Effervescence

Summertime realities

2009-06-17T14:31:00.004-05:00

I'm not telling the kids our summer break has two-thirds left; I don't want to face the crushed reactions. For all of us, the first month flew by. Now I need to buckle down before the rest of the summer gets away from me.An essential: a wish list of activities brainstormed by the boys and me (we'll reap the benefit for many months, actually).Also, we must get back to the morning structure so the

Taming the Inbox Paper

2009-01-02T23:38:00.002-06:00

Info I'm gonna use to set up my incoming paperwork system, and tweak for my homeschooling paper handling.Look down the page at Maintaining Your Filing SystemWay down the page, past all the sales pitch, see Here's How 'My Oh-So-Organized filing System' helps keep you organizedHalfway down the page, see the No-Fail Paper SolutionVisual organization idea -- so cool! Stay Organized with Binder

Garlands, who'd a thunk it?

2008-12-28T16:28:00.001-06:00

Who would've thought that I'd be captivated, charmed by these?! Somehow I stumbled across a Flickr group focused on photos of handcrafted garlands. ALL KINDS of garlands. Love it!Flickr: The Ga-ga for Garlands Pool(Tip: browse with the full-screen slideshow -- very nice)

Freeze Yer Buns 2008 challenge

2008-12-18T19:22:00.002-06:00

As soon as I realized Crunchy Chicken had launched the Freeze Yer Buns 2008 challenge, I knew I had to join! (Ask my husband and kids!)

Copenhagen Cycle Chic

2008-11-08T14:54:00.000-06:00

How very fun! Dressing normally, nay, with style! and bicycling wherever you need to go. Yay Copenhagen and contributors from elsewhere!Copenhagen Cycle Chic - Streetstyle and Bike Advocacy in High Heels

Pad Thai and jasmine rice

2008-11-08T14:43:00.002-06:00

Last night, thanks to some clearance'd items I picked up at the grocery store a while back, we learned that the whole family likes Pad Thai and jasmine rice. Yay! No need for a Pad Thai boxed kit next time; I'll pick up some rice noodles and either buy or make the sauce.Yet again, I am reminded that all of us like various Asian dishes. Yum!By the way, thanks to my now-daily habit of stopping by

Meal plans for late summer

2008-08-28T17:43:00.011-05:00

So... I've lost 10 pounds since April 1 and joining SparkPeople.com and tracking what I eat (as well as continuing to walk for fitness). Now that summer weather has started to break a bit, and we're back to school and fall family routines, I Need To Plan Good Meals! Here's what I have so far for the next two weeks or so. (I'm SURE we'll grill out over the Labor Day weekend, too.)On hand for

Random thoughts on a Friday night

2008-02-08T19:40:00.000-06:00

Feet up. On couch. My legs and feet are soooo tired. Went on a good walk this morning, but really what did it was working a funeral reception at church all afternoon (from set up to cleanup). Groan. It was a lovely reception; maybe I can find all-black sport sandals to wear?Love taking walks. Love, love, love taking walks. Last fall I was going on 30-minute walks two or three times a day. Loved

I flew into & out of Minnesota

2007-12-14T23:24:00.000-06:00

Create your own personalized map of the USAThat was kind of fun :)Waiting for the rain to turn over to snow. Maybe before sunrise? I'll be in bed, then.

Good company lifts the spirits

2007-12-11T18:33:00.000-06:00

Our very homey Internet cafeSome friends came over with their kids to get out of their no-power houses. My kitchen table turned into our own little Internet cafe! and the kids enjoyed the change of pace, power, heat, and electric light, too. You can't see the cell phones charging, but they were practically the first thing plugged in -- a cell phone is a lifeline this week.Most trees are free of

Ice Storm: yep, it's a big one

2007-12-10T22:10:00.000-06:00

The trees around our house glisten and glitter, bow low and creak under the weight of half an inch (I think) of ice coating every twig, branch, limb, old leaf, and future leaf bud. Our river birches are bowed very low, and the lower branches of our stiff, young oak have been pulled down so they actually touch the driveway and sidewalk. Branches are down and trees are broken or completely fallen

A brief history of the previous four months

2007-12-08T11:16:00.000-06:00

August - preparation for the new homeschooling year, deeper and more intense this year. Number One destination for my energy and creativity -- until we started lessons/schooling! Then the homeschooling and the last of the prep work took over my life and squeezed blogging out of the picture, sorry. See the weekly routines and yearly reading plans on my homeschooling blog, A Bit of Bubbly, for a

A little tropical storm action in Oklahoma

2007-08-19T15:26:00.000-05:00

After a rain-stormy afternoon and evening yesterday, bedtime included the accompaniment of thunder and lightning. The weather alert radio woke me up a lot around 2:30 am, I think. Not to mention the lightning and all that. I finally looked at the clock at 3. I slept off and on (more weather alerts), and when they started mentioning tornado watches in counties that sounded nearby, I gave up, got

iPod fun with podcasts, but not what you think

2007-08-12T08:29:00.000-05:00

Current track: Latinum, the Latin class: My Second Latin Lesson.As the surprised recipient of a new-to-me iPod mini, I've spent a little time the last week or so figuring out what to listen to and how to set it up. At the moment music doesn't attract me as much as all of my neglected podcasts. The opportunity to listen to something interesting that I normally don't get around to makes grocery

Summer reality in the front garden

2007-08-12T08:10:00.001-05:00

Those deliciously cool mornings are now a matter of context. Here I sit on my entryway bench, enjoying the nice temperature of the morning and the chatter and buzzy murmur of the birds and insects... but I hustle to get out here between 7:30 and 8 am because by 8:30 it'll be a lot less sumptuously cool. Right now it's 79F, after a morning low (around 7 am) of 75F. It will be 85F pretty soon, and

Reduction update: power

2007-07-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

Our electricity meter was read on Tuesday, July 17, and I downloaded the stats and statement the next day. Our usage for the previous 32 days was 739 kWh, or 22.4 kWh/day -- half of what it was two years ago!Two years ago, before I started being careful about our a/c (air conditioning) use in summer, our usage for this time period was 1510 kWh. Last year, when I was pretty serious and yet we had

Reduction update: garbage & compost

2007-07-27T08:50:00.000-05:00

The boys and I actually set up sheet composting/bed preparation about 2 weeks ago on the grass-overrun backyard garden beds. I still can hardly believe that I finally did this thing I've been "meaning" to do for several years. A friend has this quote in her email signature:"There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it's

Eating locally: a book review

2007-07-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my favorite authors, was a couldn't-put-it-down book for me this week. Her prose didn't have the inner glow of her essays and novels, but I stayed up late one night trying to read as far as the season I am in right now!The book is about Kingsolver and her family's year of eating locally, focused mostly on what food they grew, why, how, and

A deliciously cool morning, from our entryway bench

2007-07-26T08:03:00.000-05:00

Cool morning air gently stirs the upper tree leaves and branches. A scarlet male cardinal pauses briefly in the grass below our river birch's low branches. The red geranium in the pot at the front step blooms again after a quiet few weeks. Not a cloud in the blue, blue sky.I hear the gentle clatter of Son2 getting his breakfast... cars going by on the cross street... the gas mower working the

Harry Potter 7 is in the house

2007-07-21T07:32:00.000-05:00

We've had Harry Potter book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, since Tuesday. Yes, that's four days before the worldwide release in English-speaking countries (which would be... 12:01 am today in the USA). I. Could. Not. Believe. It. A friend preordered it from a small bookseller/distributor that is now being sued for delivering 1,200 copies on Tuesday.We got our copy Tuesday early evening,

Blogiversary - three years today

2007-07-17T14:19:00.001-05:00

Amazingly, today is the very day of my three-year blogging anniversary. Plus ca change, plus ca ne change pas -- the more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm blogging a lot of the same stuff! I don't know whether to be cheered by or disappointed in that, but I'm going to go with cheered.And a heads up: I'm working on changing this blog into a WordPress blog, as soon as I make some

Doing anything with those grass clippings, mister?

2007-07-17T09:44:00.000-05:00

The sheet composting is a go! A week ago Sunday I marshalled the troops -- well, the kids -- to prepare some neglected garden beds for sheet composting while dear husband mowed the front lawn (so he could add the grass clippings as a top layer).Sheet composting, a/k/a horizontal composting, a/k/a lasagna gardening, is composting in horizontal layers in the location you intend to grow plants. The

Keeping cool

2007-07-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

Some really great, easy ideas for keeping the house cooler on those blazing hot Oklahoma summer days I'm sure we're gonna get any time now.102 and No Air Conditioning on the Blue Skies Urban Farm blog. Fresh tips: honeycomb insulated blinds; siesta schedule.Keeping the Heat Out on the Green Living Ottawa blog. Excellent tips: Coolaroo shade sail for outdoor living areas, or sunny walls and

Another baking day

2007-07-07T18:46:00.000-05:00

Yep, that Amish Friendship Bread starter was soooo ready. No denying it; today had to be a baking day. I still have three and a half loaves of breads in the freezer, and plenty of granola, so I am baking only I needed or had promised to do.1. Chocolate cake layers, for Son1's cake to enjoy (he left for Boy Scout camp the day after his half-birthday party last month)2. Four loaves of Amish

And the other son... Gryffindor!

2007-07-06T11:38:00.001-05:00

Son2 being Sorted Originally uploaded by Pioneer Library System"Because I like Harry Potter."Who could argue with that logic?!Thank you, dear husband, for locating Son2 in the sea of Sorting photos!