FOR TODAY... from Julia’s Day Book

Outside my window... partly cloudy

I am thinking... how impatient I feel today and how I wish I could consistently get the baby to nap for a few hours at a time

I am thankful for... an understanding husband

I am wearing... maternity jeans even though I am not pregnant and a pink maternity t-shirt that really isn’t big enough for someone who is pregnant

I am remembering... that I have to call the bug man

I am going...to get lunch ready and then get my son off to his classes, then nap time for the toddler; we will see what the baby does

I am reading... The Children of Fatima by Leo Madigan

I am hoping... to get a chance to spend some time in peace and quiet today

On my mind... how my husband can be more involved with financial decisions; he’s expressing an interest and I am having a hard time letting go as I have been very much in charge up to this point.

From the learning rooms... trying to keep going until the week of Thanksgiving

Noticing that... I am finally getting that quiet time I so longed for.

Pondering these words... Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the freedom to do what we ought.--Pope John Paul II

From the kitchen... Lentil chili tonight as we don’t have any meat thawed or cheese for pizza

Around the house... need to catch up on house work after symphony week

One of my favorite things~ going for long walks with my family on Sundays

A picture to share...

A window in the Votive Chapel at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 4

1. Up early this morning. Since the time change I have been trying to get up at 6:00 regularly. My husband has been getting up around 4:30 to 5:00 to work a few hours on his second job. I went to bed fairly early last night so I was awake when he got up at 5:00 this morning. I have a full day today so I wanted to start the day with the Seven Quick Takes as to at least get this post in this week.

2. I have an orchestra concert this weekend. We are playing Beethoven's 3rd Symphony and a piece that is a musical setting of Martin Luther King Jr. 's I Have a Dream Speech. The speech is narrated by a local woman who has done much for the community.

3. It is a pain to find a place and time to pump milk while I am out away from the baby playing at the symphony. I try to get there an hour early so I can pump before rehearsal. I was planning on pumping in one of the dressing rooms but I found they were all locked. In past experiences this had not been the case. The stage set up guy came with me to see if he had a key to open them but he did not. So I had to explain to him that I was a nursing mother and I wanted to pump milk and that I reallypreferred a more private place to go than the public rest room in the lobby. He showed me a bathroom that I did not know existed which worked perfectly. I pumped after rehearsal too but when I was done the theater was dark and everyone except a few of the stage crew was left. What a lonely frightening feeling! I still hadn't packed up my stuff yet so I ended up doing that in the dark. Thankfully the lights back stage were still on. Another option is to pump during break but that usually doesn't allow for enough time and I am late getting back which I also hate. I have a car plug in so I could pump in my car but I found that it is really difficult to do this without seeing and if I turn on the light to make sure I have everything in the right place there is a good chance of revealing myself to someone I really don't want to. Waiting until I get home is longer than I would like to wait because it is an hour drive but maybe I'll have to do this. I don't want my milk to go down but then again it's not like it's every night.

4. I really want to finish a scarf that I started crocheting for my sister last year. The only reason I stopped is because the yarn got all tangled up. I had to cut the yarn and then my husband helped me get the yarn untangled. I need to make sure I know how to attach the cut yarn to the rest of the scarf properly now. I will look this up online when I get the chance. This is the first thing I have ever crocheted. It took a little while to figure it out but eventually I did.

5. I never got a chance to take a picture of the Jack O'Lantern's that dh and ds made last week. They were really beautiful.

6. I really love playing for the symphony but I feel really busy. For my two year old I took the whole year off after she was born. My baby boy is only 4 months and I have started up again. There is the pumping milk issue and I just feel more inclined to work on stuff around the house. It's probably really best for me to get away so I can appreciate being at home more. Yesterday I had no rehearsal and felt really good too stay home.

7. It feels like it is more difficult to get started writing this early in the morning. Its more difficult to think of stuff to write about. But that's it I made it through once again.

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 3

1. Pizza for supper tonight! I make pizza with home made, whole wheat crust. It turns out pretty well. Recently I have started pre-baking it for a few minutes before I put the topping on. This really helps with the texture which was rather soggy before. Now it has a nice chewiness. I started doing this my first year homeschooling after we had been to our first function with our homeschool group and the hosting mom had made pizza with home made crust. I had visions of being an earthy homemaker. I guess my vision of an earthy homemaker was someone who made home made pizza crust. The Earthy Homemaker: Sounds like a good name for a blog.

2. Grrrr. We are having problems with our window well filling up with water again. Last night while I was away my husband had to bail out water during a downpour, and a cold downpour at that. The most frustrating thing about this situation is that a large portion of the water comes from our neighbors yard. You see she has a bare track of land where her dog used run when he was out all day (that issue has been taken care of). The water forms a stream here which runs down hill and a large quantity of water drains onto our property as well as out into the street. We tried talking with her about it but said in not so many words that it was our problem. We thought we had a solution but we are having problems again. I'm going to try and call some dry basement specialists and see what they can do. My husband says fix it and then move. Maybe he's right.

3. On a better note the baby is starting to take a bottle. My son had some luck with this last night when Dad was bailing out the window.

4. Last Friday I noticed some comments on my blog for the first time. These were from Chelsea at Roots and Rings. It turns out Thru Pink Curtains had also left a comment way back in December. I never noticed until this week. It felt so good to get comments. It gave me a whole new motivation to blog. Thanks to both commenters.

5. Well we have two pumpkins that we bought last weekend. We will carve them into jack-0-lanterns tonight. Actually my husband and 14 year old will carve them tonight. That will give me something to post except I really need to get batteries for my camera before I can take photos.

6. I'm going grocery shopping tonight. That is, if I don't wimp out. I'll get batteries then,God willing.

7. It's windy, sunny and rather warm in my neck of the woods. Hopefully no rain for a while. Pray we find a good solution to our egress window problem.

The Last of the Tomatoes

Here are the last of the tomatoes that my husband picked last month(not that there were very many this year). He wanted to get them before the first frost and perhaps do something with them. Right now they are on a table in our basement and our cat knocks them off and plays with them. We may just end up throwing them out but I thought that they would at least make a rather striking photo.

Nap Time

It has been two days in a row and baby has taken his nap along with his two year old sister. It is so great to have the time freeed up. I will enjoy it while it lasts. I think this is due to the fact that I have been waking baby up in the morning. He has been sleeping from his feeding at 7 AM until about ten o'clock. But today and yesterday I woke him up before 9:00. This also makes for a better morning nap for baby. So what did I do with the time? Well... I am able to spend a little time online, I dusted, and made bread among other things. Not bad huh?

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 2

1. I am going to make it a blogging goal to do the seven quick takes every Friday if I do nothing else that week. So here I am. Will I do it next Friday? Wait and see.

2. It was rainy, windy and cold yesterday here in East Central Iowa. It is rainy and cold today minus the wind. Husband has been home three days in a row. He stayed home Wednesday because he had to take oldest son to a doctor appointment so he figured he would take the whole day off. He stayed home yesterday and today because he wasn't feeling well. He really didn't get much sleeping and laying down kind of rest but he sure was helpful to me to have around. He helped son with math. We all read about Mecca together from The Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton for homeschool geography and he helped out with the little ones. So really it was more of a break for me than for him.

3. Husband is presently taking our 14 year old son to his classes at the local Jr. High. He will be back soon and I will... He cam back so I moved down to the basment for a little privacy. I feel self conscious writing on my computer when he is around. It's hard to concentrate too.

4. If I want to be a better writer I just need to do more writing. Right? And do it on a regular basis. Do I really like writing, or am I like most aspring writers and just like the idea of writing. I sure do love reading blogs. I like all of the buttons and gadgets that people have on their blog sites. Sometimes I like that part better than the actual writing part of the blog. Is part of the fun of blogging supposed to be setting up the layout and all that. I suppose for me it is.

5. Halloween--Many Catholic homeschool types don't "celebrate"Hallween in any form. I, however, ususally love handing out candy and even going out trick-or-treating with the kids. In a time when people rarely know their neighbors it is a great opportunity to get out and meet neighbors. Unfortunately you probably won't see them again until next year.

6. Where do bloggers get such great photos/graphics for their blogs that actually fit in with what they are writing. I have noticed these at Conversion Diary and at Wesley J. Smith's Blog Second Hand Smoke.

7. My first symphony rehearsal is a week from this Sunday. It is a double rehearsal so it will last from 1:30 until 8:00 with a two hour break for supper. The baby will not take a bottle yet though husband actually got two ounces into him last night when I was out for about four hours. He was hungry when I got home though. I may have to skip one of the reahearsals on Sunday.

This and that

I have renewed my membership with Flylady again. It helps me to focus my house cleaning efforts. I otherwise feel so scattered and don't know where to begin. I'm the kind of person who needs someone to point me in the right direction. This week we are in the master bedroom. There is also the Holiday Control Journal. I always have ideas about Christmas but never get around to them because I don't know how to begin. I like her step by step approach telling you what you should do each day. Like I said I like very specific directions. I wish all of life would provide me very specific directions.

On another note, the first symphony rehearsal since the baby has been born is in less than two weeks and he won't take a bottle. This is the first time this has happened with any of my children. Its always nerve racking enough to have to leave a little one behind for a rehearsal an hour away, but when you don't know if he will cry unconsolably because his mother isn't there to feed him this makes things even worse. Will he take a bottle if he gets hungry enough. We are hoping so.