future!

I am going... nowhere at the moment, but grocery shopping is on the list at some point today.  I want to get lessons done first.

I am wondering...how my bowl will look.  I can't wait!

I am reading...Watermelon by Marian Keyes.  Still.  Jordan and I are also reading The Omnivore's Dilemma - The Secrets Behind What You Eat (Young Readers edition) by Michael Pollan.  Jordan reads it out loud to me whenever we are in the car.  It is very enlightening and yes, disturbing.  A good read so far.  We have watched Food Inc., SuperSize Me and others - and this just goes along in line with it.  Right now we are reading about the evils of corn.  Jordan is also reading A Dog's Purpose - A Novel for Humans, by W. Bruce Cameron.  I got it from a Scholastic Book order last year, and we are finally getting around to reading it.  Well, at least Jordan has.  I still need to.  It is a tear-jerker apparently because I will routinely find Jordan crying as he progresses through the book.  The dog goes through several reincarnations, so there are several 'deaths' to work through.

I am hoping... that Jordan will remember how to calculate surface area, without me having to remind him that he is working with two dimensions, not three, for the thousandth time.  He keeps trying to do it by using volume.  We are building elaborate polyhedrons out of base ten blocks and then using them to figure the surface area during part of our lesson today.

I am looking forward to... Sunday!  It will be our 6th wedding anniversary.  Date night is roughly planned for tomorrow night, but waiting on the grandparents' availability...

I am hearing... Rylan pounding on a make-shift drum of frisbee + empty metal dog bowl.  Colin looking on and adding sound effects.  Owen running through the playroom with one of those push-popper toys.  Annoying.  Jordan has now taken over the drum and discovered that the frisbee is stuck to the dog bowl.  (air vacuum).  He is excited but can't figure out why it can do that.  Time for an impromptu physics lesson. 

Around the house...Disaster in the form of laundry awaits me upstairs.  And the second tomato bed needs to be pruned and tied again.

I am pondering...when to get outside today.. this morning would be best.  It is supposed to hit 100 today.

One of my favorite things...is creating art.  I don't do it nearly enough.

A few plans for the rest of the week...start working on the mound of laundry, mow the lawn, enjoy an evening out with my husband and get the drainage channel filled in with soil again.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

This is Duke.  He is staying with us for ten days while his owner is on vacation in California.  He is a really good boy, except for when he does this.  Off!!!

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