Thursday, September 23, 2010

A Few Little Discoveries

I went to my first Writer's Conference this weekend! It was affirming, inspiring, and free. I chose not to go the the afternoon session I had originally signed up for; marketing and publishing. I chose instead to attend the panel on writing different genres. I loved it and learned a lot. I even took away a few blogging tips. A friend of mine attended the marketing/publishing session and came away slightly overwhelmed and discouraged. I was so glad I didn't go to that one. I am not in that place in my writing. It would be good to actually finish a piece first, don't you agree?

This afternoon, as I was looking around my living room, trying to figure out how to make it more Nester'ly, it occurred to me that I am slightly overwhelmed and discouraged in my attempts at decorating my home because I am not in that place in my home-management.

I am closer to this:



I dream of this:

Tivoli Console Table, Artisanal Black stain


The blogs and television shows that I am thoroughly enjoying reading and watching are these:

inspired room

stash

DIY Blog Cabin 2010


The blogs and television shows that I will benefit more from at this point are perhaps these:


So now I am off to de-clutter our home-school table. My decorator dreams will be placed on the back burner until I have a better handle on the management part of keeping our home. Thanks for letting me share. I'd love to hear suggestions for other blogs and t.v. shows that I would enjoy or benefit from. Does anyone want to share their dreams and realities?



Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday CHAT

I would love it if you would CHAT with me every Monday.

C = Challenge
H = Habit
A = Action
T = Time

Here's mine for this week.

Challenge: I just read The Nester's post this morning titled Meaningful Beauty. She offers a challenge to her readers: "My encouragement to you today is to be intenional about surrounding yourself with PERSONAL meaningful beauty." After I read that I walked around my house and found basically nothing, besides my books, that would qualify as "personal meaningful beauty." So that is my challenge this week. Purposefully place items around my home that would be meaningful to my family. I've been wanting to frame some of the kids' artwork.

Habit: Go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30.

Action: Go to the gym or walk up the neighborhood hill 3x this week.

Time: Something I desperately need to spend some time on today and possibly throughout the week is my form for our vacation. The school we signed up under this year will pay for part of our trip. It has to be pre-approved and I keep procrastinating.

I'll update on Thursday to let you know how I'm doing on my CHAT. I'd love to hear about some of your goals for the week.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

"I Saved His Name In My Heart."

While driving my seven year old home from his speech session this afternoon, I was trying to find out some of the kids' names in his group. He could only remember the two girls' names. Go figure! Then he says, "There was Adam. From a long time ago." "That was a long time ago." After he thought a moment he said, "I saved his name in my heart."
Isn't that beautiful?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Last Days of Summer

I am sitting on my Driveway Swing, (kind of like a porch swing, but it's in our driveway instead) watching my boys swim. The neighbor kids, poor little darlings, will be in school for another hour. We are so blessed! My hubby found a blow-up fighter jet (Gotta love Woot!) that all 3 of my boys are able to float on. Although currently the two youngest are on it and the oldest is "rocking" it.
I read a touching article on Heart Of The Matter this morning by Sheri Sears listing the reasons she homeschools. The point that I have been reflecting on ever since is:
  • I don’t want my children to grow away from each other as schools seem to promote. They need to know that while friends come and go siblings are forever.
So this day, probably one of our last that is warm enough for swimming, is extra sweet to me.


Sunday, September 12, 2010

All I Want is a Dress for a Little Girl!!!

Oh, and I don't want to pay $50 for one. Is that too much to ask? I invited my sister to go dress shopping at our local mall for my 3-year-old girl for her adoption next week. I thought it would be a simple task. But no! There were no cute, inexpensive dresses. There were plenty of skanky, expensive, grown-up, 80's punk-Cyndi-Lauper-ish, or just plain ugly ones. We finally found a cute one on clearance at Target. Yay! Should have gone there first.
And, of course, when I looked online to get pictures of some of the horrible dresses we found, see below, I found lots of adorable dresses and they were on sale, too. Figures.

Tiered Ruffle Dress

Saturday, September 11, 2010

When Mama Ain't Happy...

It's not that I'm not happy. It's just that I'm not happy. The difference is subtle but important.
My hubby and I can tell when we're in sync with each other. We finish each other's sentences. We crave the same foods. We want to watch the same kinds of movies. Then there are times when we're out of sync. We're off. Occasionally one of has to proclaim, "We're so off!" Well lately, we've been fine, but I've been off. I don't want to write. I've been sleeping 10+ hours a night. I've been napping.
Fortunately I know exactly the steps I need to fix the problem.

Read the Bible every day. Things are so much clearer and brighter when I start with God's Word.




Practice His presence throughout the day.

Practicing His Presence [Book]




Exercise at least 4 times a week.




Make and follow an eating plan according to my two favorite "diet" books.


I will be back to chipper self soon!
In the meantime, I will be writing more regularly.