I am not a rain loving person. I grew up in California after all, where most years rain is a scarce phenomena. So when I moved to the Seattle area adjusting was hard. The really odd thing is that for as often as it rains here I still don't own an umbrella. My husband says thats because it doesn't really rain- it just drizzles constantly and that is true. Even in Ca. the rain that does fall will drench you quickly. Here though, walking from the car to wherever you are going is likely to just leave a fine mist on your hair and clothes. 

I still  try not to go anywhere much in this constant drizzle. Dragging four boys through a puddle filled parking lot is something you quickly learn to avoid. They are good boys- they know not to jump, or even walk heavily through the puddles, but they are boys and expecting them to tiptoe like graceful ballerinas is insanity. Besides, although it comes down in a nice soft drizzle it still accumulates the same on the ground and there is often so much standing water its all a wash anyways- you are going to get wet.

This year we have also had a lot of below freezing nights and sometimes days. We have gotten some snow but mostly all that daytime drizzle has turned into ice on our roadways overnight. Since we don't get real winter weather around here  for more than a few days most years there is not much point in our Dept. of Transportation investing a lot in road clearing or salting  equipment. It is standard protocol to call for snow days and as many people as possible just stay home. The boys learned of these "Snow Days" the kids that go to school get and immediately thought something was not working in their favor. They still have school when everyone else is getting their snow days.

But on days like today, they see the benefit, Today is absolutely beautiful. The last couple days have been overcast but mostly dry and I have cancelled about half their schoolwork for the opportunity to stretch legs and breathe fresh air. Today, however, is a Sun Day. I call Sun Days on any gorgeous day we get get blessed with between about Oct. and April. As long as they stay playing outside there is no school today (this rule prevents them from wasting the sunshine and staying inside). So while kids across the Puget Sound are getting their sunshine in twenty minute recess sized doses, mine will be climbing their favorite tree and enjoying their Sun Day.

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My main mail  account is currently a Yahoo account. Every morning I load up my Yahoo page  and spend a few minutes looking at the "news." In addition to actual important events sometimes, if the headline is compelling enough, I even read a bit of celebrity gossip or the "lifestyle" features.

Todays topic is 10 Best Jeans Under $100 dollars. $100!!??!!   For ONE pair of jeans???  Don't forget the title suggests that there are plenty of jeans for over that already insane  figure.   I try to get my whole wardrobe for under $100 and I only do that every few  years.  The last time I bought jeans they cost me less than $25 dollars a pair and I only spent that much because  my loving husband realized I needed stuff and  took me shopping and made me get stuff.  (I am THAT bad about  shopping for myself)

The majority of my wardrobe is skirts as I only wear pants aroung the  house for working in. I wear long full skirts that are not always in style so when I see something appropriate in Wal-Mart I snag a  few knowing that it may be several years before I get new ones. This last summer they had one stlye priced at $14. I bought two on the spot since the ones I had finally worn holes in my current ones and decided to wait for the  markdown to get more. I found out that my size is the most popular size and none made it mark down. A few weeks later another  style came out at  $18 and I  begrudgingly picked up four not wanting to make the same mistake twice.  So I spent just over $100 to clothe myself for the next four years or so...

The vast majority of our clothing budget goes to keeping our  boys in hole free pants. Kids, growing the way they do need clothes every year.  When people ask what the kids need pants is always the answer. We have  way too many shirts. I could clothe a whole army of small people in shirts. Shirts get handed down easily in an ever growing mass because no one listens and buys shirts to go along with the  pants. But anything with knees in it is likely to need replacing. My oldest usually passes on about 80% of his pants but #2 usually blows out the knees on those, and the replacements I have to buy him.

So every trip to Wal-Mart includes a stop at the clearance rack in the boys section. Most of our jeans come from that rack. The average price of a pair of  jeans on the clearance rack is $5 but I have purchased many pairs for $3. I buy any appropriately styled pair of jeans or dress pants on the  rack in any size currently used or bigger than my boys. I don't pass up $5 jeans.

But the $100 dollar kind.. no thank you.

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This morning the Lord blessed us with this:

Made getting up early all the more worthwhile.

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The last couple of days have been the typical northwest dreariness but before that we have had an amazing few weeks. We spent a lot of time outside, doing field trips and just relishing the gorgeous fall days. There will be  plenty of rainy days in the months ahead to be stuck inside doing our typical school stuff. These photos were taken on several different days while we were out and about.

Here is the Space Needle caught in the clouds. I looked up and there it was snuggled in downy clouds against a blue sky.

My kids in front of the International Fountain. The jets of the fountain "dance" as music plays. Some of the musical selections are better than others. Notice the squinting eyes, unaccustomed to sunshine.

Pacific Science Center

The current featured exhibit at the Pacific Science Center is "Colossal Fossils." Here is one of the fossils in the exhibit.  Basically, his mouth is almost big enough for my three biggest kids.

The tropics have a home at the Butterfly House in the Pacific Science Center. It is warm and well lit any day of the year. The butterflies are amazing. I had a sleeping one in a stroller so I had to take this picture through the glass. This is a not to be missed exhibit.

This is a permanent exhibit where the kids can pretend to be weather forecasters. Watching them figure out how to move in front of the green screen can be funny.

There is an area just for infants and toddlers at PacSci. This is my little guys favorite activity.

Seattle Children's Museum

My kids hamming it up.

This is not the only exhibit at the Children's Museum,but as far as my boys were concerned, it might as well have been...

I can't wait until this little guy can walk. He is going to have a blast here when he can get around on his own two feet.

Another water play station, another wet baby.

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It has always been on my heart to let the kids spend more time in the kitchen with me. The dinner hour is really not the time to do it. I have never been much of a baker but store bought cakes and cookies get expensive fast. To solve two desires I put baking with the kids as part of my 1001 Days Challenge. The purpose of this is to teach them some cooking fundamentals while spending that quality one on one time. We used a packaged mix out of the pantry, using the "special" recipe on the side of the box. He did practically all the work himself with me just showing him how along the way. He was mighty proud to share his creation with the family.

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Here is a really good recipe we tried recently. It has been a desire of mine to expand our repetoire of bean recipes since beans are such an economical way to feed a large family. Usually I use dry beans but we recently had a sale on canned beans at the store and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try beans we have never had before. As I opened the cans of beans and caught a whiff I worried this was all a mistake. Later though as my husband looked at the empty pot with ladel in hand I realized I shouldn't have worried.I guess beans just don't smell good in a can.

Gather your ingredients:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. fresh sage leaves
• 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• salt to taste
• 3 c. drained, cooked, dried cannellini beans (I used 3 cans)
• 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced (omitted)

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil and saute the garlic for one minute. (Garlic burns fast) Add remaining ingredients except parsley to pot. Simmer  for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Serve parsley at table to sprinkle on soup.

Source: The Versatile Grain and The Elegant Bean by Sheryl and Mel London (out of print)

My Notes: I didn't drain the tomatoes as this looked a lot drier than we are used to bean soups being. I probably should have  used another can of beans but I had to substitute great northern for one can as it was (the pictures looked the same.)We left out the allspice- hubby had a bad experience with allspice in the Navy. I think next time I will put the shaker on the table because I bet the allspice would have been really good. I didn't bother with the parsley at all. The recipe says it serves six but as a main dish it didn't go that far- next time I might make it half again as much.

I just had to share. I have this vision of going out  to my garden and choosing fantastic herbs to add to my dishes. Reality is that so far my gardening efforts have proven laughable and the few herbs that have survived me tend to get forgotten about when it comes time to use them. But not this time; we had fresh sage out of the garden for this recipe:

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Here are a couple of recipes that we have tried over the last couple of weeks that were oh so good. The Sweet and Sour Pork was originally  posted about a month ago at Elizabeth's Clothesline but her blog is no longer there (if you are out there somewhere new please let me know so I can visit). It was too delicious to let fade into Internet ether. If you are still out there Elizabeth- thank you for originally posting it.

Sweet and Sour Pork

Place ribs in an ungreased 5 qt slow cooker. In a large bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Pour over ribs. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Thicken the sauce if desired.

My Notes:  I actually used a pork roast because there were some marked down packages at the store making it cheaper than the country style ribs the recipe calls for.  I cubed it up and fried the meat in a little oil just long enough to brown the outside then added the veggies for just a moment more then put them in the crockpot along with the pineapple (seperated from its juice. I combined the remaining ingredients (including the juice from the pineapple )and used that  to deglaze the frypan to make sure all the good crispies made it into the crockpot.

Teriyaki Pork Roast

Place roast in crockpot. Combine all other ingredients except cornstarch and water and pour over roast, turning to make sure entire roast is coated. Cook on low 7-8 hours. Remove roast and keep warm. Combine water and cornstarch in  saucepan stirring until smooth. Add juices from crockpot and bring to boil. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes . Serve with roast.

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So I am a little behind on news. A few weeks ago there was a recall on infant cold remedies. I knew I had some in the house so I asked my husband if he knew what the recall was about. He said something about labeling. That was good enough for the current moment and I  figured when we needed to use them I would look up what the recall was for before administering anything.

There are a few of us that when we get even a teensy little cold the congestion in our lungs is likely to make you think we are going to keel over from pneumonia at any moment. It sounds horrible and I have lived with it all my life and I passed on the genes for it to at least one of the boys. So when I heard about these little plug-in Vicks machines and these new Sudacare shower tablets that are supposed to help with chest congestion I went looking for them right away knowing it was a matter of time before the first bug of fall came knocking at our door (two days to be exact but that is another story.)

While standing looking for these products I noticed a big gaping hole in the product selection and  a sign mentioning that there has been a voluntary recall on the infant cold products because of rare cases of misuse. Which according to this story they aren't even sure that these remedies are the cause (see page 2 paragraph 5 where it says may be warranted - may as in might, maybe, but also maybe not- and paragraph 6  where it mentions they are still investigating.)

I really, really, really, hate it when mass sums of people have to suffer because of the actions of a few. It is about 75% of the reason I haven't flown since Sept. 11th. It isn't terrorists I am afraid of. It is the no food except peanuts, nothing liquid over 3 oz. , stand in line for hours and remove your shoes silliness that is supposed to keep us safe,but entirely miserable, that ensures I will never willingly set foot in an airport again. (Terrorists are not the other 25% either, the truth is deep down I have always been afraid of flying and now it is such a royal pain I can justify not doing it anymore.)

So you can imagine how frustrating this medicine thing was to me. A few people don't read labels carefully and so now I can't adminster medicine to my baby without checking with the doctor first. I dont know about your kids, but my kids, especially as infants, never get sick at 9:00am on a Wed. morning when every medical person in this time zone is available. No, my kids wait until about 7:00pm on  a Friday night to get sick, when no one is available to tell me how much of what I can safely administer. This is what is truly dangerous. We are at our safest when we can make informed decisions at the moment that those decisons need to be made. Parents need to be able to walk into Wal-Mart at 2:00am and find products with complete dosage instructions that can be safely administered to their young (under 2 years) babies. We should not  have to put things off until Mon. morning or watch our children get so much more miserable that we are scrambling to an emergency room so our little babies can be thoroughly poked and prodded before being  professionally  told "I don't know, must be a cold." Sometimes I think doctors are way too  full of themselves and only out to milk us for as much money as they can get out of us, the supposedly incompetent public.

Reading the labels on your medicine is the  most important thing you can do, not just for your babies but for everyone in your household. Last night, we all got sick (ok, so it wasn't Fri but it was after the doctor was closed.) My husband wanted to take NyQuil before bed but he wanted something in the interim to ease his symptoms. So there I am comparing active ingredients and timing instructions to find out what he can take at that moment so that he can still take his NyQuil before bed.

I was going to do this nice tutorial on how to read your medicine labels, but I am not a very good photographer and all the pics I took of medicine labels are totally illegible and useless. Luckily, I found a really good site right here at the FDA. There are some nice PDFs (or PowerPoint versions if you have access to that) that go through showing you all the things you should look at and compare when deciding if you can take two medicines together (probably the place where most mistakes are made.) There is one geared toward older children (under students) and one geared toward adults (under consumer). There is also what you should teach kids about medicines at different ages and some worksheets. I thought it was really informative.

In the meantime we all have the sniffles here. The really odd thing is that for what seems the  first time ever we all got hit with it at the same time. That is actually a blessing. Normally, one person gets it and just as he is clearing up another  one falls and so on and so on. It can take a good 6-8 weeks to go through a household this size when it goes through at that pace. With everyone getting it all at once we could have this thing escorted out the door in a week or so.

Any post about illness require a plug for the importance of handwashing.If you google"handwashing" or " handwashing curriculum" you will find a lot of activities for teaching kids why and how to wash up- there are different resources for different ages. An image search of "handwashing" will net you several printable poster to choose from.

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One of my 1001 Days Challenge items is to learn 50 hymns by heart. The challenge part comes from the fact that I have zero musical talent. Nada. Zippo.

I can't read music. Just when I think I know which little symbol means a whole note and which ones means a half etc. something comes along to prove to me I don't have a clue. I don't understand timing at all (Exactly how long is a "beat" anyway?)  I also can't sing worth a lick.   My only saving grace in this department is that if I have heard a tune before I can replicate the tune .

I want to learn the  hymns just like we would sing them in church as a congregation. No fancy voice work, no show; just the simple singing of hymns in their entirety. We have tried buying CDs but either the song only covers one verse, or someone has fancied up the tune to show how well they can croon.

So it was a real blessing to find Touchet Baptist Church hymn page. Just a man with his hymn book and his piano playing hymns, in their entirety, that the average person can sing along to. It truly is an answer to prayer for me because I have always wanted to be able to sing hymns to my babies but never knew how I was going to learn them myself.

If you don't have a hymn book you can find the words to hymns at CyberHymnal or Hymnal.net. Neither site seems to have sheet music with lyrics on it. They have the words, they have sheet music with no words  and they have  midi files so you can hear how they are sung.

I hope these bless someone as they have blessed me. If you know of any other great sites for learning hymns please feel free to share them in the comment section.

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Bible Study/Devotions:
Devotional: 15 Minutes Alone With God. (continuing)
Memorization: Proverbs 31 (Continuing)

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I read about this nifty trick in Cooking with Kids for Dummiesand have been using it for years. I use an egg slicer to slice up not only eggs but also pitted olives and mushrooms for our salads and strawberries for shortcake.  It is so easy I can even let my boys do it without having to worry they will cut themselves.

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Well it has been quite an eventful three weeks.Hopefully in the next few days I can catch up and post some pictures. We have been enjoying all this beautiful weather the Lord has been blessing us with.  In a place as gloomy as Seattle  it is an absolute sin not to be outdoors when the sun shines this time of year.

Visit Tiany for more Monday Meanderings

Bible Study/Devotions:
Devotional: 15 Minutes Alone With God.
Memorization: Continue Proverbs 31

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We have two boys born on the same day, three years apart. One was early, the other was late- go figure. For birthdays we try to let them pick something fun to do that isn't too expensive then we go out to dinner. This year it was the rock wall at the mall. Happy Birthday boys.

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Last week's habit was not being so wasteful with the dishwater. It has been going pretty well. I don't think it is a set in stone habit yet, but focusing on this one thing has had the benefit of it actually being done.

For this week I would like to work on getting everyone, and that includes myself most especially, in bed at a decent hour AND prepared for the following day. That's right. We are going to hash out a before bed routine that takes the next day into consideration.  I am so tired of this: "Oh it's probably getting late.  (glance at clock) Oh Wow. It IS late." The  kitchen is still a mess, the kids haven't picked up anything, the kids are still up, (except the hard sleeper who wandered off and fell asleep still dressed to his shoes with unbrushed teeth. I don't know how many times this poor kid has slept in his shoes because once he crashes he is out cold)and I am so tired all I want to do is go to bed right NOW. This is not working for us. The problem is that I don't even think about  "what time is it?" until it is already too late.

To counteract this I have already set my trusty (and horribly unfeminine) watch to go off at 8:30pm instead of being a backup alarm clock for the morning. This should give me enough time to get the kids headed off to bed and still leave me time to get myself in bed at a decent hour. I would like for everyone to take care of teeth and face washing, set out clothes, check over planners, clean up rooms, have some  reading time, say their prayers and have lights out at a decent hour. Additionally I would like to have a dinner plan in place (with something thawing if necessary) and if we are going out to have all our "things" forsaid outing ready to go to the car.

Hopefully this will help the days be more manageable. So this is the new habit to start working on geting down pat.

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Two recipes to share, both based on what was recently on sale or marked down.

Crockpot Steak

Put steaks in bottom of crock pot. Add two cans Golden Mushroom soup. If so inclined you can also add onions and mushrooms. Cook on high at least 6 hours, until the meat  falls apart. Serve over cooked egg noodles.  - My mom used to use regular Cream of Mushroom soup but my hubby prefers the Golden Mushroom so that's how I make it now.

This is an old favorite from a cookbook from the 70's:

Pork Marengo

Source: BH&G Crockery Cooker Cook Book

• 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder,cut into 1" cubes
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 16oz. can diced tomatoes (I  use two because we like extra sauce)
• 1 tsp. instant chicken bouilon
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram, crushed
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
• dash pepper
• 1 3oz. can mushrooms stems and pieces
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• Hot cooked rice.

In a skillet brown the pork and the onion in batches in hot oil.  Drain off flavor fat   (I actually never do)Transfer meat and  onion to the crockpot. Put tomatoes, bouillon, marjoram, salt, thyme and pepper into skillet and stir together scraping browned bits off the bottom. Pour mixture over pork in crockpot. Cover, cook on low 8-10 hours. Turn to high heat settings and stir in drained mushrooms. Blend flour and cold water together until smooth. Pour into pork mixture. Cook, uncovered, on high heat 15-20 minutes until mixture thickens, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice. Serves 6-8.

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This week we are playing with and learning how to  insert graphics. Something I definately need!!

I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with.

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My MIL sent this to my husband. It is just so funny and SO true. Sometimes its  just nice to know I'm not the only crazy mom repeating the same things over and over every day.

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Visit Rocks In My Dryer for more WFMW

I have been looking forward to Backwards Day. I have two questions:

1. How do you get sap (or maybe it is melted marshmallow) out of clothing. With my boys being active tree climbers I figure I am going to have this problem again. I pretreated it with regular stain stick and washed it and it is still there. I don't think the wash touched it at all. I obviously need to pretreat it with something else but I have no idea what will break it up.

2.I would love to hear how you organize your books. I don't like my current system ( non-fiction by broad subject and fiction all lumped together however) and want to do something different. We have so few bookcases that only about a third of my books are on shelves, the rest sit in boxes. But mostly it is how they are sorted I don't like, not necessarily how they are stored.

Look forward to all your great ideas.

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An interesting idea from Day Zero. Come up with 101 preset tasks to do within the next 1001 days (about 2.75 years.) Like all well-written goals these must have an aspect that can be measured for sucess. 

It was hard coming up with 101 things. I had to oversome the tendency to put down short term "to do list" type items. I wanted to focus on things that were "dreams" or that involved personal growth or were projects  that often get pushed aside for more urgent things. The "someday" things, even if they were things I wanted to do "someday" for or with others.They sort of come in bursts though and in the end I actually ended up going over 101.

My 101 Things To Do

1. Read the Bible through
2. Learn 50 hymns by heart (0/50)
3. Memorize Psalm 119
4. Memorize Proverbs 31
5. Create a Devotional journal with prayer calendar. Use consistently for 3 months.
6. Go through “Power of a Praying Wife.”
7. Go through “Power of a Praying Parent.”
8. Read 25 adult classics (0/25)
9. Read 25 children’s classics to the kids (0/25)
10. Read 10 books about homeschooling/education. (0/10)
11. Read 10 nonfiction books for personal growth. (0/10)
12. Review each book read on my blog.
13. Get my TJEd Certification.
14. Take the 5 basic CLEP exams
15. Keep a readers journal for the books I read. (Check after book related 101 tasks done)
16. Reach goal weight.
17. Implement exercise program with its own goal plan. Follow 3 months.
18. Wash my face before bed every night for a month.
19. Eat vegetarian for one week (if hubby approves)
20. Eat raw for one week.
21. Learn to “sprout.” Decide if it is something we would enjoy on a regular basis.
22. Do a juice fast for three days.
23. Fix my teeth.
24. Try 50 new recipes (0/50)
25. Take three ethnic cooking classes (0/3)
26. Cook something (completely new) in 10 different cuisines. (0/10)
27. Bake something with each big kid once a month (A: 0/33 B: 0/33 C: 0/33)
28. Stock 6 months food using whole grain as basis.
29. Try two wholegrain recipes a month so I can learn to use stockpiled food (0/66)
30. Create 4 month-long menu plans- one for each season (0/4)
31. Add 1001 recipes into Mastercook (0/1001)
32. Do Operation Christmas Child with kids for Christmas 2007, 2008
33. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
34. Soldier care package
35. Kids and I involved with a political campaign
36. Learn to grocery shop (food only) for $500/month- succeed 3 consecutive months (0/3)
37. Create a Price Book.
38. Organize coupons.
39. Reduce mortgage to 75K
40. Pay off all debt except mortgage. Stay debt-free 6 months.
41. Go bird watching.
42. Visit Tide pools
43. Go caving at Mt. St. Helens
44. Go to Woodland Park Zoo
45. Go to Olympic Game Farm Park
46. Go to Seattle Children’s Museum.
47. Take children on Ferry Ride
48. Do the Nature Trails at Northwest Trek.
49. Go on a real picnic with family
50. Go on a family trip to Disneyland
51. Take kids for a drive-in movie night
52. Family road-trip of at least ten days.
53. Go tent camping six times (0/6)
54. Go see the Seattle Nutcracker.
55. Attend a symphony or find quality DVD production
56. Attend a play or find quality DVD production
57. Attend an opera or find quality DVD production.
58. Organize computer files and backup.
59. Organize bookmarks. Install and use one of the bookmark managers.
60. Clean out email folders.
61. Finish math e-book
62. Finish menu plan e-book
63. Learn how to build my blog from scratch and do so.
64. Type 60WPM
65. Organize laundry room. Keep organized for 3 months.
66. Organize entry area storage. Keep organized for 3 months.
67. Organize pantry. Keep organized for 3 months.
68. Organize closets. Keep organized for 3 months.
69. Go without creating “Mt. Fold Me” for a month.
70. Get rid of 101 things (0/101)
71. Get rid if 1001 papers. (0/1001)
72. Get rid of 50 books. (0/50)
73. Buy or create and then use a household management planner.
74. Establish a consistent sleep/wake schedule.
75. Help boys complete all 21 Webelos activity pins (A: 0/21 B: 0/21)
76. Keep a homeschool journal at least once a week. (Check after 100 entries) (0/100)
77. Set up Note booking Bag for boys to use for school journaling.
78. Have a weekly family executive meeting (TJEd “Core and Love of Learning: A Recipe for Success.”) with Ray. (Check after 10 meetings.) (0/10)
79. Implement 20 other “ingredients” from TJEd “Core and Love of Learning: A Recipe for Success.” (0/20)
80. Create a list of 52 life skills and “just for fun” things I want to teach kids over a one-year period.
81. Take the children on one field trip a month (may overlap with other 101 things) (2/33)
82. Learn twelve new crafts with the kids (0/12)
83. Start a family night event
84. Go one month with no TV.
85. Do our wills- especially child placement.
86. Grow a cut flower garden where weed patch currently is.
87. Enter something in the 2008 Fair
88. Buy a Vita mix machine.
89. Buy a grain mill after researching electric vs. manual.
90. Keep a personal journal. (Check after 100 entries) (0/100)
91. Get passports for everyone
92. Build a bug out kit
93. Do a 5-day survival challenge.
94. Learn sign language.
95. Learn to draw well enough to quick sketch anytime I need to
96. Draft plans for dream house
97. Learn to identify 10 local birds (0/10)
98. Make apron- learn to wear around house.
99. Plan out jean quilt project
100. Make and use shopping bags
101. Write next 101 tasks

1. Go to Medieval Times type dinner show.
2. Go miniature golfing with kids.
3. Take the kids to a beach- preferably with sand.
4. Make bark and leaf rubbings.
5. Go to Pioneer Village.
6. Visit Camlann Medieval Village near Carnation
7. Visit Jetty Island
8. Outback Kangaroo Farm in Arlington
9. Go through "God's  Abundance"
10. Go Through "The Hidden Art of  Homemaking

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 Visit Tiany for more Monday Meanderings

Bible Study/Devotions: we have always done Scripture memeory as a family but there are some things I want to memorize just for myself. It has always been my desire to memorize proverbs 31 so this week I am going to start work on this.

Must Do: Create a more complete school schedule especially for me. The boys who can read are doing well with doing the things that don't require me but my non-reader has been neglected. I need to create and start implementing a schedule so everyone gets the time they need with me.

 Zone: This week I am going to focus on getting the living room fixed up. We will be having my parents visit soon and currently there  is barely enough room for the people who live here to be comfortable.

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