Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ 10.31.12

For my only non-gratitude-list post this month (good grief), a little  Simple Woman's Daybook...

Outside my window...
just a few yellow leaves stubbornly hanging on to the branches of a big old maple that has dumped most of the rest of its leaves all over our back patio, and the sky is the kind of crisp fall blue that's my favorite. 

I am thinking...
that I hate deckle-edged books. Does anyone really like them? Why do they make them that way? Annoying. 

I am thankful for...
opportunities to meet and connect with the moms of some of Elijah's preschool friends. 

From the kitchen...
I took Smitten Kitchen's brown butter brown sugar shorties to Elijah's preschool party this morning. Like Deb warned, they are a hard sell on a dessert table full of colorful cupcakes and frosted cookies, but those who tried them raved about them. Browned butter, sweet + salty, only four ingredients...you kind of can't go wrong. You can go wrong, however, with her chicken noodle soup recipe, if you use an old stew bird that takes hours and hours to get tender, rather than the 20 minutes the recipe prescribes. Thankfully I was able to pull something out of the freezer on Monday night and we ate the soup yesterday--and Jude, who usually isn't a soup fan, asked for fourths or fifths (I lost track). Pretty sure I could have put the broth in a cup and he would have happily chugged it. 

I am wearing...
an old favorite sweater--light blue cashmere 3/4 sleeve turtleneck. I would wear cashmere all winter if it weren't so stinking expensive; this one I scored off-season at an Ann Taylor outlet years and years ago for a ridiculously cheap price. And the only pair of jeans I own which fit me well and don't have any holes in them. Plus some brown suede sneakers that I've had for at least three years or so and are looking pretty worn out. Mama needs to go shopping. 

I am creating...
a plan for blogging every day next month. Stay tuned!

I am going...
to get my Christmas cards ordered this week. I think. 

I am reading...
Downtown: My Manhattan, a NYC book that's part-history, part-memoir, and much more interesting than the last NYC history book I read. I recently finished Grisham's The Associate, which started out promising but left me sticking to my belief that he lost his touch after his first four bestsellers (I loved The Client, A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief and The Firm and haven't really found one of his novels satisfying since). I recently picked up Paul Miller's Love Walked Among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus, and I'm almost finished with The White Umbrella: Walking with Survivors of Sex Trafficking. A dear friend and I are still slowly plodding through Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline, and next up once I finish one of these will probably be The Great Divorce and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

For my Bible reading, I'm in Luke and Psalms. My reading plan continues to be critical for keeping me on track. 

I am hoping...
that my pocket camera can be fixed :( The lens cover randomly stopped working last week, but I was still able to take photos with it, and then all of a sudden Saturday I couldn't take pictures anymore, either. 

I am hearing...
the Downton Abbey soundtrack on Spotify. So nice to be able to preview albums before you buy them!  (And I am dying for season three to come out!)

Around the house...
unpleasant things, including a you-know-what hiding somewhere upstairs. Apparently both Steve and Elijah actually spotted it over the weekend, but Steve spared me the knowledge until Monday afternoon. As of yesterday evening it was still on the loose, but we're not seeing any evidence in the kitchen or anywhere else. I am fervently hoping it either went away on its own, or it is in one of the traps and Steve will find it when he gets home tonight. *shiver*

One of my favorite things...
yellow gingko trees in the fall. Do they have those up north? I never noticed or knew about them until we moved down here. 

A few plans for the rest of the week...
nothing much going on; last week was our crazy-busy week (a visit from my parents, a trip to Warner Park, Elijah's last two soccer games, a playdate with a preschool friend, a trip to Cheekwood, a trip to Cowboy Town...WHEW!). I am very much looking forward to Saturday, though--two friends/fellow women's retreat planners and I are taking a day trip to Fall Creek Falls State Park to explore the location for February's retreat!

A picture thought I am sharing...
my boys were firefighters for Elijah's preschool party this morning, in honor of Uncle Josh :)


2 comments:

Danielle said...

Such cuties!

BTW, I've been enjoying a new PBS show: Call the Midwife. Great show, and apparently based on some memoirs my library happens to have. Definitely going to checking that out! Anyway, you can watch online here: http://www.pbs.org/programs/call-the-midwife/

Amy said...

I think I saw you talking about that on FB - and have heard others raving, too! Steve and I will have to check it out while it is still free :) --we missed Downton until we had to pay for it!