I’m sorry I had no Monday Meandering Post for this week. I’ll try to post one next week  - on time. Here is what I would have posted.

Bible Study/Devotions/Educating Me

Continue to read: My Utmost for His Highest  and The One Year at His Feet Devotional and Proverbs- until I figure out which book of the Bible I want to study next.

Continue reading Family Driven Faith - Voddie T. Baucham Jr.

Continue reading The Parting – Beverly Lewis

Must Do

Keep up with everything – laundry, laundry, laundry.

Zones

1.  The boy’s closet! (Note: Did this today! I can finally walk in there…sorry I wasn’t brave enough to post pictures.)

2.  Bathrooms

Train Them Up

Bess – voice control (No screaming!), encouraging her to use words or signs to communicate with me.

Spent the week working on First Time Obedience with all…review, review, review…

Me – Consistency, getting back to normal, routine

Menu Planning

1.  Chili

2.  Chicken Fingers

3.  Red Beans and Rice

4.  Today – No idea - it is just the kids and I so we may go to Chick-fil-A

5.  Pizza

To find out how you can participate check out – Tiany and Monday Meanderings.

Now I'm going out to enjoy the beautiful weather.

blessings,

dani

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Hosted by Tiany

Bible, Etc.

Same as last week but moving on to James Chapter 5.

I’m almost finished with A Sweetness to the Soul so I should be moving on to The Parting this week.

Must Do

1.  Still working on keeping up with everything.

2.  Holiday Planning – still haven’t looked at my planner.

3.  Home Management - this has been calling my name for waaaayyyy to long.

Must Do Zones

The boy’s closet. (Still awaiting ME!)

Train Them Up

1.  Continue working with Bess

Meal Plan

From last week:

1.  Slow-Cooked White Chili

2.  Creamy Chicken and Veggies (slow)

New:

3. Quick Ortega Chili (slow)

4.  Broiled Steaks with Mushrooms

5.  Whole Wheat Pizza

6.  Meat Loaf 

7.  Southwestern Corn and Black Bean Salad

Other/Optional Meal:  Bean and Bacon Soup

The House Beautiful

The Crown of the house is Godliness.
The Beauty of the house is Order.
The Glory of the house is Hospitality.
The Blessing of the house is Contentment.

- Old Inscription

blessings,

dani

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

I’m sitting here drinking a cup of tea and wondering if I should try to eat something but... the truth is I’m too weary or is it lazy (?) to try to figure out what.

I’m wishing I was asleep.

I’m tempted to grab my book and crawl back into bed. I tried to crawl back into bed earlier this morning, but I ended up with four kids on top of me…somehow it just wasn’t worth it. I think I’m feeling my age. It dawned on me earlier this morning that I was supposed to write this out yesterday...oops...I completely forgot. I was too busy…and I honestly just didn’t feel like looking at my computer at all. I didn’t even turn it on.

Lately, I’ve been pondering what our children’s future homes will look like and I’m troubled by the crazy picture that pops up…I fear that there will be little or no social interaction between family members. I have this picture of family members -age five and up-all sitting with their heads stuck in a computer of some sort. There will be no need to talk because when they want to talk to one another they will simply email, instant message, text, or use some other method to type out what they want to say. (Sorry, if I’ve mangled my computer terminology…I don’t keep up with the latest techno lingo.) Think this is far fetched? Maybe. But tonight take a look at your home and what the occupants are doing. Recently I was at someone’s house for a party and four out of the five members of the family had a laptop in front of them. There was no talking…no noise except the sound of the TV in the background… all heads were buried in a computer and when they weren’t they were looking at, typing on, or talking on their cell phones…

Well, that is enough meandering. Here is this week’s list:

Bible, Etc.

Same as last week. Continuing onward. (I should finish A Sweetness to the Soul this week. If I do, then I will start The Parting by Beverly Lewis.)

Must Do

1. Same as last week – keep up with house and chores. I didn’t manage to do this last week. I can’t seem to keep up with the laundry. Suddenly it is bigger than me. (I guess I’d better get ready because it’s going to get bigger still.)

2.  Catch up on emails – still haven’t done this.

3.  Holiday planning – didn’t do this either.

4.  Go to the Post Office

5.  Take Mark’s shirts, etc. to the drycleaner

6. Buy the kids new shoes and Bethany a few dresses for church (Just an aside…I went out Saturday in search of clothes for Bethany and found nothing!  (Long sleeves and fleece filled coats just don’t cut it…it is still in the 90’s here! What are these designers thinking?! Do they know something about the coming winter that I don’t?)

My Zones – not related to Fly Lady zones.

Only one this week – clean the boy’s bedroom closet. If I’m brave enough I may post before and after pictures, but it is a nightmare mess that I’m not sure I want to share. A while back Bethany and Caleb pulled all of Caleb’s clothes off the hangers and although I’ve put a few back up (only because they happened to be in the laundry) the rest are still all over the closet floor – and the closet was a mess to begin with so I’m sure you can imagine what it looks like now. I’ve been putting this mess off because it is so huge and I have been feeling so puny. But, it has to be done as I can no longer locate any of Caleb’s shirts and I’m getting tired of digging through the pile.

Train Them Up

Same as last week. Add consistency with Bess…as in me getting up and pulling her off the dining room table instead of sending one of the older kids to do it.

Meals – not in any order

From last week…

1.  Cheese and Chicken Enchiladas

2.  Ravioli Lasagna

New

3.  White Chili (slow)

4.  Creamy Chicken and Veggies (slow)

5.  Chicken Salad Sandwiches or Salad with Chicken Salad on top or Salad and Chicken Salad Sandwiches or Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Tomato Soup…whichever I happen to feel like when I make it.

6.  Whole Wheat Pizza (we have this every Friday)

7.  Swiss Steak

or

8.  Baked Dijon Chicken (any left-overs used for lunch or another dinner served with whole wheat angel hair pasta.)

9. Optional meal – if I don’t feel up to cooking - Spaghetti with meat sauce or a frozen meal. (Note: Didn't make it with meat sauce - made it with chicken, spinach and diced tomatoes tossed in olive oil.

Btw, here is how you too can get involved in Monday Meanderings.

blessings,

dani

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

 For several weeks I’ve been contemplating whether or not to join Tiany’s Monday Meanderings…I love the idea, but I’ve been so out of it (with the pregnancy) that I haven’t been sure that joining would be wise, but long story short…I’ve decided to join. (My reasons for not joining were actually the very reasons I needed to join…hmmm…because since I’ve been pregnant all I’ve been doing is meandering…and I need to get busy and stop.  (Meander – to wander slowly and aimlessly. Yep, that’s been me. Poor hubby, poor house, poor kids. I like Encarta’s first definition better it says, “To follow an indirect route or course, especially one with a series of twists and turns.” At least that implies that I finally get somewhere!  Here is Encarta’s sample sentence, “The river meanders to the sea.” I like that.) Anyway…

To find out how you can participate check out -Monday Meanderings.

Here are my Monday Meanderings...

Bible Study/Devotions/Educating Me

Continue to read through My Utmost for His Highest, The One Year at His Feet Devotional, and read/study James chapter 4.

Continue reading Family Driven Faith - Voddie T. Baucham Jr.

Start (re-read) For The Children’s Sake – Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Finish re-reading A Sweetness To The Soul – Jane Kirkpatrick (I put this off to read a few books that Mark bought me for my birthday but I think I’ll pick it back up until I find something else.)

Must Do

One - I must keep up with the house and my chores…this means I don’t just look at the pile of laundry waiting to go upstairs – I take it up and put it away! This is my top priority. Keeping up with everything. Keeping up with the junk and the messes…without grumbling or giving up.

Two – School everyone! Read Aloud.

Three – One day of Home Blessing (see Tiany’s definition for more on this) – I’m thinking Friday –Here is my personal definition of Home Blessing – going the extra mile – clean house, peaceful atmosphere, good food (not necessarily fancy), quiet children (no work for Mark when he gets home), candles, etc. (This is to stretch me a little – as putting extra into things is the last thing I want to do right now.)

Four – Talk to Mark about:  1.) Planning a birthday party for Larry and 2.) Planning the October social for our SS class.

Five – Catch up on emails (Sorry Donna!)

Six – Holiday Planning ( I hadn’t given any thought to the holidays until my Mom called a few days ago to say she will be here for Thanksgiving and that she is looking forward – as always- to going out the tree farm…Wow! Suddenly the holidays are around the corner. Somehow I lost a month. It was just August – still feels like August – but now it is October…dear, dear, dear…Thank you Tiany for reminding me that I needed to pull out my holiday planner – it starts this week! Not ready. Help! Gotta start thinking about these things – I’d like to have all my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving and I’m not even close.)

Zones

First - Clean and organize our school room. This is huge.

Second - Clean out the Fridge.

(Order subject to change.)

Train Them Up

Bess – first time obedience, voice control, and sharing.

Bethany – work on cleaning up and not creating incredibly artistic, but overwhelmingly large messes.

All – attitudes and chore training.

Menu Planning

This week’s menu and many of the upcoming menus will feature several crock pot meals (denoted -slow) and several meals which make double so I can freeze one portion for the inevitable day when I just don’t feel up to cooking.

1. Farm House Chicken Noodle Stew (For Caleb who is under the weather – temp of 104.)

2. Herbed Chicken and Rice (slow)

3. Cheese Stuffed Shells (double)

4.  Cheese and Chicken Enchiladas (double)

5.  Whole Wheat Pepperoni Pizza

6.  Ravioli Lasagna

7.  Pot Roast (slow)

Possible Desserts – (If I feel up to it.) Sugar or Oatmeal Cookies, Lemon Laced Ginger Snack Cake.  (Note: Made a Yellow Cake instead.)

Other – Veggie and Cheese Quiche

blessings,

dani

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)