The Simple Woman's Daybook...Week of August 30, 2010

For Today...from Mandy's Daybook

Outside my window...the sky is dark and everything is quiet.
I am thinking...that I really want to go take a bath and call it a night!

I am thankful for...family and friends.

I am wearing...black yoga pants and a black floral shirt

I am remembering...to pray for a friend who has recently undergone a pretty detailed surgery.

I am going...to sleep good tonight and enjoy every moment of it!

I am reading...my Bible and a new Amish book that I just picked up by a new author; hence I don't know the title off the top of my head!

I am hearing...the tv and my fingers tapping the keyboard.

I am hoping...that tomorrow is a little less hectic and my emotions are a little more in check.

I need...to stop by the pet store and get the guinea girls some Timothy Hay.

On my mind...my friend who just went through the surgery mentioned above.

From the learning rooms...the girl's are back in school and the fun has just begun!

Noticing that...I've been a little more emotional than usual since we came back from vacation.

Pondering these words...nothing on this one tonight.

From the kitchen...tonight was another "on your own" night, my choice was a tuna fish sandwich and chips...one of my favorites!

I am creating...nothing right now.

Around the house...a bit of clutter, we haven't gotten everything back in order from our vacation and we're tyring to clean out as well for a garage sale.

One of my favorite things...a good book, a hot bath and lots of bubbles!

A few plans for the rest of the week...hopefully a lot less than the first three days!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Home, Sweet Home!

You can participate in the Simple Woman's Daybook by going to the link below.
http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

Have a wonderfully delightful week!
Mandy

Delightful Garden Smells

Today while Shelby and I were out and about, we stopped at Milberger's...just to look around of course!  I gave her strict instructions to not let me walk out of there with any new plants; I just needed to wonder around.  She must have been a little weak today herself.  First I saw the cutest little Plumeria's, and I needed the red one!  It's not blooming, but I'm going to trust the label and expect some pretty little red blooms that will smell heavenly.  Next was the Lavender.  Mine recently bit the dust, and I'm completely baffled.  It made it through last summer when we had 50+ days of triple digit heat with no rain, a colder than usual winter and she just up and died a few weeks ago.  They had the Goodwin Creek variety, and that happens to be my favorite with her frilly leaves.  What was I supposed to do but to bring two home and put them in the ground!  They're tiny now, but they have plenty of time to grow and it should start getting cooler in the next few weeks.

Goodwin Creek Lavender

Then we found the highlight of the day!  Patchouli plants on the next aisle over...wahoo!!  I love Patchouli  and have been on the look out ever since I found out it was an actual plant and not just a yummy scent. She looks pretty plain, but smells divine!! 

Patchouli Plant (Herb)

She is going to be the perfect front porch companion to my Vick's Plant that my neighbor started for me.  I think I've mentioned it before, but don't remember sharing a picture.  If I did, oh well...enjoy it again, my memory isn't so hot at the present time.

Vick's Plant

This one's got fuzzy leaves and smells just like Vick's Vapor Rub.  I was even more excited to find out that it's considered a succulent, and we all know how I adore succulents!  I had her in the backyard and the sun was a little much, so she's recuperating rather quickly on the front porch. 

I'm thinking that next spring I'm going to create an aromatherapy garden.  These will all be nice additions as well as my Chocolate Mint to whatever else I come across. 

Chocolate Mint

Looking forward to a wonderful week!
Mandy

Getting Back to Normal

We officially survived the first week of school!  Normally I'd say, what's the big deal, but this year we set ourselves up for a bit more chaos.  We went on vacation the week before school started.  I did have the good sense to fly us back in on Saturday so we could at least have Sunday, but looking back that was not enough!  Volleyball tryouts started the second day, and the 8th Graders get the privilege of the 6:30 a.m. practices for the week!  Thank God for my husband who doesn't mind leaving the house at 6:15 in the morning; I'd never make it! The great news is that she ended the week knowing that she was for sure on either the A or B team, and that is AWESOME!!!!

Next week her practices are after school since they rotate weekly with 7th Grade and I get the pick up duty...much more to my liking! 

I've never grown vegetables before, but we're trying cucumbers and orange bell peppers for the guinea girls.  I went out yesterday and noticed the cucumber plant had the prettiest little yellow blooms.  Does this mean I'm closer to seeing cucumbers?  This is all new to me, so I'm a little excited that they're even growing. 

One of the other things I noticed when we came back from our trip was that it gets the same little curly-q things that my Passiflora has, and that added to it's whimsy.  I had to move it though, because it was trying to wrap around a succulent...not very nice!

Daughter #2 also put some red bell pepper seeds in a little pot in a window sill right before we left.  They've sprouted as well, so we might have a plentiful bell pepper season...yikes!  I'll share a photo of that one later as I haven't gotten to getting that one yet, but I need to...they're really growing quickly. 

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Mandy

Writer's Workshop: What Unconditional Love Means to Me

This week's prompt:  “It was as if an invisible thread hooked her to her boy. The thread could go taut or slack but it could never come undone, it could never reach the end of its spool because there was no end; it bound them forever.” What does unconditional love mean to you?


Much like the quote included with this prompt, my children are always the first thought when I talk about unconditional love.  When your child is placed in your arms for the first time, be it in the delivery room or through the channels of adoption, an overwhelming sense of love overtakes you.  In that moment, you  can't comprehend anything separating you from your tiny treasure, and woe to the person who would even sugest such a thought.  To often though, as we journey through life love is based on being good enough, living up to expectations set by others, how bad we messed up, how great we did, other people's opinions dictated to others, and a ton of other preposterous reasons.

Unconditional love for me is knowing that no matter what my children do or the decisions they choose to make in life, they will always have my love.  They might make decisions that I don't agree with and can't support, but my love will not stop because of those choices.  There might be times of distancing (I pray not), but they will always know that no matter what they choose in life that I will always love them just as much as the day they were born. 

Unconditional love comes with no strings attached; because in my opinion, if there are strings, then it was never really unconditional love to begin with.

Mandy

To join in the Writer's Workshop, stop by Mama Kat's (link's at the top of post) , choose a prompt and jump right in!

Going Through Withdrawls!

Oh my...never again!  Almost two weeks without my beloved laptop was almost too much for me! She's been running slow and the week before we left on vaction it would infuriate me to navigate from blog to blog to anything else for that matter.  Since we were leaving for vacation, I took all four computers...yes, you read right...all four computers went to the computer doctor.  My parent's have spoiled our girls with laptops over the years, so between the three of us we have three laptops and then the main computer for whoever's laptop happens to be dead!  Bob says he's on the computer enough during the day and has no desire to be on it at night.  All of them had viruses on them, needless to say I've switched to a different protector...this was ridiculous!  A week in Ohio with only my husband's iPhone was a test for all of us...wahoo for 3G service though!!  So, that would be why I haven't been on for a while...just in case you were wondering!

While I was gone, my Plumeria bloomed...I was so happy that the bloom held on until I got home.

She smelled WONDERFUL too!

Everything else held up really nice, of course it didn't hurt that my neighbor friend took excellent care of them in the 100 + temps that graced our city while we were gone.  My Bougainvilleas finally decided to bloom too...maybe I should leave them more often!

The week away was nice.  We didn't do anything terribly exciting, but we did get to spend time with Bob's mother and his brothers and their wives.  I have to admit though, it was pretty cool going for a jog at 11:30 in the morning and not breaking a sweat until the jog was almost to an end.  No way would I even consider doing that here, much less lace up and hit the road!  The most exciting part of the trip for the girls was the plane ride home, we paid the $6 for each of them to watch tv on the 2 1/2 hour plane ride from Cleveland to Houston.  We make this trip every other summer, and this wasn't an option the last time we flew.  They thought that was very cool...ok, their mother thought it was pretty awesome, but I opted for a nap instead!

Mandy

Friday Mixup

I took a vacation day today, so while the girls were at their last day of volleyball camp, my mother and I got to spend the day together...without extra voices!  Our first stop was Schultz nursery were we picked up a pot saucer, much needed Hibiscus food and a yellow bell pepper plant and a cucumber plant.  I'm going to try these from seeds for next year, but when I saw them already growing I wanted to see how well I'd do with them.  My intent is to grow the bell peppers and cucumbers for the guinea girls.  We'll see!  Then we hit Half Price Books!!  This is our favorite spot and the fact that she's been here since Friday afternoon last week and we'd yet to make it there was nothing short of a crime again book lovers! From there we went by Ross, just to look of course.  :) I got a pot for my Plumeria and another great pot for that "just in case" moment since I never know when I'll bring another plant home! From there we had to pick up the girls and took them to the mall for some school clothes shopping...not the best part of the day considering everyone and their extended families were there!  Okay, maybe not that bad, but close enough to cause my blood pressure to rise.

I'll post pictures as the vegies grow (keeping my fingers crossed), but I've got one of the Plumeria...can't wait to watch it grow and smell it's lovely blooms!  Never mind, I guess I just thought I'd downloaded them and my camera's been hijacked by Caitlin so she can download her volleyball pictures.  Priorities!  So, I'll just have to share a photo from their summer adventure.  I think I need my eyes checked...found them!

Plumeria...shared the little one with my mother.

I forgot to share this little surprise I got the other morning.  I went out to water and my Senecio Haworthii 'Cocoon Plant' had three little blooms! They are different that any other's I've gotten so far from my other succulents, they look like sheer paper umbrellas like you'd get on a fruity drink.  The only lasted a day, looked the next day and everything was gone, stems and all!

Senecio Haworthii 'Cocoon Plant' Blooms

Pitcher Plant...made two baskets out of this one; one for my mother, one for me.

Another carnivorous plant to add to my collection of one! This one has bigger "pitchers" and they look like they have fur on them. 

Now for summer fun. Excuse the crappy size, I haven't got a clean copy yet and took this one off the oldest's Facebook page.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mandy

Writer's Workshop - Stepping Outside the Box

First off, let me just say that there's not an athletic bone in my body.  In high school, I was in marching band and I honestly can't remember ever running the required mile in gym class.  I've never liked to sweat, in fact, if I begin to feel close to it, I generally head straight to the a/c.  That being said, when a coworker and I were reading the paper and talking about the Tower of America's Run/Climb over a break; never in my wildest dreams would I have even considered what I was about to suggest.  "Kim, let's do it."  In case you don't know what the Tower of America's Run/Climb is, here's the details.  Competitors run a mile around Hemisphere Park and then climb 952 steps to the top of the tower.  Sound fun? Another coworker who'd run it before did his best to bully encourage us to try it.  With the deadline looming, we paid our registration fees and then made a plan.  Of course my husband's encouragement was along the lines of "make sure your life insurance is paid up" or "are you crazy?".  He even bought me the Biggest Looser knee wrap ice packs.  We practiced on the stairs at work during lunch instead of our usual 2 mile walks, readied our play lists and promised to take turns pushing each other up the stairs.  The day of the race came and we were ready.  Our goal was 35 minutes.

We got separated in the staircase; you can't hear your partner in a dark stairwell with earphones and hundreds of feet pounding the steel stairs!

After asking God to "just take me now" about three times, I made it to the top in 37 minutes!  My friend was waiting for me at the top with water.  I left mine at the bottom and was tempted numerous times to beg strangers for water...I didn't. Not wanting to wait for the elevator, we took the stairs back down...that was more nerve racking than the trip up!

We made it!!  After some lovely language on the trip up and swearing that I would never do something this crazy again, we're making plans to do it again in 2011.  The deal was that if she did that with me, then I would do the half marathon for the Rock 'n Roll Marathon with her in November 2010.  I'm not sure what I was thinking...other than stepping completely "outside my box"!  There is still not an athletic bone in my body...I'm channeling my deeply, and I mean deeply buried athlete!  

Me, Kim's Daughter, Kim...we did it!

If you'd like to join in the fun, stop by Mama Kat's and choose your prompt.

Mandy