The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ August 24

Here is my Daybook entry for today ~

Outside my window. . .lots of bright pink flowers on the bush outside my window, sunshine and breezy.
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I am thinking. . .about final plans for the new school year.
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From the learning room. . .last week of summer break before we start back to school next week – schedules are just about all in place and school books are lining up on the shelf ready for the new year.
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I am thankful for. . .the blessing of being home with my children, guiding their education, and spending our days together as a family.
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From the kitchen. . .Manwich Casserole, corn on the cob, and fried okra.
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I am wearing. . .pink sweater and denim capris.
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I am creating. . .my final schedule for school next week.
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I am going. . .to need to start planning this week for our annual Labor Day Cup competition.
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I am reading. . .school books and planning sheets.
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I am hoping. . .(and planning) to spend less time on the computer this week, and more time working around the house.
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I am hearing. . .lots of children talking and giggling (one is grumping!), and the air conditioner running.
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Around the house. . .much to straighten up (including a few attitudes), piles of books around that I will get put away this week, an huge bowl of okra to slice today (get ready for slimy hands!)
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One of my favorite things. . .classic children’s books and snuggling up with my littles to read them together.
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .final preparations for school, cleaning up the house, monthly Keepers Club meeting, driver’s license for Matthew, baby shower for a friend with the girls, and possibly a field trip and library book sale later in the week.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .

Pumpkins growing in the garden.

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Thanks to Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook for this wonderful meme.

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself . . .

Ryan and Matthew were in a friend’s wedding last weekend, and being their mother, I was snapping pictures of them the whole time. But then, how often do you get to see your sons dressed in a tuxedo and a new black suit – not often enough, I say, so I rest my case.

So, please humor me by allowing me to share my pride in my two boys, who just yesterday, it seems, were little guys running around the house, and now are all grown up and wearing suits.

Mattie leaving the house for the wedding ~

Ready to begin ushering ~

I didn’t see Ryan until the ceremony, as he was hiding out with the groom somewhere (probably hiding from my camera!). There are a few fuzzy pictures of him during the ceremony, which I won’t force upon you (remember I’m still learning with my new camera). At the reception, he spent some time dancing around with David on his feet – so cute ~

Mattie having a quick snack from the reception table ~

And I just have to share this one – I think it is so lovely of Laura (don’t tell her I posted it!) ~

And I really love this one, even if it is a little blurry ~

There was dancing, too, but I won’t share those as there are a lot of others in the pictures that I haven’t cleared it with, but I can share these two little ones, who enjoyed the music immensely ~

Oh, and the cake was wonderful, too ~

Okay, one last picture . . . because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself ~

Blessings,
Nancy

You know it’s time to dust when . . .

the children start using the furniture to practice their handwriting. Guess I let it go a little too long!

Blessings,
Nancy

Our Creepy Night-time Guest

Every night, when darkness falls, our resident spiders start their nightly work around our patio and yard. Last week when we were out watching the meteor shower, we found a number of these guests busy at work. Their webs are so amazing to look at, and this particular spider treated us to a demonstration of what it does to the helpless creatures that manage to get stuck in the web. We watched the spider wrapping up it’s dinner – you can see it in the picture to the left of the spider.

I really don’t care for spiders at all, especially when they build webs and sit in the middle of them right in my walking path, but I do enjoy looking at their beautiful webs and watching them spin them – from a distance of course!

Blessings,
Nancy

The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ August 17

Here is my Daybook entry for today ~

Outside my window. . .It’s already warming up out there – almost 85 degrees at 9 am! My van is sitting in the driveway rather than on the road taking Matthew to work since I forgot to get my car key back from Jeff last night after he drove it yesterday. Jeff lost his key and we’ve been swapping out mine ever since. We were all buckled in, ready to go this morning, when I went to put my key in the ignition and instantly realized that it wasn’t there. Thank heavens for older brothers (Ryan!) who could come to Matthew’s rescue and come pick him up and get him to work, even if a bit late!
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I am thinking. . .about my FREE Stampin Up order that I need to put in this morning. It was my turn to be hostess at our monthly stamp club yesterday, and now I get to pick out $65 worth of free merchandise from the catalog! In a catalog with 200 pages of beautiful stamp sets and accessories, this is not such an easy task – but definitely fun!
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From the learning room. . .most of the children were educated this weekend about weddings, as they attended their first wedding of friends from church. Two of their brothers were in the wedding, and so they also got to see and hear explanations of what all was going on.
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I am thankful for. . .the beauty of a normal day.
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From the kitchen. . .Chicken Tetrazini with green salad and chocolate cake for dessert.
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I am wearing. . .navy shirt and jean shorts.
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I am creating. . .a list of everything I want to accomplish around the house in the next two weeks before we start back to school (and a schedule for getting it done).
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I am going. . .to be giving a couple of haircuts this week to a couple of shaggy boys.
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I am reading. . .Philippians and my Bible study book.
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I am hoping. . .it will start to cool down sooner rather than later this year.
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I am hearing. . ..Sponge Bob dvd, air conditioner running – pretty quiet right now, which, I’m sure will change by the time I finish writing this.
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Around the house. . .laundry started, much okra on the kitchen counter to cut, our dried apple doll heads are finished drying and ready to be dressed and adorned.
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One of my favorite things. . .my new daily appointment calendar, which just started for the new school year.
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .cleaning out the game shelves, Ladies Bible Study, dinner out at Chick-Fil-a for the whole family, a trip to Half-Price Books to look for some books on our reading list for the year, possibly a minor-league baseball game later in the week.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .

My new primitive bowl and rag balls that I got for my birthday.

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Thanks to Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook for this wonderful meme.

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Okra Fresh From the Garden

Our okra plants have really taken off this year. They have always been a good crop for us, but have done especially well this year. Maybe it’s that dose of fertilizer that Jeff gave them a little while back ~ or maybe it’s the “organic” fertilizer left by the two barn cats who, for awhile there, were using this garden plot as their litter box. No matter what the cause, these plants have gotten huge and are producing okra for cutting daily.

Here is what I do with them once cut. They usually gather on the kitchen counter for a few days until I get around to slicing them. Then I get out my cutting board and knife and start slicing.

Now, I only cook okra one way around here, and that’s fried ~ I do not care for the stringy mess that comes from the other ways of cooking it, but fried okra? – well, I grew up on that. Remember I do live in the South. So, during the summer, I keep a Ziploc freezer bag (gallon size) in my freezer, in which I have placed a mixture of corn meal and flour (no measuring here, just mix some together). As I slice the okra every few days or so, I place the slices in the freezer bag and shake it all up to coat it well.

I then place the bag back in the freezer until next time. As the bag fills up, I have ready-to-go okra waiting for me to fry up with a meal ~ especially good with fried chicken and mashed potatoes or corn on the cob (don’t ask me how our corn crop went this year ).

Blessings,
Nancy

We saw them!

Image courtesy of Corbis

Well, we didn’t see as many as these people are seeing, but we did see some great ones! Tuesday night the clouds were too much, and we weren’t able to see anything (although Tommy thought he might have seen something once), but last night the skies were perfectly clear, so we went outside around 11 pm and watched and waited.

We were soon rewarded with some spectacular meteors shooting across the sky! It was very exciting every time we saw one, and I was glad that each of the kids was able to see one – most of them for the first time ever. David was asleep, but Anna, who was afraid of missing out on the big kid fun was allowed to stay up and watch with us, although her patience with waiting for them wore out pretty quickly.

We stayed out for about an hour, but then it was time to get them all to bed ~ plus, our necks were getting sore from looking up for so long. It would have been much better if we had been laying flat on the ground on a blanket to watch, but we were all sitting around the edge of the hot tub by the pool, due to the presence of several large spiders who had built their nightly spiral webs in very inconvenient spots ~ literally taking over the area, except for the spot where we were.

The stars were spectacular in themselves, a beautiful sight and enjoyed by all. The meteors were like bonuses on top of it all. I think that maybe next year I will try planning an overnight campout in the yard (weather permitting) and we can spend the night (more comfortably) watching the sky. That is if I can work up enough courage to face the spiders, snakes, and other nocturnal creatures that inhabit our yard at night ~ ah, life in the country ~ but the stars are amazing and worth the effort.

Did any of you get to see them this year?

Blessings,
Nancy

A Garden Visitor

“Peter heard noises worse than ever, his eyes were as big as lolly-pops! He was a step or two in front of his cousin, when he suddenly stopped.”

~ from “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” by Beatrix Potter.

This little guy stood very still for a long time while I took many pictures of him trying to get a good one!

Blessings,
Nancy

Perseids Tonight!

photo courtesy of Corbis

Tonight and tomorrow the Perseids Meteor Shower will be at its peak. They say that you may be able to spot 50-80 meteors per hour! We were getting all excited about it around here, but, sadly, it looks like we will be socked in under clouds and possible rain, so I guess we’re going to be missing it this year.

Hope you’ll get to see it where you are!

Blessings,
Nancy

Hungry Kitty?

The other day I sat down on my bed (my favorite quiet spot) to eat lunch. A few seconds later Macey jumped up on the bed ~ her nose had picked up the scent of my chicken sandwich ~ and proceeded to stare at me, licking her chops in anticipation of a feast. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of her in action, all the while protecting my lunch from the beast.

Please, may I have some of your chicken sandwich?

Yes, I mean that one . . .

I reeeealllly want some . . .

What’s this? Do I hear my girl coming? She’ll give me some.

Yay! My girl is the best!

Yum, yum, yum . . .

But I still want your chicken sandwich . . .

(She never did get any of mine, though ~ I have to share my food with little people, I gave up a long time ago sharing it with the animals!)

Blessings,
Nancy