I mentioned in my last post that ‘a reader’ had sent me the link to her blog.  That comment has been bothering me all day.  Just sounds so pompous. 

Here is what happened.  I got a very sweet note from a very nice woman who happened to have visited here. She was kind enough to share the link to her new blog which was delightful.  She is an art therapist and has some insightful thoughts about the role our creations play. Thoughts which, unbeknownst to her, have been turning over in my mind all week.  I had hoped to share the link here but as I am using my son’s computer and reading webmail things occasionally disappear or get deleted.  Like the link. And the email with which I could have retrieved the link. : / 

So please accept my apology.  Like I said – that just didn’t sound right to me.

Please keep two of my favorite people in prayer if you would.  I know God has a plan but honestly I am a bit beside myself over both of them at the moment. : /   Karen has been a wonderful steadfast friend since we both moved to CO. They have been ‘whole family’ friends, a rare find where all of us- husbands, wives, and kids – get along famously. They host warm old fashioned parties for scads of locals and are the first to appear with food when there is a celebration or crisis.  Now Karen is having her own struggle and I am determined to pray her through this.

Jen and I have been friends for 13 years now. But who is counting. ; )  We have gone through lots of babies, moves, and diets together.  We have alternately inspired and consoled each other as life demanded. We have hashed out deep, vital issues like theology, nutrition, educational methods, and the ongoing bangs-versus-no bangs debate. <g>  Life has thrown her a curve ball healthwise also. She is unlikely to make much mention of it being as others-centered as she has always been. Please life them up in your prayers!

I wandered onto Rhonda’s blog to get these way cute embroidery patterns.  I stayed to read more of her musing about simple living. Her Two Simple Things post includes this challengs:

As soon as you finished reading this blog today, I have a task for you. Your first small step: sit down with a pen and notepad and think about the kind of life you want to live. Picture yourself in your ideal location doing what would make you happy. What is complicating your life? What do you need to change in your life to achieve what you want?

It reminded me of that Elsie Flanigan layout I linked to last week which said, "This is your life. Are you who you want to be?"  (If I was a good blogger I would go dig it up to hyperlink, wouldnt I : / )

Rhonda says today can be the first day of the rest of your simplified life. She also echoes my recurrent thoughts:

I’d be lying if I told you that simple living is easy. It is satisfying, rewarding, healthy, beautiful, it makes you feel happy and content, it’s substantial and important and necessary, but it isn’t easy, especially when you start. But it’s a wonderful and significant way of life and I hope all of you decide that even if it isn’t easy, it is how you want your life to be.

Simple.  Not to be confused with easy.

Anyhoo, if the idea of simple, sane living intrigues you but you feel you are buried under with no hope of digging out then give yourself an hour and go read the Down to Earth blog with a pen and notebook. See if she can’t change your mind. : )

You are in for such a treat!  Our favorite Gypsy Caravan has rolled back into town and is every bit as delightful as it ever was.  Now you can also see the lovely notebook pages the children have been creating this school year on her sidebar.

Speaking of which, if you check out our lefthand sidebar we are slowly creating albums of our notebooks as well.  It has been such a pleasure to make this journey with frequent phone visits with Rebecca. We are having such fun.  Go visit and welcome her back to blogland! 

We have been adding autumnal touches around the house these past few weeks. Pottery Barn’s seasonal decor ideas are increasingly my favorite resource. Not too mod (ala some of the most popular craft blogs)and not too cheesey. As Goldilocks would say, they are ‘just right’ for my taste.  Not quite as right for my budget comfort, however. We have solved this problem rather easily though. Enter Walmart. <g> Literally and figuratively. 

Perusing the home, floral, and craft aisles netted several knock off’s for next to nothing. A ‘for instance’ – we picked up this wooden dough riser/kneader piece for $5. It looked just like the one featured as a centerpiece in September’s Country Living mag. We filled it with some tiny pumpkins.

In the floral aisle they had many shapes and sizes of glass vases similar to those in the PB pages.  I can’t see any measurable difference in a $5 glass container vs a $25 version. It is what they are stuffed with that makes them attractive. A bag of cranberries costs less than $3 at the grocery. We had some time while the kids were in choir practice on Sunday so Kieran and I gathered a bagful of pinecones from under a tree in the planter outside. They look stunning in those oversized glass vases or in open bowls. Walmart had several wood bowls in the kitchen/dishware section as salad bowls. They would make really classy  displays of natural fall-ish stuffers. Their pillar candles would look great stuck inside those glass vases with stuffers like berries or acorns surrounding.

I am finding with this many people in the house my tastes are leaning towards the clean lines and simple graphic-style displays vs lots of small stuff which is soon tipped over or dusty.  In fact, anything with ‘clean’ in the description fits the bill. ; )   I far prefer using these natural materials to the  cartoonish commercially available holiday standby’s.

Oh, another project in the works here are the rattan chargers shown at left. (from PB too) I thought they would look so nice on our mission cherry table.  We spotted some round placemats in the seasonal sale section at Walmart. (below)I have seen them paint these on HGTV and think that a coat of walnut paint would produce a lovely set of knock off chargers for waaaay less than $18ea. I will keep you posted : )

This is right up there with, "Whose socks are on the chandelier."  I went to grab something from the freezer the other day and had to do a double take.

"Why is there a man in the freezer??" 

Something about playing house and needing a drink and ice cubes and forgetting…. <g>  Ah well. They keep you on your toes! The Funschool flickr has been updated with more letter activity images btw. Have a wonderful day!

You hear about it everyday don’t you?  Road rage, bottlenecks, traffic coming to a standstill. We are not immune.  No sirree-bob. When you least expect it you might turn around a mountain bend and find trouble….

thugs even…

always a ringleader or two …

passing on the left…

hard tellin’ where it might all end.  I would suspect a corral however. : )

Oh bliss!  Oh tumultuous joy! Oh everlasting happy!  Ok perhaps I overstate that but man, oh man, the printer is BACK!

Hello Teacherfilebox.com! Hello labels! Hello scrapbook titles!  Hello loooong sweet narrations dictated by little people!

Hello exclamation marks…. ; D 

If you printed Funschool plans already please note this addition:

Golf tees! Buy some this week from your sporting goods section. We will have another manipulative using them next week. We made a great game with a remnant of pegboard leftover from a garage organization project. Put some large wooden beads or scrap 1by 2 wood on the bottoms so it is elevated a few inches when it sits on the table or floor. The children make pictures, letters, patterns with colored golf tees dropped into the holes. HOURS of fun. Like the geoboards I found the kids go back to this game over and over over and…….  I will get pics uploaded this weekend.

Words escape me.  Not that I won’t pursue them relentlessly. ; )  The big brown truck brought me Stacy Julian’s The Big Picture this week and I think I have read every word on every scrapbook page shown.  I think my son has read every one too. It is addictive. It makes you think. It makes you think about writing and photography and your life.  This is without a doubt THE best book on the scrapbooking I have. If you buy only one, buy this one, even if you don’t think you are a scrapbooker.

Each section of the book begins with an envelope containing a handwritten (ok, its handwritten and then printed 5 million times obviously) note with random thoughts about things like personal style (she thinks its over-rated) photos (its not about the photos) and simplicity.  She makes the point that you could conceivably scrap all your photos and never tell your story.  That is something to think about. Its not about the pictures. 

The message is to take fewer photos of ‘events" and more photos of everyday moments, things like perfect pancakes, sleeping children, your stack of library books, your grocery cart, the toy box. These are the "nothing-special-here kind that in just a few years become so real, so nostalgic."  This is your life.  Are you taking note?  It goes so darn fast. Don’t miss a thing. : )