A Sunday Evening Post....Daybook Style

I actually don't have a whole lot to say (at least I don't think I do...) but I can't stand that the awful picture of me is the first thing I see when I go to my blog. So, let's do this daybook style just for kicks.
Outside my window...it's dark, before it got dark though it was very cloudy just like it's been all day. Lots of clouds but no rain. I would've liked some rain but I was thankful for a cloudy day too.

I am thinking...about how good the pudding cup I just ate was. I love those Jell-o pudding cups, love them. They are on sale at Publix this week, 3 for $6. So we bought some and I just ate 2. I ate a "Temptations" dark chocolate one and a vanilla one. Yum. Yum. Yum. Doesn't help with the weight loss that I'm working on though....I could've eaten worse though. You know what I wanted to eat? Ice cream. Grace and I went grocery shopping and I was sorely tempted to buy us each one of those $1 cups of ice cream that come with a spoon in the lid so you can eat it in the car on the way home and throw away all of the evidence. I resisted that temptation and I'm pretty sure 2 pudding cups has fewer calories than an ice cream cup. If I'm wrong, don't tell me.

I am thankful...for so many things but for now if I had to choose one I'd say that I'm thankful for the cooler days we've been experiencing. Delightful.

From the learning rooms...tomorrow is a public school holiday and Ollie is going to be home but I really need to do at least some school. We have a couple of outside things that will interrupt school this week. Grace gets braces on Tuesday and I've been told that it will take about 2 hours. Then on Thursday we will be going to Orlando for a play and that will take about half the day. So, with those two things already going on we need to have a good day of school tomorrow. I may do our reading tonight before the kids go to bed and then they'll just have a couple of hours worth of work to do tomorrow. Even with the much more intensive school we're doing I have to say that I am happy with it. I feel so good about all that the kids are doing and learning and truly it's all about me feeling good. It is busy, we all feel the stress of having to do a certain amount of work each day in order to keep up, our school days are a little longer but even with all of that I just know that we are doing the right thing for us.

In the kitchen...I am slowly getting more motivated about cooking again now that I have let up on some of the restrictions I was trying to deal with. I borrowed a Cooking Light magazine from Aunt Harriet and all of our meals this week will come from that. We'll be having chicken in lettuce cup with spinach orzo, chicken tostadas, macaroni and cheese made with butternut squash and some fancy cheeses, pasta with white beans and escarole, and one more dish that I can't remember. Tonight I made roasted veggies with brussel sprouts, carrots, and potatoes. This is hands down my kids favorite way to eat most vegetables--I toss the veggies in oil and sometimes (if I have one) a packet of Lipton Golden Onion soup mix and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. They love it. Tonight was the first time that I did brussels sprouts with the potatoes and carrots and they were so good. Everybody loved them. Seriously. I've also done beets, sweet potatoes, and red onions too (mixed with the potatoes and carrots). I am also going to try a healthy snack where you melt chocolate chips and dip apple slices in the melted chocolate and then top with granola. That sounds good to me. I am always looking for a way to get a little sweetness for a snack or dessert but mostly healthy.

I am wearing...jean shorts and one of my favorite blue shirts

I am creating...a buff bod from going to the gym (ha!)

I am reading...Stink Alley, it's one of Hannah's readers for Sonlight Core 100. She starts it this week and I want to try to read most of the fiction books that she's going to read this year so I can answer questions and discuss them with her. I have Room by Emma Donohue waiting for me though. I can't wait to read that one. Crazy as it sounds, I read 3 books last week even in the midst of all the busyness. I read These Things Hidden, The Lightkeeper's Bride, and Because of Winn Dixie (that one only took a few hours). On my bedside table waiting for me is an Agatha Christie book, and the next Laurie King book (she writes about a female Sherlock Holmes type character), and a few magazines. Lots to read, lots to do....

I am hoping...to find joy in my days and not just be the taskmaster around here.

I am looking forward to...selling all 200 Chick-fil-a calendars that I have in my car. We've already sold about 50 but my goal is to sell the 200 we have and then get 100 more. I'm obsessed and spend too much time thinking about places I could go to try to sell more.

I am hearing...fans and the chatter of Ollie, Grace, and Joe while they play Sims.

Around the house...um....yeah......

I am pondering...how I can fit in taking Hannah places to do photo shoots for the portfolio she wants to create as well as whether I/we really have the time to take on a new adventure like a photography business.

A few plans for the rest of the week...I think I covered this but--school, braces for Grace, theatre, a play in Orlando, school, cooking, reading, living life!