Simple Woman’s Daybook

 Life, Love & Everything Else  No Responses »
Feb 092011
 

For Today, February 8, 2011

Outside My Window… we are getting ready for *another* cold front with rain, ice, and snow.   Can I request a return to normal Texas winter weather? Please? Pretty Please?

I am thinking… about my curriculum choices for our homeschool.  I’ve finally figured out that I have a curriculum that I love the concept behind it, but I don’t actually like doing it.  I need to see if I can find something that both the boys and I can agree on.

I am thankful for… Wednesday’s field trip being rescheduled.  If the nasty weather comes through tonight like the weather guys say it will – the roads are going to be yucky. Glad I don’t have to drive to downtown Dallas.

From the learning rooms… today the boys went to Science Etc. for the first time in two weeks!  They were so excited to return after one week of sickness and another week with a Snow Day.

From the kitchen… I’ve got nothin’.  Hubby left for Detroit today, so the boys had hot dogs, beans, and apples for dinner. I had leftovers.

I am wearing… two t-shirts (one tank and one long-sleeve), jeans, and smart-wool socks.

I am creating… piles!  I have a pile to sell, a pile to giveaway, and a pile to give to my niece, Mustang Sally.

I am going… to post pictures of our school room re-do sometime this week.  After a trip to IKEA and an hour or two of furniture assembly, things are looking better.  I still have a bunch of stuff to go through and sort in to the piles, but things are looking better.

I am reading… same as last week – the new issue of “The Old Schoolhouse” magazine, “At Home” by Bill Bryson, “Snoop” by Sam Gosling, and “Raising Unselfish Children in a Self-Absorbed World” by Jill Rigby.

I am hoping… that Hubby’s return flight won’t be delayed by the weather.

I am hearing… dogs snore, and Tigger mumbling in his sleep in the other room.

Around the house… we’ve got some furniture that will be going to new homes soon.  I can’t tell you how happy I am about that!

One of my favorite things… Tylenol, enough said.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week… to continue organizing the school room. I hope to get all of the school stuff into the school room, instead of hiding in the boys’ closets.

Here is picture thought I am sharing…I had a heavenly visitor last week. :)

See you soon!
 Posted by TexasTanya at 12:53 am

Ice Week Randomness

 Life, Love & Everything Else  No Responses »
Feb 072011
 

While our Northerly neighbors spent plenty of time laughing at us this week, we here in the DFW area had temperatures that we haven’t seen for nearly 20 years.  Our temperatures were 30 degrees below normal for the most part of the past six days.  And in case you couldn’t tell, we are not used to temps in the low teens.   Last Monday night, precipitation came in and the temperatures plummeted.  The roads were iced over Tuesday morning, so local school districts cancelled school for the day.  Then when temps hovered at about 20 degrees things stayed iced over, therefore, school was canceled for the next two days.  Thursday night brought us quiet falling snow, and Friday morning everything was covered in a beautiful white blanket.  Well, at least until the kiddos got to it.

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It’s funny how the brutally cold weather changed most locals’ behavior this week.  With schools being canceled, many businesses opted to stay closed.  Decisions that forced  some families to spend time together.  I was disheartened to read some parents’ FaceBook statuses complaining of having to spend time with their children.  Don’t get me wrong – there are days that I dream of sending my children to spend the week with my parents because I’m tired of Woody arguing, and I’m fed up with Tigger whining – but for the most part  I love having my boys at home with me. Sadly, I’m pretty sure some of those complaining parents will be doing more complaining years down the road.  Only then it will be that they wish their child would spend time with them, call them, or come visit them.

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Cold weather brings out the best in my dear Hubby.  In any weather, he ordinarily offers to help just about any of our neighbors with any home maintenance issue they might have.  But when the temperature drops and freezing weather causes problems, he shines.  Because he grew up in the northern tundra of Illinois, he knows how to deal with driveways covered in ice, pipes that freeze, and all of the other things that pop up with the cold temps. His knowledgeable advice and willingness to help others in need makes me love him all the more.

I think he’s a keeper. :)

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In the TexasT house we canceled school on Tuesday.  The boys normally go to Science Etc. on Tuesday’s but the weather changed those plans.  I wasn’t interested in fighting them to get school work done, so we played. It was especially nice because Hubby’s business trip was canceled, too. Instead of being gone for the week, he was here to play with us.

Wednesday, I used the old adage, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  Since roads were iced and difficult to navigate, most of us were stuck at home.  I invited some neighbors over to visit.  We frequently talk about wishing we had more time to get together, and an ice day gave us just that.  The adults had a fun time visiting, and the kids had a fun time playing with their friends.

Thursday we buckled down and got some school done, but when we woke up to snow Friday morning, all thoughts of getting school done flew out the window.  It was really fun to have a true Snow Day.  The kids made snow angels.  One neighbor rigged a sled.  It was hysterical watching the boys try to pull one another down the street with it.  Then, of course, there were snowball fights followed by copious amounts of hot cocoa while sitting fireside.

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Over all, I think it was a pretty good week.

 Posted by TexasTanya at 1:15 am

Sunday Morning

 Life, Love & Everything Else  1 Response »
Jan 232011
 

Normally, we’d have gone to church this weekend but both boys have sore throats and stuffy noses.  Neither of them has been eating much.  Neither of them has been moving much. Believe me, that is weird.  Since they won’t eat much, I just try to keep them well-hydrated.  Since they didn’t want to do much yesterday, I let them watch the Boomerang channel for way too many hours. At the moment, I’m listening to their whistling noses as they sleep. (My office is between their bedrooms.)

I thought I’d kick the tires on this ol’ blog again.  Obviously, I haven’t done much with it in the past several months. I want to change that.  I miss hopping on here and spilling my heart, my thoughts, my plans.  Sharing blessings, sharing joys, ups and downs – life.  Doing all of those things so that I can look back and remember them.

Silly little things like how I noticed I made yesterday’s coffee incorrectly- but I didn’t notice it until I went to clean the machine.  Hubby was out of town last week, so I adjusted the brew strength to make a small pot just for me daily, instead of the full pot for the two of us.  When I set the coffee maker up after Hubby returned, I forgot to flip the switch back.  Ooops.  In my defense, I thought it tasted a little odd, but I didn’t think much about it.  At least I had a good excuse to make another pot yesterday afternoon!

Funny little things like how I shared a “Simple Joy of the Day” on Facebook.  The joy was hearing Tigger sing the Oompa-Loompa song while he was playing in his room.  It is so funny to listen to him sing “oopma loompa, doompadee doo, I’ve got another puzzle for you”. Then just a few moments later, he changed his tune.  He started singing “I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy”. I laughed when I realized he was singing it while he held his Buzz Lightyear toy. Poor Sheriff Woody.

Laugh-out-loud things like the events that unfolded during a road trip last week.  When we stopped for lunch, Hubby bought some candy for the boys to share in the car.  After being on the road for about thirty minutes, I noticed there was a frantic search occurring in the back seat. When I questioned them, Woody said “Tigger dropped a Mike….(1.5 second pause)…..or an Ike….I don’t know which.”  I’m so glad I wasn’t driving.  One, I got to see the serious expression on sweet Woody’s face as he proclaimed their emergency. It was priceless. And two, I laughed so hard that I would have had a hard time staying on the road.

Well, the noses have stopped whistling, so I better go fix breakfast.

See you soon!

 Posted by TexasTanya at 10:11 am

The Top 50 Toys (Or How to De-clutter Your Kid’s Room)

 Life, Love & Everything Else  2 Responses »
Dec 092010
 

If you’re looking for the Top 50 Toys of 2010, I’ll warn you that this is not the post you are looking for.  If you are looking for a way to pare down the toys that are taking over your child’s bedroom, you might be interested.

Last week, I was reading through a dated issue of  The Old Schoolhouse Holiday Supplement.   One of the articles had some ideas about clearing out clutter.  The gist of the article was to reward the family if they could get rid of X number of items.   If the family could gather 100 items to get rid of/donate, the family could have dessert with lunch.  If they could find 200 items, they could go out for ice cream. 300 items, out for dinner. 400 items, out for dinner and dessert. So on and so forth…

Clearing clutter has been a top priority for me as of late.  I had come to recognize that we were outgrowing our house, and we hadn’t added any family members.  The stuff we own was beginning to take over.

While I have done lots of de-cluttering and donating in just about every room of the house, I was afraid to even think about the boys’ rooms.  I liked the idea of a reward, but I knew that “X number for a certain reward” would not work for my guys.  They’d pick the smallest of the smallest items (or they’d pick their brother’s toys), and we wouldn’t really make much progress.  So – I decided to turn it around ~ instead of deciding on items to get rid of, they had to decide on items to keep.

First, I had each boy clean their room and make their bed.

Next, I had them pick their top 10 favorite toys.  It was really interesting to see what items were considered the most valuable.  I had them put the toys onto their bed in a row, that way they could easily see the items they picked. We turned it into a bit of a game in that the bed became an island, and if the toy made it to the island it was safe.

A side note, “one toy” for our purposes here were deemed by how it was packaged when it was purchased.  The bucket of Army guys was considered one toy – because we didn’t buy each individual Army guy we bought one bucket.   The three stuffed elephants that Tigger had did not come together, so they were considered three separate items.

Then I had them pick another 10 toys.  This is where some of the Happy Meal toys made their debut.  When the boys would select a gimmicky/freebie toy, I would ask them questions. “Are you sure you would rather play with this Kung Fu Panda Happy Meal toy instead of the bucket of Army men?”  “Are you sure you would rather play with this XYZ toy instead of the Shake ‘n Go Speedway?” Almost always, they would pick the item other than the McD’s toy.

We continued this routine until we had five rows and had reached the Top 50.  Then I had them look around their room to see if there were any toys that they thought they really wanted to keep.  Of course, there were several items, so I had them negotiate.  They had to select an item from the bed and exchange it for the item they wanted to save.

Our reward came at the end of the (very long) day when we all went to the local frozen yogurt shop.  The other reward was that now that space had been cleared, they could move their Legos to their rooms.  (Legos had previously been in the dining room because there was no space to use them and keep them organized in the bedrooms.) The rooms look so much better, and I know they actually enjoy spending time in their rooms now.

Over the past couple of days, both boys have thanked me several times for helping them clean out their rooms.  They’ve also chosen to spend a lot more time playing in there, too ~ that’s been another great reward for this Mom!

 Posted by TexasTanya at 12:51 pm

An Interview, Part II

 Life, Love & Everything Else  2 Responses »
Sep 262010
 

About 18 months ago, I did an “Interview” post in which I asked the boys a few questions about me.   Today, in honor of Hubby’s birthday I thought it would be fun to change “Mommy” to “Daddy” and ask the boys the same questions about him.

I learned so much seeing the man I married through their eyes. :)

Woody, age 8
Tigger, age 6

1. What is something Daddy always says to you?
Woody. I love you.
Tigger. That he loves me a lot.

2. What makes Daddy happy?
Woody. Me telling the truth.
Tigger. When we both fart.

3. What makes Daddy sad?
Woody. Me lying.
Tigger. When he has to spank us when we don’t listen and obey.

4. What does Daddy do to make you laugh?
Woody. Tickles me.
Tigger. He farts.

5. What was your Daddy like as a child?
Woody. Almost like me because he used to have the same hair as me.
Tigger. He kinda looked like my brother.

6. How old is your Daddy?
Woody. 42 or 43.
Tigger. 26

7. How tall is your Daddy?
Woody. almost 8 feet.
Tigger. 10 ft

8. What is his favorite thing to do?
Woody. Shooting
Tigger. Go shooting

9. What does your Daddy do when you’re not around?
Woody.  Watch grown up shows like “Swamp People” and “Swamp Loggers”.
Tigger. Goes to the gun range

10. If your Daddy becomes famous, what will it be for?
Woody. Shooting in competitions.
Tigger. Shooting fast.

11. What is your Daddy really good at?
Woody. He’s really good at shooting.
Tigger. He’s really good at shooting. (Anyone seeing a pattern here?)

12. What is your Daddy not very good at?
Woody. He’s not good at archery.
Tigger. He’s not very good at being quiet. (Bwahhahaha! Boy! Does this kid KNOW his dad or what?!? :) )

13. What does your Daddy do for his job?
Woody. Sit on his chair and type in words. He really doesn’t do much. (HA! HA! HA!)
Tigger. He works on his computer and uses a pencil.

14. What is your Daddy’s favorite food?
Woody. Brownies, cookies.
Tigger. Goatmeal with no dinosaurs in it. (Goatmeal is how Daddy says oatmeal.)

15. What makes you proud of your Daddy?
Woody. He lets me play on the computer.
Tigger. That he hugs me a lot.

16. If your Daddy were a cartoon character, who would he be?
Woody. Droop A-long.
Tigger. Quick Draw McGraw because he shoots a gun.

17. What do you and your Daddy do together?
Woody. Sometimes paint my model, and sometimes watch tv.
Tigger. Watch TV

18. How are you and your Daddy the same?
Woody. Sometimes we both forget manners.
Tigger. We both like guns.

19. How are you and your Daddy different?
Woody. I like archery and he likes guns.
Tigger. Dad’s bigger than me.

20. How do you know your Daddy loves you?
Woody. Because he likes to do stuff with me.
Tigger. Because he tells me that everyday.

21. Where is your Dad’s favorite place to go?
Woody. To do stuff, the gun range. To eat snacks, 7-11. To eat food, Central Market because it has a giant salad bar and good service and good food.
Tigger. The Blue Mint (a local restaurant)

Happy birthday, Honey.  I love you and I hope your day is fantastic (even if we are in Wisconsin today.)

 Posted by TexasTanya at 6:15 am
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