Outside:  Rain.  A whole bunch.  It doesn't look much different outside my window today than it did outside my window last year this time. 

Listening to: Simon and Garfunkel.  A lot.  Because…Simon and Garfunkel. 

Thinking about: "Slow down, you're moving too fast.  Got to make the moment last."  (see above)    Which reminded me a lot of this article about The Sacred Inefficiencies of Life and where productivity sometimes runs right up against being present and connected.  

Creating: A beautiful (with luck!) command center for household tasks.  Need some ideas?  I have my favorites pinned here. Will be back to update on which we chose. 

Reading:  So much.  First, friends had shared a few weeks ago about Pioneer Girl

It was out of stock at the time and approaching scalper pricing so I put it out of mind for a bit though it was super intriguing.  Then this showed up at my door courtesy of my friend Heather whom we roadtripped with to Bath lo these many years back now. 

When they say "annotated" they are not kidding.   There are footnotes of biblical proportions.  Like, for real, there are as many footnotes as lines of story on many pages and surprisingly they are just as interesting as the main text. 

Around the house:  Some people are still struggling to recall where stuff goes in the new house.  All the people, actually.  They say it takes three months to form a new habit.  Meantime….

While getting familiar with a new American house is a challenge at times we had to laugh at this tutorial BBC put out on British houses.  Oh I get homesick.  

In other news I found the living room curtain panels and they ended up being not quite right since one side of the living room is a bit sunken.  When going through my picture files I found a snap from Hancock Fabrics.  At least I hope that's where it was.  It may have been Joann's which will mean two trips to figure out but either way I am leaning towards something in this family…

From the learning room:  Ok there isn't a learning room per se at the moment, though every day sees it coming together a bit more.  We are still learning, however, and thinking about learning and planning the coming school year's learning.  I have also been thinking with gratitude about my teaching mentors over the years after we read this article from last fall which led to the discovery the US Dept of Ed reported that over the course of one recent school year over 37,000 children were restrained in this way.  This all got me thinking, "What would Marva Collins do?" If you can't answer that then spend the penny on Amazon and be inspired.  

Same team, y'all.

We are all on the same team.  : )  On that note I read Janet Lansbury's sample dialogs when facing potential confrontation of wills.  How differently these scenarios can play out. 

"Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you…"    

– Simon and Garfunkel