10.20.2013

Simple Things Sunday

After a crazy week of everyone going in different directions, it was wonderful to have a weekend full of simple family fun.  I've been wanting to link up with Simple Things Sunday for a while now, and finally remembered! (And thought this was a great week to do so, since I savored every simple moment. *insert big mushy heart here*)


Daddy's Little Helper Loves Daddy's Big Tools!

Em and AG hanging out "surrounded by taxidermy", as Emlyn said, at the Tackle Box. :)

Em's Cool New Shoes...LOVE 50% Off Clearance Sales at Academy!

All Em Wants For Christmas...Light Up Eiffel Tower. :)

Odd Beauty in the Parking Lot
Not a particularly flattering shot of me...I'd been up since 4 a.m. and had very little sleep for 3 days...but I'm trying to do better about getting an occasional "mom shot" (and besides, my daughter begged! :))

She also begged for this one...aren't we lovely? :)


Had a late lunch date here with Billy this week...so funny, because we used to eat there fairly often in our dating/early married years when it was 3-Pete's, but hadn't been there in a LONG time.  Now it's La Huerta, with new colors and decor, but still very much the same architectural feel as 3-Pete's. 

One of my favorite "simple things"...sitting in the back yard with Billy...talking, reading, taking pictures of the birds and squirrels...today we had a little visitor. :)


Love This Crazy Bunch!!








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10.01.2013

OpenHeart Monday (On Tuesday)

...And barely on Tuesday, I'm afraid!

I've hit one of those walls of fatigue tonight that makes it hard work to hold your head up and breathe. But...I'm determined to get this post up before I crawl to bed. :)  So...as often happens, it won't be the post I had really planned...but it will be a post!

My poor blogs...both of them...have been horribly neglected lately.  I had gotten into such a good groove with posting regularly early in the summer, and then "life happened", as it so often does :), and although I get up every day planning to post, and have even started a number of posts, it just hasn't happened much.  Lots of other good stuff has gotten done...decluttering the dining room/school room, long and short term school planning, school itself :), and lots of good family time, among other things...but not much blogging.

Then I read about The Nester's 31 Days link-up for October.  I wanted so badly to participate, but could not for the life of me come up with any way to make the hodge podge of post topics I have on my "to be blogged" list work as a series of posts on one topic.  I thought about trying "31 Days of Completely Unrelated Posts", but decided that probably wouldn't fly with the rules of the link-up. :)

I decided that in lieu of being part of all the fun in the official challenge, I would challenge myself to post 31 days on a hodge podge of topics in October.  Then I looked at the October calendar (and the list of stuff that hasn't even made it to the calendar yet!), and decided perhaps I should challenge myself to post 5 days a week in October.  Technically, I'm planning to post once for every week-day in October, which works out to 23 days.  I may post on weekends and miss some days during the week, but at the end of the month, I'd like to end up with at least 23 posts :)

The other reason I am bound and determined to get a post up before my head hits the pillow tonight is that I am beyond thrilled to be part of the launch team for Mary DeMuth's soon-to-be-released book, The Wall Around Your Heart. Those who follow my blog regularly know that Mary DeMuth is one of my favorite authors.  Her writing and ministry have made a huge impact on my life.

A fellow launch team member is doing a link-up on her blog called OpenHeart Mondays, where we can share our thoughts on a chapter of the book each week.  I've missed the first few weeks,but I'm going to jump in with this week's link-up on chapter 4 and then hopefully do a catch up post on the earlier chapters.  I'll be posting additional info about the book throughout this month as well.

Flowing Faith

Tonight's OpenHeart Monday post is pretty simple...I'm trying to journal my way through the book.  This week's journal was done very quickly...one of those "done is better than perfect" things. :)  Sometimes I have to abandon what I really want to do in favor of what is doable at the moment, and this is one of those times!  Hopefully I'll be able to share a bit more about this chapter later.  For now...a few of the notes/quotes in my #Openheart Journal: