Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... It is cloudy this morning.  Rain is the way...

I am thinking... A conversation we had over dinner last night.  As a way to avoid six people sitting around a table staring at their devices and not talking, I made everybody hand them over and then tossed out a conversation starter:  "If you could go back in time to observe anything you wanted to (not interact with the people or try to change events), what would you want to see"?

Colin: "The lions, because I like lions".  (So says the six-old who didn't understand the question)

Owen: "I would go back to when the dinosaurs lived, because I wonder what it would look like where our home is right now.  Like a magic world or something.."

Rylan: "I would want to see aunt Susie again, and see daddy's dad, because I never got to meet him".

Jordan: (I can't remember and he is STILL asleep (1 pm!) so I can't ask him)

Me: "It's a choice between standing in the crowds as they welcomed George Washington as he arrived in the capitol to officially take the office of the presidency, or to be at the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington, and listen to Martin Luther King as he gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech".

Dean: "To be sitting in the garage as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak experimented and built the first Apple computer".

I am thankful... for coffee, headphones, warm kitties and fleece blankets

From the Learning Rooms... We are starting a new science unit this week called "Secret Formulas" .  Owen has been requesting something chemistry related.

In the kitchen... leftovers from dinner last night. We went to a Persian cuisine restaurant last night called Rumi's House of Kabobs.  Sooooo good.

I am wearing... Pj's and a sweater because it is chilly out, and the kids left the backdoor wide open as they keep running in and out of the house to report their lastest finds.  They are hacking away at the dirt with shovels, playing 'archeologist'.  yay......

I am creating... ummm.. not much?

I am going... just the usual round of Sunday errands, nothing exciting..

I am wondering... why cats like sitting in boxes, baskets, crates, etc.... weird.  I call them 'cat traps'.

I am reading... "White on Snow" for myself, and "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" to the kids.

In the garden... Well, this is a bummer.  The wood used for the raised garden beds is rotting away, and as I was digging out weeds yesterday, a wall on the one of the beds fell away.  I guess it has been six years... but I still would of expected them to last a little longer.  Dean is willing to build me an elevated garden box. I need to keep the garden on the simple side - I just can't add anything more to my plate, and I hate, HATE our soil so I don't want to rebuild the planters on the ground.  We also have an excess of garden snakes, ants and slugs all over the yard, so spending ample time kneeling on the ground does not appeal to me AT ALL - as well as it irritates my knees.  I will use my largest flower pots to plant my tomato plants, and the garden box to plant just a small amount of herbs, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beans and maybe a single cucumber?

I am hoping... I am hearing rumors that we may get a lot of snow this coming weekend. Like in the range of 20-30 inches.  I am sooo hoping that it is true.  Call me crazy, but I haven't had enough winter yet...

I am looking forward to... Tickets for Coldplay's U.S. tour go on sale in our area beginning on Monday.  We are hoping to score tickets for either the Tulsa show or the Denver show.  

I am learning... well, since I was mentioning the place we went to eat last night, I wanted to be more specific about the food rather than just calling it 'Middle-Eastern'.  'Kebab' means 'roasted meat'.  The restaurant we went to serves it in the traditional Persian (Iranian) style by serving the meat with saffron rice, a roasted tomato on the side, and butter pats on the plate.  The waitress told us to mash the tomato and butter into the rice, and then sprinkle it with Sumac powder (which was in glass salt shaker on the table).  She didn't mention what the powder was last night, but I looked it up today and read about Sumac powder.  From Wikipedia: "The fruits form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs. The dried drupes of some species are ground to produce a tangy crimson spice...The fruits (drupes) of the genus Rhus are ground into a reddish-purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony taste to salads or meat...In North America, the smooth sumac (R. glabra) and the staghorn sumac (R. typhina) are sometimes used to make a beverage termed "sumac-ade", "Indian lemonade", or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth, and sweetening it."

I am hearing... Umizoomi on the tv. 

Around the house... there will be some cleaning, sorting and napping going on in the near-future.

I am pondering... how soon we can get rid of the plastic playhouse in the backyard.  It is a spider and wasp haven.

One of my favorite things... my sage/thyme candle that sits by my computer.  I sniff it at regular intervals.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Rylan has a birthday party to attend on Tuesday afternoon, and other than that just the usual stuff.  Oh, and NO doctor appointments this week!  For the first time since mid-February we get a break!

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

This is Colin, about 5 years ago.  It always makes me laugh, and laughing is good. :)

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