So Excited!

I picked up my Angel Food for this month, and I'm totally geeked.

They have a great menu for next month. The regular box is pretty, uh, regular. Normal stuff, although it seems like maybe they have more meat than this past month had.

But their specials this month are great. I'm particularly excited about the fresh fruit and veggies. They always have really good quality here. This month, I got a cabbage, and it was NOT your run-of-the-mill white head of chemicals. This was a nice farm-grown green leafy thing that I can't wait to use. I may break down and get some ground turkey from the store so that I can make stuffed cabbages. Mmmmmm. Or I may make cole slaw as that's a little more seasonal.

But next month also has a great special of 5 fully-cooked meals for 4 for only $20. In case you're slow on that math, that's only $4 a meal. That's 1 dollar per person. And it's zero effort. You just heat and serve. I'm looking forward to that. :)

Well, I got to get to decorating for Eve's party. But I had to share. If you haven't found an Angel Food location near you, be sure to check it out.

Busy Little Bee

Whew! It's 9:10 on Friday night, and this is about the only chance I've had to stop going for a while now. August has been a busy month for us here. I normally have a very laid back schedule... a lesurely breakfast, swimming in the pool, relaxing during the baby's naptime. Seriously, this stay-at-home mom stuff is awesome.

But this month... wow! I've had a few things keeping me insanely busy:

Eve's Birthday Party - Our little girl is turning 8. I can't believe it. Tomorrow, we're having a party for her. This is the first party she's had since she was 5, so I went all out. (Which is exactly the reason she hasn't had one since she was 5! Have I mentioned that I'm lazy?)

We're doing all Webkinz, all the time for the afternoon, so I have been designing games, drawing backgrounds and cutting out figures for said games, as well as baking a cake and decorating it all on my own.

This is kinda tradition for us. The only time Eve's had a store bought birthday cake was when she turned one. I actually made her one and decorated it with Barney, but I wasn't into animal products, so I left out the eggs and substituted apple sauce instead. That does not work. It was pretty gross. So, we went and got her another one from the store.

Visit from my MIL - On Sunday (which is Eve's actual birthday), my mother- in-law is coming. Preparing for her visit hasn't been that stressful. She's an awesome lady who thinks I'm the most organized person in the world. So, I really have to do little to impress her with my housekeeping skills.

But we did have to get some details squared away with where she'd stay, and this included putting a bed in Ashlyn's room for Eve to sleep on so Wilma can have Eve's room to herself. After the bed was in place, I went to work getting some odds and ends on the wall, including a cool piece of art that my friend Kristin made for Ashlyn's 1st Birthday.

School - AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! This year Billy and I decided to save some money by using the library as our curriculum. After all, the curriculum runs around $500-600, and that's some nice cash to pay down our van loan. Not to mention, I minored in history in college, taking several U.S. history classes, so how hard could it be to teach my 8 year old the basics?

OMGoodness! That was some stress and a half. In the end, it was just me trying to do too much to make the year amazing. Resources out there are endless and trying to process them all and pick the best was overwhelming me to say the least. But once I talked to my good friend Kara about it all, things have been cool. She directed me to a neat website that is kinda a 1-stop shop for free downloads and info.

I figured out a basic schedule, and things fell into place pretty nicely for the first 12-weeks of the year. I'll tackle the rest of the year over Christmas break.

Storytelling Problem

I love this quote from the book I'm currently reading - Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

"We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem.  We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don't really have an explanation for."

Perhaps the most ironic thing about this is that I think Gladwell himself does this quite expertly in his book The Tipping Point, which Billy recently read and discussed at length.  Oh, well.

Declutter Challenge Week 2

This post is part of the August Decluttering Challenge.

August 8 - Spent lots of time in Ashlyn's room decluttering.  Instead of spreading it out and doing just 1 item a day, I decluttered several things at once -

A lone shoe that I haven't found the match to in several months.

A Dots T-shirt that is too small to wear and too stained to give away.  It's now in the rag basket.

A bagful of clothes for Ashlyn to grow into now have a nice home on a closet shelf instead of on her bed.

Hung up her curtains.

Put her bumper pad back in her crib.  It had been sitting out a few weeks after being washed.

Hung up pictures, decluttering them from the closet storage.

August 12 - Put some phone numbers into Gmail contacts and threw away the papers they were written on.

August 13 - Decluttered my e-mail inbox.
 

Personal Policies

1. I always clean the kitchen and the bathroom first.

2. I like to save the dishes from dinner for the next morning.

3. Corn on tacos is tasty.

4. I use a blue pen as a book mark in most books. This really ruins the spine, but it makes note-writing in the margins much more convenient and blue shows up against the black print well.

5. I like to read more than one book at a time. This way, if I want to read, I have options of what book to read based on what I'm in the mood for.

6. I like slightly large coffee cups. This way I can have room for cream and sugar without sacrificing any room for caffeine.

7. Except that I really prefer skim milk and Stevia, instead of cream and sugar.

What are some things that make you you?

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What is the Simple Life?

As a homeschooler, I run into a lot of people who glamorize the "simple" life of Laura Ingalls. These women like the idea of stringing cranberries and popcorn for Christmas decorations. They blog statements like, "Oh, to return to the simpler days!"

Excuse me???

Have you watched Little House on the Prairie? Sure the Christmas decorating seemed fun and quaint, but what about the episode where Charles (and the rest of the men) had to go find work in Mankato for 3 months, leaving the women behind to farm and take care of the kids? (episode 3, season 1) That doesn't sound so simple to me.

Another movement toward "simple" can be found on Shaun Groves' blog. Now you all know I think his blog is the best on the web, after Billy's. So, when you go there to read about his idea of simplicity, make sure you also subscribe to his feed.

But Shaun's idea of simple seems to completing twist the word around. Can you please tell me what's simple about un-plugging and re-plugging and un-plugging cords into outlets? Or how about washing all dishes by hand and hanging up laundry to dry? Sounds very simple, huh?

But I'm passionate about simplicity. Seriously. So passionate that 4 years ago when the e-harmony profile asked me what the one thing that I was most passionate about was, I answered, "simplicity."

So, what's simple to me? Simple is scaling back on the abundance of consumerism, yet appreciating the convenience of the 21st century. Simple is finding value in nature and giving priority to beauty and friendship around us.

For a great look at my kind of simplicity, check out this week's simplicity tips from Beth of My Simpler Life. (And while you're there subscribe to her feed to!)

Declutter Challenge!

August is the month for the Declutter Challenge over at My Simpler Life.  The goal is simple: declutter 1 item a day throughout the month of August.  Post about it every week, and be entered to win organizing tools.

So, here we go....

This week I decluttered:

August 1: Baby bath seat
August 2: an area rug we no longer need
August 3: CD cases/liner notes (I kept interesting photos from them  for craft projects, then I threw the rest of them away)
August 4: box of items that I'd already designated for donating, but never took
August 5: threw away papers that had clutter up the kitchen table
August 6: computer table got a quick once over
August 7: took some dashboard wipes from the house to the car

I don't have pictures this week, but I hope it still counts.  Things have been hectic... hence the lack of posting.  We had an injury that required some emergency room care, but don't worry.  She'll be fine!

Music Monday > Breaking Up Just Breaks My Heart

I commented over on Kat's Music Monday post just now, and mentioned what a good show it was to see Monk and Neagle live. (Opening for Bebo Norman, no less. I swear that's what heaven will be like.)

So, I thought I'd take a look at their site to see what they're up to currently.

What I found is that there's yet another band that I'll have to add to my list of "Sad to See You Go."

Other bands are -

Five Iron Frenzy

No Doubt









Sixpence None the Richer

New Kids on the Block (Although I hear they're making a comeback... again.)











Anyway, back to Monk and Neagle. Neagle, it seems, has decided to leave the open road in favor of the family. I commend him for that.

But it's still sad to me because Monk and Neagle were seriously a breath of fresh air in the Christian music community. They had a great sound more like Jack Johnson than anything you'll hear on the local Christian station. And their harmonies! Man... those are amazing.

So, bands break up. And it breaks your heart when you realize that the music you love will be all you can heart from them again.

What band did you hate to see breaking up?

*this post is part of Music Mondays