Just Our Thoughts

 More great tunes at Amy's blog - Signs, Miracles, and Wonders.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Here's some of the books we are reading this week:

My Books:

Every Storm (Contemporary Romance) This is a book that I'm reading for the SRT and I am enjoying reading it just before falling asleep each night.

New Day, New You: 366 Devotions for Enjoying Everyday Life  I am really enjoying the daily tidbits I get from this book.  I needed today's message.

 One Year to an Organized Financial Life: From Your Bills to Your Bank Account, Your Home to Your Retirement, the Week-by-Week Guide to Achieving Financial Peace of Mind  I love this ongoing project.

The Kids' Books:

The Sweetest Spring (Step into Reading)

Say "Ahhh!": Dora Goes to the Doctor (Dora the Explorer)

Diego's Springtime Fiesta (Go, Diego, Go!)

Inside, Outside, Upside Down (Bright & Early Board Books(TM))

Butterfly Battle (The Magic School Bus Chapter Book #16)

Rain, Rain, Go Away (Backyardigans)

No Clean Clothes!

Mr. Noisy's Wild Safari (The Mr. Men Show)

Inspector Hopper (I Can Read Book 2)

It's a Good Thing There Are Insects (Rookie Read-About Science Series)

Sweet Success, a Story About Sharing (Disney Princess -The Princess Collection)

I'm A Caterpillar (level 1) (Hello Reader)

The kids seem to have a springtime bug.  And my second oldest, C, has a "thing" for butterflies.  I got a whole bunch of books for her specifically about butterflies.  She's not the only one reading them though.  That's a good thing.

We will be concentrating on math and reading through the spring and summer.  I am hoping that by the fall we can jump into Tapestry of Grace with both feet (all 3 of us).  Tapestry of Grace requires a lot of reading on the part of each student (and the teacher).  We need to have reading handled well before we start this program in the fall.  I can't wait!

On my list for this coming week is The Children's Year: Seasonal Crafts and Clothes (Festivals (Hawthorn Press))  There are some really cool crafts in this book.  I'm thinking about purchasing this book.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

That's all.

It's one of those days.

No one can do anything right.

I don't even want to change it.

I hate that I'm cranky.

I hate that I don't wanna change it.

It is what it is.

Tomorrow will be a new day.  Maybe a better day.

For today, I'm just gonna be cranky.

Like it or don't.  That's what's happening.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

 Today I turn 31!  It's been a year of growth and exploration.  A year of learning and experiencing.  I am becoming more and more the woman I know I need to be.

Today I am so thankful for the friendships that have developed over the last year.  I am thankful for the wonderful people that God has put in my life.  These people have supported me, helped me, guided me, angered me and pushed me just a little.  I needed all these things.

Today I am proud of myself.  Not a prideful proud, but an "I have accomplished", an "I am worthy", an "I"m a good wife and mom" proud.  I didn't do these things on my own.  God and the people He put in my life have helped me.  My husband.  My children.  My church family.

What have I accomplished?  What am I proud of?  The learning my children are getting.  My housekeeping skills that are improving.  My femininity that is re-developing.  The ways I am finding to give back to my community.  The fact that I recognize that I am giving back in little ways but these seemingly little ways may be big to others.  I am teachable.  I love to learn.  I am healing and allowing healing to take place.  I am getting more active in the community.

I've also learned some things that I am NOT.  I am not a good cook.  I can cook but it's not very flavorful.  I am not very domestic.  I'd way sooner learn something or teach something.  It is a skill I can work on and develop, but I don't much care for it.

Knowing these things goes a long way into developing and knowing who I am and who I am not.  Knowing that I'm not good at something, gives me the freedom to say no if asked to do that specific something and offer to do something that I am good at.  Knowing what I am good at, allows me to bless my church and community better.

So here's to a great year gone by.  And to an even better year yet to come!

CHEERS!

Happy Birthday to me!


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Our local library is just across the street and down the block a little.  We are there at least once a week.  Well, not all of us, but at least one of us is there.  We get farm fresh eggs from a lady that is largely involved there and that's where she delivers our eggs.  So often I will send one or two of the girls to grab eggs and books.  I give them permission to choose a few books at that time, but mostly I use our library's webpage and search site to order our books from our library system (many libraries in the area will send you books from their library), and they pick up those books as well, while they are there.

When I ran across this reading challenge, I decided that instead of ordering MOSTLY children's books (easy level) I would start ordering books for me too, and that I would actually read them.  Not just order, skim and return.  So, I am joining the challenge in addition to the SRT and RYOB Challenges.  I am joining the Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge at The Mini Level - 25 books.  With the other reading challenges I have I don't want to add too many more books this year.  If I complete all the challenges, that will be 50 books this year!  That's ALMOST a book a week, not including the books I already read this year.

Check out this link to sign up and choose your level.  You don't have to list your books first, but I have a start on what I would like to get from my library.  (Bold titles have been read, and completed for this challenge.)

Here's the start of my list:

1. Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow
2. The Captain's Wife by Douglas Kelley
3. Sand Sharks by Margaret Maron
4. How to Really Love Your Child by Ross Campbell
5. The Blessing by John T. Trent
6. Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage by Mark Gungor
7. Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of  a Woman's Soul by John Eldridge
8. Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul by John Eldridge
9. Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson
10. Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson
11. The Way of the Wild Heart by John Eldridge (not sure if this is the same book as the Wild at Heart one or not)
12. The Journey of Desire by John Eldridge
13. Waking the Dead by John Eldridge
14. A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers 
15. The Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen Taylor 
16. The Knight at Dawn, Magic Tree House Series #2 by Mary Pope Osbourne
17. The Big Breakfast Diet by Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D.
18. Sugar Blues by William Dufty
19. .
20. .
21. .
22. .
23. .
24. .
25. .
26. .
27. .
28. .
29. .
30. .
31. .
32. .

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

I was given the opportunity to review a series of CDs created by a husband and wife team - Charley and Susan Greenberg. The series is called My Baby Loves . . . The CDs in the series include: My Baby Loves . . . Madonna, My Baby Loves . . . the 80s, My Baby Loves . . . Michael Jackson and My Baby Loves. . . Christmas. I received (in exchange for my honest review) a copy of each one of these discs. Soon to come are My Baby Loves . . . HipHop, and . . . Motown!

"We chose Michael Jackson, Madonna and The 80's for our first three editions because we want to connect with the parents of today and the music they grew up with - the songs that they would most want to share with their children." Susan explains, "We're bringing the biggest hits from the biggest artists to families, so not only the babies will love them, but the parents as well."

I quite honestly did not enjoy these discs. I found the music to be very "tin-y" and very high-pitched. The odd song was way way louder than the others on the discs as well. I can imagine this waking a calm and sleeping baby. This is not one of the goals of the musicians at all.

Aside from those things, I think the fact that I didn't know the music was a big part of why I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought I would, because the Christmas one and the 80's one I enjoyed more than the other two. I knew the songs.

As a mother of many small children (one under the age of 2), I didn't play these discs very often. My older children (8 and 7) would cringe when I would put one in. Sorry. For someone who knows and enjoyed the music of Michael Jackson, Madonna and the 80s these discs might be a hit, but not in this house.

These discs can be purchased / downloaded at such places as www.amazon.com, iTunes, www.bestbuy.com, www.barnesandnoble.com.

 Disclaimer: I was given a copy of these discs in exchange for my honest review.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

 January
"Train yourself to consider the whole of any project.  This global outlook will not only enrich  your physical experience buy also help you be much more organized when we tackle paper next week." page 26, One Year to an Organized Financial Life, Regina Leeds.

This week are are dealing with the office space (usually a home office) and the stuff in that space.  My office area is in our living room area.  I have a large desk, a filing cabinet, Greeves (our Halloween guy that my dh bought from the local drug store), a table that holds my printer and some other miscellanea and under that table is a pile that could mostly move to storage.

Part one of this "new eyes" look at our space is to get rid of all the extra.  I have some extra I need to deal with.  There are boxes of books that need a home - not enough bookshelves yet.  There are boxes of stuff to move to storage.  I need to have that done (too many stairs for this pregnant body).  I will sort and pile these items and get help.

Part two of looking at our space is to clean our office spaces.  Just get things tidy.  Continue to get rid of what you don't use.  Buy organizers for the drawers; clear the desktop so it is usable space.

Thirdly, think about dual spaces - office/gym, office/guest room, or in my case, office/living room.  Be respectful of what else happens in this room.  There are ways to make it work.  For us, we use the couch as a divider between the two spaces.

March
This week Regina and Russell talk about preparing our tax returns.  We usually go with a tax preparer.  I am unsure what we are going to do this year.  I believe I have almost everything gathered together.  We really should have it done by someone else.  I don't seem to have the time to devote to doing them; I find it an added stress that I don't want.  Reading this chapter makes me believe that even more.  Doing your own and your spouses tax returns is not for everyone.

Habits and Tools
Water: I like water.  I need to drink more of the stuff.  I know that having bottles (500mL) around makes drinking more easier.

Filing:I believe this is starting to pile up again.  I need to check and stay on top of this success.

Financial Notebook: I used this again to answer a lot of the questions in the sections of the book that I read.

Music: I've gone back to having too much noise in the house.  Even now my head is pounding.

Next week we learn about getting our tax returns delivered and returned (March) and setting up a financial filing system.  I can't wait to work on my filing system a little more.  I am enjoying that I am able to find things when I need them!



Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

When I was exploring the SRT book lists over at Callapidder Days I found some new reading challenges (too many to count really).  I picked a couple that I figured I'd join this year.  RYOB is the first - Read Your Own Books.  And later I'll post about The 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge.

My list for the RYOB Challenge is quite extensive but not as long as I thought!  Here's the list:

Books To Be Reviewed:
One Year To An Organized Financial Life (non-fiction, started)
Shadow (easy)
The Magician's Book (non-fiction, started)
Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain (non-fiction)
Outcast (ebook)
Telluride Promise (ebook)
Castle in the Mist (young adult)
Snow Valley Heroes (young adult)
Frankie the walk 'n' roll dog (easy)
Frankie the walk 'n' roll therapy dog visits libby's house (easy)

On My Homeschool Shelf (but not all homeschool related):
What Your First Grader Needs to Know (non-fiction)
What Your Second Grader Needs to Know (non-fiction)
What Your Third Grader Needs to Know (non-fiction)
The Unschooling Handbook (non-fiction)
The Self-Esteem Trap (non-fiction)
The Shack (fiction)
Am I A Normal Parent? (non-fiction)
A Promise to Believe In (fiction)
601 Quotes About Marriage and Family (non-fiction)

On The Shelf In My Room:
New Day, New You (devotional, started)
Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends (non-fiction)
Shepherding a Child's Heart (non-fiction)
The Innocent Man (fiction, also on audio)
10 Secrets Revenue Canada Doesn't Want You To Know (non-fiction)
Beautiful In God's Eyes (non-fiction)

In My Purse:
Fascinating Womanhood (non-fiction, started)

I will be adding to this list as more books for ME come into this house.  As this list stands now (March 22, 2010) I will have a little more than a week for each of those books.  Being that some of those are children's books, this is very do-able.

If you'd like to join in this RYOB Challenge, please visit MizB's for the rules and guidelines and to link up with your list of books.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

This is the second year that I've participated in Callipidder Day's Spring Reading Thing.  I don't very often reach my reading goals, but I love to make them as it gives me something to aim for within a specific time period.  This year the Spring Reading Thing is running from March 20 to June 20, 2010.  You can check out the details here.

I've decided to keep my list short this season and they are mostly children or young adult books.  As a goal, I simply want to read to my children three times a week.


On to my book list:

an ongoing project is: One Year to an Organized Financial Life









I am currently reading this book:  (COMPLETE)








I have been waiting for this one to come in the mail for a while; I was so glad when it arrived this week. I hope to dig into it in the next couple of days.








I need to read the next few books and do reviews on them.








As a read-aloud for the children, I have these books out of the library:








And if we get time we will dig into these two books:










ADDED: April 9, 2010
















Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Thank you, Lord.  Thank you for creating people who can write, who can sing, and who can play such wonderful music and bring me and others to an almost immediate state of worship!

For more beautiful tunes visit Amy's blog - Signs, Miracles, and Wonders.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,