The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY... Yom Sheni, the 17th day of the 4th month
Outside My Window... the big kittens are playing and scampering about.
I am thinking... of how much I'm already enjoying the book I just started reading--'The Other Side of the Sun' by Madeleine L'Engle.
I am thankful for... being able to have a nice long conversation with my 25-year-old son a couple days ago.
From the kitchen... This week's dinners:Southwestern Chicken*Crockpot RoastChicken Soup in a Pot*Beef Stew*Steak with Pizza Potatoes*Super Easy Chicken*Beans and Cheeseburger Macaroni
(*these recipes are from 'Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly' by Phyllis Pellman Good)
I am wearing... a purple skirt and top.

I am creating... a crocheted baby headband to go with the Tulip Time dress and booties.
I am going... nowhere today, but will probably be doing the usual shopping and errands on Preparation Day later in the week.
I am reading... for the Fast of the Fourth Month:Zekaryah (Zechariah) 8:19-23Shemot (Exodus) 32:11-14, 34:1-10Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 55:6-56:8
The Scriptures in Chronological Order:Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 19, 20, 25, 26, 35, 36, 45-49Dibre HaYamim Bet (2 Chronicles) 36:1-4Habaqquq (Habakkuk)Dani'el (Daniel) 1
Parashat Matot (tribes): Torah--Bemidbar (Numbers) 30:1-32:42Haftarah--Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 1:1-2:3Ketuvim Netzarim--Mattithyahu (Matthew) 5:33-37; Acts 9:1-22
'Restoration' by D. Thomas Lancaster
'The Other Side of the Sun' by Madeleine L'Engle
'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen (listening to it on CraftLit)
I am hoping... that I can finish reading 'The Other Side of the Sun' before it's due back at the library.
I am hearing... my youngest tattling on his older siblings.
Around the house... I need to take inventory of the kids' clothes to see what they need before school starts.
One of my favorite things... is taking a nice relaxing bath.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: RSVP to an invitation.Return phone calls from family and friends.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing...
If you would like to participate in The Simple Woman's Daybook, visit Peggy's blog, The Simple Woman, and read the guidelines here.

My Husband Rocks!

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In addition to being the priest of our home, my husband takes his role as provider very seriously. He has a long commute, and then he works very hard out in the weather (right now over 100 degrees and sometimes even over 110 degrees) doing a very physically taxing job to provide for our needs.

His job has never been an easy one, but especially since his heart attack, it has been even more difficult when his body doesn't cooperate with his will. But he just keeps cracking away at it. His cardiologist tells him to, "Take it easy", apparently oblivious to the fact that there is no 'taking it easy' in my husband's kind of job. Not to mention that if my husband doesn't do it, it won't get done because he is self-employed, and there is no one else to do it, and if it doesn't get done, then there is no income, etc.

This puts a lot of stress on my husband, especially when he has to spend time in the hospital, and his work gets behind and has to be caught up once he gets out of the hospital. I am amazed at how he bears up under the stress and strives to keep going as best he can. He will always be my hero for that.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Another great Harry Potter movie. I've enjoyed every single one. I love all the effects, the strange surroundings, the alternate world feel and look of it, and all the different characters.

A funny thing happened during this one, though. I had to be pretty exhausted to fall asleep during a movie I enjoy, but sure enough I did fall asleep for several minutes. I missed the part where the nasty woman first became ensconced at the school.

Our cat, Velvet, had been pregnant for what seemed like forever, every day getting bigger and bigger until she looked like a big round ball. I would check on her a lot to see if she was going into labor yet.

So, what woke me up during the movie were little mewing sounds, and I hopped up and started heading for the laundry room (where Velvet was being kept safe from harrassment by our new dog) while mumbling that Velvet must be having her babies.

My entire family started laughing at my not-quite-complete awakening and bumbling run to the laundry room and informed me that the mewing sounds were coming from the cat pictures in that nasty woman's room in the movie.

After looking at the TV screen briefly, I still went and checked on Velvet just in case, but still no kittens were being born yet. They did arrive about a week later, though, and they are the cutest little things.

Ten On Tuesday--Vacation Moments

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Some of these are obviously not favorite vacation moments, but they are certainly among the most memorable:

1. Backing into a tree while camping in Sequoia National Park.

My parents had borrowed my grandparents' Suburban for this camping trip, so my stepfather was not used to driving it. When we got to the campground, he told us kids to get in the very back and watch out the rear window as he was backing into the campsite because there was a huge tree there. When we got close to the tree, we kids started yelling, "Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!", and for some reason he kept going and BAM! hit the tree. We asked him why he didn't stop when we were yelling "Stop!" over and over again, and he admitted that he figured he still had plenty of room because we were just kids and probably would think the car was close when it wasn't. Huh? Then why'd he ask us to be the look-outs if he didn't trust our judgment?

2. Backing into a Mercedes in Paris.

Yes, he did it again for exactly the same reason as before--didn't trust that we kids knew when it was time to stop. This time it we were in a VW bus, and he drove into an entrance to an underground parking garage, but with all our luggage on the roof rack, we couldn't clear the opening, so he had to back out with a bunch of traffic piled up behind us. Again, we kids went to the back of the vehicle, and with our eyes glued on the car behind us, we yelled "Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!" at the appropriate time, only to continue to more frantically and loudly yell "Stop!" until he hit the front grill of the Mercedes. The lady driver only spoke French, so it was quite a spectacle.

3. Detained in Munich.

On this same Europe trip, for some reason our parents would let us scatter when we'd go places with the plan of meeting back at a certain spot at a certain time. Mostly it was my older stepsister (14) and I (12) who would go off together to explore. In Munich we went shopping in a big mall, and after going through a bin of earrings, we found some we liked and purchased them. However, as we were exiting the store, a woman with a huge hulking man in tow stopped us, and she started grilling us in German, which we didn't understand, while The Hulk held up two earring cards, each with an earring missing. Eventually she started speaking enough English for us to understand that they suspected us of stealing those cheap-o earrings! We immediately showed our little bags and receipts with the earrings we had purchased, but that didn't satisfy them, and they insisted on searching our purses. We were scared to death and had no idea where our parents were or what would happen to us. We kept insisting that we only purchased earrings and didn't steal any, and after they were through searching us, they finally decided to let us go. The main thing I remember about the woman (who was obviously the one in charge) was that she had about 3 layers of false eyelashes on with Tammy Faye-esque eye makeup. She was scary.

4. Detained in East Berlin.

As if the Munich episode wasn't scary enough, when we got to East Berlin (this was in 1970 when the Iron Curtain was still firmly in place), I got detained AGAIN! We traveled through East Germany, where you dared not have car trouble or go off the main highway or anything, so that was scary enough. Then we got to West Berlin, went to museums and stuff, and then, despite our pointing out to the parents all the gun towers along the Berlin Wall, barbed wire, barricades, soldiers, etc., they decided we were going to walk through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. We got as far as the guard station on the East Berlin side, where we were detained. I was taken into a room by myself, separated from my entire family, and grilled by East German soldiers in German. Somehow I managed to figure out that they were asking me my age because I understood "zwolf", so I kept saying, "Zwolf, ja, zwolf" ("12, yes, 12") . We had a family passport, so the passport picture was of all of us, and they apparently thought I was an adult impersonating a 12 year old and maybe using this family as my spy front? I could only imagine, but again I was scared to death and just kept insisting that I was 12. They eventually brought in a Russian soldier, who seemed to be the big boss, and he grilled me in German and Russian and broken English until he was finally satisfied that I was telling the truth, or at least not a threat, I guess, and subsequently let us proceed with our walking tour of East Berlin.

5. Mom risking us getting into more trouble with the Communists.

You'd think having her 12-year-old child grilled by the Communists would be enough to keep my mom in line, but nooooo! We were only supposed to go to specified sites in East Berlin and could only take pictures of these approved sites, which I remember being various monuments. But my mother decided she wanted pictures of the people and the soldiers that were everywhere guarding everything and the gun towers and all the stuff you were not supposed to take pictures of. We kept begging her to stop, but she just kept doing it, apparently getting a thrill out of getting away with it. She was pretty giddy when her film hadn't gotten confiscated so that she was able to send it back home via air mail from West Berlin. Then, as if that whole time in East Berlin wasn't bad enough, when we made our return trip through East Germany and finally got to the border, there was a long line of cars because they inspected the cars very thoroughly as the East German people were apparently sometimes smuggled over the border into West Germany in hidden compartments in or under cars. While we were waiting in this long line of cars, my stepfather left us sitting in the car while he and my 16-year-old stepbrother went looking for a bathroom. Shortly after that, the line of cars in front of us started moving, but we were driverless, and my mother just sat there in the front passenger seat knitting while we begged her to move the car forward so we wouldn't come under yet more scrutiny by the Communists. Her only answer, while not dropping a stitch, was "I only drive automatics." The VW bus had a manual transmission with a stickshift, so we had to wait for my stepfather to return. I was so happy when we finally made it back over the border.

6. Waiting at the Coliseum in Rome.

After we had toured the Coliseum, my stepfather decided that he and my stepbrother would go get the VW bus and drive over to pick the rest of us up, so there we were waiting across the street from the Coliseum. My 14-year-old stepsister was swinging on a lamp post while the rest of us were sitting on boulders next to the sidewalk watching all the cars circling the Coliseum. After a while, a car pulled over and stopped next to the lamp post where my stepsister was, and the driver opened the passenger door of his car and beckoned to her in Italian, whereupon she turned to my mom and asked, "Should I get in?" My mom jumped up, yelling "No!" while she yanked her back to the boulders and away from the street. We've never let my stepsister live down this "Should I get in?" story.

7. Stalked in Venice.

My stepsister had red hair, and I had blonde hair, and this seemed to attract a lot of male attention when we were in Italy. Again, our parents let us go off by ourselves to see the sights, and men kept following us and touching our hair. Finally, while waiting for our parents in St. Mark's square, a French sailor decided to try some English on my stepsister and said, "Come wis me, baby, and we can spend ze night togezzer." By this time she had had enough of the stalking and propositioning that had been going on all day (and she was probably still trying to recover from the "Should I get in?" episode back in Rome), and she let loose with the most colorful string of curse words I'd ever heard her put together up to that point. The French sailor and all the others in the vicinity laughed and were even more enamored of her after they saw her angry side. Thankfully our parents came along shortly after that, and we stayed with them the rest of the time we were in Venice. The stalking didn't end, though. The next day, my mom caught a guy walking behind us trying to put his hand up my dress!

8. Trying not to see the Grand Canyon.

On one of our annual car trips back to Arkansas and Missouri from California with my dad and stepmother, I decided to opt out of the viewing of the Grand Canyon. My dad was in disbelief about this, but I was 14 and had seen it numerous times by then, but at the bottom of it was that I was afraid of heights and didn't want to admit it, so I just kept playing it off nonchalantly how I'd already seen it enough and didn't need to see it anymore and acted as much like a blase teenager as I could. My dad (AKA Clark Griswold) was not about to accept this and kept making appeals to me as I lay in the back of the station wagon, saying things like, "It's one of the seven wonders of the world. You can't possibly not see one of the seven wonders of the world!" My dad had me laughing so hard from all his silly appeals that I finally got out and stood there next to him looking out at the expanse of the Grand Canyon for about 2 seconds before saying, "Okay, I did it" and jumped back into the car. When the movie Vacation came out several years later, it had a similar 2-second Grand Canyon viewing scene, and my dad and I loved how it reminded us of that summer when I didn't want to see the Grand Canyon.

9. Dad and the park rangers.

When I was growing up, we did a lot of camping in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, and we still did after I had kids of my own. All three generations would go on these summer camping trips, and we had a lot of fun going on the ranger-led tours and to the campfire programs, and my dad's constant refrain throughout these vacations was, "I want to be a Park Ranger when I grow up." This always made us laugh because my dad was a research scientist with 40-some-odd patents and not someone easily pictured as a park ranger, but he really loved those camping trips and probably did wish he could be a park ranger at least some of the time. I sure do miss my dad. He was the funnest person ever to go on vacations with.

10. Grandma and cars.

This vacation moment is from before I was born, but I've always loved hearing the story. My grandparents moved to the West Coast from Missouri during the depression. On one of their family car trips back to Missouri to visit family, they had car trouble, and while attempting to get the car going again, one of my uncles decided they were probably out of gas. My grandma then asked, "Does it hurt the car to run it without gas?" I miss my grandma, too.

Happy vacation days, everybody!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY... Yom Sheni, the 10th day of the 4th month
Outside My Window... It has been raining off and on throughout the day, so our evaporative coolers have not been very effective in keeping the temperature inside the house as comfortable as I would like. It's fun to watch the rain coming down, though.
I am thinking... and wondering how my husband is doing on his first day back at work after being in the hospital again.
I am thankful for... my husband's heart to do his best to support our family under difficult circumstances.
From the kitchen... This week's dinners:Chicken Breasts with Rosemary*Rice and GravyTuna a la KingChili SpaghettiSteak with Do-Ahead Mashed Potatoes*Beef Roast and PotatoesBeans and Cheeseburger Macaroni(*these recipes are from 'Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly' by Phyllis Pellman Good)
I am wearing... a green dress and a black snood.
I am creating... the 'Knit One, Kill Two' square for My Reading Afghan, currently on the needles, and the 'Middlesex' square, also for My Reading Afghan, still in my head.
I am going... to town later in the week to do the usual weekly errands and shopping.
I am reading... The Scriptures in Chronological Order:Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 1-18Parashat Pinchas (Phinehas [dark-skinned]): Torah--Bemidbar (Numbers) 25:10-29:40Haftarah--Melakim Alef (1 Kings) 18:46-19:21Ketuvim Netzarim--Yochanan (John) 2:13-25; Romans 11:2-32'Restoration' by D. Thomas Lancaster'Around The World In 80 Days' by Jules Verne'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen (listening to it on CraftLit)
I am hoping... my husband stays healthy.
I am hearing... the kids chasing each other around the house, laughing.
Around the house... is the usual laundry pile-up that needs to be tackled. Have a bunch of medical insurance paperwork that has to be done first, though.
One of my favorite things... is newborn kittens--we have 4!
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Still need to mail the package of books to my mother.Also need to call my mother.Need to catch up on work for my job that I missed during Husband's hospitalization.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

If you would like to participate in The Simple Woman's Daybook, visit Peggy's blog, The Simple Woman, and read the guidelines here.

My Husband Rocks!

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My husband is the spiritual leader of our family and takes his role seriously, and this is the most awesome thing ever!

He leads us in Torah study every Shabbat and frequently shows me insights into the Scriptures that I hadn't previously seen. He makes sure the children know what they need to know to serve YHWH with all of their hearts. He does his best to be an example for us to follow, and he prays for us and with us. He blesses us with the traditional blessings and with everything else he does for us.

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Messiah also did love the assembly and gave Himself for it,
Eph 5:26 in order to set it apart and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,

My husband rocks because he sets me apart and washes me with water by the Word.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY...Yom Sheni, the 3rd day of the 4th month

Outside My Window...There was a cactus wren perched upside down on the ceiling of the veranda! By the time I got the camera, he had flown away.
I am thinking...about how I only have a few more minutes to finish this Daybook entry before I have to log in for work.
I am thankful for...having a littler bit cooler night last night than the night before.
From the kitchen...This week's dinners:Easy Beef*Steak and Do-Ahead Mashed Potatoes*Cheeseburger Soup*Chicken Breasts with Rosemary*Steak and Pizza Potatoes*CC (Company's Coming) Roast*Beans and Cheeseburger Macaroni(*these recipes are from 'Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly' by Phyllis Pellman Good)
I am wearing...a pink and black print dress and a black snood.
I am creating...the 'Knit One, Kill Two' square for My Reading Afghan.
I am going...on my usual weekly shopping trip on Preparation Day (Friday) and until then trying to make sure I remember to write down everything I need to get and to do while I'm in town.
I am reading...The Scriptures in Chronological Order:Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 52-66Dibre HaYamim Bet (2 Chronicles) 33-35Tsephanyah (Zephaniah)Parashat Balak (destroyer):Torah--Bemidbar (Numbers) 22:2-25:9Haftarah--Mikah 5:6-6:8Ketuvim Netzarim--Romans 11:25-32'Restoration' by D. Thomas Lancaster'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen (listening to it on CraftLit)
I am hoping... my cat, Velvet, has her kittens soon. She looks like a basketball with legs sticking out.
I am hearing... only a slight drone from the coolers because I have my new noise-cancellation headphones on.
Around the house... I'm still trying to get to the bottom of the mending basket.
One of my favorite things... is chili cheese dogs with onions, which is what we had on the Fourth of July.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Catch up on work for my job.Catch up on laundry.Mail package of books to my mother and birthday card to my nephew.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

If you would like to participate in The Simple Woman's Daybook, visit Peggy's blog, The Simple Woman, and read the guidelines here.

Thursday Thirteen--1st Edition

Thirteen Things about ME 1. I am a member of the Baby Boomer generation. 2. I grew up in Southern California. 3. I have one sister and two brothers, and I am the oldest. 4. I am married. 5. I have 9 children--5 daughters and 4 sons. The three youngest are still living at home. 6. I have 7 grandchildren--all girls. 7. Three of my granddaughters are older than my youngest child, and one was born the same month he was and is only 18 days younger. 8. I've been pregnant and given birth as a teenager, in my 20s, in my 30s and in my 40s. 9. I am left-handed. 10. My favorite color is light purple (like the background of this post). 11. The smell of Drakkar Noir makes me weak in the knees. 12. I love chili spaghetti topped with cheddar cheese. 13. I hate spiders and bugs.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Home Of The Brave

This movie was okay, not great, but okay. It focuses on the return home of four veterans of the Iraq war.

On the positive side, I think it helped me to better understand why my son, also a veteran of the same war, wanted to go back to Iraq, something I certainly didn't want him to do after sweating it out until he finally came home safely. (His birthday is today--Happy Birthday, sweetheart!)

While watching the movie, I ended up revisiting my now 5-year-long anger and frustration with this war. To this day, I still don't know why all the insanity hasn't been decisively dealt with and put down.

For instance, the movie depicts the soldiers on a HUMANITARIAN mission into a village to deliver supplies when they are attacked and bombed by 'insurgents'. To my way of thinking, any village harboring such 'insurgents' who kill our people doesn't need our humanitarian aid and shouldn't get any until they turn over said 'insurgents'.

There is a perfect example in the Scriptures of how such situations should be handled. When Sheba was in rebellion against King David and hiding in Abel, Israel's army with Yoab as its leader, besieged the city of Abel until Sheba's head was thrown over the wall to him. This was facilitated by a wise woman of Abel, and then the army left the city in peace. (This story is in 2 Samuel 20).

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY...Yom Sheni, the 26th day of the 3rd month

Outside My Window... The flag is waving softly, the sun is bright, and the sky is a cloudless blue.

I am thinking... about the heavy work day I have ahead of me.

I am thankful for... the love of my family.

From the kitchen... This week's dinners:

Slow-Cooker Barbecued Chicken*

Beef Burgundy*

Stew in a Snap*

Barbecued Chicken Breasts*

Steak with Mashed Potatoes*

CC (Company's Coming) Roast*

Cheeseburger Macaroni

(*these recipes are from 'Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly' by Phyllis Pelman Good.)

I am wearing... a dark blue dress.

I am creating... the Shining Star baby blanket and an afghan square to represent the book, 'Knit One, Kill Two' by Maggie Sefton, for My Reading Afghan.

I am going... to town to go shopping, but not until Preparation Day.

I am reading...

Daily for this week: Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 38-51; Mikah 1-7; Dibre HaYamim Bet (2 Chronicles) 32

Rosh Chodesh: Bemidbar (Numbers) 28:1-15; Shemuel Alef (1 Samuel) 20:18, 42; Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 66; Kefa Alef (1 Peter) 2:4-10

Chukat (Statute): Torah--Bemidbar (Numbers) 19:1-22:1; Haftarah--Mishpatim (Judges) 11:1-33; Ketuvim Netzarim--Yochanan (John) 3:10-21; Ibrim (Hebrews)9:11-28

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I am hoping... to meet my work quotas.

I am hearing... the evaporative coolers on 'high'.

Around the house... I realize that I need to get all the mending done before I tackle dejunking.

One of my favorite things... is being able to come back into the cooler house after being outside where it is very hot right now.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:

I'm so overwhelmed with my job right now that I won't be able to focus on anything else until tomorrow.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

If you would like to participate in The Simple Woman's Daybook, visit Peggy's blog, The Simple Woman, and read the guidelines here.

Randomness...Random Nosy Questions

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Week of June 29: Random Nosy Questions

1. What are your plans for today? Work, work, work to meet my production quotas before the end of the month.
2. Who was the last person you talked on the phone with? My mother and my sister on speakerphone.
3. What was the last tv program you watched? 20/20.
4. What was the last thing you ate? Sunflower seeds.

5. What time did you get out of bed today?

10:30 a.m.

till next time....

Friday's Feast 195

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Appetizer
What is the weather like today where you live?

There is barely any hint of wind--yay!!! It's beautiful and sunny and 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

Soup
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how career-minded are you?

Probably a 2. I'm more hearth and home oriented, and I'd rather go back to being 'just' a housewife. I work at a job because I have to, not because I want to.

Salad
What type of window coverings do you have in your home? Blinds, curtains, shutters, etc.?

Mostly curtains. A couple of windows have pull-down blinds with lace curtains, and two rooms have vertical blinds. The rest have curtains or are bare.

Main Course
Name something that instantly cheers you up.

Watching and hearing my children laugh.

Dessert
How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning?

Once.

3X Thursday

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1. Got any big projects in the works? If so, what's on your plate? If not, are there any projects you want to start/take up?

I currently have knitting/crocheting projects in progress for my husband, all of my children, all of my grandchildren, my mother, all of my siblings and even myself. Also in the works is a gift for an upcoming baby shower. Most of these projects are afghans, so they definitely qualify as big in my book. And just because I have 25 WIPs doesn't mean there aren't more projects I want to start! Having all these projects going at the same time and rotating them keeps me from getting bored with any single one, and it helps me to feel like I'm not leaving any of my loved ones out.

2. Do you have pets? Do you think pets could/are beneficial to helping to have a less stressful life? Why/why not? What are your general views on pets?

Yes, we have pets--1 dog, 10 cats, 2 Roborovski hamsters, 2 bettas (fish) and an aquarium full of tropical fish with a couple of African frogs. I've had pets my whole life, so I can't imagine being without. One of my favorite things in life has always been petting my cats--their soft fur and purring is so calming and relaxing. Pets provide companionship, and working pets provide even more than that. For instance, our cats help keep deadly snakes away, and our dog in his role as watchdog alerts us to anything unusual, and that definitely reduces stress. Caring for pets helps people to feel useful and needed, and we all need that. Our children learn responsibility by caring for the needs of our pets under our supervision. For me, pets are worth having and add to our enjoyment of life.

3. Do you wear any jewelry? If so, what do you wear? If you don't wear any, why not?

Yes, I always wear my wedding ring. I used to always wear a necklace that Husband gave me, but the chain broke. Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to get it fixed or get a new chain and be able to wear it again. I prefer jewelry that can be worn all the time and doesn't need to be taken off, so just my wedding ring and a necklace is plenty for me, so I don't have to be concerned with possibly losing a piece of jewelry.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY... Yom Sheni, the 19th day of the 3rd month
Outside My Window... the wind is blowing mildly, and it is nice and sunny.
I am thinking...that I wish I had gotten a little more sleep.
I am thankful for... Husband's provision for us.
From the kitchen... This week's dinners:Ground Turkey Soup*Steak with Garlicky Potatoes*"Baked" Chicken*Succulent Steak*Steak with Mustard Potatoes*Burgundy Beef RoastCheeseburger Macaroni(*these recipes are from 'Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly' by Phyllis Pellman Good.)
I am wearing... a hastily thrown-on housedress, pink and black (had to hurry and get Husband's statements printed off before he left for work).
I am creating... an account card template for Husband and The Great American Afghan for my youngest son.
I am going... to the library tomorrow to hopefully pick up the book I requested last week--'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides--which is the current selection for the Ravelry Book Club.
I am reading... Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 14-37.Korach--Torah: Bemidbar (Numbers) 16:1-18:32.Haftarah: Shemuel Alef (1 Samuel) 11:14-12:22.Ketuvim Netzarim: Acts 1:1-11; Romans 13:1-7.'Knit One, Kill Two' by Maggie Sefton
I am hoping... that Husband will have a better day at work than he did last week.
I am hearing... our new dog, Buddy, barking. I think he's being taught to 'speak' by the kids.
Around the house... I want to dejunk and organize, so I think I'll start from the front door and work my way around the house counterclockwise, spending at least 15 minutes a day on it.
One of my favorite things... is my children's smiles.
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Call Mom and see how she's doing.Call my oldest daughter to wish her a happy birthday.Call my friend who's been concerned about me.Deal with all the medical bills and receipts.Organize my project bags.Finish the Priscilla Gibson-Roberts square for The Great American Afghan, or at least get one of the little socks finished.Write up and post the pattern for the afghan square I designed to represent the book, Here Be Dragons.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

Template Creation

If you would like to participate in The Simple Woman's Daybook, visit Peggy's blog, The Simple Woman, and then read the guidelines here.

Silver Medalist!

My son was selected to represent his school in a district-wide Mental Math competition, and he came in second place of all the second graders in the whole school district!

He was awarded a really nice medal, rather heavy and substantial. We are all really excited and very proud of him! I told him I'd be counting on him to do any math figuring I need done from now on.

My Birthday Goodies!

It was my birthday a few weeks ago, and I got some really awesome gifts. Some were in the form of cash and gift certificates, so I waited until the orders came in, and then I finally got around to taking pictures of everything. Above is my super-duper true daylight crafting lamp. It has two flexible arms--one with a clamp to hold a pattern (in this case, the Great North American Afghan book) and one with a magnifying glass on the end. When not in use I keep the magnifying glass protected and covered with the little white fabric bag that came with it. This lamp and magnifying glass have been life-savers for me to be able to work on Husband's Flag Kippah.This is my new MP3 player and case. It's been great fun to finally be able to listen to knitting podcasts on the go. Mostly I've been listening in the car during the commute to and from town on my weekly shopping trips. My 14-year-old daughter, who usually accompanies me, is not so thrilled with the podcast listening as I am.
I've also been able to enjoy some new music. I've wanted Ted Pearce's 'Hallelu Et Adonai' since it first came out, and now I finally have it!
My other new CD is Simon and Garfunkel 'Live 1969' with all my faves, like 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' and 'The Boxer'.
I've been intrigued with the Stained Glass Afghan on the cover of this book for some time now, so I'm very happy to finally have it in hand. There are some other great afghans in it, too, but that cover afghan is for sure something I have to make when I get all the current afghans in progress finished.
I joined a CAL group on Ravelry that is doing all of the squares in this '200 Blocks' book by Jan Eaton. I haven't yet crocheted any of the squares, but I have the yarn I want to use ready to go. I'm planning to make afghans for my granddaughters with these squares. Another group on Ravelry that I'm a member of is the Read~Knit~Cook group. I'm way behind on the reading selections, but at least now I have them. These are the first three in a series of knitting-themed cozy mysteries by Maggie Sefton.

This knitting-themed romance is also a selection for the Read~Knit~Cook group. And I'm looking forward to indulging myself with the gardenia-scented toiletries and candle I received.
These are the first couple of books in another knitting-themed cozy mystery series for the Read~Knit~Cook group. These are by Mary Kruger.
As far as I know these first two books in a knitting-themed series by Debbie Macomber are not yet a selection for any of the book groups I belong to, but I thought I'd try them out anyway. I've read a couple of her earlier books and liked her as an author, so hopefully I'll enjoy these, too.

It'll be some time before I can read any of these new books since I'm still reading Here Be Dragons, a selection for the Ravelry Book Club group that is 700 pages long. I haven't even completed 200 pages yet!I also got this order of goodies from Frugal Knitting Haus: a pattern book for baby and toddler dresses, size L, M, N and P crochet hooks of the Crystallites type, two cable needles and a row counter.

Many, many thank-yous to all my loved ones who blessed me with this bounty of things that bring me such joy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this--remember how special and precious you are!

I hope all the mothers in my life know how much I love them--my mother, mother-in-law, sister, sisters-in-law, daughters, daughter-in-law, aunts, nieces, cousins and all of my friends.

This flower and hand-painted flowerpot were made and given to me by my 8 year old this morning along with the card he made. I have to work today, but it's wonderful being able to look at my new little flowerpot here on my desk and think not only of my precious little boy who made it for me, but also of all the sweet gifts and love all of my children have given me through the years.

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." –Elizabeth Stone

We had our Mother's Day celebration last night when Husband took us out to eat. We went to a buffet and 'ate ourselves silly'. Everything was delicious! We had a lot of fun together not only during the meal but on the drive there and back. It was wonderful, and I loved every minute of it.

My Daughter's VFW Award

My 14-year-old daughter was recently honored by the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) post for submitting the winning entry in a recent contest to name the theme for Loyalty Day 2008.

She received a U.S. Savings Bond and a beautiful certificate of appreciation whch states, in part:

"Your suggestion for the 2008 Loyalty Day theme, '[our community]--Home of Veterans', is indicative of your loyalty and concern for America's ideals, freedoms, traditions and the foundation which has insured these goals. Your actions alone are commendable, and we hope will serve to awaken in others an awareness of the constant need to cherish and protect this nation against all its enemies."

Naturally, we're very proud of her.

I think this post would be a good place to include pictures of the flagpole Husband installed in front of our house a couple days ago.

We're hoping it will hold up to the wind. It's always a hold-your-breath kind of thing when putting something like that outside here because the wind is usually blowing and usually blows very hard rather than soft.

We once had a beautiful metal windmill out in front, and one day when the wind picked up, we heard a bunch of metallic groaning, and sure enough, the windmill was completely torqued and twisted, lying on its side with the ground anchors pulled out.

While I was outside taking pictures, I noticed that the cacti are starting to bloom, so it will be really colorful and pretty around here for a while.

Ravelry CAL Afghan 4

I began this CAL (Crochet-A-Long) with the vague intention of someday ending up with one afghan by making the designated 12-inch square each month. I went out and bought a really pretty multicolored yarn called 'Monet' (Red Heart Super Saver yarn), and then I proceeded to crochet January's block, called Dream Catcher (upper left in the above photo).

When the February block came along, it was called 'Cross My Heart' (see bottom two squares in top photo), and the example shown with the pattern was made with four colors. I thought that looked really interesting, so I bought some more yarn in solid colors that matched the 'Monet' multicolored yarn (Pale Green, Orchid and Lavender) and made a 'Cross My Heart' block with all four yarns.

I thought that maybe future blocks would utilize more than one color of yarn as the 'Cross My Heart' block did, so I figured I was all set and ready to make the subsequent monthly blocks.

As I looked at these pretty colors I loved so much together, it occurred to me that these were colors that one of my daughters also loved, and I started to think about how it would be nice to give her this afghan if it turned out as nicely as I hoped it would.

This started me to thinking about how nice it would be to make an afghan for each of my children. At about this same time I had purchased patterns for three knitted afghans for my youngest still-living-at-home children, and I thought these monthly CAL blocks would be great for making afghans for my adult children.

I started asking each of them their color preferences and started getting yarn in the various color combinations I thought each of them would like. My two youngest daughters helped me figure out the different color combinations. I also decided it would be a good idea to make one of these for my husband since I can't stand the ratty old blanket he currently uses when he watches TV.

So, by the end of February I had finished a 'Dream Catcher' square and a 'Cross My Heart' square for each of these seven afghans in seven different color combinations. I put the pictures of the squares for each afghan here on my blog on the main page and told my kids they could check the pictures on my blog to watch the progress of their afghan.

When I explained that each afghan needed at least 24 blocks, and therefore it would take a couple years for their afghans to be completed, there were enough expressions of dismay about the 2-year wait that by the time the March block, Cygnus (see top 2 squares in second photo from top), came along I had decided to double up on the blocks, intending to crochet two of each monthly block for each afghan so that hopefully all seven afghans would be completed within one year instead of two years.

In March, I only managed to get three out of seven afghans caught up with six squares completed, two of each month's square. Another change came about when I found the 'Aspen Print' yarn that I thought would be perfect for my oldest son's afghan (Afghan 3) since his youngest daughter's name is Aspen. At that point, the former Afghan 3 got renamed Afghan 8 and reassigned to one of my brothers, who I thought would like that color combo, and I got a whole new color combination to start making these blocks for an afghan for my other brother.

So, now I have nine of these CAL block-a-month afghans in nine different color combinations planned, which means I need to make 18 of each month's block just to stay caught up, but since I was already behind, it looks like I'll probably be playing catch-up for a while yet.

Even though I got all eight of the monthly blocks crocheted for Afghan 3, I didn't like the way the sides on the April block, 'Chocolate Delight', turned out, so I'm having to frog back a few rounds to re-do them. I modified the pattern when I crocheted the 'Chocolate Delight' blocks for this Afghan 4 (see bottom 2 squares in the photo second from the top), and the sides are much straighter. Compare the photos of how the sides turned out between the unmodified pattern on the left and the modified pattern on the right.

Once I re-do Afghan 3's two 'Chocolate Delight' blocks with the same modification (the center six stitches on each side in round 8 were changed from double crochets to treble crochets), I will have a total of two of these afghans caught up so far this month, and then it will be on to Afghan 5 to see if I can get it caught up before the end of the month.